It's not St. Andrews, of course, nor is it ground on which shepherds roamed, brandishing their crooks in command of their herds. It's a classic in the eyes of historians of golf, if for no other reason than the great Robert Tyre Jones Jr. first played the game here. I might even suggest that he was the first player to carry the message of the game across the seas and from continent to continent, at least to the extent that news of the game became front-page headlines.
And I could warble on, but if that dear man were alive today, he likely would be shocked at the continental spread that golf has covered.
International borders have been wiped out, and there is no more convincing evidence than what we have coming off at East Lake Club this weekend -- to be followed next week at Celtic Manor in Wales.
The American professional championship, presumably, will be determined with final round of the Tour Championship here this weekend.
Then, the scene switches to the British Isles where the best of the U.S. professionals will play the best of Europe for the Ryder Cup. Then, we'll do it all over again next year, and for years to come. (Presumably the best, I might say.)
What really intrigues me is that 11 international players in the field at East Lake this weekend have home addresses in the United States. They even own property and join us natives in the joyful process of paying income tax. There are two popular locations that attract the temporary "patriots," certifying the old saying that "misery loves company." One is Florida, the other Arizona.
One of the more popular addresses for our golfing guests is Scottsdale, a Phoenix suburb. The other one is Orlando and neighboring clusters such as Lake Nona, Lake Islesworth, Bay Hill and Ponte Vedra. These, of course, are only second homes, just sort of passing through.
Several of our guests at East Lake came to the states on college golf scholarships and only go back to the home country to visit the folks. With Luke Donald, his mission was of dual purpose -- to play golf and major in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern. He lists only one home address: Chicago. Paul Casey came to Arizona State, Tim Clark to N.C. State, Adam Scott to UNLV, Camilo Villegas to Florida and Martin Laird to Colorado State -- hardly a golfing destination, you might say.
Some registered and play the PGA Tour. Some play both the PGA and European tours. And this doesn't even touch on the Asian and Japanese players who come here. A rare few of them establish residences. K.J. Choi, the South Korean, and Arjun Atwal, are exceptions. But this is about the field of Europeans, which brings us back to the Ryder Cup in Wales.
Quite a snarl developed when Colin Montgomerie, the European captain, made his player selections filling out his team, and passed over Justin Rose and Paul Casey. You see, Rose has won two tournaments on the U.S. tour this year, the Memorial and the AT&T at Aronimink; Casey won the Shell Open last year and ranks seventh in the world. Montgomerie's point, I would suppose, was that he chose to be true to his own tour, the European -- which, I might say, should be his privilege.
So, here we are. Late of Friday, Americans mixing it up in the Tour Championship on Georgia soil for the FedEx Cup, with a tidbit of side money amounting to $10 million bucks. That'll help with the taxes, both for the homebodies and our guests from overseas.
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