FIRST AND FEARMOST

Opening shot has world’s best shaking in their golf shoes

CHASKA, Minn. — It’s a place where golfers who have won multiple major championships are made to feel l i ke f rightened first-timers, a place where seasoned veterans feel a core- weakening quiver chasing down their spine that makes their bodies feel like Gumby.

The first tee at the Ryder Cup has a nerve-rattling Roman Coliseum feel to it. It turns cocksure men into skittish boys.

Every player who has experienced it has a story. Everyone remembers their first time.

Some have handled it well, some not so well. You may recall Webb Simpson hitting the f irst shot to start the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland and popping the ball up like a 20 handicapper, barely reaching the fairway.

The Ryder Cup is unique in that the f i rst tee is the place to be for fans as opposed to the 18th, where the action usually climaxes in other tournaments. Ryder Cup matches, because of the match-play format, rarely reach the 18th hole.

The common denominator at the first tee is the adrenaline rush that comes with that shot is more intense than at any other tournament. It’s a rush the players from both teams will begin to deal with at Hazeltine on Friday morning when the 41st Ryder Cup starts for the first of its three days of matches.

“I remember four years ago walking to the first tee with Keegan Bradley for his first Ryder Cup experience and he’s teeing off and I’m talking to him and he’s not hearing a word,’’ Phil Mickelson said. “His eyes are moving all around and the adrenaline is flowing. And he hit a drive on that first hole that was 375 yards ...

“That type of adrenaline rush and excitement, you just can’t recreate it other than in a Ryder Cup.’’

This is Mickelson’s 11th Ryder Cup, an American record. Lee Westwood, playing in his 10th for Europe, recalled his first tee shot on the opening hole in 1997 in Spain as a rookie.

“We were playing Freddie [Couples] and Brad Faxon, they were the away team and they teed it up first,’’ Westwood said. “I watched them put the tee in the ground and try and get their ball on the tee and they were shaking like a leaf. So I thought, ‘ Wow, if they are nervous, then it’s perfectly natural that I’m going to be nervous as well.’ ’’

Rickie Fowler is playing in his third Ryder Cup and said the nerves never sub- side — especially on the first tee.

“Probably one of the most nerve-racking shots you’ll hit throughout your career is the first tee shot at a Ryder Cup,’’ Fowler said. “Until you’ve been able to do it … you can’t duplicate it.’ ’

Ryan Moore, one of two U.S. rookies, confessed he felt nerves on the first tee in his first practice round Tuesday.

“I think it’s something you can’t really know until you’ve been out there,” Moore said. “I mean, shoot, for a Tuesday, I think I was a little bit nervous on the first tee, which I don’t think that’s ever happened on a Tuesday in my life.”

Jordan Spieth was so moved by his first Ryder Cup experience two years ago in Scotland, he had an artist do a painting of him hitting off the first tee at Gleneagles.

“I have it in my kitchen/ living room,’’ Spieth said. “It’s the main piece of artwork that’s in my house — right after I struck my first tee shot at the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. It’s a beautiful painting. I don’t have anything around the house of myself up except for that. It’s that special to me.

“We didn’t win the Ryder Cup. I didn’t make a putt to win the match there. It was just that feeling. You hear the echoes of the chants through the Scottish country hills from the range and you know that you’re about to walk into an away game, which we don’t ever really experience.’’

Spieth recalled hitting a 3-wood all week in the practice rounds from that first tee, but he was so nervous he might whiff that he contemplated hitting a driver “because it’s a bigger head, you know.’’

“You put the tee on the ground, your hand is shaking, you’re trying to get the ball on to the tee,’’ he said. “It’s as nervous as I’ve ever been and probably the best 3-wood I’ve ever hit. I take confidence every time I see that [painting]. I try to look at it every day.

“Hopefully, this time, having done it before, it comes a little easier.’’

Probably not.