Michael Phelps has been named as one of the Celebrity Match participants for the 42nd Ryder Cup set to take place on Tuesday, September 25th. Held at The Albatros Course at Le Golf National in Paris, France, the match will include a 10-hole scramble featuring celebrities from the United States and Europe to kick-off the Ryder Cup festivities. Holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 will be in the rotation for the special match that takes place prior to the official tournament.
23-time Olympic gold medalist Phelps is one of several athletes set to participate, with retired tennis pros James Blake and John McEnroe, along with surfer Kelly Slater among the American athletes on the list for the match. From Europe, look for Italian former professional soccer player Alessandro Del Piero and retired tennis player Guy Forget on the course, in addition to other continental notables.
Plenty of non-sporting stars are also set to attend, including actors Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Greg Kinnear, along with singer Nick Jonas and even United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice.
Phelps has been a mainstay on the celebrity circuit of golf tournaments, playing three times at the Phoenix Open golf tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona.
You can read the official Ryder Cup announcement in its entirety here.
Cute, but isnt the best golfer who is a gold medalist from the last 20 years or so Ed Moses? Maybe he is too far removed from the spotlight for people to remember. But I would put my money on Ed in a match vs Phelps… any format, total score or match play.
Mathematically he is the GOAT in our sport… unrefutable. I really don’t see the problem at all. Incredible role model and person.
With respect to the golf, saw the rather immodest tweet Phelps sent to Tiger Woods yesterday where Phelps said it was from one “GOAT” to another “GOAT.” Pretty weak and insecure to call oneself a “GOAT.” Not sure what is going on there with Mike, but don’t worry, we get it, you were and are an excellent athlete.
He is a great swimmer but average golfer
Tiger is a great golfer but a terrible swimmer.
He probably barely swam in his life. Besides, there are a lot of newcomers in Golf. Tiger like Jack Nicholson is replaced by a younger generation.
What Tiger Woods has done to the game of golf hasn’t been done neither by Jack Nicholson before Tiger nor by younger generation after him. There was NBC crisis when he stopped playing. He actually made golf a sport in contemporary understanding of this word. This game became significantly younger that is the first indicator of intensifying the competition.
There was statistically well supported so called “Tiger effect” that practically all players played stronger with Tiger’s presence in the tournament.
Actually they played worse. They were talking about that today on the golf channel when they were discussing Rory McElroy’s collapse in the fedex cup championship. When Tiger was at his peak players were afraid of him.
Should be useless remind it, but Phelps’ results in Swimming are so great and his amount of Olympic golds so incredible that this discussion looks to me really the most useless ever..
Actually Arnold Palmer was the golfer that made the sport marketable and brought sponsors into the sport.
Don’t forget that MP has a great SWOLF score.
He has the right to casually refer himself as a goat.
I guess in some cultures ‘false modesty’ is preferred to honesty. Not the world I want to grow up in, but I know lots of people prefer it that way.
Modesty is not always ‘false’.
@A MODEST THOUGHT:
What do you think, what Mr. Keith said about his preferences was done modestly or honestly? 😀
If Michael indeed did it then it looks like a foolish and maybe subconscious desire to get promoted in greatness to the Tiger’s level. Admitting all Michael’s achievements in swimming I have to admit as well that Michael is not Tiger.
Oh brother
Certainly. If he has no desire for people to admire him at all.
He is the GOAT tho… no one else is even close
What’s going on with you? Nose far enough in the air when you sit in judgement?