American perspective: On every street corner, on every street sign, on every lamppost, the advertising slogan blasts out the same message: "Let's Play." JJ Henry, who flew in from Washington on Team America's delayed charter flight to Dublin yesterday, can concur with such sentiments.
He's had enough of sitting around, of waiting. "I feel I'm playing well and we've been waiting around long enough. It's all something you get used to doing, but let's just go play golf. It's time to bring the Ryder Cup home," he remarked.
One of four "rookies" on the US team, along with Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich and Vaughn Taylor, Henry - who secured his place on the US team in a career best season that has seen him win the Buick Championship in July and claim two other top-four finishes, in the Phoenix Open and the BellSouth Classic - at least comes into the Ryder Cup with no baggage of ever having lost, something the more experienced players can't attest to.
He's also here in Ireland, for a second time, having been part of the two-day reconnaissance trip undertaken by the US team last month, feeling as if he truly deserves to be a part of the team. Last Saturday, he was feted at half-time when attending a college football match at Texas Christian University.
"It was pretty cool to stand on the field and have about 45,000 people cheering for you," he attested.
And, then, on Tuesday, about 60 friends at his home club, Mira Vista in Forth Worth, surprised him with a party to honour him making the Ryder Cup team and for his victory in the Buick Championship. "I was really blown away," he said.
In fact, Henry is getting accustomed to being blown away. When he was playing in the recent Bridgestone Invitational at Akron, Tiger Woods decided it was time to show some leadership to the American team and invited all four US team rookies out to dinner. The joke had been circulating that Woods wouldn't even recognise Wetterich if he were to bump into him.
The world's number one chose a restaurant called the Diamond Grill, where they don't accept credit cards, only cash. Woods picked up the tab, as well as outlining to the four players what they could expect in the white-heat atmosphere of the Ryder Cup.
"I wanted to explain to the guys some of the things I went through in my first year, some of the things they can expect. I was in a similar situation before my Ryder Cup debut and had Mark O'Meara and Payne Stewart pull me aside and say, 'Okay, this is how it's going to be'."
Certainly, Woods's gesture worked with his four new buddies.
"A lot of people don't realise how much of a pleasure and how much fun Tiger is to be around off the golf course," said Henry, who has brought about 25 family and friends over to the match.
A graduate of the Nationwide Tour, the secondary tour in the States, Henry's maiden PGA Tour win - which came in his 177th start - arrived in the Buick Championship and, fittingly, in his home state of Connecticut. The victory comes in a season where he has passed $2 million in season's earnings for the first time in his six-year PGA Tour career. But making the US Ryder Cup team is another step-up for Henry.
