Time for a hard dose of the truth.
Time for the hard observations regarding another European thrashing of a more talented American Ryder Cup team.
Time to say what’s going on, no filter, some of this may be hard to swallow.
WARNING: What you are about to read will offend some members of the Ryder Cup team and the powers-that-be.
SECOND WARNING: We don’t care.
Let’s get right to it, shall we?
First of all, blame the PGA Tour for the inability of our players to handle a golf course with penal rough. The PGA Tour sets up its tournaments so that guys can shoot 20-something under par. There are very few instances where guys are penalized for hitting their golf balls in the rough. That’s why we’ve seen the proliferation of the “Crush It And Gough It On The Green” style of play that is embraced by the American stars. The Tour wants low scores so that it can brag: “These guys are good!” That slogan should have a disclaimer: “These guys are good except when there’s deep rough on the golf course.”
You can blame the USGA as well. The hard-to-handle U.S. Open rough from the 60s and 70s is gone. So hold those people accountable as well.
Jim Furyk will take the fall but please consider he had a lot of people whispering in his ear, basically telling him what to do. Still, he had no business sending Phil Mickelson into an alternate shot match. Mickelson couldn’t find French soil if you gave him a map.
Tiger Woods looked old, tired and cold. Woods should never have been sent out in morning matches. Even when guys were in their shirtsleeves, did you notice Woods never took off his rain pants? The guy’s body was cold and stiff.
Patrick Reed. Yeah, he’s a piece of work. Worst thing that ever happened was someone nicknaming this guy “Captain America.” Reed is basically Dez Bryant. He’s a horrible teammate and now he’s looking to blame Jordan Spieth for his own poor play. Spieth didn’t tell anyone that he didn’t want to play with Reed. Fact is Spieth and Justin Thomas are really good buddies and J.T. was a rookie on the team. Both probably asked if they could play together. Reed took it personally. Fact is, Reed isn’t well liked by anyone outside his immediate family. That makes it hard to find a partner for him. And speaking of immediate family, he should have told his wife to stay the heck off of Twitter.
Bubba Watson. Same problem as Reed. No one likes Bubba except for Webb Simpson. Webb was the only guy they could pair with Bubba, who is basically a jerk and everyone knows it. Also Bubba hates everything about golf in Europe. Too bad he qualified, otherwise, they wouldn’t have had him on the team. Bad teammate and he’s never won a singles match, 0-4 there.
Phil Mickelson: He should have been sent out only once in team play and that would have had to be in a best-ball deal with someone strong enough to carry his wild-tee-shot butt around the course. He was the sacrificial lamb of the singles matches. Mickelson should never be on another Ryder Cup team as a player. Period.
Dustin Johnson: Talk about uninspired golf from the guy who is supposed to be the world’s No. 1? D.J.’s problem is that he’s a loner. He’s not one of the guys. He goes his own way and has a wife that none of the other wives and girlfriends care to be around. No leadership either. Bad teammate. There were also reports that Johnson and Brooks Koepka had a “confrontation” of sorts that got nasty and nearly became physical. Looks like that “bro-mance” is officially over.
Brooks Koepka: If it’s not a major, it just doesn’t get his full attention. That showed in the playoffs. No way he shouldn’t beat Paul Casey in singles. He could have given the U.S. four points in the first five matches. Reportedly got into it with D.J. Now there’s something they can put on “pay-per-view”…..let ’em go at it in the ring, we’d pay to see that, we like Koepka in that event.
Bryson DeChambeau: Looked pretty dazed and confused. There are no algorithms that can get you par out of deep rough.
Tony Finau: One of the few bright spots, should have played in every team match. Good teammate, totally likeable guy any time, any place. His game travels well.
Jordy and J.T.: Only effective team. Good call, despite what Reed thinks. J.T. helped elevate Jordy’s sorry game. In singles, Jordy got wiped out by the guy the European side thought was their weakest link — Thorbjorn Olesen.
What Europe has that the U.S. doesn’t have is players who genuinely like and care about each other. They understand how to lift each other up. Unlike the U.S., they have no prima donnas. Rory is the closest, his game is very Americanized and you notice he had trouble with the rough and a wild three-wood on the 18th cost him his match with Justin Thomas on Sunday.
Europe also had good decisions by its captain and crew. They knew the U.S. had a driving accuracy problem and took full advantage of that. They also slowed the greens a bit, another factor that worked against the U.S.
And at the end of the day, this Ryder Cup competition means a lot more to the Europeans than the Americans.
And that’s something that no task force can overcome.
