The Ryder Cup is set to begin this Friday at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales. With the timezone difference, following the coverage can be a bit of challenge. No need to worry, because we’ve put together the best ways to follow the 37th Ryder Cup.

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App

Watch live on your iPhone/iPod Touch as golf’s biggest rivalry writes another chapter at the 38th Ryder Cup matches at Celtic Manor in Wales. Wherever you are, you can follow Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and the U.S. try to defend their title and defeat the Europeans on European soil for the first time since 1993.

2010 Ryder Cup iPhone App Live Video

Live Video & Radio
Watch live video and follow along with live radio coverage provided by SiriusXM from Celtic Manor’s holes 2, 6, 12 & 17 Friday through Sunday with the premium content in-app upgrade ($1.99)

Personal Live Alerts
Get alerts for hole-by-hole scoring, session scores, match results and news from around the course.

Live Scoring
Search for your favorite players or follow your home team.

Daily Video Highlights
Miss some of the action? Catch up quickly with exclusive highlights from the Ryder Cup.

Chat
Use FaceBook Connect to chat with Team USA and Team Europe supporters.

Other features include Player/Team profiles, News and a Course Overview. The PGA.com iPhone/iPod Touch/ iPad App gets you closer to the action at one of golf’s premier events like never before.

Download the free iPhone Ryder Cup app!

Watch Online with Ryder Cup Live

Ryder Cup Live

Starting Friday October 1st, 2010 you can get live video, leaderboard, chat, scorecards, and live updates from your computer all day long. Coverage schedule is 2:45 AM – 1PM EST Friday & Saturday, and Sunday from 6:30 AM – 12 PM EST.

The players may not be able to tweet this week, but you can get updates from @rydercup .

On Television

The time zone difference is a major downer for U.S. viewers, but night owls can opt to watch live coverage on ESPN for the first day of competition.
Friday, October 1
2:30 a.m. – 1 p.m EST (ESPN, live)

Saturday, October 2
ESPN/Live 2:30 a.m- 8 a.m. EST;  NBC/Live 8 a.m. – 6 p.m EST

Sunday, October 3
NBC/Live 4 a.m. – conclusion EST

How will you be following the Ryder Cup?

We’ve all been there before on the golf course, with ball in a green-side bunker on a uphill lie thinking to yourself, “how do I play this shot?”, “What type of swing do I make?”, etc. That’s what the iPhone and iPod Touch app Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro aims to solve, by providing expert advice by PGA professional Kevin Streelman to amateur golfers.

[View with PicLens]

According to the Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro website, “more than 90%” of the problems that amateur golfers have stem from improper set up. Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro breaks out each of the 50 shot types grouped by category into four sections: Shot Summary, Strategy, Kevin’s Tip, and Video.

How it Works
When you launch the app, you see an overview of hole on a golf course that has labels for each type of shot based on location: Tee, Fairway, Fairway Bunker, Rough, Water, Pitching, Chipping, Green-side Bunker, and Putting. On this screen there is a golf ball with a star where you can view shots that you flagged as your Favorites for quick reference.

After you select the shot type location, you are taken to screen that lists the various shots for that location. For example, if you select Rough, you’ll be presented with four types of shots from that location, like Ball in DEEP ROUGH. You then click on the shot type and it will display the Shot Summary screen.

Shot Summary
The Shot Summary screen is the high level summary of how to approach the shot you selected. Information on this screen includes, Club, Stance, Alignment, Ball Placement, Clubface Aim, Hand Position, and Swing. This is probably the most practical screen of the four options to use while playing on the golf course, because you can scan the information very quickly without slowing down the pace of play. The information presented was very clear and easy to understand. The only area that could be improved upon is providing some type of help on “open stance” and “closed stance.” Not all golfers know the difference between the two, maybe adding in parentheses (aim body right or left of target).

Strategy
When you have a little time before your shot, the Strategy screen provides strategic analysis to solve what they call the “90% problem: shot setup. In easy to understand language, Kevin Streelman provides Analysis and Strategy for the shot type. In the Analysis section Streelman tells you about why you want to hit the type of shot your about to attempt. In the Strategy portion of this screen, Kevin provides context for how and why to make the shot your about to attempt. My only problem with the Strategy screen is that it wasn’t clear to me that you could scroll down further to read the rest of the text, because there was to no visual cue for a scroll bar, etc. I’d like to see something like that implemented in a version update. There were several times, I missed reading the rest of the analysis or strategy, because the text got cut off.

Kevin’s Tip
Kevin’s Tip screen is an expanded version of the Strategy screen, but with Kevin providing more of his playing experience and swing thoughts for a shot. One of my favorites is for a Stinger Tee Shot, “When it’s breezy, swing it easy..”

Video
The last screen in the Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro is the Video screen. The Video screen has two types of high-definition video featuring Kevin Streelman explaining and demonstrating how each shot should be executed. Each shot has regular speed video (audio and video), and a slow-motion version so you can study the technique being executed. I did find the video section to be helpful and the videos do load and play very quickly, but the video quality is not true HD (720p). While the video quality is really good, the iphone 3g and 3gs can only support 480 x 320 output on the screen. A cool enhancement for a future update would be multiple camera angles for the slow-motion videos, like facing the golfer and down the line.

Is Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro worth $4.99?
$4.99 might seem like a lot of money for a golf instruction iPhone app, but it’s a cheaper alternative than playing in a pro-am, which would cost a lot more than price of this app. The videos in both in real-time and slow-motion are what make this app worth the money in my opinion, because seeing how to execute a shot is a lot easier to learn and understand than by reading about the technique alone.

What do you got to loose, except maybe lowering your score?

Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro with Kevin Streelman iPhone App $4.99