Ryder Cup starts Friday
Star-studded teams feature world top 10
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — The American team at the Ryder Cup is one of the strongest ever.
It features nine players who have combined to win 31 major championships, nearly half of those by Tiger Woods, who signalled his return last week by winning the Tour Championship. It has Dustin Johnson, who is back at No. 1 in the world. One of only three Ryder Cup rookies on the team is Justin Thomas, who already has won a major and reached No. 1 in the world. Europe? That’s the team that usually wins the Ryder Cup, especially at home.
Europe has five major champs, four players among the top 10 in the world. It can make a case as one of the best teams since the days of the “Big Five” in the late 1980s when Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle began this run of European dominance.
“I think that the strength of Europe has been we all get behind one another, and even whatever differences we may have, we put them to the side for this week and we’re a cohesive unit,” Rory McIlroy said. “And that’s the way we try to be.”
These are two of the strongest teams, the first time the Ryder Cup has ever featured all 10 players from the world ranking.
That only raises the anticipation when the matches start Friday at Le Golf National.
Adding to the plot is that the Americans are defending champs for only the third time since 2002.
“Are we underdogs? Probably on paper we are,” said Europe captain Thomas Bjorn. “But we still believe that we can win.”