Americans Finally Win Ryder Cup
The US finally won another Ryder Cup on Sunday with a dominating 17-11 victory at Hazeltine Golf Course just outside Minneapolis. The Americans took a commanding 3 point lead into the final day of singles and won the day 7-1/2 to 4-1/2. There were a couple of great matches early on as European captain Darren Clarke front-loaded his inexperienced lineup with as many veterans as possible in an attempt to create some early momentum for the Euros. And to some degree, it worked. Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy both played fantastic front nines but, in this Ryder Cup, Reed was not to be denied, winning the match 1 up. Reed was clearly the Americans MVP as he won 3-1/2 points in the five matches he played. Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia also played another barn-burner as both had nine birdies on the day to halve their back-and-forth match. It was a fitting end for both players who played so well that neither deserved to lose. The Euros took 3-1/2 points out of the first six matches but the inexperienced rookies on the back end could not keep pace with the Americans, as the US won 5 of the last 6 matches to wrap up their big win.
The US has been pointing to this Ryder Cup for the last four years, even getting the USGA to set up a committee on how to improve the US performance which had resulted in 8 losses in the previous 10 Cups. Some of this push was driven by Phil Mickelson’s vocal dissatisfaction with how the American teams prepared and were led in past competitions. And with this edition being held on home soil, it was imperative for the Americans to win. Based on the harassment the Europeans were taking on the course with numerous spectators being ejected for verbally abusing the competitors or shouting during their swing, I’m not sure the Euros would have gotten out of there alive if they had actually won. The Americans made the most of their home-court advantage, making sure the rough on the Hazeltine course was not penal. This pretty much made the competition a putting competition, as there was no fear in driving the ball as far as possible. Wherever you ended up, you usually had a shot to the green for your par or birdie. In addition, the Euros were fielding one of the most inexperienced teams in ages. There were six rookies who constituted half the team. So the Americans were clear favorites even before the competition began.
The US should probably not put too much stake in their new approach to this event – I’m not sure it made much difference at all. It certainly helped that the US got off to an incredible 4-0 start in the Friday morning session. That hadn’t happened since 1975. But by Saturday afternoon, they had already squandered the entire lead but won the last 3 matches of the day to get their 3 point lead going into Sunday. For the Euros, captain’s pick Lee Westwood was a bitter disappointment as he lost all three matches he played. His poor play on Friday morning meant he sat the next two session. On Saturday afternoon, his poor putting from short range cost Europe a critical point and on Sunday he also blew a 2 up lead with 3 to play to lose the match outright. But you can hardly blame Clarke for selecting him as he needed as much veteran leadership as he could get. On the bright side for the Euros, they may have found some new stars with rookies Thomas Pieters and Rafa Cabrera-Bello. Pieters won 4 points in the 5 matches he played and was the European MVP. Cabrera-Bello won 2-1/2 points in the 3 matches he played. And they also had the 22 year old Matthew Fitzpatrick on the team who will surely be a player for them for years to come. Two years from now, when the Ryder Cup is in Paris, the road is bound to be more difficult for the Americans and a much truer test of the new American approach to the competition.
One last word about the NBC coverage. I understand the desire to highlight the stars of the game, focusing on the McIlroy-Reed, Stenson-Speith, and Garcia-Mickelson matches. But they spent so much of their coverage on those matches that all you saw of a lot of the other matches, especially early on, were putts that either won or lost holes. I understand that it is difficult to follow all 12 matches at once and that the coverage wants to focus on the tight matches. But I can honestly say that I hardly saw any other shots other than putts by Andy Sullivan, Danny Willett, or the aforementioned Fitzpatrick until they were simply the last matches out there or the point they lost put the Americans over the top. Admittedly, they were all getting smoked but NBC should have been able to show something. Finally, I don’t know if NBC didn’t sell enough advertising for the event but there was nothing more ridiculous than having coverage for the event interrupted by an ad promoting the very event it was interrupting, even if it had the “playing through” box that still showed the live coverage.