Ryder Cup captain finally has reasons to be cheerful

A YEAR out, there might just be signs of separation between what the assumptions and the evidence each tell us about the next Ryder Cup.

It has become accepted wisdom that the US will head into the match in Rome as strong favourites, irrespective of the weighting given to home advantage by recent history.

For that proposition, consider what the European captain Luke Donald told Sportsmail earlier this month: ‘They should be favourites. We have been underdogs many times over the past 30 years and found a way through, so there is nothing wrong with being the underdog, because that mentality can be quite powerful.’

However, the Presidents Cup between the many stars of the US and 12 Internationals over the past four days was a reminder that golf is not played on paper and that team events have a magnificent habit of inserting swings of momentum where they are least expected.

That Davis Love’s US team won by 17.5-12.5 would indicate a strong victory, but that was devilishly misleading for the purposes of broader conclusions. The numbers were far closer than any forecast and they simultaneously flattered the Americans.

Early in the match, after Friday’s fourballs, the disparity was as wide as 8-2. But by the close of play on Saturday the gap was down to 11-7, and halfway through Sunday’s singles the projected score based on the oncourse scenarios was 16-14 to the US.

The margin dragged itself back out to five via a few hairy moments, but even that was far tighter than most anticipated for the circumstances.

At this moment, a reminder of those circumstances is necessary: the Internationals were playing away against a team featuring the World No1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, and a lowest of 25.

Even more significantly, the Internationals had also lost four of their team to LIV, including the last-minute departure of Cameron Smith, the Open champion.

For the Internationals, with an average world ranking of 49, to rattle the US after such a buildup certainly bodes well for Team Europe.

When all’s said and done, it allows for a more marginally more optimistic view than a week ago.

IF THERE was a revelation from the Presidents Cup, it was the South Korean Tom Kim. The 20-year-old was the driving force behind the International recovery from a dire cause on the Saturday. He was a classic example of a player who grows in the heat of matchplay.