2014 Ryder Cup Wrap-Up

Much to my displeasure, Ryder Cup events are over until the fall of 2016. Unless you count the PGA of America announcing their 2016 captain at the end of the year, but that isn’t exactly nail biting. It was a great tournament, and there’s actually a lot to take away from it.

If any of you adjusted your sleeping schedule to watch this epic weekend, I have the upmost respect for you. Or you could have been like me and slept for a total of 10 hours all weekend. Either way if you watched the Ryder Cup live you’re doing things right, and if you didn’t then you missed out.

I’d like to point out that I nailed it directly on the head by predicting a final score of 16.5-11.5 (Here’s my pre-Ryder Cup column for proof). I was slightly off on my prediction of the singles matches, but I’ll excuse myself and toot my own horn.

The Americans actually exceeded expectations in many ways. They kept it close on day 1, gave themselves a fighting chance, and actually outscored Europe in the fourball matches. The American rookies shined brightly amidst the dimmed veterans, which is a great sign for years to come.

Europe on the other hand played amazing golf all weekend, whether it was a rookie or veteran. They truly deserved the win, and Paul McGinley needs to be credited with an excellent weekend as team captain.

Before I get into my analysis of the tournament here’s a quick view of how each golfer performed.

·      = rookie.

·      Records are written out “win-loss-tie”

·      (How many strokes they won/lost by & How many holes were left when the match ended)

·      1UP = the player/pairing won by one hole

·      1DN = the player/pairing lost by one hole

·      Bottom Row signifies how many points the team earned in each style of match.

TEAM USA

Player	Fourball	Foursome	Singles
Jordan Spieth*	2-0-0 (5&4, 5&3)	Halved	Lost 2&1
Patrick Reed*	2-0-0 (5&4, 5&3)	Halved	Won 1UP
Rickie Fowler	Halved Twice	0-1-1 (5&4)	Lost 5&4
Hunter Mahan	1-0-0 (4&3)	0-2-0 (2&1, 3&2)	Halved
Phil Mickelson	1-0-0 (1UP)	0-1-0 (3&2)	Won 3&1
Bubba Watson	0-2-0 (5&4, 3&2)	0-0-0	Lost 4&2
Matt Kuchar	0-1-0 (3&2)	0-2-0 (2DN, 2&1)	Won 4&3
Jim Furyk	1-0-0 (4&3)	0-2-0 (2DN, 3&2)	Lost 1DN
Webb Simpson	0-1-0 (5&4)	0-0-0	Halved
Keegan Bradley	1-0-0 (1UP)	0-1-0 (3&2)	Lost 4&3
Jimmy Walker*	Halved Twice	0-1-1 (5&4)	Won 3&2
Zach Johnson	0-0-0	0-2-0 (2&1, 2&1)	Halved
Total=11.5	5	1	5.5

TEAM EUROPE

Player	Fourball	Foursome	Singles
Graeme McDowell	0-0-0	2-0-0 (3&2, 5&4)	Won 2&1
Henrik Stenson	2-0-0 (5&4, 3&2)	1-0-0 (2&1)	Lost 1DN
Rory McIlroy	0-1-1 (Lost 1DN)	1-0-1 (3&2, Halved)	Won 5&4
Justin Rose	2-0-0 (5&4, 3&2)	1-0-1 (2&1, Halved)	Halved
Stephen Gallacher*	0-1-0 (5&4)	0-0-0	Lost 3&1
Martin Kaymer	0-1-1 (5&3, Halved)	Halved	Won 4&2
Thomas Bjorn	0-1-1 (5&3, Halved)	0-0-0	Lost 4&3
Sergio Garcia	0-1-0 (Lost 1DN)	1-0-1 (3&2, Halved)	Won 1UP
Ian Poulter	0-1-1 (5&4, Halved)	0-0-0	Halved
Jamie Donaldson*	0-1-0 (4&3)	2-0-0 (Won 2UP, 2&1)	Won 4&3
Lee Westwood	0-1-0 (4&3)	2-0-0 (Won 2UP, 2&1)	Lost 3&2
Victor Dubuisson*	0-0-0	2-0-0 (3&2, 5&4)	Halved
Total=16.5	3	7	6.5

As you can see in the tables above, there were impressive rookies for both sides. When I woke up at 2 o’clock on Friday morning and saw the fourball matchups, I felt good. I sent out a tweet saying that I loved the Spieth and Reed pairing, and they didn’t let me down. I was slightly concerned since they were up against Ian Poulter, but Gallacher held Poulter down a bit. Reed and Spieth combined to earn the US 6 points, which is quite the feat. Not only that, but they were the leading point-getters for team USA. Furthermore, Reed’s 3.5 points were second in the entire field to Justin Rose’s 4. The rest of the rookies played well too. With the exception of Stephen Gallacher, Dubuisson, Donaldson and Walker earned upwards of 2 points a piece (Gallacher earned 0).

