He's saying that if you are the recipient of tremendous luck, then you shouldn't complain so much about results dependent on luck.
Why not?
The course is either tricked up or it isn't. Ryan Moore does not like tricked up courses and believes Pebble was tricked up.
If Pebble truly was tricked up (and I'm not saying it was) why would a couple of lucky bounces make him like it any better?
Not that a favorable Ruling is the same thing as a lucky bounce, these guys live and die by favorable Rulings every round of their lives.
Because, as a statistically cognizant person Brent, you realize that luck tends to average out.
I suspect Greg Norman does not agree with that.
Statistically speaking, it would also take a lot of trials (a lot more US Opens than any one player will play) for the distribution of luck to start to smooth out, and there would still and always be outliers in the distribution.
Martin,
It seems you are counting the wrong independent trials. Ryan was not saying that he was unlucky to lose this open, 1 trial. He was saying that the 280 plus trials he engaged in were so skewed to the unlucky side as to make him feel bad, poooooooor boooooooooy.
So how many trials do you think are necessary to smooth out the distribution.
Garland,
He was stating his opinion. I don't think he was feeling bad - but he felt that the setup, on a couple of holes in particular, were especially tricky and emphasized luck more than skill. Never did he blame the conditions for the outcome. In fact, I believe that he acknowledged the superior play of McDowell along the way - either in this interview or another that I saw.
When only a handful of the best players in the world can hit the green on a par-3, and many on this site acknowledge that the BEST play off the tee is into a hazard (a HAZARD), it's hard for me to disagree with Ryan's opinion.
The real issue on the 17th is that given the fronting bunker, it's a hole designed to be played through the air, with a setup so firm that it's more suited to the ground game. When combined, you have what we saw Sunday...
Personally, I didn't mind the 14th so much. It placed a superior premium on precisely controlling the golf ball around that green.