Ryder Cup

I love teams golf. The Presidents Cups that I have been involved with, especially 1998 in Australia have proven to me that even with an individual, and often selfish sport like golf, the old adage of "a champion team will beat a team of champions" still applies. The European team that is leading USA 10-6 after Saturday's play will go on and beat the USA tomorrow at the K club in Ireland. They are a very good team, but as individuals no body in their right mind would think that you could dominate a team that includes Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson and Jim Furyk. Some how Europe over the years have come together with national pride that rivals that even of the americans. How can a team that is made up of a multitude of countries, and as indivuals that don't match up on paper, be so dominent over a team of champions? We as the Presidents Cup team need to create the same energy and team spirit as the Europeans next year in Canada because I have a feeling that the USA won't take kindly to losing another Ryder Cup.

Apple Rangers

The pilot program for the Apple Rangers skills teams challenge went very well. We ran it over three weeks with two teams of ten kids. Team Tiger and Team Apples. Each kid in the team is paired off in a match against an opponant from the other team in a head to head skills match. The skills include 4 60cm and 4 1m putts, distance control from 3,5 and 10 meters. Tee shots through a 20m goal, mid irons through 15m goal and short iron through a 10m goal. Then pitch shots to a 4m diameter box and chip shots to a 2m box. The kids all alternate between shots and hit a total of 35 shots in an hour to complete their match. Team Tiger won the final after the three weeks. Which is not suprising, considering how Tiger has been playing of late. The winning team all won a glove and a couple of balls each and Team Apples all received a ball each. Most importantly all the kids went home looking forward to next season and being a part of a team playing golf and having fun while improving their skills.