As I predicted, Furyk and the other veterans struggled for Team USA, and Europe’s veterans (Stenson, Kaymer, McIlroy, Garcia, etc.) had solid tournaments. The only American vet that played well was Phil Mickelson.

One thing that I failed to mention in my preview was the pairing of Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. They were 3-0 together entering the tournament, and won their first match on Friday. They were in position to win their second match of the day but conceded the lead to Dubuisson and McDowell. They’re now 4-1 as a couple, and as long as they both make the squad they’ll continue playing together.

The togetherness of the European team is the most explicit contrasting quality between the two squads, and the captains have a lot to do with that. The Europeans captain selection is a lot more methodical than that of the American team. Each European captain has to have been a vice captain at one point, so they already know the ropes. They value captainship, and it shows.

In addition to that, there are a lot of European players that have developed chemistry with each other. They’ve played as partners in the past, and it gave them a very noticeable edge in the foursome matches. Rose and Stenson are a lethal pairing, along with McIlroy and Garcia. Europe knows they have that advantage and they will continue to use that strategy until it fails to work. Aside from Mickelson and Bradley, there isn’t any consistent pairing amongst any of the players. I have a feeling Reed and Spieth will be paired together for the 2016 Ryder Cup, but as of right now there isn’t a lot of American chemistry.

Here’s another downside to team USA. According to the American players, there wasn’t a lot of communication with captain Tom Watson. In an interview shortly after the conclusion of the Ryder Cup, it was said that they weren’t involved with any of the decisions, which could be a reason for the failures that USA experienced in the foursome matches.

Prior to the Ryder Cup, I didn’t have any issues with Watson as the captain. While watching the Ryder Cup though, he had me in a tizzy. Why did Bubba Watson play in both matches on Friday? He looked absolutely terrible in the morning fourball, and had no business playing another 18 holes. Instead Watson should have played Spieth and Reed, who were the clear-cut best option for his team all weekend. Following up with the lineup issues, I don’t agree with his decision to play Phil in both Friday matches. He’s too old for that, and he had to sit out all day Saturday. Phil should’ve played 18 a day; nothing more, nothing less. Not having Phil available on Saturday was a huge setback, and it showed.

Then came the singles matches… Leading off with Spieth was not a good idea. Nor was sending out Reed after him, and Fowler after Reed, and then Mahan after Mickelson. European captain Paul McGinley put his veterans out first because he wanted to seal the deal early. I would have led off with Kuchar or Furyk. The Americans were outmatched no matter what in head-to-head, and sending out youngsters first only dug ourselves into a hole.

I know Reed won his match, and Spieth should have, but he collapsed. He was up 3 at the turn, and McDowell bided his time before storming back to take 5 out of the next 6 holes. When Spieth was struggling to close out the match, Watson was nowhere to be found. What Jordan needed was a veteran presence to calm him down and help him out. Instead, he was left out to dry. It was sad to watch the collected Graeme McDowell win hole after hole against the inexperienced Spieth. I blame Watson for that opening singles loss, which was so crucial to the rest of the day.

Following that up, Hunter Mahan was in a difficult situation on the eighteenth hole. He was just shy of the green on the right-hand side, and the pin was up. He had two options; he could have either take a flop shot to try and land it on the back side of the pin, or he could have bumped it on to the top of the slope and let it coast down towards the hole. Had he taken the second option, he would have easily halved the hole (at worst) and won the match. Instead he elected to try and go for gold, and he lost the hole.

Say America won those two matches, they would have earned an additional 1.5 points while Europe would have lost 1.5 points. A 3-point swing at the beginning of Ryder Cup Sunday would have been pivotal to the outcome of the match, as the score would have been 11-10 after the first 5 singles matches (opposed to 12.5-8.5).

Opposed to Watson’s poor captainship, McGinley led his team to a well-earned victory. The US will be better prepared and equipped to regain the trophy in 2016, but Europe was simply too good this year. As you can see with Spieth, Reed and Horschel, the Americans have a batch of rising stars in the game of golf.

The 2014-2015 PGA Season kicks off this Thursday with the Frys.com Open.