Lee Westwood Apologizes For Being a Sore Loser

As you probably heard, Europe lost to the Americans this past weekend in the Ryder Cup, the first that has happened since the famous comeback in 1999. As much as Americans get ribbed by all other countries for being sore losers and bad sports, the losses the past few years have been accepted with bowed heads but applause to the victors.

When the European team lost at Valhalla, they left with more complaints than the victim of a botched boob job. Lee Westwood complained about the crowds, Boo Weekley, prank calls and people making fun of his mom. Ian Poulter said that 23-year-old (and 5'10") Anthony Kim intentionally bumped into him during a match. The British media might also be a little upset at their "captain."

Westwood has now retracted all his bellyaching because, you know, it made him look even more like a wuss than normal.

"A lot of what I said in Valhalla during and after the Ryder Cup didn't come out quite as I intended and finished up sounding like sour grapes," Westwood said in the statement released by his management company.

"So let me say right now that I applaud America's victory, Paul Azinger's captaincy in general and the vast majority of the watching public who witnessed a titanic struggle between two very good sides.

"I regret that I singled out a small minority of the crowd who had a go at me and my family during competition days because far and away the greater majority were impeccably behaved and got right behind their team as did the excellent European supporters."

He added that he had not wanted to sound like a bad loser.

"My comments about the hecklers and Paul's geeing up the crowd before the event were in no way intended to be an excuse or the words of an ungracious loser because the American team performed brilliantly and fully deserved to win," he said.

"I may not have been too thrilled with one or two things that happened in Valhalla, but I am taking absolutely nothing away from America's win. When you're beaten by a better side, you just have to admit it.

"Well done USA. See you in Celtic Manor (for the next Ryder Cup in 2010)."

Wow, released by his management company, huh? That sure sounds like somebody might have landed in a bit of trouble for all his loose lipped comments. Did you get grounded as well, Lee? Have your parents been able to sleep since that horrible, horrible prank caller rang to wish you good luck? I'm surprised you didn't just rip up your passport and vow never to return to the 50 States. I think those trauma units deal with mental troubles too buddy.

Calling Anna Rawson

The extremely attractive girl above is Anna Rawson, an LPGA golfer who is actually tied for the lead currently at the Bell Micro LPGA Classic (fancy that).

Anyway, she's a huge hit on this internet invention because she's an athlete and takes photos with very little clothes on and doesn't look like she'd be better served cleaning dishes at the local Luby's.

Rawson did an interview with the Press-Register and disclosed her "phone number," which isn't really her phone number at all, it is similar to being "friends" with athletes on Facebook (when really you're just fans of them...uber awesome man!).

Anyway, RealClearSports, being the good little journalists they are, decided to ring the number and see what Anna was doing. Like most things that are too good to be true, what happened was a disappointment.

I called the number (it's my job, right?) and was given options of what I could do:
-To listen to messages from this person, press 1
-To record a message, press 2
-To listen to the most recent fan messages, press 3

So first time I pressed 1. It's Anna basically doing a phone blog explaining where she is and what she's been doing. But there's something really bizarre about her voice coming out of my cell phone.

That part wasn't so entertaining, but then there was option 3. If you have some time to kill, these can be entertaining. Overall though, they're pretty bland, and it's people either just telling her she's hot, or that they hope she continues to improve her golf game.

To me, Rawson did what ever girl in the world has done at least once in her life. She fake-numbered the whole group of us. Damn you Rawson. I thought we had a chance.

Sergio Garcia Living the G2 Life, Talks Crazy After PGA

It's one thing to lose, it's something completely different to never admit that you lost.

Sergio Garcia, Mr. No It Can't Be Me, finished two shots behind an insanely hot Padraig Harrington at the PGA Championship on Sunday and even when it appears he grew up, he still can drop some gems.

After the round he talked to the media, saying he hit a "great" putt on 17 (he straight pulled the birdie putt) and that his second shot on 18 was a "great shot from the rough."

