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Since I'm technically supposed to support International, s'go International team!
But since I honestly want the U.S.A. team to win, s'go U.S.A.!

There, no matter who wins, I was wrong.

I'm really starting to dislike these "international" competitions because they all foster an adversarial relationship between the United States of America and everyone else, and I'm getting sick of it.

while that may be true for the ryder cup, the president's cup is always civil and the participants have hardly any hostilities towards one another. Jack and Gary set the cordial tone by their own behavior and how well they get along with one another. Jay Haas once tried to pump himself and the team up during a president's cup match by trying to figure out who from the opposite team they hated. they couldn't come up with an answer

I think the European side had the same problem,if you read Sam Torrance's book, he speaks about Duval, Couples and the rest of the USA team as friends. Darren Clark and DL3 shared cigars after their match.

I get the impression that hating other players is mainly within the USA team.

Im not so sure about that, the players seem to be great friends, apart from Phil and Tiger and the American fans last year where excellent, well behaved and gracious to the Europeans. I think there is always a little jingoism on both sides but, other than the unfortunate Paul Casey affair, it rarely goes beyong friendly banter.

Don't swallow the hype created by the American press. These guys play each other numerous times during the year and while they may not always exchange pleasantries, (VJ & Tiger come to mind) there has never been ay mention of "hatred" coming from an American player or any member of the International team. We'll leave that sorry state of affairs for Paul Casey and his Euro teammates.

This will be another epic battle among some of the best players in the world. I hope it goes down to a tie & they end up splitting it again. Well not really, I hope somebody at least wins it this year. They are also doing a new playoff system where any matches that were squared will go into sudden death. Should be very interesting.

Valeogut, relax, most of it's in fun - there are many more important things than golf - and a **** of a lot of the "adversarial" stuff is in response to the incessant flag waving which, while admirable, does tend to polarise folks.

Enjoy the golf, ignore the flag of St. George, and if necessary have a Prozac!!

One advantage the USA has in Presidents Cup is Jack Nicklaus. He has forgotten more about competitive golf than the last three Ryder Cup captains have ever known. When he captained the losing side at Muirfield Village,they were playing the strongest ever European team.

Early rumour is pairing Tiger with Freddie.Sounds good to me. I'd put Phil and Tiger with experienced players called Fred for the foursomes and rookies for the fourballs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/sp...1nicklaus.html

They have started! Now we have some tension .

Since that is a subscription-only article, here's an excerpt from it:

Interesting....I'm kinda curious why they'd forbid the players to sign autographs anyway, especially in practice rounds. If you ask me, it makes all of them look like jerks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/sp...lf/21golf.html

Amusing to see everyone talk up the Presidents Cup as the potentially bigger event than the Ryder Cup..

Having lost 4 /5 in the Ryder Cup, I'm sure they want to minimise it.

You have to love Gary Player. His drive to win has always been so overwhelming that he will do anything that he can--within the rules of golf--that will give him and, in this case, his team an edge.

If such an agreement was forged--and it certainly seems ill considered--I'm very surprised that Player would break his word. I suspect that some sort of misunderstanding exists here. Something along the lines of the Americans believing that they shouldn't sign autographs at the course at all, and the International side believing that they shouldn't sign autographs while out on the course.

Just speculation, of course, but the net effect is that the American team is already on the defensive and that the Internationals have endeared themselves to the galleries, negating the home course advantage.

Let's be fair now, Lefty. The whole rest of the world is much bigger and potentially more important than Europe to the future of golf. That is not to belittle Europe or the Ryder Cup; but, if you recall, the rest of Europe is a fairly recent addition to the original British-Irish makeup of the Ryder Cup team in order to improve the quality of the competition.

To younger people not raised in the tradition of the Ryder Cup, the President's Cup may, in fact, eclipse its team-play ancester in prestige and quality of competition. To dottering old fools like me--and perhaps you--, nothing will ever replace the history and mystique of the Ryder Cup, despite what the New York Times says.

I did n't realise we had met.

There is a lot of validity in that ,which is why my idea was to make th eRyder Cup three way, and play it every year between the winners of the previous contest and the team that did not play in the previous match .

This year would be ROW v Europe at a ROW location, next year would be winner v USA in USA.