GCA Ryder Cup Matches

[ForkaB]

James

Our posts crossed in cyberspace.  Thanks for beginning to grasp the nettle!

As for me, I am possibly eligible for both sides, as I live in Scotland, and have so for most of the past 15 years.  I have a sort of common law "citizenship"...... and, since I have never lost (teamwise...) in the 2 of these competitions I have participated in, I will watch this space closely and will try to keep my options open.

Rich (if playing for the US)/Richard (if playing for the ROW)

[Brian Phillips]

James,

I am up for it and I am trying very hard to get my handicap from a 9 up to around 14 so that I can enjoy my golf again.  It wasn't much fun being hammered by Rich in Dornoch with my low handicap that I cannot remember the last time I played to....

I am willing to play anywhere given enough notice.

I am with Rich here that I think that the first Ryder Cup would probably be needed to be played in Britain.

What about the Mac.  I know Darren is leaving this year but what a great place for 24 golfers to hang out.  No problem getting tee times...nowhere to go but the pub afterwards..or what about Dornoch and everyone stays at the 'shinning' hotel.

Brian

[James Edwards]

The ROTW team has strengthened considerably with the edition of Mr Philips.

Teams now read.

USA  

Mr Scott Burroughs
Mr Tom Huckaby
Mr Rich Goodale
Mr Dan Kelly

ROTW  

Mr James Edwards (ENG)
Mr Ian Andrew (ENG)
Mr Brian Philips (ENG) or (NOR)

Calling...

Mr Darren Kilfara (SCOT)
Mr Ronan Branigan (IRL)


Brian - Excellent my friend.  I'm sure with your 20 handicap (which I will give you) will be enough for a valuable point.

Rich - thank you once again for your advice which as usual is noted.

I will tentatively say that I would like to organise once we have some names.  I say tentaively because as you said, the dates need to be organised second.  First lets just get a team for both sides and then I can start looking into venues etc.

We will look for a long weekend to play the matches and possibly a few friendlies before, to study and talk about the passion we all share..

I agree - this will be historic.

[Michael Whitaker]

Michael & DCarroll, forgive me but which sides are you eligable for?

I'm in for the USA side.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

David, this is a great idea. It seems that Rich beating me 1 up with an eagle at 18 has inspired him to write and play.

[david h. carroll]

James--USA USA USA!!!

[david h. carroll]

Shivas--the selection of captains will also be necessary...it's starting to sound like some folks will need to build their resumes!!

[Scott_Burroughs]

Shivas,

I'm all for playing straight up as long as people are matched closely by handicap.  A match between myself and, say, Jeff Fortson or Shooter would be a whitewash of sad proportions.

Don't forget that the real Ryder Cup includes 2 days of Foursomes and Fourballs, of which you don't necessarily have to have matched individual handicaps for 'fairness', but matched team handicaps.


And James,

Unfortunately, I never put my name in the hat for attendance at this thing (if it ever happens).  I would absolutely love to attend, but I have little chance of that, especially if it's across the pond your way.

[Darren_Kilfara]

Unfortunately, I lost a long-ish post I was about to make on this subject when I accidentally hit the "back" button. Sigh...anyway, a few quick points:

--I'd love to attend, and I'd be happy to make up the numbers of either side. (As an American citizen with a Scottish and residency, I think that's about right.) As a three-handicapper, I'm happy to open the bidding for my services at £1,000 - opening bid of £1,000...anyone?

--Machrihanish would be a good venue for several reasons - cost (especially if more members than myself could be persuaded to come), ease of making blocks of tee-times, and so on - but as Rich says, I'll be done living here as of the end of October. However, I'll still belong to the club and would happily serve as the point man as far as making arrangments goes. (We're moving to the East Lothian region, so I won't really be that far away.)

--One thing I think I learned from Rich's mini-Ryder Cup attempt at Dornoch this spring is that the competitive format of the event should retain the prime focus. And it needs to be well-structured - it doesn't really matter how large the teams are, so long as they're equal in size and an appropriate number of matches can be arranged. (I'd suggest that all team members be guaranteed at least one match per day - I like the idea of giving the captains some selectorial discretion, though.) Twelve-player teams and a first-to-14-points format would be ideal, though hardly necessary.

--I prefer playing without "shots", but Scott's point about handicap-matching is a good one. I'd propose a President's Cup-style pairing system, i.e. one side transparently commits his player/team for a particular match, and then the other follows suit.

Cheers,
Darren

[Bill_McBride]

Shivas, spoken like a true scratch player!  

If I only get one a side, I'll take 1/9th at each hole!

Depending on when or where, you can count me in!  I am dying to go to Scotland to play and just need an excuse.

[Michael Whitaker]

Darren - Great thoughts! Machrihanish would be outstanding for a venue... but, so would the courses in East Lothian!

Shivas - Shots or no-shots doesn't really matter as long as everyone is in agreement. Personally, I like seeing a "2" bear down when he has to give me a shot on a par 5. It is inspiring stuff to see true talent and determination bubble to the surface.

James - I'd be more than happy to assist in any way with the planning or organization.

[James Edwards]

Teams are starting to shape up nicely.  Thank you.

1)  Mr Scott Burroughs (depending on match location)
2)  Mr Tom Huckaby
3)  Mr Rich Goodale (legitimate European if needed)
4)  Mr Dan Kelly
5)  Mr Bill McBride
6)  Mr DCarroll (first name required please? David?)
7)  Mr Darren Kilfara (legitimate Euopean if needed)
 Mr Michael Whitaker
9)  Mr Shivas (full name required please)
10) Mr Tiger Bernhardt
11) TBD
12) TBD

ROTW  

1)  Mr James Edwards (ENG)
2)  Mr Ian Andrew (ENG)
3)  Mr Brian Philips (ENG) or (NOR)
4)  Mr Ronan Branigan (if available)
5)  Mr Stuart Wilson (ENG)
6)  Mr Richard Myers (ENG)
7)  TBD
 TBD
9)  TBD
10) TBD
11) TBD
12) TBD

[James Edwards]

Shivas,

I agree, qualification will be needed if the stipulated 12 aside is oversubscribed).

