Boo Weekley was never going to be the shrinking violet of the American team. Only one way Boo knows how to play - with the heart. So we caught a glimpse of him coming down the first hole in his afternoon fourballs with JB Holmes against Lee Westwood and Soren Hansen and Boo was giving it large on the crowd front. Whoops and hollers from the man who wrestles crocodiles. Furious arm-waving at the galleries, gestures of 'come on, shout louder' directed at the good people of Kentucky.
Away to the side, there was Westwood. Staring daggers. Not happy at all was the European man. Later on during the front nine Boo did his thing again - "Come on Louisville!" - and again Westwood threw him dirty looks. Now, you could say that Weekley w
as out of order, you could say it was unsporting, you could argue that he shouldn't be doing that kind of thing, that it was unsporting and unfair on his opponents. That's obviously how Westwood saw it. But Europe are on pretty thin ice here. We can't get all po-faced at this kind of thing for as long as Sergio Garcia is wearing our colours. As regards whipping the crowd into a frenzy, we have the crown prince of that kind of thing in our own ranks.
So why shouldn't the Americans give us a bit of our own medicine? It would be hypocritical to deny them that right. For America, it makes sense. There's been all sorts of talk about how boisterous the Valhalla crowd were going to be, sparked by some comments made to Graeme McDowell by Phil Mickelson. Lefty reckoned the locals would be beer-drinking nutters, Nascar-loving rednecks who'd hound the Europeans with their intensity. But it hasn't been that way at all. They've been polite and pretty quiet in the main. The numbers are nothing like the K Club. In Kildare the place was awash with spectators. Here? Significantly less so.
Paul Azinger suspected it was going to be this way. On Thursday night he brought his team downtown in Louisville and fired American tee-shirts out of a gun into the crowd on Fourth Street. He told the masses that they had to get behind their team, said that it was okay to cheer when Europe missed a putt. That hasn't gone down well in the European ranks but, hey, I was at the K Club two years ago and I heard plenty of Europeans cheer when Americans missed putts. We have no claim to the moral high ground on that one.
Interesting stuff from Azinger when asked about it today. "Essentially, you know, when we go over there, they (European fans) cheer when we miss," said Azinger. "I don't think that the American fans are really into what the Ryder Cup is all about in the fact that there is that other element. And it wasn't meant to be malicious and I'm really proud that the fans have been absolutely perfectly behaved this morning.
"If we lose a hole or we miss a putt, they cheer. I don't think the American fans get that part. Golf is, everybody oohs and aahs, but the European fans, they get it. The American fans, they don't, and they are not used to that. I was just making sure that if they understood that if we win a hole, they can cheer, and even if somebody misses a putt for us to win a hole. So that's really all that was. And again, I'll reiterate, I think you'll find that so far, the great fans of Kentucky have not done anything to let us down or embarrass us. They have been - I don't know if you could ever find a more enthusiastic group of fans anywhere in the world than what we had here this morning and they were all properly behaved. So I'm really proud of that fact."
Nothing wrong with Boo helping them out of their shells, though. It's all part of the rich tapestry of the Ryder Cup and should Europe have to deal with a cauldron-like atmosphere in the days ahead it will make a victory all the sweeter.
The full article contains 706 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
