Ryder Cup Reaction
Day 3 & 2020
Let’s not spend much time talking about the Sunday singles matches. Outside of an epic duel between Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, the singles matches were a coronation of European golf. Even at midday EST when it looked like a comeback might still be possible, the European team would pull back ahead. Woods, Mickelson, and DJ all had chances to win their matches but were unable to keep the momentum going to the finish line. All 3 ended up losing, and in doing so, losing any hope of an American comeback.
So where does American golf go from here? How dose a team that is so dominant in the Presidents Cup constantly come up short against Europe? Are European golfers that much better? Well using the metric by which all golfers are judged, major golf championships, the answer would be no. But clearly winning majors is not an indicator of success in the Ryder Cup.
Does the United States need another task force? Probably not. The reality is that this is a golf competition with the best players in the world. It isn’t rocket science - we aren’t trying to put Patrick Reed on the moon (although it sounds like Jordan Spieth might like to). Americans are able to defeat every country outside of Europe during the Presidents Cup - so what gives? Let’s take a look at what went wrong and where the United States needs to go from here.
Captain’s Picks
It’s no secret that the captain’s selections by Jim Furyk did not pan out. While Tony Finau had a fantastic rookie campaign, the other three selections, Mickelson, Woods, and DeChambeau earned ZERO points for the United States.
Now Furyk gets a pass with both Woods and DeChambeau. After all, both guys won FedExCup playoff events and were seen as playing some of their best golf heading into the event. In hindsight, Mickelson should not have been selected. His play in the FedExCup playoffs was atrocious. It feels like the Mickelson selection was a legacy present for all of Phil’s years of participating in team events. This won’t be a popular take, but the reality is that this probably should be the last Ryder Cup team of Phil’s storied career.
Pairings
There were some eyebrows raised by some of the pairings announced by Captain Furyk. When Reed and Woods were soundly beaten on Friday in fourball, it was odd that they would both be paired together again on Saturday. Putting Mickelson in foursomes and not fourball seemed peculiar. It was almost as if Furyk had a plan which he refused to deviate from. After all this time, the United States still does not have those “go to pairings” like the Europeans do with Stinson and Rose that can go out and be a near guaranteed point for the Americans.
2020
One thing that became clear following another European win on home soil is that the typical formula for selecting American players is not going to work. The European courses are setup with penalizing rough and slow greens. Many holes at Golf National played along side the water putting a premium on accuracy. Even Rory McIlroy acknowledged as much by discussing the European efforts to neutralize American bombers.
The 2020 event is going to be played at Whistling Straits. Unlike other courses such as Hazeltine and Medinah where the rough was cut down to accommodate the "American bombers," Whistling Straits is a links style course which water, mounds, and high grass. The PGA and next American captain will have to give serious thought to modifying the course to play into the strengths of American golfers. Watching Woods, Johnson, Koepka, Watson, and others find the rough and struggle to get the ball close to the pin while Europeans were consistently keeping it in the fairway and getting the ball closer to the pin was a turning point in the 42nd matches.
If the 2020 schedule follows the 2018-19 PGA Tour schedule, that will also leave a month break between the Tour Championship and the 43rd Ryder Cup. For players such as Woods, who played more golf in the last 8-week stretch than at any other time in the last 15 years, that break will be highly beneficial.
All signs appear to be pointing at Steve Stricker being named as the next Ryder Cup captain. Stricker has been a part of previous Ryder Cups as both a player and assistant captain and as a victorious President's Cup captain. Stricker continues to play a number of events on tour (just as Furyk does) and has a pulse on the players likely to comprise his team. Stricker's success will be defined by his ability to setup a course to favor American players and to select captain's picks that will play to those strengths. In this era of data driven analytics, it no longer makes sense to simply select players based upon how they play during the course of a year on courses that do not resemble the setup of a Ryder Cup. The PGA Tour keeps a treasure trove of data such as strokes gained, total driving, strokes gained putting, total putting, and proximity to the pin. ALL of that information should be evaluated before making captain's selections and perhaps even be incorporated into the automatic qualifying criteria.
Day 2
The United States team needed to rebound from the disaster of being shutout in afternoon foursomes on Friday. Instead, the Americans left the Saturday morning fourball session (a format the Americans typically have dominated) losing 3-1 and increasing the European lead 8-4. A split of the afternoon foursomes only meant that the US would be in Brookline territory to come back from a four shot deficit.
The lone bright spot for the United States team has been the pairing of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth who won both of their sessions on Saturday. B&B also has to give a shout out to Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson who secured a much needed point on Saturday afternoon. It’s no secret that we are not huge fans of Bubba participating in team events - particularly on European soil. The course just doesn’t suit his game. But Watson and Simpson stepped up and earned a much needed point.
The US will have to come out and put red on the scoreboard with big leads to give the rest of the team hope that a comeback can be completed. Otherwise it’s going to be another European whitewash.
Day 1
Talk about a tale of two-sessions. The American team looked dominant after winning the morning session 3-1. The only American blemish was a loss by Patrick Reed and Tiger Woods who ran up against the hot putter of Tommy Fleetwood. Jordan Spieth looked back to form as he led the charge with teammate Justin Thomas, whose clutch putting helped clinch a 1-up victory for the USA.
But the afternoon foursome matches saw the tide turn. The European team swept the afternoon matches on the strength of clutch putting. The ghost of Sergio Garcia appeared after a year of poor play to help deliver one of the 4 points earned by Europe during the afternoon session.
The American team went ice cold with their putters and struggled to put their partners in positions to make anything of consequence. Dustin Johnson was consistently missing 5-foot putts. Bubba Watson, who once again has a case of “allergies” that is impacting his play, should be barred from playing in any future Ryder Cup teams - particularly those in Europe where he struggles mightily.
