2006 US Ryder Cup Team is Perhaps The Most Boring Team Yet
By Carmen Diode

In years past the US Ryder Cup team captain’s pick of two additional golfers to complete the US golf team sparked a tremendous amount of controversy and second-guessing in the media. 2006 US captain Tom Lehman’s selections have generated very little media buzz and it is hard to say whether that is a result of waning interest in the Ryder Cup golf match or because the quality of Lehman’s picks were beyond reproach. Lehman chose golfers Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank as his two captains’ picks for the 2006 team.

The pool of US golfers available for serious consideration was not nearly as strong as it has been for prior Ryder cup matches. US golfers in the current world ranking of top 50 players who had not earned one of the ten team slots, in addition to Cink and Verplank, included Davis Love-III, Kenny Perry, Tom Lehman, Fred Couples, Tim Herron, Ben Crane, Bart Bryant. Lehman has been the better golfer out of that group over the course of the last month but he refrained from selecting himself to be a golfing member of the Ryder Cup team.

It is difficult, if not impossible to make a compelling argument for another golfer to have been selected in place of Cink and Verplank on the basis of golfing ability. On the basis of entertainment value, however, there were far more intriguing golfers who would have been more fun to watch and follow - and who could have boosted the interest level and television rankings exponentially. The Ryder Cup Matches are, arguably, first and foremost an entertainment event, more so than a sporting event.

The US Ryder Cup team is not likely to win in 2006. The Europeans have the US number on this event, now, and with the matches being contested in Ireland the US has no chance of winning, regardless of who is selected as golfers 11 and 12 on the US team.

If the criteria of fun and fireworks then are agreed to be of more value than winning then a strong case could be made for the selection of John Daily to the US Ryder Cup team. Daily, currently 96 in the world rankings, does not deserve to be on the US team on the basis of his playing ability but he is one of the game's most popular players. Daily's fan base and the fact that he is the proverbial train-wreck-waiting-to-happen would be good for at least a half-dozen television rating points. Insist that he drink non-stop and send him out on the course hammered and you have the potential for fun that a lot of people would pay good money to see. Pairing Daily with an equally inebriated Mel Gibson would yield rating numbers that rivaled the best football Super Bowl games - not to mention generating sound bites that would make the evening newscasts around the world for weeks to come. Gibson is not currently ranked in the world rankings.

Another fun and entertaining pairing would be Michelle Wie and North Korea Dictator Kim Jong-il. Wie plays occasionally on the men's professional tour and is said to be the second biggest draw next to Tiger Woods. Jong-il is not a US citizen but his love of the game of golf is so great that he would undoubtedly defect to the US in order to be a member of the US team. This would have the added benefit of diffusing the tension that currently exists over Jong-il's random firing of ballistic missiles. Jong-il claims to be a good golfer and he is ranked number one on the North Korea golf rankings prepared and maintained by Jong-il, himself. The entertainment value of this pairing could be enhanced by having Wie and Jong-il play in bikinis. NBC is getting strong ratings from their Women's Pro Beach Volleyball telecasts due in no small part to the tiny bikinis worn by the players.

Vice President Dick Cheney did not make most lists of potential golfers for the captain's picks but he could be an interesting and helpful selection. If he injured and maimed his golf partners as much as he has his hunting partners then the European Ryder Cup team would no doubt be very rattled by his presence. And think of the fun of seeing the top golfers in the world hitting the ground to avoid being struck by Cheney's errant shots. Chaney's place on the world golf rankings is a military secret.

Lehman took the safe and easy route with his selections of golfers Cink and Verplank to the 2006 US Ryder Cup team and because of that the European team will again emerge victorious in yet another dull and lackluster event.

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