Rory McIlroy – If there is something

Euros Back in a New York Groove

Much of the hype leading up to this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black Golf Course revolved around the challenge the visiting Euros faced playing in front of a hostile New York crowd. While the New York fans did their best to get inside the heads of the Euros by heaping abuse on the players and their families, it did not produce the outcome they were looking for. It did, however, produce a somewhat predictable outcome. All of the rudeness, taunting, heckling and vulgarity did zero to throw the European players off their game and instead elicited some of the most inspired and exceptional play ever seen at a Ryder Cup event.

As an Indiana Pacers fan, I’ve witnessed this phenomenon many times before. Whether we’re talking about the Reggie Miller era or the Tyrese Haliburton era, there’s no greater feeling than watching the New York faithful choke on their jeers and insults as their championship hopes go up in flames. Even though the Pacers have yet to win it all, beating the Knicks and their fanbase year after year is a pretty awesome consolation prize.

The point is, all of the boorish and abusive behavior does nothing to throw a great player off his game. Great players feed off it and get inspired by it. They lock into states of concentration and focus seldom achieved under normal circumstances. Say what you will about Justin Rose, but on Saturday the dude was dialed into Matrix level mental and physical performance, willing the improbable into certainty time and time again. So, by the way, were his teammates, Tommy Fleetwood, John Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.

This weekend, the European Ryder Cup team not only won the Ryder Cup but reaped the added bonus of sticking a golf cleat in the mouth of the vaunted New York fanbase. To his credit, Shane Lowry didn’t give the “choke” sign to the abusive fans after sinking the winning putt, but rather reveled in the victory. It was nice to see the pure joy of the moment pour out of Lowry and Euros. They could have taunted the crowd, but instead opted for class and dignity. Perhaps, in the future, some of the worst clowns in the gallery will do the same.

Masters patron left hanging on attempted McIlroy fist bump

Masters patron Phil Rickle left The Masters golf tournament in a huff Sunday after tournament champion Rory McIlroy left him hanging on a congratulatory fist bump. Claiming to be one of McIlroy’s biggest fans, Rickle told reporters he’d never root for the Northern Irishman again after being rebuffed on national television.

A highly emotional McIlroy had just sunk the winning putt and was sharing an embrace with his wife and daughter when the snubbing occurred.

“Look, I get it that McIlroy wanted to share the moment with his family and all, but he can’t take a second while he’s hugging his wife to reach out and knuckle bump his biggest fan while I’m standing there offering it. I mean, he left me hanging in front of the whole world. I looked like the biggest boob.

“I followed the dude around all day Sunday and yelled out ‘MASHED POTATO!’ and ‘BOOM SHAKALAKA!’ after every shot. I shouted ‘DESHAMBLES!’ every time Bryson screwed up. I was there for Rors. I don’t see why he couldn’t spare a quick bumpy knuckles with his homie,” Rickle said.

Following the tragic Masters experience, Rickle is currently weighing his options.

“I’ll probably start following Bryson. Maybe I’ll get a little more appreciation over at LIV.”

Speculation grows that Ludvig Åberg is a simulation

Fresh off a victory at the Genesis Invitational, Ludvig Åberg appeared to really step into his element on Monday night when he helped guide The Bay GC to two victories in TGL golf action.

While he ranks among the best in the world on traditional golf courses, his ability to interface with TGL’s massive, high-tech simulator has left some scratching their heads in wonder.

Stepping into the simulator, the young Swede appears to benefit from a strange symbiotic relationship with the highly advanced tech. His play is so close to perfection that some wonder if his kinship with the virtual golf format extends beyond someone who merely possesses game.

Case in point: Åberg squared off against Rory McIlroy in the singles portion of Monday night’s competition. McIlroy, who is no slouch with a driver in his hand, executed what appeared to be an excellent drive, which sailed down the middle and landed in the fairway’s “speed slot,” enabling the ball to roll out for some extra distance.

However, Åberg casually executed the drive to even greater perfection by catching the speed slot even further down the fairway, permitting the ball to roll so far that Åberg had time to stroll over to the sideline, put his club away, and update his Instagram before the ball finally came to rest. At nearly 400 yards and the longest in TGL’s brief history, it made McIlroy’s effort look like that of a junior golfer.

In the two holes in which they faced off against each other, McIlroy looked thoroughly human as he summoned all his talent and skill to throw at the super Swede. For Åberg’s part, he appeared unfazed and played like he was running an algorithm orders of magnitude greater than anything McIlroy could muster.

Throughout the night, Åberg was an AI supersoldier throwing darts and draining putts. He nearly recorded TGL’s first hole in one. If Åberg isn’t already a product of the simulation, he may merge with it soon.

Ryder Cup and the spirit of Seve

After making things interesting for a few hours during Sunday’s singles matches, the United States Ryder Cup team once again experienced defeat at the hands of their European counterparts. Unlike previous years, you can’t say that “on paper” the Americans had a clear advantage over the Euros. Rocking a top three power trio of Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, the Euros posed a massively formidable challenge on their home soil. Commentators pointed to match ups and course set up as tipping the playing field slightly in the European direction, but Golf Channel commentator and former Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley, kept returning to one strategy that he felt really made the difference. Time and again McGinley pointed to engaging the heart as the most important strategy for eliciting the finest play out of the European squad. And the primary method of engaging the heart was through invoking the spirit of Seve.

On opening day, Seve’s presence was loudly proclaimed when fans unfurled a colossal Seve banner that covered an entire section of bleachers next to the first tee. On Golf Channel, McGinley revealed to his fellow commentators that one of Seve’s old Ryder Cup jerseys hung in the Euro locker room to further inspire and engage the hearts of the players. If these invocations of the spirit of Seve were not enough, McGinley revealed that on the reverse side of the European logo adorning the left breast of the player’s shirts was an image of the great golfing Spaniard. The image of Seve literally covered the player’s hearts, as if his spirit was speaking directly to their hearts. When McGinley spoke of the significance of engaging the hearts of the player’s, he was not just paying lip service. For some, all of this may have seemed a bit melodramatic, over the top, or even a bit loony.

Yet no one could argue that the European team didn’t come out on fire. Inspired by the spirit of Seve, they were performing signs and wonders. They were chipping in and holing long putt after long putt. At times, they were literally chuckling and shaking their heads in disbelief at how well they and their teammates were playing. This is not to say that the disembodied presence of Seve Ballesteros hovered over the golfers manipulating them into great play like they were golfing marionettes. However, whether you call it group mind or collective consciousness or “being on the same page,” the European team designed, assembled and harnessed a spirit of greatness and excellence, symbolized by Seve, that became manifest in their exceptional play. At times, it all seemed shockingly pagan.

When the match ended and the Euros were victorious, most of the players pointed to playing for their teammates, not wishing to let them down. Playing for their country, for Europe, for past European champions, for the tradition of the Ryder Cup, all of it came to be symbolized in the spirit of Seve and they felt it in their souls. They played not for individual glory but for completely selfless reasons, for a spirit that brought out their best and allowed them to achieve something that none of them could have attained acting individually.

It is not unusual for people to talk about spirit when they talk about sport. They talk about team spirit, or the spirit of the game. Outside of sports, though, what are we all playing for? In this era of deconstruction and dismantling, are the spirits that animate our lives ones of cooperation, tradition, striving for a higher purpose and bringing out the best in one another?