40th Ryder Cup Recap

The United States went into Gleneagles a significant underdog, but with cautious optimism that this would be the year the tides turned.  The PGA of American went all in by naming Tom Watson captain and vocally admitting the importance of this years competition.  Unfortunately, Europe captured the Ryder Cup yet again.  

Where did things go wrong for the Americans?  What's next for the United States?  Let's examine.  

Captain Tom Watson

While Tom Watson did not strike a single shot in this competition, and ultimately the responsibility for the loss falls on the shoulders of the players, Watson's decision making was head scratching at best.  It began Friday when he benched Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed - the hottest team of the opening four ball matches.  Spieth and Reed knocked off European stalwart Ian Poulter, and yet inexplicably watched the afternoon foursome matches from a golf cart.  

Watson then decided to bench Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley for both Saturday sessions after playing them in both sessions on Friday.  Sitting Mickelson and Bradley for one session made sense, but sitting a proven team in both sessions was wrong.  

Watson's decisions were already receiving critical reviews after he chose Webb Simpson in favor of "trending" American players Chris Kirk and FedEx Cup Champion Billy Horschel.  Simpson and his partner Bubba Watson were shelled in the Friday morning four ball matches, and Simpson consequently sat the next three sessions.  

Watson designed a team around the theme of "redemption."  Unfortunately, too many players who sought redemption are only use to losing.  The pressure, it appears, has become too much for many of those players to handle.  The next Ryder Cup team needs to be built with young, gutsy, emotional players who don't carry the baggage the previous Ryder Cup teams carry.  

Foursomes

Foursomes, or alternate shot, turned out to be the undoing for the Americans in the 40th Ryder Cup.  America only captured a single point in the two sessions, while Europe collected the remaining seven.  Many will be quick to point to the Americans inability to effectively play in this format, but in the 2013 Presidents Cup, the United States captured 6.5 of a possible 11 points in foursome play.   

The Americans were slaughtered in foursome play in this year's competition.  What is the fix?  Who knows.  American players are not going to be play more matchplay team competitions anytime in the near future, but clearly, an emphasis needs to be placed on creating effective pairings in the foursome matches.  

Putting

Without providing any statistical data to prove this point, European players are superior in putting to their American counterparts.  Anyone who watched significant portions of this competition could see that.  Part of that could stem from the style of play, part of that could stem from the setup of the golf course.  But when America needed a 15 or 20 footer, they couldn't find one.  

Square Peg, Round Hole

The elephant in the room, that nobody wants to address, is the fact that some guys just aren't "team" guys.  Bubba Watson is 2-5 in the last two Ryder Cups.  While Watson will never admit this publicly, I believe that Simpson was picked solely to partner with Bubba Watson.  Bubba is a guy whose game is dictated solely by his mindset.  This week, Bubba wasn't in it.  That's a bad recipe for a team competition.  

Bright Spots

Even though they faltered on Sunday morning, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler are absolutely gamers and need to be a part of the next several Ryder Cups.  They are the players upon which the foundation should be built.  

Patrick Reed earned a lot of fans this week with his gutsy play.  He and Spieth partnered nicely, and Reed made 8 birdies in his singles match on Sunday to earn a full point against Henrik Stenson.  His swagger matches that of Poulter and Garica.  Reed is a gamer and I hope to see him on the squad in 2016.  

Only two more years....