The most well-known golf tournament in the world is the Ryder Cup, which will take place next week in Long Island, N.Y., at Bethpage Black. This is probably the most famous public course in America. The competition is between the best 12 golfers in the United States versus the 12 best from all of Europe. The U.S. is probably a slight favorite to win because of their home-course advantage. No away team has won the event since the Europeans won in Chicago in 2012.
I expect the tournament to be very close and come down to the last few singles matches on Sunday. This is one of my favorite tournaments to watch every two years. It's more like a football game atmosphere than typical golf. I hope the New York fans aren’t too brutal on the European players, but that might be wishful thinking.
The first two days of the event are four rounds of two-on-two match play. The morning session each day is alternate shot. The afternoon session is the best ball of the two players on each team wins the hole. Then on Sunday, all 12 players on each team play a single match. The winner of each match scores a single point for the team and all ties are awarded a half point. The U.S. team has to get to 15 points to win and the European team only has to have 14 1/2 points because they won the cup last time in Italy. The golf will be on USA network and NBC starting next Friday.
Switching to football, the Eagles need to play much better offense if they want to continue their winning ways. They just barely beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in the Super Bowl rematch. They could have lost just as easily if Travis Kelce did not bobble an attempted touchdown pass, which was then intercepted. Travis has almost never dropped a pass in his hall-of-fame career as a tight end. The Eagles have not targeted their two best wide receivers, AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, nearly enough. On this Sunday, they will play another good team in the Los Angeles Rams. I hope it's a stronger performance for the Eagles.
The Phillies have claimed the National League East division championship for the second year in a row. Their main goal is to catch the Milwaukee Brewers for the first seed in the playoffs so they can play the most games at home at Citizen's Bank Park. They have been playing very well for the past month or so. I don’t know if they can maintain this throughout the month of October, but they’re going to have to if they want have any chance to win the World Series this year.
There are no dominate teams in Major League Baseball this year, so the path to the World Series is wide open on both the National League and American League sides.
Going back to golf for a second, I would like to congratulate all of the teams that played in the women’s college golf tournament this week at Kings Creek Country Club. The Bucknell women won the tournament in some pretty challenging weather conditions.
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
