Furyk’s gruesome twosome let the side down again
Woods’ pairings folded like Donald Trump casinos
with 22 losses in his 11 instalments. The next worst? Woods, whose 21 defeats have come in four fewer editions. The only outcome surer than a home victory on this stage is that the two greatest players of their generation will crash and burn.
Europe’s winning margin stood at seven points, six of which, from the US perspective, could be blamed on the gruesome twosome. Even by their own dismal Ryder Cup standards, Woods and Mickelson were hopelessly off-key here, with one showing the fatigue wrought by a hard-earned comeback on tour and the other spraying his tee-shots like a callow rookie. For once, Mickelson’s patented perma-grin could not mask the wretchedness of his play.
There was one small mercy for which captain Jim Furyk could be grateful. Mickelson had memorably laid the blame for US failure at Gleneagles in 2014 at the feet of Tom Watson, the elderstatesman leader, but resisted any such defenestration of Furyk, a close personal friend of his. “This is an awesome team and we had phenomenal leadership,” said Mickelson, belying the pain as he beamed behind a pair of aviator shades. “You might question some of the decisions, but everything was done with reason and input. The Europeans flat-out beat us on the course.”
Woods, typically, was rather less effusive. The misery of his week, in which partnerships with Patrick Reed and Bryson Dechambeau folded like Donald Trump casinos, was etched all across his gloomy expression. “I went 0-and-4, so it’s very disappointing,” he shrugged. “It doesn’t feel very good. I didn’t help my team-mates.” But this shellacking went far beyond the shortcomings of two men who have consistently struggled to translate individual brilliance into collective glory. Furyk also deserves to have his choices called into question.
Take his wildcards, for a start. He decided to bestow them upon Woods, Mickelson, Dechambeau and Tony Finau, who between them garnered just two points of a possible 12, the most abject return by any set of captain’s picks since this event began.
Where to start with his pairings, too? Manacling Woods with Reed served only to emasculate the talismanic “Captain America” who spearheaded the US triumph at Hazeltine two years ago. In the company of his childhood idol, Reed looked tentative and overawed. Naturally, there were factors beyond Furyk’s control, not least the ragged form of world No 1 Dustin Johnson, who could and should have played true to his billing but who was cut down to size by Ian Poulter.
But if he cared to reflect upon the full 18-month sweep of his captaincy, Furyk would be unlikely to go full Edith Piaf in his insistence on zero regrets. Why, for example, did more of his players not bother to turn up for the French Open this summer, to allow themselves a foretaste of Le Golf National in all its quirkiness? Most, turning up cold to a course that had been carefully tailored to European preferences, simply looked befuddled.
More fundamentally, the scale of this thrashing casts an unflattering light upon the entire US system of approaching Ryder Cups. After a third loss on the spin at Gleneagles, the Americans moved to what they called a “Task Force” model,