After Ryder Cup loss, Europe hits the whine

Following Europe’s loss to the U.S. in the 2008 Ryder Cup, Europeans are reacting to it by cracking open a big bottle of whine. Here’s a fairly standard example from the Belfast Telegraph:

However, the disappointing thing which stood out was the bad sportsmanship of the American supporters at Valhalla Golf Club. This poor behaviour included mocking shots that went wrong for the European players and jeering as they walked between shots. I strongly suspect when the Ryder Cup is played in Wales in 2010 we will not experience the same hostility directed at the US players.

The European team should be praised for their character and resolve in the face of such adversity from the American golf supporters. A victory in the face of such adversity was deserved and the next Ryder Cup match in Wales will be all the sweeter when this is achieved in 201

Enjoy some cheese with that whine, Europe.

But at least Mick Hume from the UK’s Times Online isn’t falling for it:

In 2006 Ian Woosnam, Europe’s captain, described his team’s victory as “the greatest week in history". Pundits declared it a triumph for the European culture of co-operation over the self-centred American spirit of individualism. One even claimed that, unlike Americans such as Tiger Woods, Our Boys care more about success for “their Continent” than themselves. Meanwhile, an American observer suggested the result proved that European multilateralism was better than US unilateralism in foreign policy.

This time the driving glove is on the other hand. So we are told that the Americans won only because they are more passionate than Europeans, or because their crowd is too dumb-assedly jingoistic - whipped up by the likes of the good-ol’-boy golfer Boo Weekley, described by one British commentator as “an archetypal American” who’s “had a few beers in his time", and by another as a “slack-jawed yokel". Or it was because the Yanks pinched Europe’s “traditional values", whatever those might be. And there was ignorant me thinking it was because they missed fewer putts.

–WKW