Drama, passion, excitement, energy, pressure, elation, desolation, joy and despair: Last weekend's Ryder Cup had it all.
Okay, I know that it has been nearly a week since the competition finished up and with the MLB playoffs getting started, the NFL season in full swing and the Badgers facing two crucial home dates with Minnesota and Ohio State, golf is just about the last thing on sports fans' minds.
But I really think I would be remiss to ignore what was truly one of the great moments of the sporting year so far.
At the same time that Tiger Woods, the man responsible for golf's ascension into the mainstream sports scene, was largely becoming a non-factor even when he did play, the world economy continued to flounder and sponsors were unwilling to cut checks, bringing the growth in participation to a screeching halt. As the start of the semi-annual matches came around last week, golf was a game in a state of utter desperation.
The weather didn't help. Rain throughout the weekend forced not only a change in schedule, but also a change in the format itself. Forced into a cable television, pre-dawn Monday morning finish, the Ryder Cup didn't seem to be the game changer that golf needed in its dark hour.
Although I fulfilled my duty as a dedicated golf fan and woke up at 3 a.m. sharp, I have to admit my lack of optimism quickly put me into a nap that lasted nearly three hours. Already down three and seeing eight European leads up on the board, my second wakeup brought no more excitement and certainly no more optimism than the first.
The Europeans led, the outcome seemed to have been decided, and sleep seemed to be a enticing thought. Then the magic came. A Ryder Cup charge is like nothing else in golf, perhaps like nothing else in sport itself. The flashbulb sequencing of events, the collective change in fortunes, the unseen influence of momentum, a Ryder Cup charge has all the best that sports have to offer.
We expect the likes of Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson to win as they have so many times before. We don't, however, expect a 21-year-old rookie to birdie the final four holes down the stretch to salvage a desperately needed half point.
Rickie Fowler made the Ryder Cup memorable. Although the outcome was in the end unchanged thanks to the heroic performance of Europe's Graeme McDowell, the sudden comeback by the controversial captain's pick was instrumental in making McDowell a Ryder Cup hero, Hunter Mahan the most unfortunate of legendary losers and the 2010 competition one for the ages.
While handing Mahan the blame for the American defeat is as unfair as it gets, the praise for Fowler's comeback could never be overstated.
By giving the sports world something to remember last Monday, Fowler might just have saved the game of golf for the time being. Those putts he made on the final holes showed the sporting world why they had come to accept the game of golf as one of their own.
It was the drama, the passion and the excitement of a young man showing power on the world's stage.
That type of story is what sport is all about.
Is the Ryder Cup even still relevant in the American sporting scene? Think there were better things Max could have been doing at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning? E-mail him at max.sternberg@yahoo.com.
