One of the few good things about Europe’s roll in yet another Ryder Cup is seeing Paul Casey step up and hit some incredible shots.
Casey is the Englishman who rightly said he “properly hates” the conceited American pros on the U.S. Ryder Cup team and finds U.S. fans “bloody annoying.” He took a lot of heat for this - Titleist pulled his endorsement contract, TravelGolf.com’s own Tim McDonald waged a personal war against him that seemed to last for several eons.
When all Casey did was show his disdain for an opponent, the fuel that powers winning teams. Casey wasn’t ripping on all Americans like some crackpot Canadian going off on foreign policy. He was ripping on a specific group of Americans: mega millionaire superstar golfers - Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to name two.
There’s a big difference. And Casey’s showing how hating your opponent pays off on the big stage. His walk-off ace that ended one of the European routs on Saturday was a thing of beauty.
Passion makes sports. If Tiger Woods hated his European opponents as much as he does Phil, Vijay, Ernie and anyone else who gets in his way in a major, there would be no stopping him.
Casey can find plenty of examples in all U.S. Sports. Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis vowed to a group of Fighting Irish boosters that ND would never lose to Michigan State again while he was coach. This came after the Spartans planted a flag in the Irish’s field after an upset in South Bend last September.
On Saturday night, Weis somehow stayed true to his word even though Notre Dame trailed by 17 points throughout most of the rematch. You can bet plenty of hate fueled Notre Dame’s 19-0 fourth quarter blitz.
And I went to Michigan State. You just cannot stop the power of hate in sports. Ask Casey.
| « Tiger Woods could still learn something from Byron Nelson | Hard not to root for Sergio Garcia in Ryder Cup or anywhere else » |
Comment feed for this post
The Accidental Golfer:
Brandon Tucker:
Mark Nessmith:
Jason Scott Deegan:
tiger is trying to be "repectfull", which i can understand.....but clearly its not working.
"i bet these guys could get up for it if it was USA vs. THE WORLD though. now that would be worth watching."
we already have that in the form of an
increasingly bizarre and psychotic foreign
policy.
As far as golf goes, I think it is high
time for Europe to replace the USA in
the President's Cup. That would be worth
watching.
Winner of Ryder cup to play the internationals for the Presidents Cup with the challengers to host the tournament.
The winner of this to play the US as they lost the previous year - then continuing the format from there.
maybe this will anti up the stakes and maintain the motivation for the Americans, the Eropeans and the Internationals who will probably be made up of 70% Aussies.
This is the dumbest rhetoric Ive seen circulated since the RC ended & the US got thier butts handed to them. If you dont think they wanted to win you havnt been paying attention. THEY COULDNT WIN. THEIR TEAM was not as good.
I wish CVhris & Tommy would take a look at the team the US threw out there & the team the Euros threw out there, then tell me exactly who had the edge. IT didnt help that Philly Mick was still shellshocked, but we really were OUT classed their.
As for TIger needing to be more hate filled Chris-Tiger expresses himself differently. He's never taken potshots at Sergio the way he has at him...doesnt mean he doesnt hate him. He's never criticized Casey like he did to the US...doesnt mean he doesnt feel the same way. All of a sudden somehtings wrong with Tigers MO as soon as the uS loses at The RC...hey CHris: TIGER ISNT THE ENTIRE US TEAM. HE could have played BRILLIANTLY and the team still lost. You cheap shots just dont make sense dude.It's just bitter, ill thought out reflex.