The Ryder Cup Discussion

Ryder Cup Discussion · Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:28 am

So, the Americans finally won, and with a fairly big margin of victory (16.5/11.5).

Here's a list of the results for yesterday, and whether my predictions were correct or incorrect:

1. USA won; Prediction incorrect
2. Match halved; Prediction incorrect
3. Europe won; Prediction incorrect
4. Europe won; Prediction incorrect
5. USA won; Prediction incorrect
6. USA won; Prediction correct
7. USA won; Prediction correct
8. USA won; Prediction correct
9. Europe won; Prediction incorrect
10. Europe won; Prediction correct
11. USA won; Prediction incorrect
12. USA won; Prediction incorrect.

Prediction Accuracy: 4/12 (33.33%)

Also, this link shows the website for the grading of the teams' performance:

http://www.rydercup.com/2008/rydercup/2 ... index.html

Apparently, the American team did much better than the European team there.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:03 am

Did the performance of any one golfer particularly surprise you, RCD? That margin of victory does seem to be much greater than what I seem to remember the Ryder Cup finishing with.

Ryder Cup Discussion · Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:57 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Did the performance of any one golfer particularly surprise you, RCD? That margin of victory does seem to be much greater than what I seem to remember the Ryder Cup finishing with.

The biggest surprise this tournament was Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, and Lee Westwood not playing well. All three of them had excellent Ryder Cup records, yet here, neither of them won a single match. Lee Westwood has 14 Ryder Cup match wins, yet none of them came at this one. Padraig Harrington won two consecutive majors, but performed poorly this Ryder Cup. The most surprising player was Sergio Garcia, who was like the king of the Ryder Cup (14-4-2 record before this Ryder Cup), and only got 1 point, and didn't win a match at all. And the Americans took full advantage of these European stumbles to win the Cup.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:32 pm

Yeah, good old Paddy. Tanks in the Ryder Cup, misses the cut in all the playoff events he was part of, won nothing all year except for two death marches in the non-Tiger majors.

There's your PGA Player of the Year, folks! Let's hear it for 'im!

What a fucking joke. I hope he chokes on that award and dies. In that order.

Knuckles the CLown · Post by **Knuckles the CLown** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:45 am

boooooooooring!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryder Cup Discussion · Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:08 pm

According to Padraig's recent performance, he might not even get the Player of the Year Award. It'll probably be Vijay Singh, because he has 3 TOUR victories (1 more than Paddy) and the FedExCup. Even though it's not the end of the FedExCup race yet, we know Vijay's the winner because he has a points lead that's too big for anyone to catch up.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:12 pm

That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The only two who are anywhere close to winning it are Paddy and Tiger. You can't win the award without winning a major. Two majors should ice it, but Paddy sucked the rest of the time, and Tiger gave us a career's worth of highlights, and four wins, in SIX GODDAMN TOURNAMENTS this year, including the greatest U.S. Open -- maybe the greatest golf tournament -- of all time.

Believe me, when people think back to 2008, nooobody is going to remember Paddy, or Vijay, or any of these other losers.

Ryder Cup Discussion · Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:57 pm

According to the history of the award in Wikipedia, not all players who won the award had won a major that year. Two examples are Greg Norman in 1995 and Tiger Woods in 2003, so it's still possible, even though it's unlikely. Also, I do agree that this U.S. Open was one of the greatest tournaments in golf history. However, the reason that Tiger might not get the award is: He only played in 6 TOUR events this entire year. And the biggest reason for Vijay's possibility of winning the award is him winning the FedExCup.

But Tiger and Paddy also have a chance of winning the award, so here's the probability of each player winning the award:

TIGER WOODS: 32%
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: 32%
VIJAY SINGH: 36%

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:14 pm

First of all, even the PGA TOUR ain't dumb enough to give the Fedex Cup more weight than a major. So you're saying that Vijay's three non-major wins are going to trump Tiger's FOUR wins, including a major?

That's so absurd it's less than a non-issue.

The correct percentages are thusly:

Padraig Harrington: 78%
Tiger: 22%
Vijay: 0%

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:35 pm

pinback wrote:First of all, even the PGA TOUR ain't dumb enough to give the Fedex Cup more weight than a major. So you're saying that Vijay's three non-major wins are going to trump Tiger's FOUR wins, including a major?

That's so absurd it's less than a non-issue.

The correct percentages are thusly:

Padraig Harrington: 78%
Tiger: 22%
Vijay: 0%

Can't you be nice to Ryder Cup Discussion? He is keeping it a nice discussion, meanwhile, you are Ryder Cup Verbally Attempting To Murder People Or Something I Don't EVEN Know.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:54 pm

Well, he's coming on here like some kind of expert and just said one of the silliest things imaginable.

