War Of Words

Golf is supposed to be the gentlemanly sport, the one where the players are composed and cool and the fans polite and quiet at the appropriate times.

The Ryder Cup, that biennial completion between Europe’s best and the United States’ top golfers, should also fit that category. And it might, though it got shaken to its pillars on Thursday, a day before the teams begin competing at Hazeltine in Minnesota.

England’s Danny Willett, who won the Masters in April, was playing a round when he was informed of an article his brother Pete had written on the National Golfer Club website. In it, brother Pete took apart American golfers and fans with a scathing critique.

Brother Pete wants the European team to win so as to “silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and (rancid) beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red.” He asked the Europeans to “smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children.”

And then, on Twitter, he said he meant every word of it, that it was no joke.

This, of course, put his brother in the position of apologizing for him and trying to tamp down a distraction. Danny Willett tried to make amends with American captain Davis Love III, who seemed willing to let it go.

The Ryder Cup has been a sore point, in terms of results, for the Americans. They’ve lost three in a row and eight of 10. The gallery at Hazeltine was already going to be partisan; now will Minnesotans, renowned for being nice, show a little hostility to Europe’s best?

The fun begins on Friday.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman