SINGLE TICKET TO HEAVEN
Get a good start, and Europe’s depth should pay off come Sunday
Cancelled all other plans for this long weekend, have we? Stocked up on liquids and solids? Here we go then (finally) with sport’s 36-hour dawn- to-dusk biennial extravaganza — a three-day binge like no other.
It’s hard to imagine how this 40th Ryder cup can possibly rival the last two for extraordinary moments and hair-raising drama but here at Gleneagles there are 24 players and two captains intent on giving it a damn good try.
Phil Mickelson’s beautifully-timed grenade on Wednesday brought a blessed end to the bland pleasantries and set the scene nicely for an encounter that will not be short on spice. How well that clever oneliner must have gone down in the american team room — Mickelson highlighting Rory McIlroy’s legal battle with his former management company, who also l ook after Graeme Mcdowell, by saying of the USA team spirit: ‘not only can we play together, we also don’t litigate against one another’.
How typical of fatee at the Ryder cup that Mickelson elson and McIlroy should now ow be thrown together in n the anchor fourballs s match this morning.
Mickelson was spot on to highlight the myth that the ameri cans keep l osing because they lack team unity. look at the team aspect of the e past three Ryder cups. s.
There have been 11 series of foursomess and fourballs matches — one was lost to the weather at celtic Manor — and how many have the europeans won, with their supposedly greater togetherness? Just two.
What europe’s captain Paul McGinley will be hoping, therefore, is for a fast start from his players on t his first day. They’ve been thoroughly outplayed at team golf for the most part, partly through their own making with some bizarre pairings but also due to some inspired play from their american counterparts. That has to end, because they cannot always rely on miraculous comebacks.
a weather forecast predicting a cold, sunny and windy start will surely help. It would have been music to the ears for one Watson once upon a time, but unfortunately for america he’s the one on the sidelines captaining the team.
There’s still plenty of grounds for american optimism, however, for points from the foursomes and fourballs. You would expect Mickelson and Keegan Bradley to make a decent contribution, and Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker has a nice ring to i t. anyone beating Matt Kuchar and Jordan Spieth or Patrick Reed and Jim Furyk in foursomes will consider it a point well earned.
What McGinley will be hoping is to emerge from the team aspect on nothing worse than level terms. If europe do that, it is hard to envisage them not emerging as victors for the eighth time in 10 Ryder cups. Singles is where the big difference between these two sides should become apparent. When the americans were winning the Ryder cup for fun it was always because of their greater strength in depth. now the wheel has turned full circle.
To be fair, it’s reached that point here partly because the americans have been unlucky with absentees. look at the only men who made a contribution to their pitiful singles tally of three-and-a-half points at Medinah: dustin Johnson, Zach Johnsson, Jason dufner aand Tiger Woods.
The striking thing is three of them are not here f or one rreason or another. In oother words, there arare seven survivors whwho played in the Medinah meltdown who are here andan Zach Johnson is the only onone who didn’t lose on Sunday when it really mattered.
It gets even worse for america on closer analysis. Jim Furyk didn’t just lose in the singles last time; he hasn’t won a singles match in 10 years. Indeed, the only other player in the entire american line-up apart from Furyk and Johnson who has ever won a singles match is Mickelson.
contrast that with the europeans. Of the nine players who have competed in the Ryder cup previously, all nine have shown their mettle on Sunday and won singles matches. The american team combined have played a total of 29 singles matches over the years, and won just 10. europe’s team have played only one more and yet garnered another seven points. What an advantage that might prove come the final day.
all the headlines have gone to McIlroy and Ian Poulter in the build-up and not surprisingly, given their form in past Ryder cups and form this season respectively.
But it’s the formidable yeomen who might end up deciding this encounter in the home side’s favour: the fearless triumvirate of Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson.
Before all that we have one of the great occasions to savour in any sport, and the sights and sounds surrounding the first tee on the first day. What an occasion this should be this time, as the players will emerge from a tunnel on to a first tee surrounded by the largest grandstand to ever grace the opening hole of a golf event.
There will be plenty of noise. There were some who wondered whether the reverence in which american captain Tom Watson is held in these parts — he won four of his five Open titles in Scotland — would dilute the atmosphere. Well, the gala concert before 12,000 people in Glasgow on Wednesday night rather answered that one.
When Watson was introduced, more people got to their feet to welcome him than they did for McGinley. But when he said he was here to take the cup back home with him, the booing almost knocked him off stage. Trust the Scots to get their priorities spot on when it comes to golf.
and so the Ryder cup has come home, to the place where the first i nternational golf match was played, between Britain and america in 1921. The home side won that one 9-3.
It will probably be much closer than that but they should win this one as well.