US count on young guns to break the curse of defeat
While Europe are steeped in success, Love’s side seek inspiration to end losing streak in the most eagerly awaited Ryder Cup in memory, writes James Corrigan
They are paying for the swings of their fathers. The young Americans come into this, the 41st version of the Ryder Cup, being told – no, “ordered” – to make up for the failings of those who went before. It is not their debt, but it is their burden.
Jordan Spieth explained the unfairness of it all perfectly here this week. Here he is, a 23-year-old who won 2½ out of four points in his only appearance two years ago. He has a winning percentage, but is typecast, like all Americans in the Ryder Cup, as a loser.
“Honestly, I think we’re just tired of being told that we haven’t won in a while,” Spieth said. “I’ve only played on one and I felt like Patrick [Reed] and I made a good team at Gleneagles. We’re actually very successful in our own right. But this is a team. There are ways that we both could have improved to be better in what we did and everybody has to take part and do their job in order to have the cup at the end.”
Reed is similarly bemused by the demands placed at his door, as if this is a problem of his own making. He looks at the infamous task force set up in the wake of the Gleneagles humiliation and plainly wonders why. As Phil Mickelson tore into Tom Watson at the postmatch press conference in 2014, bemoaning the lack of player involvement in the decisionmaking, Reed sat at that interview table and recognised the absurdity of blame in a record that reads three straight losses, six defeats in seven.
“As I watched the confrontation at the press conference, I decided that none of the drama matters,” Reed said. “It all comes down to playing good golf. Regardless of who the captain is, who you partner with or when, if you don’t play well, you’re not going to win. As the pain of that defeat sank in, the solution – simply playing better – seemed obvious to me.”
Reed won 3½ out of four points in Perthshire. He is unbeaten and should be unbowed. But when he enters the team room, all he will hear is what they have to do to fix the fault. What fault? Reed and Spieth were marvellous on their only start; the team should be looking to them for inspiration.
Instead, they call on the characters who created this stench of defeat.
Consider Davis Love’s backroom staff. Jim Furyk, the former world No2, has played in nine Ryder Cups and been on the losing side seven times. He has lost more matches (20) than any American and nobody from his country has lost more foursomes (eight) or more fourballs (eight). Furyk’s record resembles a charge sheet, with Medinah four years ago his most notable crime.
But then, he is in good company. Steve Stricker has played in three and lost two and at Medinah conspired to lose all four of his matches. Imagine that.
He was playing with Tiger Woods, the greatest of all time, and they managed to lose three out of three.
Woods is another of Love’s assistants here and so is another enlisted to dish out the inspiration. Woods has played in seven matches and been on the winning side just once.
It has not been a case of Woods being let down by the mortals. This sporting god has been as culpable as anyone. He has lost more matches than he has won. How is it possible that a player with 14 major titles has been beaten 18 times in 33 matches? How is it possible that an athlete of his talent actually felt obliged to apologise to the rookies in the 2012 team, so abject was his contribution? And how is it possible that Love can talk about the positivity Woods brings to his new role? “Do not do as we did, do as we say.” That should be the US management team’s motto. And they certainly have the shop steward there to enforce it. Mickelson, the mutineer in chief, has something of a cheek to get all high and mighty. He has been in 10 teams and won just twice. Only Furyk has lost more matches. So, feel for the rookies, the young lions who are being led by Ryder Cup donkeys. If the US are to break the curse – and any neutral must surely pray they do – then it will be down to this brave new guard. It is not just Spieth and Reed but the supreme Dustin Johnson fronting up the boy band which includes Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler. They have a few veterans who punch above their weight, namely Zach Johnson, an Open and Masters champion. In J B Holmes they have a would-be hero who has come back from brain surgery. Holmes is that rarest of things – an American with an unbeaten record, having won 2½ out of three points in 2008, the only time the US have won this century. That is where Love should extract the incentive. Paul Azinger’s team were underdogs and played with the freedom and fight of underdogs. There were no claims to greatness, as, quite ridiculously, there have been here; simply the passion to prevail. It is the European way and the Americans have been desperate to tap into it before and since. Again they will try this week.
Their challenge is what makes this the most eagerly awaited Ryder Cup in living memory. Love’s shot at redemption is the central plot. The ‘Miracle of Medinah’ burns in his heart as he recalls his side somehow losing from 10-4 up on the Saturday afternoon. A lovely, kind-hearted man, it would be so painful for Love to be humbled once more, but it is a very real possibility, despite what Johnny Miller might say about this being “the worst Europe team in many years”.
Darren Clarke pointed out that his team boast the Masters champion (Danny Willett), the Open champion (Henrik Stenson), the Olympic champion (Justin Rose) and the newly crowned Fed-Ex champion (Rory McIlroy). These truly are a garlanded bunch of duds.
And in Clarke’s backroom, there is only Ryder Cup success. Sam Torrance holed the winning putt in 1985 which got this whole blueand-gold fairy tale started, while it has been rumoured that Ian Poulter has done one or two things in the biennial dust-up. They have veterans such as Lee Westwood and Sergio García who have volume upon volume of celebratory Ryder Cup scrapbooks.
The six rookies have so much experience on which to draw and so many examples to follow. While Spieth and Reed have nowhere to look but within, Matt Fitzpatrick and the rest of Europe’s brat pack have expertise all around them. And that is what will make this contest all the more delicious.
Does the Ryder Cup need a US win? Perhaps. But the more the Stars and Stripes have struggled, the more the event has flourished. It is a veritable plus-foured David and Goliath and nobody, not even a country which hates being dominated as much as America, can resist such a match-up.
Only this time, Goliath has a task force. What can possibly go wrong?
Nobody can resist this... it is a plus-foured David and Goliath