Presidents Cup Aftermath — Ryder Cup Just Nine Short Months Away

Ernie Els and his gang of International upstarts nearly pulled it off.

They nearly pulled off the unthinkable — an upset of a superior force — the Tiger Woods-captained U.S. team.

David didn’t slay Goliath in this one — he merely wounded the giant, not enough for him to fall.

This now completed 2019 version of the Presidents Cup was supposed to be a route — a runaway — a romp.  At least on paper and according to oddsmakers.

It was supposed to be boring, please turn the channel to something else.

Didn’t turn out that way.  Turned out to be a thrilling, nail-biter.  It was must-see stuff with Tiger Woods showing us that he’s still the best player on the planet when he has his mojo going.  It was must-see stuff with golf’s biggest villain, cheater and man-in-denial — Patrick Reed — provoking the Aussie spectators and in turn, absorbing their guff.  Note it was well-deserved guff.

In the end, the U.S. pulled this one out for the Old Tiger, it was  Win One For The Gipper  time and some key Americans came through, especially Woods, who was undefeated for the week, unlike the rest of his squad.

You wonder if somewhere, key members of the European Ryder Cup team were taking this in, sitting there, smiling and thinking out loud — “Yeah, go ahead and try that on us.”

This type of American performance would end up in another European route in the Ryder Cup, which is now just nine short months away.

There were a few things that really got your attention — Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar didn’t win a match — team or individually.  Gary Woodland won just one, he went 1-2-1.

The biggest problem, issue, situation was presence of Mr. Controversy — Patrick Reed.  Reed went 0-3 in team play and dragged poor Webb Simpson into the cesspool that Reed swims in.  Reed was able to batter the inexperienced C.T. Pan in the singles matches — big deal.  Big kid pushes the little kid around.

Reed has been released from the constraints of team play and now he’s back, free to swim the ocean as the loner he is, free to handle things on his own.  You wonder out loud if he’s been a Captain’s pick for the last time.  If he’s going to Wisconsin in nine months, it better be as an automatic qualifier.  If not, good luck on that decision, Steve Stricker.

Then there’s The Snail — DeChambeau.  He showed up, bulked up, toting an extra 25-pounds plus on his frame and it wasn’t a good look.  Neither was his golf game.  He was simply awful and Captain Woods sent him out for the minimum two showings, where The Snail went 0-1-1.  DeChambeau also showed up with a major equipment tweak — he played with a 4.8-degrees loft driver.  Seriously?  Those long-drive beastly contestants use those and they hit most of their shots all over the place.  Tough to be accurate with that little loft.  Sadly DeChambeau is buying into that Distance Is King argument.

Which brings us to the venue — Royal Melbourne.

We keep hearing that distance has rendered so many classic courses obsolete.  Royal Melbourne, in reality, is far south of 7,000-yards in length.  Truth be known, it made most of those guys, with the exception of Woods, look pretty inept at times.

And that was the biggest takeaway from all of this.

A classic course, with the right design, can thrive and survive no matter what.

Ryder Cup Captain Stricker was right there, taking it all in, up close and personal.

He’ll have his hands full in nine months.