Also, he went ahead and gave the media a little leg sweep, saying they'll turn around anything he says to make him look bad (the 1:23 mark). It's worth watching, especially if you're on the fence about Sergio. Did you know he's never hit a bad shot?

Lessons In Impressive Question Asking

If ever given the opportunity to question a star athlete or coach, here are some pointers.

-Anything concerning how they "feel" or what this "means" are golden.
-Attempting to get them to "explain what this moment is like" is sure to get you a promotion.
-Asking if anything "less than a win" will be good enough will make the interviewee very happy.

Cue Paul Azinger, who was asked at Oakland Hills this week if anything less than a win for this year's American Ryder Cup would be alright.

At his press conference at the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills on Wednesday, Azinger was asked if only a victory would suffice, and twice responded with a defiant, "What do you think?"

"Next question," Azinger said, thwarting the befuddled questioner.

Sadly we don't have the person's name that asked this, but here is a little piece from my tiny little brain for you, free of charge. When two people or teams are involved, normally finishing in second isn't what you're going for.

Again, maybe just my way of looking at it, but second place when there are just two teams isn't exactly front row on your trophy stand.

Women Are Really Good At Letting Things Go

Nothing defines a woman better than a person that has the great ability to let things go. They never nag, they never hold on to things and they definitely never make a bigger deal out of something than it really is.

Right on cue, Laura Diaz showed exactly what I'm talking about today at the Women's British Open.

A member of the British press asked if she ever “tackled” Dottie Pepper about her comments at the Solheim Cup.

“No, do you want me to?” Diaz said with a laugh. “It would be my pleasure.”

The row between Pepper, Diaz and the rest of Team USA started during last year’s Solheim Cup when Pepper referred to U.S. players as “chokin’ freakin’ dogs” on air Saturday afternoon when she thought the broadcast had gone to commercial break.

“To be honest, I don’t think to this day I will ever in my life do an interview with her,” said Diaz. “It really affected me, and Solheim wasn’t a time to talk about it.”

“Dottie was a family member to me,” Diaz said, “and I don’t even see her as a friend anymore.”

See, allow the comment to sink in, talk about it and then let it go. That's how most women resolve situations. Never have I know a female friend of mine to break off friendships and such because of things like "I heard her talking about me" or "I don't approve of her life decisions." Nope, it's always just forgive and forget.

Michelle Wie Responds to LPGA Golfers Comments, Kinda

After Paula Creamer and Annika Sorenstam commented that they weren't so happy with Michelle Wie's decision to skip an LPGA major to play in a PGA Tour event, you'd expect Wie to comment.

You know, something like "those stupid chicks are just jealous of my bank roll." Or, "Yeah, tell Paula if she wants to borrow my Rolex, I'll let her, but just for a day."

But no, Wie stayed fairly civil and handled the remarks, well, remarkably well (see what I did there).

"There are going to be criticisms entering this tournament, but at the same time I'm just doing what I feel like I want to do and it's going to be a lot of fun," Wie said.

"All I'm thinking about is trying to play some good golf. How can I limit the number of bogeys I make? How can I maximize the number of birdies I can make out of this golf course and that's all I can focus on. I can't focus on the rest of the field," she said.

"People are going to write hateful stuff about me and that's fine with me. ... Good rounds and low scores can solve everything," she said.

I'd say that's about right. I think one of the best golf quotes I've heard in a long time is, sadly, from those Phil Mickelson commercials for whatever hotel he promotes. Bones, his caddy, says "whenever you want to break something, how about breaking par."

One of my favorite golf pictures ever taken was courtesy of Warren Little, Getty Images

Michelle Wie Gets Yelled At By Other Girls

I'm sure it gets fairly annoying to have a girl that never does that well on your tour teeing it up with the boys, and most people can only keep their mouths shut for so long.

Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer both commented on Michelle Wie's decision to play in the Reno-Tahoe Open instead of the Women's British Open, and my story is over at the FanHouse.