Mike's Point of View

Bad choices from Tom Lehman, again.

He has 3 of the 4 best golfers in the world, according to the World Rankings and he didn’t put them in the first four spots on Sunday.

That’s gonna cost us.

You knew, based on the past Euro Sunday lineups, that Montgomerie and Garcia would be one-two.

Tiger should have been first, Furyk second and Mickelson third.

We have to get 5 of the first 6 points and we haven’t got a shot at that with this lineup.

Going strong in the middle and weak on the ends gives you two weak spots and twice the chances of breaking as going strongest to weakest.

Once again, our captain has no idea that if they get two or three points early, it over.

Wonder if anybody tried to tell him that they were four points from retaining the Cup ?

We had to go down the line, rankings wise, and hope we could get to the last 2 matches, rather than save a couple of guns for, what looks to be now, meaningless matches.

Maybe we can get the Cup back in ‘08, when it comes to Valhalla. We’ll need a smarter captain the some of the last few we’ve had.

Wonder if Arnie’s busy in ‘08 ?

Here’s a tip for the next American Ryder Cup Captain - change the freakin’ teams.

Why do our captains continue to send out teams that get their asses handed to them ?

Why do we have 12 players for 8 spots ? To change up the teams, of course.

Furyk and Woods keep getting beat, so we keep sending them out together ? Bad decision.

DiMarco and Mickelson keep getting beat, so we keep sending them out together ? Bad decision.

How about putting a supposed stalwart with a rookie ? Why not put it on Tiger’s shoulders and give him J.J. Henry to pack around for a couple of matches ?

Why doesn’t Furyk, who’s the number 3 player in the world get to play with a Vaughn Taylor or a Zack Johnson ?

I’ll tell you why. Because our captain, and I love him to death, is making the same bad decisions that the losers before him made.

And why do the Americans have so much trouble getting the ball flag high with their approach shots and why do their putts always miss on the amateur side ?

I wish I knew.

Maybe in ‘08, when the Ryder Cup comes to my state and city where I spend several days per week, I can offer some fantastic advice.

Oh heck, why wait, I’ll offer it now - get the ball to the hole and putt it with a little conviction.

Simple, huh ?

Just in case you’d missed it or forgotten, there’s live blogging going on over at Ryder Cup Diary.

Click thru and keep up with a bloggers views from Ireland, I am.

The Travelling Golfer made a stop in Louisville a couple of days ago and his good friend, Todd Hart, introduced him to Lynn and Nancy, owners of L & N Bistro and Wine Bar, one of the best places to dine east of Los Angeles.

Now, we all know that the Travelling Golfer is 6′2″ and 250, so we know he’s got the experience to tell fine dining from bad grub.

At L & N, your favorite golf blogger found some exquisite offerings on every part of the menu.

The Baby Spinach Salad is now officially tied for 1st place with The Del Frisco salad as my all-time favorite.

It consisted of Point Reyes blue cheese, pears and candied walnuts, with a lavender honey champagne vinaigrette. That was my first time to taste Point Reyes blue cheese and it was extremely tasty, not too gamey, yet very full-bodied.

Next came the Georgia Burger. It was a full ½ lb. of ground chuck, homemade Worcestershire, Kenny’s colby cheese, applewood smoked bacon and it was served with pommes frites.

Let me tell you right here, right now, the Worcestershire sauce was out of this world good ! The burger was enormous and the applewood smoked bacon was worth the 2 hour trip by itself ! I don’t know Kenny, but Kenny knows Colby, ’cause that cheese was perfect.

If you don’t know what pomme frites are, they’re fine dining french fries standing on end, cooked and seasoned to perfection.

And last, but by no means least, the Creme Brulee that we had for desert was the best I’ve ever had. Maybe the one I had at The Petroleum Club in Evansville (IN) was close, but not any better.

I believe Todd told me they used brown sugar for the topping and I’m sure I got a hint of the same mouth watering food-gasm you get from a marshmallow on a stick in a campfire.

To say the least, the service was impeccable. Lynn and Nancy came by several times and our waiter had a great personality to go with his serving skills.

Great job all around and I have to award them 5 Stars !

Please don’t hesitate to go by and experience some of the best atmosphere and ambiance that Louisville has to offer. I’d even go so far as to say that you would not find anything any better in Paris …. France or Kentucky !

Thanks for taking me, Todd and to the owners and staff at L & N, thanks for letting me into your world for a few moments of absolute dining bliss !

If you’re a road warrior like me, and happen to stay at Hilton Garden Inns, you’ll be glad to find out that they have a promotion that gives you a free round of golf with a stay on thursady, friday or Saturday.

Here’s a link to the promotion and I hope to see you on the links !

In the first telltale bit of info to come out, Thomas Bjorn has declared his anger that Lee Westwood was chosen over him to represent Europe at The K Club.

Woosie apparently told him in the hotel bar, a favorite spot of Woosnam it seems, after I read his interview in the September edition of Golf Digest.

It seems Woosie has an answer for every situation in golf and it revolves around a pint ot two.

The Euro’s have always claimed to be a better team than the Americans. They claim to have closer bonds.

That would look to be out the window with, I predict, a poorly run and soon to be losing captaincy from Woosnam.

Need advice from the Captain ? He’s in the bar, go buy him a pint and he’ll talk til it’s gone.

Want to know your pairings ? They’re posted in the bar.

It looks like the Americans finally got the right Captain …. on the other squad !

Here’s the CNN take on this developing story.

Every year, I believe, thousands of seafood lovers gather in the Brunswick Isles to pay homage
to their seafood of choice…Oysters. Usually the event is at Ocean Isle Beach.

They have Oyster Shuckin’ and Surf Contests, 5 and 10K Road Races, an Oyster Stew Cook-Off,
and over 100 vendors.

The chance to eat oysters and play golf in and around the Brunswick Isles is about all I can ask for.

If anyone has any info on this years event, send it to me !

I just got an email from my new blog buddy John Prendergast over at Ryder Cup Diary.

He and his team will be doing their best to keep us up to date on all the news from Ireland.

This is the first golf blog I’ve read from Ireland and I’ll be glad to add their RSS feed to my feed reader and his blog to my Blog Roll.

Good luck, John, we’ll all be looking forward to your updates and unique view from the Emerald Isle.

It would be great if all you golf bloggers would link up to his blog and send him a lot-o-link-love !

Our boy Bubba is back in the money, winning $184,250 at The International, in Castle Pines, Co.

That tie for 6th should have put him over $750,000 for the year, around 80th on the Money List and should be good enough for us to see him in ‘07.

That’s also enough to make him the biggest wage earner in Bagdad (FL), or I’d bet on it anyway.

Congrats Bubba ! Now go get those dollars for the rest of the year and let’s see you crack a million … just for kicks !

I just added The Deep Rough to my Blog Roll. Sean Lensborn gives a look at several courses up in Jersey and his unique views on golf as he experiences it.

For a first look, check out this post where he details a short game practice session that he recently went thru. It’s a good practice routine that will save you a stroke or three the next time you play.

Enjoy.