The Europeans take the Ryder Cup “SERIOUSLY”. The Americans take the Ryder Cup “seriously”. The 44th Ryder Cup this year involved the usual series of golf matches between teams representing the DP World Tour and the PGA of America. Held in Italy from September 29 to October 1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia Montecelio, northeast of Rome, Europe regained the trophy as Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland starred in victory.
When you put 7 continents vs. 1 country you better have the home court. If not, you can kiss your chances of winning to the wind. You throw in the spirit of Seve Ballesteros and you got yourself a hungry tiger by the tail.
You can’t expect to come into a Ryder Cup competition not having played competitive golf in 4-to-5 weeks. Particularly in Jordan Speith’s case, then pair him with his buddy Justin Thomas, who had a less than stellar year in golf coming into this holy, sacred, monumental, golfing event. It’s like would you send athletes to the Olympics who weren’t prepared and in great shape, to give themselves and their team the best chances to win?
On a personal note, I felt like U.S. Captain Zach Johnson’s 6 Captain’s picks were based more on favoritism and nepotism than recent and current performance. AKA Lucas Glover, Keegan Bradley, Billy Horschel, etc. Sure chemistry is to be taken into consideration, but you got to have players who bleed Red, White, and Blue and a leader who they’ll run through a wall for. It can’t be about money or make-believe. That motivation and desire must come from the soul. As for the Americans, 20% of their share goes into their Retirement Pension Plan. The Europeans don’t have a Player Pension Plan. Go figure.
Winning the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in two years won’t really matter if they can’t win the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland four years from now. So until they find the recipe for winning abroad, there’s work to be done.
Maybe, just maybe, Eldrick Woods will throw them a lifeline and bail them out as usual, and restore respectability to a fractured and wounded reputation. Tiger for Captain for the next four years might be a start in the right direction. But don’t pick your buddies, Tiger, if they don’t play their way on the team, they don’t belong on the team and you know who they are. Oh yeah, and Co-Captains can’t be your drinking buddies as well. A completely new direction is certainly needed to fix this mess, cause the old one is broken and that’s no joke.
Just my opinion, more or less.
