I am watching anxiously the start of the second day’s play in the Ryder Cup with some relief that Europe are only two points down after what felt like a complete pasting yesterday. I really love the Ryder Cup; annoyingly to watch it (and test cricket) on television requires me to pay a subscription to Murdoch, which is horrible. The greed of sports administrators results in a monopoly on broadcast rights for major sporting events; if governments actually cared about consumers, that would be stopped.
I watched every ball broadcast yesterday, which ridiculously was not every stroke of the competition. Adverts don’t help, nor the times when the US host broadcaster obviously goes into news or a feature There was a long hiatus at the start of the fourballs yesterday. But it was a pretty agonsising eleven hours watch, with Euope on the receiving end from about 3pm onwards..
The extraordinary course set up Love has organised at Medinah, with no real rough, did indeed favour long hitters, but even more did it turn it into a putting competition and on these super-fast greens the Americans were simply brilliant. Colsaerts putting was also unexpectedly incredible, but that was pretty well it for the Europeans in the afternoon. Westwood looked like he couldn’t hole anything, and a key factor was Justin Rose’ putting touch of the morning deserting him also – if Rose had holed all his putts within six feet, the team scores would have been even.
A mistake by Olazabal not to put Poulter out in the afternoon, and a mistake also I think not to play Paul Lawrie this morning – who was playing well under par yesterday despite being initially blown away be Watson and Simpson.
But I think Europe’s well problem yesterday was that I wasn’t drinking. Good Ryder Cup days always involve plenty of beer. So I have bought myself eight pints of Wadworth’s and I expect a good day.
How do you know so much about this ? I never saw you pick up a golf club in your life ! LOL
Poulter proving me right by holing a good putt on the first – and sadly Rose doing the same by missing an eight footer at the second.
I can’t Frazer – as you know if I wave my arms about my shoulders dilocate!
“but that was pretty well it for the Europeans in the afternoon”
How did tea at the Embassy go, Craig, and what do you make of this?
Cameron speaking in Brasilia yesterday:
“Asked by the BBC whether Britain would opt out of EU justice and
policing powers, he said: “That has to be done before the end of the
year, and the opt out is there. We’ll be exercising that opt out.” His
remarks mean Britain will withdraw from 140 measures on justice and
home affairs, including the European arrest warrant, later this year.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b0b0a4d0-0991-11e2-a424-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27rRNOsvn
Wording of quote sounds like it’s a definite. Cameron wants to pull the UK out of the EAW system. Quote confirmed in Guardian too:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/28/david-cameron-referendum-euro-crisis
Wonder what this will mean for Assange, if the opt-out is to come within the next three months? I couldn’t be more pleased with this news, whatever effect it has on Julian Assange’s situation, because of the huge number of miscarriages of justice in the EAW we’ve seen over the years. UK gets a disproportionate number of the wretched things.
I wonder also if Assange’s case has hastened this decision. The way his extradition was strong-armed through brought new and dangerous precedents – extradition for mere questioning, no charges, investigator able to issue, etc – for all citizens. I guess the Supreme Court subverting parliamentary intent in their ruling was just about the final straw.
I’ve always suspected that – cf Baker review whitewash – the UK govt was holding off its long-promised review until Assange was (from their perspective) safely off UK shores, but the Wikileaks One nixed that idea and now the whole embarrassing mess is reaching Gigantic Spud proportions, how the hell do they get out of it? Is this how – withdraw from the EAW, grant safe passage and tell Sweden “you want him, go chase him yourselves”?
Westwood puts it in the water at the 2nd – after how he played yesterday, I would have left Westwood out for Lawrie
‘So I have bought myself eight pints of Wadworth’s and I expect a good day.’
A short life and a merry one!
And I expect you know what the saying is about golf and a good walk ruined. Here are some other witticisms as you sip your beer and wait for something to happen!
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/golf/
🙂
I am not in the least convinced that alcohol is bad for you. There is a great deal of propaganda about it, but I could name many people, in my own family, who have drunk a great deal more than we are told we should, and lived long past the average.
Very early days, but things are looking a bit ominous for Europe again this morning.
Poulter brings so much energy to the team.
Craig, I e-mailed to you about The Magic Theatre. Did you receive it?
Yes – not quite sure I understood what you wanted to do though.
Very undesirable start for Europe – Americans playing amazingly again. Fantastic shot from Zac Johnson to the 2nd, and Furyk never looks like missing a putt. Fortunately the putts haven’t all been dropping for them so far this morning, or it could be still worse. Westwood continues rubbish. Wow Snedeker just hit an amazing shot at the 2nd as well.
Delighted to say Westwood just holed a six footer to halve the fifth, but still two down.
Thanks, Craig. No, I don’t know either, it was just a seed for thought, it would take far more than just my input for it to develop into anything.
