DC ExtraTime: "Chasing" the Ryder Cup in Paris

BY DC CUEVA                      

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB

This is a busy weekend in the sports world this last week of September: Chelsea vs Liverpool and Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid headlined today's European soccer, with Daniel Sturridge netting a goal of the year candidate in the former. It's championship weekend down in Australia: the West Coast Eagles beat the Collingwood Magpies and American born Mason Cox to claim Aussie Rules Football premiership, and later Sydney faces Melbourne for the title in Australian Rugby League.
   Here at home, Penn State has just defeated Ohio State in a game fueled by a tweet gone wrong earlier, while the Steelers & Ravens highlight Sunday's NFL action. It's also the last weekend of baseball's regular season with NL division & wild card races and a Yanks/Red Sox playoff preview just before the postseason is set. There's also the NASCAR Playoffs taking to a new road course in Charlotte, and preseason action in the NBA starting and the NHL too.

Aside from those, this weekend the attention of sports fans in the U.S. and Europe -- at least in the morning hours here -- is on golf. Last week, Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour event in 5 years -- his 80th overall -- and it bumped the NFL from the top of the sports page. And now comes the one time every two years where honor, pride and country take over for a special event in the game.
   The Ryder Cup is taking place in Paris, where Tiger has joined America's top golfers to face the best Europe has to offer in the always intense and spine-tingling drama of match play. Those who watch every other autumn know about the drama of these teams playing not for themselves, but for their nations in the purest form the game of golf has, where every hole is a tournament in itself - and it's of how many holes a player/team can win, not by total strokes, that determines who wins.
   While The Masters in Augusta each spring is the most serene setting for any golf tournament, the Ryder Cup is the total opposite. Galleries come out in droves wearing either European blue or American red, while they actually cheer for an opponent's missed shot. And at times, the Ryder Cup can be described as a mix of a golf tournament, an Olympic event in displays of patriotism, a college football game in the emotions of the competitors, and European soccer in the way of atmosphere.

Through two days of four-ball and four-some matches in the morning and afternoon, Team USA went off to an early 3-1 lead after the first session of better-ball. But ever since, the Europeans have taken control in its specialty of alternate shot: it took all four matches on Friday afternoon, three four-ball rounds earlier this morning and two after lunch. British Open champ Francesco Molinari and partner Tommy Fleetwood took down Tiger not one, but three times in leading an underdog European side.
   The score stands at Europe leading the U.S., 10-6, with a dozen singles matches to take place tomorrow to decide whether Europe will regain the dominance they've enjoyed in the competition the past quarter-century or if the Cup will somehow stay in American control. But that Saturday night score is a jinx: two times a team has been down by that 10-6 margin after the two days of team play and then manage to come back in the Sunday heads-up matches to win: the U.S. did it on home soil in Boston in 1999, then Europe coming back in Chicago in 2012.

Summer of Sports '16: A 50-Hour Golf Binge Fest

A DCBLOG Sports Special

BY DC CUEVA                     

> @DC408Dxtr / @DC408DxNow

As this summer rolls along, it's likely that you've spent a day catching up on your favorite shows all being in that same position in your house for several hours at a time. For me, I will have chances to do that, as well as likely losing a little work productivity, starting late next week when this sports fan's greatest passion - the Olympics - take center stage and will be, along with the closing stages of AYTO Season 4, the principal focus of this site come the end of this Rivals III season. But if catching up on half a season of your favorite drama, or a full season of your favorite reality show is one thing, it's certainly another for those who follow one of the world's greatest sports to follow one of their grandest events and what they got to do last week during this Summer of Sports.

Summer of Sports: It's Major - Golf's Biggest Stage

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

As two sports step aside, this week sees the world's top golfers converge for the first time on the Pacific Northwest for golf's 2nd major championship of the year, the U.S. Open. Out for the four tournaments that mean the most in the game, this is the most rigorous test of its kind. This is part of a journey that takes golf fans from that great Spring tradition of Augusta in April and all the way to August to determine the best players in golf when the spotlight is shone the brightest on their sport.

   Being someone who watches a good amount of the Golf Channel and weekend PGA TOUR coverage on the networks, as well as my bro in law being an occasional golfer, I've gained a great appreciation for golf over time. And much like every other event in the sports world, I look forward to the time when it becomes the big sport during a particular weekend and where there's more attention paid to the game than in a given week on Tour.

In American sports, the number "16" is a significant one: the Summer and Winter Olympics both take place over 16 full days of competition, a fortnight spanning three weekends. It takes 16 wins for a team to win the NBA championship or hoist the Stanley Cup. There's 16 games in an NFL regular season, and we give the Regional Semifinal round of NCAA March Madness the nickname Sweet 16. The knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup and most other continental soccer tournaments begins with 16 teams, and each of the four Grand Slam events in tennis take place over two weeks.

   For golf, 16 is the total number of days (barring extra days due to weather and/or a playoff if necessary) that the year's four major championships are played, taking place from April to August. Along with the PGA Tour's flagship event - THE PLAYERS, the fall match play team competitions, World Golf Championships and events on other tours, it's The Masters, The U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Great Britain and the PGA Championship that are the tournaments that matter, both to the golfers and to the public. They are the most-prestigious annual tournaments in the sport and bring the casual sports fan & TV viewer to join the game's avid followers to the events that mean the most in a sport rich in tradition and history.