After losing the Solheim Cup in Ireland last summer in the wake of the 2010 loss of the Ryder Cup in South Wales, it was difficult to avoid the eerie feeling that golf in America was in a decline trajectory relative to the rest of the world. Eerie because it seemed to be consistent with the decline of everything else that was American, since the Obama regime embarked on “apologizing for America” as the hallmark of its governance.
Against this backdrop, capturing the World Cup of Golf title in China last week following a successful defense of the Presidents’ Cup in Australia the previous week lent a hint of a triumphal resurgence in American golf. With the vile defeatist pessimism spewing out of the White House itself respecting the state of the national psyche, every bit of good news goes a long way to prop up the nation’s morale. Being myself an eternal optimist to a fault, I cannot help but hope that this is just the beginning of a winning trend that should culminate through the national elections next year. We definitely can use every bit of good news.
Kudos to captain Fred Couples for pre-empting the talking heads of punditland and naming Tiger to the Presidents Cup team long before he had to. His message to the world was that golf needs Tiger and Tiger needs golf. Further that given the chance and some moral support, Tiger belongs to a winning team. Tiger promptly returned the favor by placing third in the Australian Open, capturing the winning point in the Presidents’ Cup, and bagging the trophy in his own Chevron invitational tournament. If it ushers in the resurgence of Tiger’s winning ways, it certainly would not be asking too much to expect it to infect the overall pulse of American Exceptionalism.
With all the miasma of class warfare emanating out of the Oval Office, the entire country can use a breathe of some air of the fresher kind.
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