Ryder Cup: Europe’s demolition of the United States
The United States were such heavy favourites before the 42nd Ryder Cup in Versailles last weekend “that one wondered whether Europe should bother turning up”, said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. Well, “what’s the French for volteface”? Amid “incredible scenes” at Le Golf National, the home side romped to a magnificent 17.5-10.5 victory. Francesco Molinari was the “standout player”, the Italian becoming the first European in history to take a maximum five points; England’s Tommy Fleetwood, his playing partner, became the first European rookie to win his first four Ryder Cup matches. But as exceptional as “Moliwood” were, this was a true team effort, with every one of the players led by Thomas Bjørn winning at least a point.
Even though the Americans hadn’t won in Europe since 1993, they were worthy favourites, said Peter Scrivener on BBC Sport online. Jim Furyk’s side boasted 31 major titles between them, and 11 of the world’s top 17 players. But with its “tight fairways and deep, penal rough”, Le Golf National is a different course to the ones the Americans are used to playing on – and the big-hitters weren’t accurate enough. And the Europeans had collectively played the course more than 200 times before the tournament, while the Americans had only eight competitive rounds there between them. Bjørn deserves huge credit for his captaincy, said Iain Carter on the same website. The Dane’s “pairings proved inspired” and his “batting order” for the final-day singles “put Europe’s strongest stars against US players struggling for form”.
Furyk, in contrast, got pretty much everything wrong, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. His four wild cards – Tiger Woods, Tony Finau, Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambeau – got two points from a possible 12, “the most abject return by any set of captain’s picks since this event began”. His pairings were all off, too: Patrick Reed, who spearheaded the US to victory two years ago, looked “overawed” playing alongside Woods, his “childhood idol”. The US system is partly to blame – the so-called “Task Force” model adopted after the 2014 defeat at Gleneagles ensured that major decisions were “reached by consensus rather than by decree”. But there seemed to be other problems: Reed has claimed that the US team were beset by competing egos, and Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka had a bust-up at Europe’s victory party. Perhaps the team will learn that unity cannot be forced. Europe had it; the US didn’t.