It Wasn't Pretty

It's deja vu all over again after day one at the Presidents Cup in Korea.  It wasn't pretty.  But then, if you're an American, I guess you didn't necessarily have to play well; just well enough to win.  

Despite wide fairways, we saw balls hit into water, including a dunked tee shot by Leishman right after DJ had drowned his tee shot.  We even witnessed Jason Day try, and fail, to hit a driver off the deck, over water, after his partner had hit his tee shot into the lake.  We saw a team flub three pitches in a row.  As Johnny Miller pointed out, at times it started to look more like a Pro Am than a collection of the world's best players.  But match play can sometimes be that way.  You do get matches where both teams seem almost determined not to win.

Once again, I enjoyed Jack's comments.  His view was, they've all earned the right to be on the team, so let them all play and enjoy themselves.  It's an exhibition where the winner enjoys nothing more than bragging rights.  It isn't a Major; and it shouldn't be a war.  I think Nick Price's heart was in the right place, wanting to change the format to 28 points and having to settle for 30 instead of the 34.  

In order to be more competitive, he probably felt he needed to be able to "hide" some of his weaker players.  The problem with that approach is that it probably doesn't feel very nice to be "hidden," after you've earned a spot on the team.  These "independent contractors" are already donating their time to an event for the sake of the game and charity.  They all deserve to be able to play and enjoy themselves, win or lose.

The Korean fans deserve to see their man, Bae--maybe even see him go up against Spieth.  Yeah, he'll probably get beaten, but what if he managed a win?  Remember the time they put Mike Weir, our Canadian hero, up against Tiger in the singles when the event was played in Canada?  The Canadians certainly do.  Mike beat Tiger.  In match play, you just never know.

I hope Nick takes a page out of Jack's book, recognizing that he's up against it, and tells his guys to just go out there and have a blast.  Tell them to just have fun and play like there's no tomorrow.  Tell them to give the fans something to remember, be it great, or bloody awful.  

The matches aren't over by any stretch of the imagination.  But, even if the Americans look to be the winners again this year, there's lots of golf left.  Give us a good show, boys.  Sang Moon Bae, Sang Moon Bae, Sang Moon Bae!