More than 50,000 fans cram Hazeltine
How hungry for golf are Minnesotans? Very.
More than 51,000 fans were crammed into Hazelt i n e N a t i o n a l G o l f c l u b before noon for the fifirst day of matches. The event was sold out months ago. Hazeltine has hosted four majors, two U.S. Opens (1970, 1991) and a pair of PGA Championships (2002, 2009; the last major held in the state). How nice are Minnesotans? More than 30,000 turned out for a Monday playoffff in which between Payne Stewart beat Scott Simpson to decide the 1991 U.S. Open. That’s about fifive times the usual gallery for such extra sessions.
Reed Mackenzi e , t hen chairman at Hazeltine and subsequently at the U.S. Golf Association, explained it this way at the time: “People would have thought it would be impolite not to be here for the playoffff.”
Eyes of Ti ger: United States Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III said he has a strategy for how he will deploy vice captain Tiger Woods through the weekend. He says he believes that “people will be watching Tiger watch golf,” and expected the superstar could buoy certain pairings at crucial moments. So far so good. Woods followed Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar in their morning foursome match against L ee Westwood and Thomas Pieters. The American pair stormed out to a 5-up lead after eight holes, with Johnson’s putting leading the way, and closed out the Europeans 5 and 4.
Woods may also have had an effffffffffffect on Pieters in his fifirst ever Ryder Cup match. The rookie was shaky all morning, and having the most famous name — and one of the most intense competitors — in golf looking over his shoulder might not have helped.
Willett’s woes: Danny Willett had a feeling he would hear it from the Hazeltine c r owd a f t e r h i s b r o t h e r penned a column for a British outlet lambasting Amer- ican golf fans.
T h e r e v v e d - u p c r o wd obliged.
Willett sat out the morning session, but was jeered on the fifirst tee in the afternoon. The partisan American crowd chanted “Willett’s broth-er!” in response to Peter Willett, who called American fans “pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants” in a scathing column.
Danny Willett spent the past two days apologizing for and distancing himself from his brother’s words. But he didn’t respond well to the jeers in his fifirst Ryder Cup match.
Willett and partner Martin Kaymer were rolled 5 and 4 by Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka in four- ball. It was Europe’s only loss in the afternoon session.