Written by Staff Writer by Kevin Loria, CNN
While the nostalgia of Greg Norman’s call of “This is your locker room, Tiger,” and Sandy Lyle’s tribute to Lee Trevino conjured memories of the Team USA mascot as the 1980 Ryder Cup, none quite captured the crowd’s emotion during the match on Nov. 30, 2018 at Le Golf National in France.
“This is the second time I’ve been with the USA in Paris. And you know that moment when you win your Ryder Cup team? That’s what it felt like right there,” 17-year-old Jordan Spieth said.
To be fair, the crowd will not forget the fourth singles match of the final day when Brooks Koepka buried an eagle putt to seal the victory. But still there were tears and shouts of “USA, USA,” when Woods hit his tee shot on the 17th.
And what happened on the last day is now becoming an infamous moment on Twitter: Three of the Americans won individual matches, two of them lost, but together they won 5-3.
When are Americans going to start doing things right?
Oh, and how cool is it that Dustin Johnson is now the player who they “don’t want to throw a pebble off?”
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The Thrill of Victory
Matthew Corrigan
Where did the idea to use dreamt-up armbands come from?
I’d loved using the armbands in the U.S. States Park area in Denver and wondered why it wasn’t used there. Then back in 2015 we were over in Ireland and Jonathan Vaughters (one of our group directors) was down at Monaghan the following morning while walking along the shore. The late Mick O’Dwyer was Europe’s captain and as soon as he saw his Armband Academy gold next to Jonnie Walker’s silver he yelled out, “I want the gold, boys!”
What’s so wonderful about the Armband is that it never used to happen in your Ryder Cup week and as adults, as we moved into Europe, it always happened in some random place where you don’t know how to access the United States Team putting green. It’s this unique team thing that always represents the brand.
Why haven’t we seen this before?
In all the years I have been on this team, this is the first time I’ve seen this either used for the U.S. or with the European team. We’re always talking about social media but this is so unique and unique to sports these days.