IMO The GCA Ryder Cup will take the form of matchplay (with arguments being noted about handicap etc depending on numbers and differences in hcap - We do not want to play the same guys everyday).

Michael,

Thank you for your help - I'm sure it will be needed.

Darren,

Appearance money in the Ryder Cup??? Thats blasphemy!
Even so, I've officially started the bidding on £1000. but I will limit the offers to 1M for our star player (if he plays in the  EURO team ofcourse)

Mach would be a fine course to host the first GCA.RCM with the potential to cross the waters to Machrie for one of the rounds.

Scott, I hear you, thank you.

I'm sure either way you will play in one in future years.

[Bill_McBride]

If the event is in the UK, I guess you'd want qualifying in the US or risk going over for one "Ryder Cup" round.  But what the heck, there's a lot of golf in neighboring venues I'm sure.  Unless the match was at Macrahinish!

[Stan Dodd]

Times , dates and venues.  I would love to participate depnding on above
Cheers
Stan

[James Edwards]

Shivas,

Thats a fine solution to the potential problem, thank you.

Bill, thank you.

I'm playing Machrihanish in the first week of October with Mr Kilfara (club medal permitting) and Machrie, so I can look into logistics for the Television, Car Parks for the spectators etc.

Darren will be a better person to ask about how many courses are within a shortish drive of the course?

[Jeff Fortson]

If allowed, I'd play.  Obviously, the date and location will have some bearing as to whether or not my schedule and bank account agree.

Jeff F.

[Bill_McBride]

I think the idea that there might be 40 or 50 for each team to be unlikely.  More likely maybe 20-25, like the Kings Putter.  So you take as many from one side as the other side can muster, or maybe even shuffle dual citizenship types like Rich and Darren to even out the sides.  Then you rank everybody by their indexes (indices?) and there you go.  No shots as long as indexes are in the ballpark.  Everybody gets to play two or three rounds.  As someone mentioned, you need to do it somewhere that logistics permit a big group, maybe Macrahinish not a bad idea or Dornoch either.  How about late May 2004?  I'm ready to go now but travel budget pretty tapped out.  This will take some planning and that's probably the right amount of time.

I'm getting pumped up just thinking about this one!

The Huckaby / Getka endeavors should be a model.

[James Edwards]

Stan,

Welcome - (if your European!  haha)
What side do you wish to qualify for?

Keep tuning in.  

I will endeavour to bring this thread to the top, whilst the teams are in there development stage

(I don't want to upset anyone who frequently uses this sight for real architectural issues and who does like the thought of non architectural threads being posted!)

[James Edwards]

Jeff,

Thank you.  I assume USA?

There is certainly no rush for this to happen.  My intentions are to make this a really great event with the help of everyone else giving everyone the opportunity to get there respective diaries set up.

I'm sure you agree, this could be the start of a wonderful series of matches on some wonderful courses.

[James Edwards]

Teams are starting to shape up nicely.  Thank you.

1)  Mr Scott Burroughs (depending on match location)
2)  Mr Tom Huckaby
3)  Mr Dan Kelly - WANNABE! but may not come (thankyou DK)
4)  Mr Bill McBride
5)  Mr DCarroll (first name required please? David?)
6)  Mr Michael Whitaker
7)  Mr David Schmidt (thankyou DK)
 Mr Tiger Bernhardt
9)  Mr Jeff Fortson
10) Mr Stan Whitey(?)
11) TBD
12) TBD

ROTW  

1)  Mr James Edwards (ENG)
2)  Mr Ian Andrew (ENG)
3)  Mr Brian Philips (ENG) or (NOR)
4)  Mr Ronan Branigan (if available)
5)  Mr Stuart Wilson (ENG)
6)  Mr Richard Myers (ENG)
7)  Mr Rich Goodale (New ROTW colleague)
 Mr Darren Kilfara (New ROTW colleague)
9)  TBD
10) TBD
11) TBD
12) TBD

[David Wigler]

Count me in

[david h. carroll]

James--yes, it is David, or as you see Mr. hurricane call me, DC.

[Michael Whitaker]

Mr. Shivas' scheme for picking the teams would work well. Especially if we pattern the event after the real Ryder Cup... two sets of two-man team matches on day one & two, and 12 singles matches on day three. Even if we had as many as 24 players per side everyone could be guaranteed to play in at least one "Cup" match per day for the first two days, then let the captain pick the singles players for day three based on performance and/or form. That way if you had a "Cup" match in the morning you could still play a friendly match in the afternoon, or visa versa. The last thing you want to do at a gathering like this is run the risk of sending someone home disappointed in their participation.

[ChasLawler]

This thing looks very interesting, and I would definitely be interested depending on time and location. Like Scott said, a trip across the pond could be very difficult.

Regardless of whether or not I could play, I don't think this thing should be called the GCA Ryder Cup - that has no originality and really no significance.

The Morrissett Cup, after this site’s founders; the Mackenzie Cup, after an architect who everyone seems to love on this site; or even the Naccarato or Tom Paul Cup would have much more meaning. Those are just a few thoughts, as I'm sure there are other potential names out there that would hold more significance than the GCA Ryder Cup.

Just thinking out loud.