All set for explosive duel
The Ryder Cup at Hazeltine promises great excitement and should deliver just that
THE greatest rivalry in the team game of the world of golf will be played out at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota this week and it promises loads and loads of action - just as it has done since 1947.
The coming together of the United States and Europe when they pit of their skills against each other for the 41st time should go down as one of the highlights of the world of sport this year.
The biennial tournament, which starts on Friday and ends on Sunday, will see American captain Davis Love III and his vice-captains Jim Furyk, Tom Lehman, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods plotting to regain the small gold, but coveted, cup from a European team led by captain Darren Clarke and his vice-captains Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Paul Lawrie, Ian Poulter and Sam Torrance.
The teams have been announced, barring one more player on the US roster that is expected to be completed sometime tomorrow.
The composition of the sides is as good as they probably could be and led Love to remark this week that in his eyes the Americans might have their best line-up ever.
Of course, there might be a few old fellows out there who will hasten to note that the team of 1981, which beat Europe 181/2-91/2 and included the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, Johnny Miller, Hale Irwin and Lee Trevino, was the best yet.
This, though, did not stop Love from observing: “We’re a great team. This is the best golf team maybe ever.”
Love has at his disposal the most exciting and in-form player this season - Dustin Johnson. The US Open champion led the final event of the FedExCup playoffs, the Tour Championship, at the halfway stage on Friday and was nicely poised for a good shot at the crown that would also land him a US$10mil bonus if he pulls it off today.
Paired with Matt Kuchar in 2012, they won both fourball matches and it would come as no surprise if Love again used this combination to good effect.
Phil Mickelson is the old warhorse in the American team, having made his Ryder Cup debut two decades ago. He is also one of only two US players to have tasted victory in this tournament. Zach Johnson is the other.
A good showing by Mickelson could some way to helping the Americans seeing off their visitors.
Another one to watch at Hazeltine is Brooks Koepka, who wil be making his Ryder Cup debut this week.
Considered by many in the game as one of the most explosive talents today, Koepka is rather familiar with many of the opposition, having played and won on the European Tour.
A PGA Tour winner now, the 26-year-old is also one of the longest hitters around and has a deft putting touch. A solid performance from him will be expected. It is quite likely that Love will play Koepka alongside Brandt Snedeker.
Whatever combinations Love and his vice-captains come up with, though, they can rest assured that Europe will give them a good old scrap out there.
Clarke will lead his side out in pursuit of a fourth straight Ryder Cup win at Hazeltine and not many outside the US will doubt that he can go on and extend the Europeans’ dominance in the event.
In Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Englishmen Danny Willett, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, Spaniard Sergio Garcia and German Martin Kaymer there is mix of some excellent talent and experience.
In particular McIlroy, Rose and British Open champion Stenson will be tasked with key responsibilities at Hazeltine.
All of them Major championship winners, this trio will almost have to be at their best if Europe are to make their way across the Atlantic with the famous cup in hand.
But while the teams will be all fired up to have a go at each they and attempt to build on their tallies of 25 (US) and 13 (Europe), they will also find in the Hazeltine tract a course that will be far from being a pushover.
This Robert Trent Jones layout will measure anything up to 7,600 yards, and maybe a little more.
It is a course that has hosted almost all the big events in Northern America.
The last such one was the PGA Championship in 2009, when Korea’s Y.E. Yang won.
Hazeltine boasts undulations that are obvious to see, big old trees and water bodies that will serve their purpose as hazards to the players.
For me, the US should win this one. They have never lost four in a row and one gets the feeling that their players make sure it doesn’t happen.
Westwood’s comments about Tiger Woods might well prove a bit more than enough to get the home team really pumped up.
The Englishman uncharacteristically said this week that he couldn’t see why Woods was brought into Team USA when the former world number one always struggled in the tournament itself.
It was certainly a statement that will not have gone down well with the Love and his team, and more so with Mr Woods himself. It is this sort of thing that gets the blood boiling and prompts some to do better than they might otherwise have done.
All the same, Hazeltine will be a great setting for a great rivalry and one that millions of folks across the globe will enjoy.