I think alcohol may be a cost/benefit thing.
One weird thing I noticed at Uni; in afternoon practice classes, I could do physics calculations much more easily if I’d been drinking at lunchtime. If I hadn’t, I got hung up on what the equations actually meant. If I’d had a bit of a drink, I could just put the numbers into the right places and the right answer would pop out, but I’d be left none the wiser about the structure of reality.
But by four o’clock I’d be feeling shivery, tired and headachy, and drinking in the evenings led to blocked sinuses the next day. Alcohol doesn’t seem to suit me; each to their own, I suppose.
You’ve written elsewhere that Murdoch produces “Hateful lying racist propaganda”.
But hey, he also broadcasts the Ryder Cup.
So that’s all right then.
Whicher,
Are you crazy? I plainly state he ought not be allowed a monopoly of broadcasting such events. Actually I don’t think he’s a fit and proper person to be a broadcaster at all given the illegal activities of his newspapers.
I have a theory that sometime in the past we were visited by aliens, their saucer landed on a golf course, they had a quick look round and decided to revisit when our species had found a more effective way of getting a small white ball into a hole in the ground. This ignores the difficult philosophical question of why the little white ball properly belongs in a hole in the ground, of course. Perhaps they worried about that too. This (fanfare) is my answer to the Fermi Paradox.
Bloody weird coverage – haven’t seem Garcia and Colsaerts for well over an hour
Ha Ha..have fun old boy…..I have fond memories of you waving your arms about many times, but that was usually at the bar trying to attract the attention of the barmaid for another round !! LOL.
Golf’s getting really gripping now. Poulter is amazing – extraordinary how much of the game is mental.
Thankfully the Ryder Cup is a labor of love for continent or country, the players selling their sport as a collective enterprise rather than a celebration of individualism. To some however the Cup is a boost to the sports profile that makes the golf money ladder that bit easier to climb towards that multi-million target, all on the barren landscape of a bankrupt Britain and America.
Those 5 year old youngsters playing in the British Golf Q Cup final will eventually have to face sharp tax rises leaving them with little incentive to work or save in an atmosphere where the draconian austerity cuts have not been enough and this faltering coalition government loses all control of its finances and ends up printing money to pay off its debts, thus leading to hyperinflation and economic collapse.
Maybe then the huge acreages cleared for golf courses will return to natural wood-land and forests from whence they came…
The last 45 minuts has seen a worrying swing back to the US.
I have little or no sympathy with environmental argumets against golf courses, which are lovely stretches of countryside often in or around urban areas. Presumably we should by the same argument retire all parkland to its natural state? Was Capability Brown a bad thing then? Actually maybe it would be better if human beings weren’t around at all to interfere with nature? Silly.
I used to play golf at the Voice Of America course in northern Liberia in the 70s.Different to say the least.The ‘greens’ were a composite of oil and sand that would be smoothed over by a big radial slab of timber after each match passed.
Fun times then.
Then back to the clubhouse for ice cold Fanta and pepper chicken with Fufu whilst my Dad and his cronies would demolish cases of Club beer into the small hours,listening to the crickets and the high life music…great times.
Love 1 Olazabal 0
So sorry I’m negative on this. Talking about Capability Brown we will eventually, I believe, be forced to turn the now redundant grass and sand areas into allotments complete with natural or man-made water sources. The club-house would serve as a centre for free distribution from those UK-Collapse helpers with green fingers that are an extension of a verdant heart.
What about the amount of chemical runoff from fertilisers, herbicides and the rest.
rest of the (long) article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,,528296,00.html
This stuff can seriously harm every known living thing (humans too), is chemical warfare.
These moonscapes could never be returned to a natural state, nor produce edible produce.
Doesn’t seem worth it for such a frivolous affair, organo-phosphates for the masses.
Plus the massive amounts of water to keep them all green, even in deserts.
eg http://www.balihaigolfclub.com/course/hole-by-hole-video-tour/#1
Hope Craig is not getting too pissed off today with us, the golf and golf course dissenters!
Come on, Craig! The U.S. is running aweay with it.
Quick, drink more – Europe depends on you.
Well that’s the foursomes lost – but it wasn’t quite as crushing as yesterday afternoon, even though it was 3-1 again. But I have a feeling in my water it will gey better.
What use was the desert before it was a golf course? Doubtless there are follosih golf courses around, but that’s like saying all houses should be banned because Buckingham Palace is extravagant.
Again some strange selection. I would have put Hanson out and given Donald a rest – hhe si going to be knackered and he is playing badly. Monty just aid it is weird Lawrie had been used in fourballs and not foursomes – just what I was thinking. We really need to win all four this afternoon, and putting out Donald with Sergio looks particularly futile.
OK, I’ll give you a hand. I’ve got 12 McEwans Export here. That should do it.
Look out Yanks.