The European team is honoring the memory of Seve Ballesteros by putting his iconic image on their golf bags.
This is the first Ryder Cup without Ballesteros, who died in May 2011. He is considered the most influential figure in giving Europe its edge in the matches. Longtime friend Jose Maria Olazabal is the European captain.
Olazabal revealed the tribute Tuesday during the team photo at Medinah. The bags have a silhouette that depicts Ballesteros’ reaction to winning the 1984 British Open at St. Andrews.
The Spanish captain says he felt the emblem on the bag would allow Ballesteros to be with the European team “every step of the way.”
Ballesteros adopted the image as his business logo, and even had a tattoo of it on his left forearm.
U.S. WINS JR. RYDER
Casie Cathrea, Karen Chung and Esther Lee led the United States to its third straight Junior Ryder Cup victory, winning singles matches to finish undefeated in the 141/2-91/2 win over Europe in Olympia Fields, Ill.
The 16-year-old Cathrea, from Livermore, Calif., beat Denmark’s Emily Pedersen, 2 up, at Olympia Fields. The 17-year-old Chung, from Livingston, N.J., topped Germany’s Quirine Eijkenboom, 4 and 2, and the 17-year-old Lee, from Los Alamitos, Calif., edged England’s Bronte Law, 1 up.
The three Americans were each 2-0 on in foursomes and mixed fourballs.
“It’s exciting to know that I was able to close out my first Junior Ryder Cup with three points and winning all three matches,” Cathrea said. “This whole experience has been incredible and it’s not over yet. We still get to play Medinah tomorrow, and that should be great, too.”
The co-ed teams will play a “Friendship Match” today at Medinah, the site of the Ryder Cup matches Friday-Sunday.
NICE GESTURE
Davis Love III sure knows how to be a good host.
In addition to the traditional gifts that will be exchanged between the teams at tonight’s dinner, the U.S. captain decided to give everyone involved in the Ryder Cup – Americans and Europeans both – a commemorative yardage book. Harvey Penick’s famous advice to “Take Dead Aim” is inscribed at the top of the Americans’ book, while the Europeans have the same silhouette of Seve Ballesteros that is on their golf bags.
All of the books have a drawing of half of the Ryder Cup, and the full cup is revealed when the book is held up to their counterpart’s.
“It’s going to be pretty cool,” Love said Tuesday. “If I take my book and put it with (European vice captain) Darren Clarke’s book, it matches up and makes a cup. That’s what it’s all about, we respect them and they respect us and, come Friday morning to Sunday night, we’re going to have a lot of fun competing.”
It’s a far cry from some other Ryder Cups, when the event was portrayed as a war or battle between Europe and the United States.
“This is not a war. It’s a golf match,” Love said. “A golf match that’s grown a little bit since they started it, but it continues to be a friendly golf match.”
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