8 Comments
titleist718
Tom,
Great assessment of the US Ryder Cup team. Though many of the US players came from colleges where they were teammates, I has become clear they have forgotten those days and how to be good teammates. And it seems that individual egos are driving the team. Very sad to see.
Thank you.
Tom Edrington
Main cancer is Patrick Reed, who had a ton of problems in college, they tried to downplay that stuff, but with his actions in France, you can probably believe he was a total jerk in college as well…..this is a case of a leopard not changing his spots….
baxter cepeda
First you are a little late to the bash party on Wednesday morning Tom. Everything has been said already. But you bring good issues.
As you have mentioned the PGA Tour sets up courses easy for Phil and Tiger and it does cost them in Europe.
Of course, American golf leadership needs to learn to get small ball guys in Cups held in Europe already. Heck a lot of the American captains should have been substituted in for some bombers and we could have won (Jim, Zack, Steve).
The USGa at least tries under all the golf politics to challenge the best.
I’m not one to blame the captain, any competence should be enough, and Jim Furyk seems to have confidence in spades. Still, at the end of the day he was terrible. Even his interviews patented with every answer beginning with “weeeell…” just felt like the losing team. He clearly made a lot of well documented strategic mistakes, most iconically playing this version of Lefty in fourball.
Meanwhile Bjorn, whom seemed outsmarted was anything but. That man is smart and I’m glad this Cup confirmed that.
Europe were unlucky with Tonys lucky bounce in the first session otherwise they could have split. Bjorns foursomes pairings are a thing of legend and really the biggest difference maker in the cup. Bjorn was then able to adjust his four ball well before simply sending his foursome studs out again. Seems easy but ask Jim how easy it is. The foursome are the biggest key to winning this event and they know how to get it done.
Again the answer to Americas woes in Europe is to send a steady eddie team over there and keep the top ranked bombers at home. Imo. We are now way better at home, thanks in part to the task force and continued efforts for unity. But rah rah kumbaya is not enough to finally win one over there. And now Americans have to wait 4 years to get that chance once again.
Tiger was fried and cold, never great. Dechambeau was just fried, but not in a good way. Due to the PGA tour demands The US team has either out of form guys like Jordan or Reed, or in form but exhausted guys like Tiger and Bryson. Sometimes both exhausted and not in form: Phil.
These are issues for sure.
Reed and his wife have made some mistakes on medias but they are right spieth should have played with him.
Yes, spieth and JT got some results but
Reed and Tiger did not. They needed to mix that up but the lifelong buddies seemed selfishly set on establishing their record as a duo.
Aside from Phil and Bubba playing foursomes this was The captains biggest issue he could have improved. Bryson and Reed with Tiger was intriguing options but I mostly felt —with spieth-reeds history— JT could have been the perfect partner for Tiger all along. I am most frustrated we never got to see that obvious combination.
Phil and Bubba are two guys who can only play Ryder Cups in the US. DJ seems like another. DJ looked uninterested once the team leaders showed nothing. He may be number one but lacks leadership, in fact needs more of it. His relationship with the Gretskys seems to both help and hurt him.
Brooks seemed like he might go into Major focus for the Ryder Cup. He also has all that Euro tours history. He was alright but not great. His relationship with DJ is fascinating too because it also seems to both help and hurt him. The bromance does not seem in turmoil despite the issue that happened.
Tony was awesome but Mr. Sports guys should know soon being likeable and getting yours is not enough.
The task force has rekindled the USAs ability to win…at home. This team desperately needs to look at the cups over there in a different strategical way. Americams should literally have 6 captains picks for Cups over the pond and pick veterans with great accuracy, again mostly our captains. It may not have worked out as a W, but im sure it could have been better. Couldn’t be worse.
As for Europe, they do everything right, from passion to strategy. It is almost boring.
Europe especially at home are like a boring fairways and greens guy who always shocks everyone with the putter. Its not exciting, but horses for courses.
America simply need to match horses for courses.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: Try to keep it to a few paragraphs, please!
baxter cepeda
Normally i can do thay for you Tom. But I cartainly cannot opine on US Ryder Cup (and Mess Up Cup) woes in so few words. No one can. We don’t have to worry about either for a while.
Tom Edrington
I’ll sum it up for you quickly: Team USA is a community with no unity thanks to Patrick “Call me Dez Bryant” Reed. Poor decisions by captain who made decisions by committee. The Cup means more to Europe than USA plus if you want to hamper American players — Throw some thick rough at them. There, that’s the “Cliff Notes” version.
guiltyhd
Like I said they tanked in east lake for woods to win ,it was a shame tony was the only one to show up and ^&%$ reed
Tom Edrington
Love Tony Finau’s heart, ability and great attitude. Smiles a lot as well.