Date: 25 Aug 2006 15:42:01
From: Howard U. Dewing
Subject: International team competitions
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Ryder Cup coming up soon, and then the President's cup next year. At
some point all these competitions will need to be reconfigured. It's
the same issue facing Champ Cars and the IRL: rationalization of the
whole mess.
With teams coming from three major pools, The US, Europe and the Rest of
the World, one could imagine a different format that didn't require the
Americans to field a team every year. While it's an element of pride to
play on a team for your country, it's also a burden to get the team
organized, clear schedules, get a captain and all the rest every single
year.
I've suggested this before, as have others, but what if there was a
single competition: a reconfigured Ryder Cup? (It still has all the
cachet. It's a "major", while the President's cup is like the
WGC-important and rich, but not a "major".)
Let's say the US wins the RC in 2010. In 2011 the other two teams who
don't hold it play for the right to challenge in 2012. Call it the Ryder
Cup Challenge Matches. Same Ryder branding, look and feel, but
involving a field that is 50% different from the previous year. If the
US wins, the two other teams challenge again and so on. Even if the US
loses, they would participate in Ryder Challenge, keeping the US market
engaged in RC competition.
I'm sure there will be resistence, and plenty of reasons not to do it,
but the President's Cup is lame, and the Ryder Cup leaves too many good
players out.
--
Howard U. Dewing
I made up this name. It was a choice between this and Watson deMehneux.
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