The Ryder Cup odyssey begins...

Neil and Fergus set off from Blighty and they've already made some important findings

Neil Tappin
By
published

The flight from London to Louisville (via Detroit) is five hours old, I ve watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I ve read my book, I ve listened to my ipod, I ve walked around a bit and I ve even talked to Fergus so it s official; I m bored. With three more hours to pass until we land I ve decided to pass the time by penning my first blog of the GM Ryder Cup coverage of 2008. Glad to have you on board, so to speak.

So what can I possibly have to say about a tournament that takes place thousands of miles from my current position over the Atlantic Ocean? Well, at approximately 6 o clock this morning Fergus and I settled down for a healthy Heathrow airport fry-up when into the restaurant walked Marcus Day, Justin Rose s manager. He too was travelling to Detroit. After some early pleasantries, I decided to ask him the killer question does Justin know who he ll be paired with yet? Rather unsurprisingly Marcus didn t have the answer but he did mention that Rose and Poulter would be paired to play against the Swedish duo of Karlsson and Stenson in practice today. Rose had also told his manager that yesterday s practice round had taken a whopping seven hours. Our boys had been instructed by Captain Faldo to sign as many autographs as possible in a bid to winner over the locals a cunning trick that Bernhard Langer used in 2004.

Talking of Captain s tricks, Fergus and I have been mulling over possible pairings for both teams on day one. We resisted the temptation of putting Wilson and Hansen together in the opening match and came up with the first day s fourball and foursomes matches as we see them. Here goes:

Fourballs

Phil Mickelson & Anthony Kim v Lee Westwood & Sergio Garcia

Stewart Cink & Steve Stricker v Paul Casey & Ian Poulter

Kenny Perry & JB Holmes v Henrik Stenson & Robert Karlsson

Jim Furyk & Chad Campbell v Padraig Harrington & Graeme McDowell

Foursomes

Stewart Cink & Steve Stricker v Sergio Garcia & Miguel Angel Jimenez

Jim Furyk & Hunter Mahan v Padraig Harrington & Justin Rose

Boo Weekley & Ben Curtis v Soren Hansen & Robert Karlsson

Justin Leonard & Phil Mickelson v Lee Westwood & Oliver Wilson

USA 1 Europe 7 (We quite like the look of Leonard and Mickelson in the final match.)

Neil Tappin
Neil Tappin
Editor

In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he has also presented many Golf Monthly videos looking at all areas of the game from Tour player interviews to the rules of golf. 

Throughout his time with the brand he has also covered equipment launches that date back well over a decade. He clearly remembers the launch of the Callaway and Nike square drivers as well as the white TaylorMade driver families, such as the RocketBallz! If you take a look at the Golf Monthly YouTube channel, you'll see his equipment videos dating back over a decade! He has also conducted 'What's In The Bag' interviews with many of the game's best players like Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm. Over the years, Neil has tested a vast array of products in each category and at drastically different price-points. 

Neil is currently playing: Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus Fairway Wood: Titleist TSR2 Hybrid: Titleist TS3 Irons: PING Blueprint S (4&5), PING Blueprint T (6-PW) Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 50˚, 54˚, 60˚ Putter: Odyssey Triple Track Ten Ball: Titleist Pro V1X

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