Might of USA brought to heel
On Thursday morning I just happened to be sitting in the lobby of the Double Tree Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi (pron. Bloxy) reading a copy of USA Today. America’s sole national newspaper has a price tag of $2.00 though I would doubt many pay that as most copies are given away for free. Anyway I mention this only in as much that the sports section had a small feature on the forthcoming Ryder Cup in which it predicted that the twenty five years of hurt – the length of time America has failed to win on European soil - would end this year with a 15.5 to 12.5 American victory. Given the strength of the American side which contained amongst others Dustin Johnson, World No 1 golfer, Brooks Koepke, US Open and US PGA Champion, Patrick Reed, US Masters Champion together with recent major champions Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth and multiple major champions Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson you would be hard pressed to argue against their case. But some four days later the might of the USA had been brought to heel with a stunning 17.5 to 10.5 European victory. To coin an oft used epithet, where did it all go wrong Jim?
The starting point was probably Europe’s familiarity with the Golf National Course in Paris where this year’s trophy was played. I read a statistic that put the number of rounds played at the Golf National course by European team members at something in excess of 250 as compared with less than 20 for those in team USA. Furthermore the course was set up to favour plotting golfers who were capable of threading the ball into narrow fairways and then hitting small greens. Thus was American affinity to bomb the ball 360 yards into a wide fairway leaving little more than a wedge to a receptive green suddenly negated.
The second factor was Moliwood. All Ryder cups seem to produce a successful new pairing and this year it just happened to be a lad from Southport whose broad Italian accent gelled with Open Champion Francesco Molinari. Their 4-0 record in the fourball’s and foursomes was the foundation on which the 10-6 lead, ahead of the final day’s singles, was built.
Third Thomas Bjorn’s picks performed far better than what are now known as “The Furyk Four”. Tiger Woods lost all four of the games he played in. Bryson Dechambeau lost all three of his games. Phil Mickelson lost both matches he played and was so poor after the opening day that he had to be benched until the singles. All of which left Tony Finau as the only pick to come out of the encounter with any credit, winning two of the three matches he played. By comparison Bjorn’s picks - Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey - managed a combined 9.5 points.
And last but not least European Team spirit which as ever comes to the fore in the fourball’s and foursomes. The players seem to raise their games beyond where they should be whilst the Americans go into reverse.
Up until four o’clock yesterday afternoon the match still seemed to be in the balance. But when Paul Casey managed an excellent half against Brooks Koepke and Ian Poulter secured an unlikely win against world number one Dustin Johnston, that put Europe on 13.5 points. With two of the games still out on the course at dormie in favour of Europe they were now in an unassailable position and at last Thomas Bjorn could finally relax, safe in the knowledge that his side had regained the Ryder Cup.
As the news filtered through, European support burst into a cacophony of song such that hearing what Bjorn had to say about his team’s victory was one of the more difficult challenges what is always a challenging final day. Yet his modest summation of his captaincy “My job has been made easy by the team. I’ve not really had to do very much” was refreshingly honest. Too often in the past Captains have been lauded for appearing to possess a magical insight of their players in selecting the pairings. When in reality it has more to with the players themselves as to who they feel they will gel with and having decided that how they handle the pressure on the day. And in both those regards Europe outperformed their American rivals by some margin.
©Mark Brennand