During the rain delay, some players paced with anticipation. Others took to their phones to Twitter or contact loved ones. Others obviously felt the stress of the day:
That would be Padraig Harrington and Miguel Angel Jimenez, captured in repose by their fellow teammates. Yep, they’re so worried about the U.S. that they’re catching naps. We’re in trouble.
When you’re considering a purchase of new rain gear, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. It needs to look stylish. It needs to be comfortable. But most of all, it needs to keep out the freaking rain.
The Ryder Cup got off to a soggy start on Friday, with teams playing only two hours before rain forced closure of the course. But as bad as it was for the spectators, it was far worse for the U.S. team, which found itself fighting through its own highly fashionable rain suits.
The suits are reportedly so unacceptable that officials from the PGA of America have had to go to the Celtic Manor souvenir shop to buy some new rainsuits off the rack.
"They absorb too much water, which means they are too heavy," the Guardian reported one European source as saying. (Anonymous sources: treat with caution.) "The American caddies have been complaining about them all week, and so have the players."
"Just seen some U.S. waterproofs up close, they’re terrible!" reported golfer Oliver Wilson on Twitter. "They feel like they retain moisture, not a good quality for waterproofs."
European team member Rory McIlroy twisted the knife on Twitter (hey, wasn’t there a ban?): "Just have to say our waterproofs are performing very well!"
The news was a PR debacle for manufacturer Sun Mountain, with criticisms ranging from disappointed to flat-out devastating. (CBS Sports’ Steve Elling: "Rain suits that are ugly, look like prison garb and repel water as well as a cotton T-shirt? Sell your Sun Mountain stock if you have any.") Sun Mountain’s own Twitter page has been notably silent so far. Yahoo! Sports has reached out to Sun Mountain for comment, but has not yet heard back.
So it looks like the U.S. team could be sporting a different look on the course should rains return. We bet they’ll all be in Tiger Woods souvenir ponchos.
Follow live Ryder Cup updates on Twitter at @shanebacon
11:00 a.m. ET Update: Golf will resume on Friday! At 5 p.m. in Wales, or 12 p.m. ET, the matches will resume. They believe they’ll get between 90 and 100 minutes of golf, so expect the first group to be somewhere around the ninth hole when play is suspended for good on Friday.
If Wales is known for one thing, it might be drinking, but not far down on that list of popular pastimes is rain. Rain, rain, rain.
Mother Nature snuck her ugly head into the opening fourball matches at the Ryder Cup, suspending play after just five holes. From the start, rain poured down on the players as they tried to stay dry, but it became too much when Steve Stricker was trying to find relief from casual water on the fourth hole and realized there wasn’t any.
So far, the weather was beneficial for the Europeans, who were up in three of the four morning matches at Celtic Manor.
The opening match had Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer 2-up on Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, who struggled to find fairways in the rain and wind. Westwood, who raised a ton of questions after an injury kept him out of competitive golf since early August, drained a birdie putt on the par-5 fourth hole as a huge grin crept across his face.
That might have been because the other matches seemed pro-Euro. Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are 1-up on Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker, the duo that dominated the Presidents Cup a year ago, are 1-down in their match to Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher. The lone American flag on the leaderboard might be the most surprising of all the matches. Rookies Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton are 2-up through two holes over Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington after Overton drained a lengthy birdie putt from off the back of the first green, and Watson stuck his third shot on the second to a foot and tapped it in for a birdie.
We will continue to update the progress at the Ryder Cup, but for now, it seems rain will continue to pelt the golfers.