Thursday At East Lake Shows Why U.S. Flounders At Ryder Cup

If Davis Love III was at East Lake on Thursday, he probably needed a good stiff drink by day’s end.

It’s no secret that the United States has been battered by Europe in the Ryder Cup for as long as most of us can remember.

Gone are the days of Nicklaus and Palmer leading a tromping of Great Britain.

It’s now Europe and there’s no Nicklaus or Palmer these days, just a bunch of guys who can’t seem to come up with the clutch putts when they need them.

The first round of the Tour Championship was a perfect example of how vulnerable this Ryder Cup team could be next week.

Let’s review how our lads did.

Phil Mickelson:  Age before beauty.  Philly Mick had a heck of an opening day at East Lake.  Gotta hand it to Lefty, he hit ONE of 14 fairways.  Yes, you read that right — one stinkin’ fairway.  Say hello to golf’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  It’s Good Phil or Bad Phil, that’s pretty much what you get with Phil The Thrill, your basic golf course roller coaster ride.  Phil put up a 74, four-over par. How’d you like to be playing two-ball with a guy who can basically miss almost every fairway?  Hopefully the fairways at Hazeltine National will be a LOT wider.

Jimmy Walker:  Nice job Jimmy W — 74.  Do we really trust Jimmy Walker under Ryder Cup heat?  Hard to say.  He’s had a pretty good year, one of the Automatic Eight.  Still 74 won’t get it done next week.

J.B. Holmes:  J.B. had it going for a while but he’s cooled off a bit and was running cold on Thursday.  Shot 73.  At least he hit some fairways unlike someone else we’ve already mentioned.

Brandt Snedeker:  Sneds shot 72 which sounds a helluva lot better than 73 or 74.

Patrick Reed:  Perhaps the most disappointing round of the day.  Reed is right behind D.J. in the points race coming in but went out and shot 73.  Not real good for a guy who is supposed to be real good.  We take comfort in knowing that he and Jordan Spieth are a formidable team in Ryder Cup play.  Light in the darkness.

So there’s how the meat of the Automatic Eight, five of the Auto Eight performed or should we say didn’t perform.  Play like that on Sunday at the Ryder Cup and that could be five points up for Europe.  Just sayin’.

Okay, so much for the doom and gloom, how about the good news?

Dustin Johnson looks like the one guy no one needs to worry about.  Who couldn’t play with this guy?  Who wouldn’t want to play from where this guy drives the golf ball?  Put simply, he IS the best player in the world right now, based on performance.  Shot 66 to open his run that could end Sunday with a Tour Championship.

Jordan Speith:  Jordy shot 68 despite a shaky start, got it going.  He’s a good-news, bad-news guy.  Bad news is he’s nowhere near the player we saw last year.  Good news is he’s still pretty damn good and a reliable guy, still vulnerable though.

So that was the good side of Thursday.

The bad news is that three of your Auto Eight didn’t even make it to East Lake — Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Zach Johnson.  So hopefully they’re doing whatever they need to do to prepare.

Ah, then there’s the big sub-plot for the next three days.

On Sunday, Love will make the 12th and final spot public knowledge.

Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas, Ryan Moore, Daniel Berger and Jim Furyk are names that have been thrown out there.

Watson opened with 72, Thomas 68 and Moore 70.  Berger joined Mickelson and Walker in the 74 club.  Furyk’s at home.

Can’t wait to see how that plays out.

In the meantime, play better, fellas.

These over-par rounds won’t cut it next week.