Wet and heavy US Ryder Cup team shops for rain gear at Wales
The American team went for shopping during the delay on Friday to get them new gear to tackle the torrential rain that is pouring on the course of Celtic Manor where the 2010 Ryder Cup is currently underway.
The first round of the Ryder Cup Four balls came to a halt yesterday when rain soon turned the course into a giant lake. Despite the constant efforts of the green-keeping team, the course could not be saved and so the organizers decided to delay the match.
In the meantime, U.S team members and staffers hit the market of Wales for some shopping. The purpose behind this tour wasn’t recreation but urgency as the Americans needed appropriate gear to deal with the wet conditions.
This disappointed the company which had already provided rain gear to the 2010 Ryder Cup team of United States of America. The obvious reasoning presented by the Americans was that their rain coats as well as rest of the gear had failed to keep them dry.
It affected their game so they had to think of an alternative solution, with the best being to go for shopping. “Sun Mountain”, the company that had made the U.S. team rain gear, had earlier written on its Face book page saying, “Weather will most likely be
a factor at this year's event. May the team with the best outerwear win."
During the opening Four-ball matches, Pavin and the rest of his team’s rain gear got heavy with water retention and turned the players cold. This was certainly the last thing the golfers, who hail from a continent that hates to carry umbrellas during rain,
would have expected. Pavin commented, "The rain gear didn't perform the way we would have liked it to perform, so we have remedied that and have some new rain gear."
Once the course was declared temporarily unplayable and players retreated to the clubhouse, members and staffers of the American team hit the market and bought several rain suits made by the same company that was outfitting Colin Montgomerie’s side. Some
media reports claim that the Americans already had their eyes on the brand which the Europeans were using. ProQuip was the brand that the Americans demanded. This Scottish company has been the official supplier of apparels to the European side since the last
two Ryder Cups. It has also supplied water proof apparels to the last two U.S. Solheim Cup teams.
To add to the pain, Rory McIlroy tweeted, “Just have to say that our waterproofs are performing very well.” Immediately after Pavin’s statement, Sun Mountain's Public Relations firm issued a clarification stating, “Sun Mountain has been designing and selling
outerwear for more than two decades. We have provided rainwear to 3,000 plus PGA of America Professionals and over 150 tour players, and supplied outerwear to numerous U.S. teams, including the Walker Cup and the 2000 and 2009 Presidents Cup teams. Sun Mountain
has staff on the ground at the Ryder Cup working in conjunction with the PGA of America on this issue.”
Meanwhile, whether or not the rain gear worked? A few people would have ever known that it was made by Sun Mountain. The PGA of America has an agreement with the company that it won’t publicize its relation and also not use their name in its advertisements.
The anonymity of suppliers should have been maintained. But now the cat is out of the bag and spilling milk all over.
Tags: