• Holmes/Weekly vs. Westwood/Hansen- The Boo Weekly show has taken over Louisville, Kentucky. The Ryder Cup rookie has had the crowd on its feet booing with joy all afternoon as he and (John) Holmes are dormie with two holes to play. Update: Boo and and the porn star have just ended Westwood's unbeaten streak. 8-5 United States.

• Curtis/Stricker vs. García/Casey- The odd pairing of Curtis and Stricker is playing quite a bit better this time around and they've managed to hang with their strong European opponents all afternoon. The two sides have matched putt for putt, including a rather loud and dramatic exchange between Garcia and Stricker early in the match, and they remain all square after 14 holes.

• Furyk/Perry vs. Poulter/McDowell- The strong US pairing has not been able to hold off McDowell or Nick Faldo's bff, Ian Poulter. The English golfer was one of Faldo's criticized captain's selections and he will be the only European to play in each session during the event. So far he's making the captain look pretty smart, this pairing has a slight one hole edge over their counterparts with plenty of golf left to play.

• Mickelson/Mahan vs. Stenson/Karlsson- So far the Americans are holding off the Swedes by the narrowest of margins. We know Mahan can keep it in the fairway off the tee, and if Mickelson can join him in the short grass they should get through the next six holes.

Organizers for the Ryder Cup only have 100 paid employees working at an event that will eventually draw 40,000 to the course. So they have to fill the ranks somehow.

As a marshal on Hole 14, Sprauer will help quiet the crowds, help in the crosswalks, pick up trash and find errant shots. For 16 hours of work, he'll get daily access to the event with the privileges of an upgraded ticket worth $555. "It's a great deal," said Sprauer, 64, who worked at the Middletown Post Office for almost 30 years.

The sixteen hours of work will be spread over the three-day event, giving volunteers time to also check out some of the tournament as spectators. The positions have proven so popular that 1,000 applicants were turned away. Right now, many of you golfers who are sitting at your desks would give anything to be there. So would I, my friends, so would I.

Thousands pay to volunteer for Ryder Cup [Louisville Courier-Journal]
Want to Volunteer, okay, that will be $220 [Dogs That Chase Cars]

It's a good thing golf doesn't have a reputation as being an elitist sport featuring out-of-touch, rich players. Wait... Hunter Mahan is a 26 year old professional golfer from Orange, California who will likely be a member of the Ryder Cup team. In a wide-ranging critique of the Ryder Cup, Mahan's analogies became a bit strained. Now Golf Magazine reports on his critique.

“And from what I've heard the whole week is extremely long. You've got dinners every night — not little dinners, but huge, massive dinners. I know, as players, that's the last thing we want to do. We want to prepare ourselves. That's part of the whole thing: you're just a slave that week.

Yes, yes, exactly right. The Emancipation Proclamation was such a big deal because too many slaves were being forced to attend huge, massive dinners after playing sports all day. How did the textbooks miss this? Liberals, that's why.

Somewhere Harriet Tubman is crying.

Players used as 'slaves' in Ryder Cup, claims Mahan [Golf Magazine]

And it pisses me off that it's not televised live. Yeah, I'm aware that it tees off about 3:00 a.m. Eastern time, but, at least in my view, this is a legitimate big-time sporting event. We can't bump some of the 3:00 a.m. programming to find a spot for The Ryder Cup? I'm sorry if I sound skeptical, but no, I don't believe that that Donald Trump infommercial is going to change my life. Let's see FIGJAM lip out a four-footer instead.

Anyway, given that my day is going to consider of watching sports and being on the internet, there's no way I could avoid seeing the results ahead of time.

If you're watching it on NBC, enjoy. If not results are just after the jump.

Ryder Cup 2006

Yeah, we're getting our asses worked. The highlight of the day was Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson losing 5&4 to Paul Casey and David Howell, complete with a Paul Casey hole-in-one. Awesome. Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods probably going to give us our only win of the afternoon Foursomes, which will leave it 10-6 heading into tomorrow's singles matches. We'll have to get 8 points out of a possible twelve to bring home the Cup.

Which is another problem too: It's the United States vs. Europe. That's hardly an opponent that inspires much vitriol. If they really want the silly trophy that badly, they can have it.

That said, the Ryder Cup does start tomorrow in Ireland, and if anything good is coming out of it, it's the introduction of Tiger Woods to the teeth-baring soulsuckers of European tabloids. Frankly, it's good for him, we think, to deal with silliness involving made-up porn sites involving his wife. Tiger Woods is, without question, the least interesting superstar athlete, so it's funny to listen to him nasally bash tabloids; it's like a the guy from the A/V room acting "outraged" that someone put dry ice in his locker. We'd suggest Tiger relax. It's a dumb Irish magazine that nobody cares about, and besides, no one has really considered his wife all that sexy since you married her anyway. You have that effect. Embrace it!

Woods Lashes Out At Stories, Pictures Of His Wife [Associated Press]
Ryder Cup [Official Site]

And if you're wondering why I'm posting this now, and the tournament is still going on on television, it's because they started the final round early this morning to avoid some inclement weather that was blowing in. And CBS didn't want to change the time slot. Thus, you get tape delay golf. At least they had a reason, unlike ESPN.

Valiant effort, Stewart Cink. It was nice to see someone go toe-to-toe with Tiger Woods on a Sunday and at least display some kind of coconuts. And it's even nicer to see Cink playing well, having just been named to the US Ryder Cup team.

In fact, Cink and Tiger are about to hop on a plane together and cruise over to Ireland to play the K-Club, the course where the Ryder Cup will be contested. That's going to be awkward. Cink's going to have to get himself good and drunk for that flight to be tolerable.

WGC-Bridgestone Leaderboard [ESPN.com]