The United States will have to win both sessions on Saturday to have a chance of retaining the cup in the Sunday’s singles matches.
Let’s not spend much time talking about the Sunday singles matches. Outside of an epic duel between Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, the singles matches were a coronation of European golf. Even at midday EST when it looked like a comeback might still be possible, the European team would pull back ahead. Woods, Mickelson, and DJ all had chances to win their matches but were unable to keep the momentum going to the finish line. All 3 ended up losing, and in doing so, losing any hope of an American comeback.
So where does American golf go from here? How dose a team that is so dominant in the Presidents Cup constantly come up short against Europe? Are European golfers that much better? Well using the metric by which all golfers are judged, major golf championships, the answer would be no. But clearly winning majors is not an indicator of success in the Ryder Cup.
Does the United States need another task force? Probably not. The reality is that this is a golf competition with the best players in the world. It isn’t rocket science - we aren’t trying to put Patrick Reed on the moon (although it sounds like Jordan Spieth might like to). Americans are able to defeat every country outside of Europe during the Presidents Cup - so what gives? Let’s take a look at what went wrong and where the United States needs to go from here.
Captain’s Picks
It’s no secret that the captain’s selections by Jim Furyk did not pan out. While Tony Finau had a fantastic rookie campaign, the other three selections, Mickelson, Woods, and DeChambeau earned ZERO points for the United States.
Now Furyk gets a pass with both Woods and DeChambeau. After all, both guys won FedExCup playoff events and were seen as playing some of their best golf heading into the event. In hindsight, Mickelson should not have been selected. His play in the FedExCup playoffs was atrocious. It feels like the Mickelson selection was a legacy present for all of Phil’s years of participating in team events. This won’t be a popular take, but the reality is that this probably should be the last Ryder Cup team of Phil’s storied career.
Pairings
There were some eyebrows raised by some of the pairings announced by Captain Furyk. When Reed and Woods were soundly beaten on Friday in fourball, it was odd that they would both be paired together again on Saturday. Putting Mickelson in foursomes and not fourball seemed peculiar. It was almost as if Furyk had a plan which he refused to deviate from. After all this time, the United States still does not have those “go to pairings” like the Europeans do with Stinson and Rose that can go out and be a near guaranteed point for the Americans.
2020
One thing that became clear following another European win on home soil is that the typical formula for selecting American players is not going to work. The European courses are setup with penalizing rough and slow greens. Many holes at Golf National played along side the water putting a premium on accuracy. Even Rory McIlroy acknowledged as much by discussing the European efforts to neutralize American bombers.
The 2020 event is going to be played at Whistling Straits. Unlike other courses such as Hazeltine and Medinah where the rough was cut down to accommodate the "American bombers," Whistling Straits is a links style course which water, mounds, and high grass. The PGA and next American captain will have to give serious thought to modifying the course to play into the strengths of American golfers. Watching Woods, Johnson, Koepka, Watson, and others find the rough and struggle to get the ball close to the pin while Europeans were consistently keeping it in the fairway and getting the ball closer to the pin was a turning point in the 42nd matches.
If the 2020 schedule follows the 2018-19 PGA Tour schedule, that will also leave a month break between the Tour Championship and the 43rd Ryder Cup. For players such as Woods, who played more golf in the last 8-week stretch than at any other time in the last 15 years, that break will be highly beneficial.
All signs appear to be pointing at Steve Stricker being named as the next Ryder Cup captain. Stricker has been a part of previous Ryder Cups as both a player and assistant captain and as a victorious President's Cup captain. Stricker continues to play a number of events on tour (just as Furyk does) and has a pulse on the players likely to comprise his team. Stricker's success will be defined by his ability to setup a course to favor American players and to select captain's picks that will play to those strengths. In this era of data driven analytics, it no longer makes sense to simply select players based upon how they play during the course of a year on courses that do not resemble the setup of a Ryder Cup. The PGA Tour keeps a treasure trove of data such as strokes gained, total driving, strokes gained putting, total putting, and proximity to the pin. ALL of that information should be evaluated before making captain's selections and perhaps even be incorporated into the automatic qualifying criteria.
Day 2
The United States team needed to rebound from the disaster of being shutout in afternoon foursomes on Friday. Instead, the Americans left the Saturday morning fourball session (a format the Americans typically have dominated) losing 3-1 and increasing the European lead 8-4. A split of the afternoon foursomes only meant that the US would be in Brookline territory to come back from a four shot deficit.
The lone bright spot for the United States team has been the pairing of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth who won both of their sessions on Saturday. B&B also has to give a shout out to Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson who secured a much needed point on Saturday afternoon. It’s no secret that we are not huge fans of Bubba participating in team events - particularly on European soil. The course just doesn’t suit his game. But Watson and Simpson stepped up and earned a much needed point.
The US will have to come out and put red on the scoreboard with big leads to give the rest of the team hope that a comeback can be completed. Otherwise it’s going to be another European whitewash.
Day 1
But the afternoon foursome matches saw the tide turn. The European team swept the afternoon matches on the strength of clutch putting. The ghost of Sergio Garcia appeared after a year of poor play to help deliver one of the 4 points earned by Europe during the afternoon session.
The American team went ice cold with their putters and struggled to put their partners in positions to make anything of consequence. Dustin Johnson was consistently missing 5-foot putts. Bubba Watson, who once again has a case of “allergies” that is impacting his play, should be barred from playing in any future Ryder Cup teams - particularly those in Europe where he struggles mightily.
The United States will have to win both sessions on Saturday to have a chance of retaining the cup in the Sunday’s singles matches.
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