Home>>Paul Azinger checks in on CTL

Paul Azinger checks in on CTL

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Tags:

  1. Tiger Woods0:55
  2. Super Bowl0:27
  3. Ryder Cup0:03, 0:15, 0:17
  4. World Golf Championship1:14
  5. World Cup soccer0:23
  6. Ryder Cups2:43
  7. rough cut5:00
  8. bell rang3:46

Thu, 27 Sep 2012|

Golf analyst Paul Azinger checks in on CTL to talk Ryder Cup from Medinah Country Club - 9/27

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Transcript

What's your take on the Ryder Cup where it falls on me. Golf pantheon of great events because I'm a huge masters fan I love the majors I love watching golf where does the Ryder fall. I think a Ryder Cup tops them all I believe the Ryder Cup is maybe. You know arguably the greatest sporting event in the world. The World Cup soccer maybe cannot do it I think the more people watch the Super Bowl look for pure excitement on site. I believe the Ryder Cup is right up there in the top three or top 45. That's in the world I think it tops all the majors. The players today make just ridiculous money between. Tournament winnings and endorsements and everything that goes with it yet when they played a Ryder Cup they're not playing for money -- playing for their country and all that goes in with that what does the pressure like in the Ryder Cup for you for a guy like Tiger Woods when he's over a putt. Today do you feel nerves. You do feel -- it's it's it's surreal it Keegan Bradley made a comment that. On Tuesday after he just walked out that his photograph made with the team the American team. But he said that. Now yet remember he rallies on a PGA championship a World Golf Championship he said he thinks this is the greatest compliment accomplishment of his career is to be able to -- and represent his country. And I you know I just know firsthand from being there that. Friday morning is a tough day and now these guys the anxiety in the build up and all the hype and propaganda and paparazzi and and the fans in the whole nine yards is really adds to. The anxiety in the press and -- are the stress and the pressure on these guys are really feeling it they're human just like you and I are. And they're gonna get after Friday morning and I always im a believer that than most nervous situations create and produce the best results from the greatest athletes in the world. The Olympic Games the Ryder Cup the NFL whatever it is and I just the pressure here you can you can cut the tension with a knife. You've gone through things in your life whether it's winning at the PGA level going through it very scary health time for you with cancer. You were captain of Ryder Cup where you really revolutionized what captains dead and you really turned things around for this country from a Ryder Cup standpoint. Take it back to all those high low moments in your life and how they made you what you are today and what your lending to this team. I think. You know you're life experiences shaped the way you think in the way you live your life in the end and had a lot of ups and downs and think they're pretty well documented so I'm not gonna -- the listener with all that but. As a captain I just saw where the Americans were getting it handed to us we'd only once. Three Ryder Cups in the 25 years and we've lost five of the six previous Ryder -- coming into my captaincy. And I had erratically redid the way that the team was picked and I got four picks instead of two. We used a one year system instead of a two and a half year system. And we were. Able to pick the four players three weeks later than in previous years. And I took an outside the box approach to team building my goal was to create what I -- be the best environment for the players and I felt like I -- what I did was I took a chapter out of the Navy SEALs approach to team building by taking a large group of twelve and breaking into three small groups of four. We put it together based on like personality and my message to the guys is pretty simple really it was play to play great play aggressive and show off for the crowd. Everyone of you knows there's no shortcut to success you can't hope border wish for you have to prepare. I'm -- you prepared your small groups on the overtake yadier small group unless there's an injury or illness. And -- that message was delivered in these guys were engaged and empowered within their groups. I got out the way and I really had no control once that bell rang it was gonna always be up to them. But I wanted to create what I felt would be the best environment for them to be successful. The challenge was -- -- step out of the way for me as a captain then and now was able to do that let them do their thing what they were great at. About the setup that -- -- today it says a magnificent course and very challenging what do you think -- set up and how does the course look. I don't know that the setup is really going to 22. I think I think is almost a push not only is gonna give me great advantage for either team one way or the other. The course looks terrific. It's gonna photograph beautifully and I think it's in great shape and -- -- yet several months of temperatures of ninety degrees or higher maybe fifty straight days of that. And it's hard to grow this kind of grass and that kind of heat. So my hats off to the superintendent -- Tyrell for the work he's done. And I think the players are gonna like it the American players don't have the most -- your team off the tee and the -- -- is gonna help them. There's not a lot of rough around the greens and Europeans are incredibly imaginative around the greens and I think there. Going to be able to do things. Creatively that they wanna do if they didn't you know instead of the 45 inch rough so I'd like to see the rough deeper on the greens personally. For an American advantage but I like the way he's got the the fairways and the rough cut. Off the --

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