The worst Team USA Ryder Cup outfits
Pizza the action
Who could knock a shirt that might have helped a team to one of the most impressive comebacks in any sport? Well, we’ll give it a go.
The burgundy shirts had pictures of victorious teams from over the years. The BBC commentary likened them to some pepperoni pizzas.
ESPN once did a brilliant piece on what each team player had done with their shirts. Davis Love said: “I’ve got two of those shirts hanging in my closet. I keep all my Sunday shirts when I win. I have two of them because
I wore one to the closing ceremonies and it got all wet.”
Steve Pate framed his and sold it in a charity auction, it raised $5,000.
While Tiger Woods was less enthusiastic: “I threw it in the fireplace over Christmas and burned it.
It was sooo ugly. It provided more warmth for the house.”
Goodfellas
The shambles of Hal Sutton’s leadership in 2004 began at the opening ceremony where the Americans emerged as though they were preparing for a shift down the stock exchange rather than attempting to win back the Ryder Cup.
It shouldn’t be too hard to look both relatively smart and relatively cool at the same time.
In 2004 they failed miserably on both counts.
Rain not so supreme
Sun Mountain, the most famous set of waterproofs in golf but for all the wrong reasons.
This was a misjudged break from the norm as the players’ names were emblazoned across the back of their jackets which also had USA available for your eyes from every angle.
The real problem was that they shipped water which meant the back-up team were dispatched to the merchandising shop where they had to splash £4,000 for some new waterproofs that lived up to the name.
It gets a lot worse – but then strangely far better. Find out on the next page…
Mark Townsend
Been watching and playing golf since the early 80s and generally still stuck in this period. Huge fan of all things Robert Rock, less so white belts. Handicap of 8, fragile mind and short game
