By Brandon Pace

This being my first contribution to View from the Fringe, I thought I would share some thoughts about perhaps the two biggest stories in golf left in the 2010 season. The first story, of course, being Tiger. It’s been quite a year, to say the least, for Tiger. I am happy to have seen in Tiger’s absence some of the younger, talented players, like Dustin Johnson, step to the forefront of American golf. Golf needs Tiger, and I fully suspect him to round him game back into shape sooner, rather than later. It’s been his nature to change his swing constantly, and it’s always produced wins. (I do think, however, his swing with Butch Harmon was the best swing in the history of golf, but that’s for another discussion.) This week has been the best his swing has looked in a long time. He’s not laid off hardly at all and he’s been keeping that head more still throughout the swing. Once the confidence gets back into his swing, his putter will return, too. Now he is beginning to play the par 5′s like he used to, which is his biggest in-round boost.

As for Tiger’s mental health? Well, he’s been telling us that it’s all a ‘process,’ and he’s right. Life changes such as his recent ones can and do certainly change people’s perspective on things, and for the moment, it seems as if Tiger has lost a bit of his bite. But like other star athletes, Kobe Bryant, for example, after some time Tiger will get to the top of his game again. My only question is, ‘has Tiger learned anything?’ My biggest problem with Tiger in the past has been his awful displays of anger on course, amid watching, youthful, and starstruck eyes. It always befuddled me that Tiger had such control over his golf swing that he could stop the swing right before impact, but he lacked enough self-mastery to stop the awful things coming out of his mouth. Hopefully, Tiger will realize that his selfishness has hurt him on the golf course, as well as off the course in his personal life. One can obviously learn to be a gentlemen and not sacrifice his competitive spirit for the game (see Bobby Jones.) If Tiger implements the lessons that I hope he’s learned, then I believe he’ll be back winning, and winning big.

Speaking of winning, if America is to have its best chance of winning the Ryder Cup, it’ll be with Tiger on the team. Tiger is a winner, and that needs to rub off on the Americans. One of the reasons, I believe, that Europe has played so much better in the Ryder Cup in recent years, is because their main stable of players are winners. They have fewer players that compete at the highest level, but the ones who do, seem to win very often. American players seem to get into such a comfort zone with the amount of money and popularity that they receive, that there seems to be content among the players with one victory a year, or worse yet, a string of top tens and a million dollars won in a season. Of course, a victory a year and a million dollar season is spectacular, but it just doesn’t seem like America has the constant, go for broke, gunslinging winners of the past decades (excluding Tiger and Phil.) Europe’s Ryder Cup stars, however, have in the past seemed to win more. Of course it could be that the talent on the European Tour isn’t as deep as the PGA Tour, but nonetheless, winning breeds winning. As very young players, for instance, Lee Westwood, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia, and others have been able to win multiple times in Europe. Even Luke Donald and Paul Casey pick up wins overseas when it seems that the well is dry for them in America. So what does this boil down to on the golf course and at the Ryder Cup? It means that Europeans have an expectation to win, and the experience of winning to help them realize that expectation. Nothing would please me more than to see young American players like Hunter Mahan, Sean O’Hair, Matt Kuchar, Stewart Cink and others (who all have incredible talent) win multiple times each year.

I believe that our future star of the Ryder Cup, once healthy again, is Anthony Kim. He is completely fearless. And when he gets in the hunt on tour, he is trying to win harder than anyone. He may crash and burn, a la Mickleson or a young Tiger, but he goes down swinging, and I love it! Hopefully Tiger and AK will get picked, and their desire to win will spur the US to victory in this Ryder Cup. This is my favorite sporting event in the world, and I want to see passion from our Yanks, because as a fan, I won’t be as passionate about any other event. Good luck to our boys and good luck to Captain Pavin. They have a tough challenge in front of them, but I believe they will win! GO USA!

photo credit: Keith Allison