Quail Hollow Diary: Captains lead by example as Ryder Cup phoney war starts early
DIARY: For a brief window early Thursday morning, the leaderboard was identical to a promo graphic for September’s Ryder Cup. The two names up in lights atop it all were Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, the respective captains for the Bethpage showdown. Pic: Alex Slitz/Getty Images
For a brief window early Thursday morning, the leaderboard was identical to a promo graphic for September’s Ryder Cup. The two names up in lights atop it all were Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, the respective captains for the Bethpage showdown. They'd stay close as the day wore on.
Donald had the honour of hitting the tournament’s opening shot at dawn and then turned in a sparkling, bogey-free 67 for an early clubhouse lead. Trying to keep his European counterpart all square, Bradley missed a tiddler for birdie on 17 and then smudged the card with his first bogey on 18. Europe one up, then. Was this a battle before the war?
“If it's tied 14-14, are you talking a playoff?” Donald laughed after his lowest opening round at a Major in 21 years. “I'll grab the trophy and go back to Europe.
“Keegan is top 20 in the world. He can have one good week out here, win, which he's very capable of, and he's absolutely in the conversation of being a playing captain. I don't think that's quite in my future.”
One former champion conspicuous by his absence all week was Phil Mickelson. He may be firmly in his LIV cartoon villain era these days but it’s only four years ago that he sensationally won his second Wanamaker at the age of 51.
He didn’t show for the Champions Dinner and belatedly showed up at 7pm on the tournament eve for a very light one hour of practice. Clearly he could have done with a little more.
He signed for an eight-over 79 which included seven bogeys and a hideous triple-bogey eight on the log 7th hole.
A huge chunk of the playing body of the PGA Tour call Florida home so reptiles on the course are a regular occurrence.
But while North Carolina’s alligators are well removed from this region, preferring the eastern coastal plains, there was a more fitting visitor on the fairways in the late morning.
A snapping turtle was spotted making its way along the short stuff on the back nine. Usually pretty docile they’re nonetheless not a creature to creep up on with powerful jaws and a wicked bite.
This one felt a perfect mascot for the opening day here where the pace of play was as interminably slow as feared.
Players looking for more pre-round distractions had a few juicy options this week with Shakira kicking off her huge US arena tour in front of 50,000-plus at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
Having watched Padraig Harrington’s unorthodox exercises on the putting greens, the Dubliner certainly agrees with the Colombian crooner that the hips don’t lie.
Alas the same downtown stadium was empty on Wednesday night even though there was a full round of Major League Soccer on. The city’s team, Charlotte FC, were on the road in Orlando where manager Dean Smith, formerly of Aston Villa and Brentford, saw his team lose 3-1. Charlotte’s consolation came from their star man, Wilfried Zaha, who moved here in January.
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