Tiger Woods leads Team USA to practice

Because the Ryder Cup only happens every two years and it’s a battle between the United States and Europe, emotions and passions run high. Between a controversial European captain and American captain’s pick Tiger Woods, there’s tons of news coming out of Wales this year. To keep track of the tabloid drama and the actual golf, here’s a summary to make your life easier. As Bubba Watson would tweet, [sic] #yourwelcome.

• Colin Montgomerie has clarified his team’s social media policy after Ian Poulter last night appeared to ignore his captain’s request that the players avoid Twitter. Starved of attention after a day of not communicating his musings with the world, Poulter logged on to remark that ‘for the record, Colin hasn’t banned Twitter, he has asked to be respectful to the teams privacy. I played 7 holes today course awesome.’ [sic] Monty himself later emerged to say his original ban only referred to private exchanges between players and not messages of the ‘Go Europe!’ variety. He seemed confused that the issue had even arisen: ‘I thought I was the captain of a golf team, not the captain of a Tweeting organisation.’ [Yahoo]

• The Sun (Britain’s trashiest tabloid) has extended its warmest welcome to the US team in an article that begins: ‘The Americans are over-paid, over-sexed– at least in Tiger Woods’ case– and over here. Corey Pavin’s team counted the cash as they flew in to Cardiff. For the month-long FedEx Cup series they completed on Sunday left them more than $15m better of.’ Luke Donald, for his part in the cash bonanza, mysteriously escaped criticism. [The Sun]

• You should all head over and check out Colin Byrne’s column in The Irish Times. Retief Goosen’s former caddy and currently on the bag of Edoardo Molinari, Byrne’s one of the most consistently insightful writers in golf. His subject this week is his first experience of insiderdom at the Ryder Cup. [Irish Times]

• Tiger Woods has made it clear that Rory McIlroy’s recent comments about facing the world’s number one have not gone unnoticed. After meandering through the usual platitudes about ‘coming together as a team’ and his newfound maturity, Woods was asked if he had a response for McIlroy, who’d spoken of his desire to ‘take him down’: ‘Me too.’ Asked to elaborate, Woods simply said: ‘No.’ [Telegraph UK]

• It may be a little too early to say, but we seem to be getting a sense of the pairings. Edoardo and Francesco?! Surely not. [The Guardian]

• Finally, Gregg Roughley of The Guardian takes us on a brief (and frightening) tour of the Ryder Cup’s recent sartorial history. [The Guardian]