J.J. HENRY
"In 2006, Stewart Cink and I
were playing Paul Casey
and Robert Karlsson, best-ball on Friday
morning.

The Ryder Cup can be totally
overwhelming if you don't feel confident
about your game. I really felt very
comfortable in the moment, but at the
same time, I'm standing on the putting
green about five minutes before my tee
time, and I'm watching on the big screen
as Tiger and Furyk are teeing off, and
you can hear the roars like you're walking
into a heavyweight title fight.

So sure
enough, it's our turn to get up there and
I think it was Loren Roberts, Tom's
assistant captain, who came up and
said, "I have a message from the
captain: 'Go out and play the best
round of your life today.' And gosh,
I'm thinking, 'Play the best round of
my life? I'm just trying to get it
airborne off the first tee!'

Obviously I
was nervous, I was anxious, but at the
same time I was excited, and this is why
we play the game, why we work so hard,
and I got up there and just laced it down
the fairway and we were off to the races.

As disappointing as the Ryder Cup was,
for the most part when I got a chance to
play I played pretty darn good. But if you
want to talk about nervous, emotional
and pressure-packed, it doesn't get any
bigger than the Ryder Cup. With the
crowd and the roars and all that,
every shot feels like the 72nd
hole of a major."