David Joyce and his three pals from Dublin are attending the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills. Here's their first exclusive report from behind the ropes.
First my apologies for not writing about Day one as I'd promised.
We had a semi-disaster on arrival at the course when a two-hour queue to get in awaited us.
Much as it broke our hearts we took the decision to off load our tickets and return to our country club to play golf.
Initially we were due to leave the course at 12 noon to make our previously arranged tee-time so someone else got the benefit of Europe's stunning opening day performance.
Saturday, however, was a completely different story.
We arrived at about 10 am to miss the queues and, thankfully, we were successful. We waltzed in without any delays and were straight into the action.
What an atmosphere we found with the US team rallying the crowd, who were really getting on their side with chants of 'U-S-A' co-ordinated with three different grandstands responsible for one letter each.
The sounds was reverberating around the course and things were looking bleak for the Europeans.
We found a decent spot around the 13th green which enabled us to see quite a bit of the action and
soak up the atmosphere. These Ryder Cup golfers really can play!
After we watched all the fourball groups through, we
decided to find a good position for the afternoon foursomes.
With only four matches and 38,000 golf fans to entertain, you don't need to be a mathematician to figure out that vantage points are at a premium - especially when our Irish dream pairing of Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley were opposed by with Tiger Woods and Davis Love.
Their shaky start had us a little worried but we needn't have been. A stellar performance by the lads - McGinley in particular - eventually sealed the point that helped put one hand on the cup!
The American crowds were absolutely amazing. They loved our Irish hats and flags outfits and what seems like hundreds of people were only too happy to stop
and have a chat and shake hands. We couldn't have been made to feel more welcome.
There was absolutely no evidence of heckling or barracking like there had been at Brookline.
It has been an amazing experience so far, with an atmosphere to match any sporting event in the world. The course is outstanding and some
golf by both teams, wonderful.
We have been particularly impressed by some of the rookies, with Casey and Howell stepping up to the plate in
tremendous fashion yesterday morning to clinch the vital
last point in the fourballs.
It set Europe up for a monumental afternoon - culminating in the Irish celebrations on the 15th green after our Irish boys had added to Tiger's Ryder Cup pain/
The players themselves have been great, too. Sergio Garcia gave us a 'Top of the Morning' acknowledgement and Thomas Levet also giving us a cheer. The others have also given us a wave or a fist-pump when we've shouted our support.
Now we're looking forward to claiming those last bvital points we need to bring the cup home and hoping again it will be an Irishman who clinches it.
In the meantime we're off for a little premature
Celebrating and to working on gaining invitations to a launch party for the 2006 Ryder Cup to be played at the K Club, in Kildare.
I'll let you know how we get on
Best wishes to all on Golfmagic
Joycey
