"So Tense You Could Hardly Breathe"

It's not often that you can say: "And I was there..."

Thankfully, yes, thankfully... I can say that about Sunday's epic USA collapse at the Ryder Cup here at Medinah CC outside of Chicago.

I stood on a folding chair, deeply embedded in enemy territory (more on that in a minute) on the International VIP Pavillion just off the 18th green, and watched as Martin Kaymer reclaimed a large chunk of German golfing pride by gutting the tricky 8 footer that eluded countryman Bernhard Langer some 21 years ago at Kiawah.

To say that it was intense, does not do the moment justice.

And that was before I began drowning my partisan USA sorrows in complimentary Crown Royal and diets.

As Steve Stricker and Kaymer came to the 18th green, a collective understanding of the match was shared among everyone huddled together. To say it was intense would be an understatement.

As I stood, I felt my chest tighten. My knees got wobbly (maybe it was the folding chair) and it was so tense you could hardly breathe.

Go ahead. Mock me. That's fine.

Either you play golf, and have had a match at some level and felt the pressure of the game, or you have not.

If you haven't, you just don't understand, and that's okay.

So after Stricker made his 12 footer to put the world on Kaymer's shoulders, I stood witness to the loudest roar of my golfing life. And to think it was the VISITING fans who exploded when Kaymer buried his Langer-esque dance with golfing destiny.

A bitter defeat? Of course. But I root for sporting spectacle, magic, and this great game above all else.

Golf was a huge winner on Sunday. I'm okay with that.

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Scott Linn and Y! Sports Affiliate Director Josh Vexler in front of 17th tee.

Ryder Cup 2012: Medinah

Okay, so I'll come clean. This is NOT the actual/actual Ryder Cup.

It is a "genuine replica" in memorabilia terms.

Which means it's a Ryder Cup ISSUED trophy that goes to the winning Captain each year. This particular item belonged to Dave Marr Jr. who captained the 1981 US Team at Walton Heath. His son, Dave Marr III - who does work for the Golf Channel - was walking around outside our hotel with it, as the item is now in his care since his father passed away

I even kissed it.

Which made Mr. Marr a wee bit uneasy. (I wiped it off... come on!)

I always thought that there was a huge market for TRUE replica trophies (i.e. cheap) that could be sold to fans. However, after doing some research, I realized that such items are heavily suppressed by lawyers for the entities who award such trophies (i.e. NFL for the Lombardi, the PGA for the Ryder Cup, the Academy of the Oscars etc.) so that you just can't find good trophy replicas on the web.

Which is, I suppose, a good thing. It would only cheapen the real trophy, if every jackshine Steeler fan had 6 really good aluminum replicas of the Lombardi in his basement, as a cost of $199 each.

That's why when I saw this lovely "genuine replica" of the Ryder Cup, I bum rushed it for a photo, much to the embarrassment of Scott Linn who kept saying: "It's not the REAL thing, come on! Dinner time!"

The whole event has gone super-nuclear in terms of hype, money, and prestige.



And that's great. The Ryder Cup hyperspaces the sport into a format that is wholly unlike anything else in the game of golf. It is instant pressure from the first shot of the first tee. It is incredibly raucous crowds who are openly partisan, cheering good shots for the home team, and likewise bad shots for the visitors.

It is an international party. It is pomp and circumstance. It is a bunch of lone wolf players, suddenly getting to know each other a little better and compete shoulder to shoulder.

On the regular tour, there are big paychecks and even bigger paychecks.

Here, they get nothing.

(except a modest amount they can direct to a preferred charity of their choosing).

If you finish a big tournament in the top-10, you can say "hey, not bad."

At the Ryder Cup, there are winners and losers. Period. (and halves.... but you get the point)

These guys play for total pride and competitive juices. They dance when they win, and cry when they lose.

These are grown men. Millionaires.

Ridiculous. But true.

This, is the Ryder Cup.

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Here's some more from the broadcast location. Big THANKS to Yahoo! Sports Radio and David Gow, Craig Larson, and Josh Vexler for making this remote broadcast possible. When I suggested it for our show as an alternative to dreary and played out "Radio Row" at the Super Bowl, they said "great idea." When I actually asked to execute it, to my pleasant shock, they did not blink.

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And some cool videos.....



The Ryder Cup back in the quaint 1970's, where Europe couldn't hang with the US, and team uniforms were "brown" and "white."



Mark Calcavecchia's most devastating moment. Falling apart at Kiawah, in the War By the Shore.

Utter, Complete, Humiliating Defeat

About the only lasting phrase we'll all repeat about this referee debacle is this: ".... and the real refs were back to work in 3 days."

This will go down as one of the most spectacular sports business defeats ever, something akin to the military blunder of Napoleon's decision to invade Russia.

Napoleon entered Moscow to find that it had been abandoned by the Russians. Those that remained were starving and had begun looting food. There were no officials to offer the surrender of the city and no food to feed the massive army. Soon the French army began looting for themselves and somewhere in this chaos a fire was started. The fire destroyed four fifths of the city of Moscow and left Napoleon and his army with no shelter, food or plunder. Napoleon had not even received a formal victory and, being a pompous little man, this annoyed the hell out of him. 

With no supplies and the heater in his 2CV still not fixed, Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Russia. Of his 600,000 strong ‘Grand Army’, only about 40,000 limped back into France to quell a revolt that had taken place in his absence. The Nepalese, Austrian and Prussian armies all ran off home swearing that they thought it was a bad idea from the start. This defeat sent a message across Europe Napoleon was not invincible, and with his army now crippled from frostbite he was open to attack.