U.S. stars seek European success at Ryder Cup

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 Sunday 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 just the team that usually wins the Ryder Cup, especially at home.

These are not “mops” on the European team, the word Thomas Bjorn used to describe two of his captain’s picks.

Europe has five major champions, four players among the top 10 in the world.

The European squad features Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Tyrrell Hatton, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood of England, Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm of Spain, Francesco Molinari of Italy, Thorbjorn Olesen of Norway, Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland.

Europe likes to play the underdog role, even having won eight of the last 11 times in the Ryder Cup. That only raises the anticipation when the matches start Friday on the first tee at Le Golf National before a grandstand that has just under 7,000 seats. The Americans are defending champions for only the third time since 2002.