FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Eli Manning landed a fade within 5 feet but missed the putt, Bobby Flay cooked up a birdie, John McEnroe and Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s mugged for pictures with red, white and blue-clad fans and Catherine Zeta-Jones curtseyed on the tee box as the crowd serenaded her on the eve of her 56th birthday.<\/p>\n
Those were some of the scenes Wednesday at the All-Star Celebrity Matches at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, a light-hearted, laugh-filled 11-hole event pitting U.S. and European stars from the stage, screen, sports and culinary worlds \u2014 even Hogwarts.<\/p>\n
Teams of two per side squared off in a modified scramble format on the golf course\u2019s opening and closing stretches. Winning a hole earned a point. A tie was worth a half-point per side.<\/p>\n
The U.S. won 25 to 19, earning early bragging rights before the pros tee it up on Friday.<\/p>\n
Manning, the ex-New York Giants quarterback, and \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d star Colin Jost led the way with 7.5 points. Manning\u2019s former teammate, \u201cGood Morning America\u201d host Michael Strahan, teamed with country singer Miranda Lambert to put up 6 points, while singers Kane Brown and Noah Kahan accounted for 6.5 points for the U.S. side.<\/p>\n
Andr\u00e9s, the Spanish chef and humanitarian, and Finnish hockey great Teemu Selanne, were Europe\u2019s only winning pair, 6-5 over TV chef Flay and tennis great McEnroe.<\/p>\n
But the scoreboard didn\u2019t seem to matter much to fans who lined the ropes for a glimpse of their favorite celebrities, or to the stars, who were playing to the crowd as much as they were lining up putts and sizing up tee shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d said Brown as he signed autographs and posed for pictures on the way to tee off on the celebrities\u2019 second-to-last hole, the par-3 17th.<\/p>\n
After Manning\u2019s birdie miss on 14, a fan shouted: \u201cPeyton would\u2019ve made it!\u201d<\/p>\n
A few groups later and still no birdies on the hole, Andr\u00e9s turned to the crowd and guaranteed one would fall. Andr\u00e9s left his putt short, but Flay curled his in from about 15 feet. The \u201cFood Network\u201d star leaped into the air and gestured like he\u2019d just won the Masters. Fans roared.<\/p>\n
With Strahan just off the green, a fan helpfully yelled: \u201cAll you got to do is chip it in.\u201d Puffing on a cigar, the pro football hall of famer replied, \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping for!\u201d His shot came close, dancing to about two feet from the cup.<\/p>\n
When Kahan was the only player in his group to land a shot on the green, he playfully pointed to himself and the ball, as if telling the crowd, \u201clook what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actors Tom Felton and Oliver Phelps from the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d films, playing in the same group for Europe, could\u2019ve used some of their on-screen magic after they sent fans ducking with an errant tee shot. It hit a tree and fell harmlessly. Felton\u2019s subsequent putt rattled around the cup but wouldn\u2019t go in.<\/p>\n
Brian Murphy, of East Rockaway, New York, didn\u2019t mind the duffed shots or missed putts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been refreshing to see people who are so high up on the social ladder just kind of play and shank a ball every now and then,\u201d said Murphy. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, my game isn\u2019t that bad.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Eli Manning landed a fade within 5 feet but missed the putt, Bobby Flay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[76,49,48,75,622,77,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-166697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-golf","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}