A splash landing

AND it’s a huge mea culpa from me. In my Ryder Cup preview I said that Thomas Bjorn had got his wild card selections wrong while the US’s Jim Furyk had got his right. I was way wrong with that conclusion.

Consider this: the final score was Europe 17.5-10.5 US. Points contributed by Bjorn’s wild cards, nine-and-a-half, and by Furyk’s two, both by the unheralded Tony Finau. The very much heralded Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson Dechambreau contributed absolutely nothing.

In my defence I did say that I thought the course very much suited the Europeans and in that at least I was spot-on. Europe won not because they were better players but because they were firstly a TEAM and secondly because they were more savvy with their shot selection than their American counterparts. With the notable exceptions of Augusta National, Pebble Beach and 99 per cent of US Open courses, Yankee golf consists largely of booming a driver 350 yards and knocking a wedge on to the putting surface. Le National was never going to be that kind of course. Narrow fairways, penal rough, lots of nasty bunkers and well-placed water hazards meant that shotmakers came to the fore and, simply put, Europe had more of those than the US.

Which made Furyk’s wild card selections all the more strange; Woods and Mickelson may be two of the greatest ever to play the game but when it comes to accurate driving they are in the lower percentile. The reason they get away with the wayward stuff is, as mentioned, the way courses are set up over there, with hardly any disadvantage should one not find the fairway.

I can’t think of any other golfing event where I’ve seen so many top golfers find water both off the tee and on their approach shots, nor have I seen so many have to hack sideways out of penal rough.

It’s no coincidence that the Yanks’ best player, Justin Thomas, was the only one of the team to have teed off in a competition at Le National, and it showed with his judicious club selection of three woods and long irons off the tee while all around him were bringing out the big dog and finding trouble.

Best for Europe: Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood; these guys were so good together in foursomes and four balls that they are now known as “Moliwood”. Champion Golfer of the Year Molinari went 5-0 and Fleetwood 4-1 as they cruised around the course displaying superb ball striking and shotmaking skills.

Hats off to Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson as they proved me totally wrong on their wild card selection, winning six points between them. Rory McIlroy was a slight disappointment, blowing hot and cold and at one point

letting his temper get the better of him; he really has to sort out his short game and be a bit more selective off the tee. Justin Rose was OK, while Ian Poulter was his usual self; he may not be in the top echelon of the game but he sure is a mean matchplay golfer, as he showed again on the Albatross course.

Thankfully he resisted the urge to don an Arsenal shirt in the after-match celebrations.

So what’s next? The next Ryder Cup is at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in 2020, a linksstyle course which at first glance would seem ready-made for the Europeans, but I can pretty much guarantee that the Americans won’t resist the impulse to widen the fairways and cut back the rough to suit their boys — which is fair enough, though will it negate a European side that will in all probability feature at least nine US-based players?

Team of the week

Paulo Gazzaniga, Spurs; Danny Rose, Spurs; Harry Maguire, Leicester; Virgil van Dyke, Liverpool; Declan Rice, West Ham; Keiran Trippier, Spurs; Mateo Kovacic, Chelsea; Mark Noble, West Ham; Gylfi Sigurdsson, Everton; Harry Kane, Spurs; Eden Hazard, Chelsea. Manager: Manuel Pellegrini, West Ham.

This week’s big games

Premier League — Today: 5pm Burnley v Huddersfield, Palace v Wolves, Leicester v Everton, Spurs v Cardiff, Watford v Bournemouth; 7.30pm United v Newcastle. Tomorrow: 2pm Fulham v Arsenal; 4.15pm Southampton v Chelsea; 6.30pm Liverpool v Citeh. Championship — Today: 2.30pm Leeds v Brentford; 7.30p Bolton v Blackburn. Tomorrow: 3.30pm Bristol City v Sheffield Wednesday. Scotland – Tomorrow: 5pm Rangers v Hearts; 5.30pm St Johnstone v Celtic. Nations League — Thursday: 9.45pm Israel v Scotland. Friday: 9.45pm Croatia v England.

Game of the week: Liverpool v Citeh. Second plays first in what should be a cracking game of footie.

Liverpool beat Citeh three times last season and making it four in a row would send a huge message to Pep Guardiola that this time around Citeh have a scrap on their hands. Can Liverpool do it? I think they can but their front three of Mane, Firmino and Salah will need to be at their very best.

Formula One

Japanese Grand Prix — tomorrow: 8.10am. With a 50point lead over Sebastian Vettel with just five races remaining, Lewis Hamilton has a great chance to put one hand on the trophy tomorrow at Suzuka, where he dominated practice, qualifying and the race last year.

And finally

Last week I asked what connects Manchester, New York, Melbourne, Yokohama, Montevideo and Girona. The answer is the City Football Group, Abu Dhabi’s football conglomerate who own or partown the following clubs: Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Yokohama F Marinos, Club Atletico Torque and Girona FC.

This week: a two-parter. How many teams in British professional football have the letter “J” in their name?

And how many team names start and end with the same letter?

Public safety warning for readers in the Lapta/Karflıyaka area: among us for the next week are no less than seven “ladies” from Welwyn Garden City. I use the term “ladies” quite loosely but with Becky Brown and Maggie Bailey leading them I can absolutely guarantee that local sales of prosecco will be at an alltime high. To paraphrase Sergeant Esterhaus from the excellent Hill Street Blues: “Let’s be careful out there.”

Speaking of being careful out there, Ron and Linda Copping are due in this weekend to join his brother and fellow Gooner John Copping and wife Helen, who are already here. All Spurs fans need to be aware of this and exercise extreme caution when out and about.