Can Americans end long dry spell?
They haven’t won a Ryder Cup away from the U.S. since 1993
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Johnny Miller’s first Ryder Cup overseas for NBC Sports was in 1993 at The Belfry, so long ago that Davis Love III was a Ryder Cup rookie who holed the cup-clinching putt for the Americans.
Could Miller have imagined that 25 years later it would remain the last time the Americans won on foreign soil?
“The only way it could have come is, Tiger and Phil’s Ryder Cup record didn’t help,” Miller said in an interview at East Lake. “They should have been dominant in the Ryder Cup. For them to have losing records didn’t help.”
Woods is 13-17-3 and has played on one winning Ryder Cup team. Mickelson is 18-20-7, setting a record for most losses by an American.
“I don’t have any idea. There’s no real reason for it,” Miller said. “It seems like the last 10 years they’ve gotten to really love the Ryder Cup. Before that, I wasn’t sure. That’s just an opinion. We’ll leave it at that. That’s my gut. Those guys now love the team room, Tiger and Phil. When you have great players like Tiger and Phil, they have a tendency to not want to chum it up with other golfers. Guys who chum it up are just OK. Guys who are great players are loners.”
Miller believes it’s one thing to be a major champion, and another to be regarded as a great Ryder Cup player.
There was a time when players were mostly known as great in the Ryder Cup only because they had never won a major.
“It’s like a whole category in itself,” Miller said. “You can be a guy who won 18 majors, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a great Ryder Cupper. That’s the rarest golf there is. A lot of people don’t look at it that way. We see a guy like Ian Poulter, he makes these crazy putts. Even Colin Montgomerie. He couldn’t win in the U.S., but he could make putts in the Ryder Cup.”
Patrick Reed won the Masters this year for his first major, but at East Lake last week in the Tour Championship, he was referred to by the gallery with more chants of “Captain America” than “Masters champion.”
“If I was captain, I’d like about five of him,” Miller said. “He even thrives overseas. That’s really a rare person. He’s built for that.”
Miller can’t speak from his own experience. He played on only two Ryder Cup teams (1975 and 1981) and went 2-2-2.