COMMUNITY

Ah, I think Europe took 5-1/2 points, not 6.

Pavin's choices seemed just fine except for the third session. Didn't he break up Cink's team? I know he busted up Phil and D.J., and why wouldn't he? The way we played, I kept thinking Pavin could've drawn names out of a hat and gotten the same thing out of them (0.5 points).

Three things struck me from it all:

1. Ryder Cup is a young man's game. Look at all the guys' records, and almost all of them did better as a rookie or over the first part of their career than as a veteran or over the second half. And watching Jimenez and Harrington flub their way around the course ... holy cow! Those guys did NOT belong. Stricker and Phil looked solid despite being older, but I'd be tempted to pick four rookies every time if I were U.S. captain.

2. Can't we find Phil a partner? With Stricker-Woods and a good Phil-whoever team, you'd think that would help us come closer to splitting the team matches. I know Phil went 0-2-1 in the team stuff, but he didn't seem to me to be playing THAT poorly.

3. Ryder Cup needs to go to the format we saw this year. 6 team matches at a time? That was AWESOME!

Yes, well that makes a big difference. I guess they played well.