"Hi, I'm a noted expert in the computer gaming industry, and I have it on good authority that Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge is poised to take all of the end-of-year awards!"

Ryder Cup Discussion · Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:34 pm

pinback wrote:First of all, even the PGA TOUR ain't dumb enough to give the Fedex Cup more weight than a major. So you're saying that Vijay's three non-major wins are going to trump Tiger's FOUR wins, including a major?

That's so absurd it's less than a non-issue.

The correct percentages are thusly:

Padraig Harrington: 78%
Tiger: 22%
Vijay: 0%

pinback wrote: Well, he's coming on here like some kind of expert and just said one of the silliest things imaginable.

The point of these forums is to discuss about facts and stating opinions, and I'm just posting my thoughts opinions based on the Ryder Cup and the Player of the Year Award. I'm fairly certain that there are plenty of people that agree with me, and also plenty that disagree. Personally, I disagree with your opinion that Rich Tosches is the worst sports blogger, but I don't think it's stupid. There are also some people who even dislike Tiger Woods, but there's nothing wrong with saying that; it's just their thoughts and opinions. So, just because you or other people disagree with my opinions or thoughts doesn't make these opinions stupid or absurd. Thanks to Ice Cream Jonsey for being nice to guest users like me and accepting these posts.

Now, about the majors and the FedExCup: A major's just one tournament while the FedExCup requires players to play their best for nine entire months, so certainly the FedExCup should be put into more consideration than the majors.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:07 pm

pinback wrote:Well, he's coming on here like some kind of expert and just said one of the silliest things imaginable.

"Hi, I'm a noted expert in the computer gaming industry, and I have it on good authority that Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge is poised to take all of the end-of-year awards!"

We're just talking man. Can't we just talk? Maybe the graphics are really good in Summer Athletics. Maybe they modeled the delicious jiggling of bosom well or something. I don't know, I didn't catch the Olympics.

I'm just saying - didn't you crab on some of the other guys who aren't here any more for doing the same thing to you? Do you have to be so confrontational??

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:12 pm

Ryder Cup Discussion wrote:Now, about the majors and the FedExCup: A major's just one tournament while the FedExCup requires players to play their best for nine entire months, so certainly the FedExCup should be put into more consideration than the majors.

Thank you for bringing this to the discussion. I will admit that I had not heard of the FedEx Cup, so I have done a little digging on that. My general knowledge of golf is "low," but I always like to learn more.

It sounds to me... that it's like the playoffs! This sounds like a good way to grab the casual fan, of which I am. (And, looking it up, I see Tiger Woods has already won it already. Good grief! He's not even human any more, just some kind of a robot.)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:59 pm

This whole thing stinks, like a freshly bathed dog on a hot day.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:30 pm

What, the playoffs? How is it BULLSHIT to state a preference?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:40 pm

No, this... this (waves hands). All of this.

David Toms Fan · Post by **David Toms Fan** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:24 pm

pinback wrote:This whole thing stinks, like a freshly bathed dog on a hot day.

No, this... this (waves hands). All of this.

I don't know what are your intentions to post these negative comments, but I don't care much about them, since they don't have any effect on me and the way I'm posting comments.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Thank you for bringing this to the discussion. I will admit that I had not heard of the FedEx Cup, so I have done a little digging on that. My general knowledge of golf is "low," but I always like to learn more.

You're welcome. Also, Wikipedia is where I've done most of the researching about golf knowledge, since there are lots of golf information there, including a detailed list of the FedExCup points distribution.

The complete list is at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_po ... _FedEx_Cup

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:It sounds to me... that it's like the playoffs! This sounds like a good way to grab the casual fan, of which I am. (And, looking it up, I see Tiger Woods has already won it already. Good grief! He's not even human any more, just some kind of a robot.)

The playoffs does certainly grab attention to many golf fans, because the playoffs are meant to be highly unpredictable, with a very narrow playoff points reset, so anyone has a chance to win the cup. But the only thing is, it hasn't been this way for these two years, when Tiger and Vijay dominated there.

Speaking of golfers, I'm a fan of David Toms because he's an excellent golfer and a nice guy. He hasn't played well this entire season, but it was great to see him come off with a 8th place finish at the Viking Classic, played opposite of the Ryder Cup. Probably it was a fairly fortunate choice of 'Zinger of not picking him for the team.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:06 pm

What is this?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:42 am

pinback wrote:What is this?

Yes, Ben. They die. They eventually die. People are born, people die and the part in the middle? The middle part?

That's called life.