Ryder reminder for Gerring

When Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell sank a birdie putt on the 16th hole to beat America’s Hunter Mahan and capture the Ryder Cup for Europe, no one in Fort Wayne could know better what Mahan must have felt than Cathy Gerring.

“I can’t express to anyone what the pressure is like,” said Gerring, who should know – she played in the first Solheim Cup, the women’s equivalent to the Ryder, in 1990. “It’s not anything you can practice for. It’s the most pressure-filled competition. I can’t even describe it.”

In a sport that focuses on individual performance, the two cups are a rare true team event. Rather than an accumulation of scores, winners of matches get points; losers don’t.

“When in the Ryder Cup or the Solheim Cup, your score per se doesn’t matter, it’s whether you win or lose.”

That means not only are your fans and supporters resting on your success, but so are your teammates and – in a match pitting Europe vs. the U.S. – your country.

Gerring played in the Solheim 20 years ago, the year she won three tournaments, including the world championship in Paris just a month before. But nothing had prepared her for the pressure of “playing for my country, my teammates.”

As for Mahan, Gerring points out that as a team effort, the U.S. team’s loss cannot be pinned on Mahan – “he wasn’t the only one who lost,” she notes.

Gerring says that McDowell described it perfectly when he said, “The U.S. Open felt like a back nine with my dad back at Portrush (his home course in Northern Ireland) compared to this.”

Well-heeled group takes on teachers

Fort Wayne motorists might have been surprised this week to see a mysterious mobile billboard traversing the area.

“School Corp. sues ISTA: ‘Fraud’ ‘Conspiracy’ ‘Racketeering’ Is that really the influence Hoosiers want in their schools?” reads the billboard, punctuated with a photo of a smirking, bald-headed man with dark sunglasses and a thick cigar. The sign points viewers to a website attacking the Indiana State Teachers Association.

The mobile billboard and website are the work of the Education Action Group, a Muskegon, Mich.-based outfit that also targets the Michigan Education Association, the professional organization representing Michigan teachers. Last year, the group expanded its focus to include ISTA.

The billboard is one of several interesting tactics the group is using to attack the unions. EAG’s leader, Kyle Olson, also edits the website ACORN Cracked, which championed the antics of James O’Keefe, who dressed as a pimp to embarrass the community-organizing group in an undercover video and was arrested for a similar stunt at Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. Many Indiana teachers know EAG from anti-union mailings they’ve received from the group through their school e-mail accounts.

The Education Action Group won’t reveal its financial backers, but it has links to the Michigan GOP and access to some wealthy funders. Its newfound interest in ISTA suggests it has found similar financial support in Indiana.