Old hands looking their age suddenly
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The European Ryder Cup team must feel as if it’s starring in the bizzaro world episode of “Seinfeld.”
The past two days of the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits have represented an alternate universe for the Europeans. Everything that once was … is no longer.
More often than not in these matches, for the better part of the past two decades, it has been the Europeans partying like frat brothers, basking in the glow of victory and sipping beverages from that 17-inch golf chalice called the Ryder Cup.
Yet there were Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger, around lunchtime on Saturday between the morning and afternoon sessions, chugging cans of beer on the first tee to the delight of the 3,000 fans surrounding them in the grandstands. Thomas spiked his empty with such emphasis it would have made Rob Gronkowski proud.
Whereas once it was the European team renting space inside the heads of the U.S. players and captains, the whole damn thing has flipped this week and it has been the Europeans who’ve been left to desperately search for answers while the Americans are playing free and loose instead of playing not to lose.
Perhaps Team USA captain and Wisconsin native Steve Stricker has finally uncorked the magic elixir all those captains before him had been searching for.
So far, Stricker has pushed all the right buttons this week — as has usually been the case through the years for Europe.
Inside the European team room, captain Padraig Harrington has been scrambling to find the right combination of players to send out for matches and not get- ting the results.
The whole thing has looked a lot like 2018, the last time the Ryder Cup was played, outside of Paris. That time, U.S. captain Jim Furyk did everything he could to put his players in position to succeed but continually was let down by their performance.
Put simply, when Europe was winning four of the past five Ryder Cups and nine of the past 12, it has had the better team in better form that week.
It was that way in 2018, when Europe won 17 ½ to 10 ½ as U.S. veterans failed to come through. Tiger Woods took an 0-for-4 collar, Phil Mickelson was 0-2, Dustin Johnson was 1-3, Bryson DeChambeau was 0-3 and Brooks Koepka was 1-2-1. Even Patrick “Captain America’’ Reed was 1-2.
Europe, meanwhile was introducing new stars who were blossoming and delivering points and partying like rock stars in victory. Francesco Molinari was 5-0 and Tommy Fleetwood was 4-1. They were 4-0 as partners and nicknamed “Moliwood.’’
Molinari is not on the team this year, with his form having sagged, and Fleetwood hasn’t had the same Ryder Cup mojo he had three years ago.
This week has been all about the introduction of six U.S. rookies, all of whom have contributed. Instead of being liabilities because of inexperience, the Americans rookies are a remarkable 11-2-1 entering the singles.
Rookies Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who are 2-0 and 3-0, respectively, look as if they’re going to be the backbone of the U.S. side for the next decade.
“One thing we all have in common is we all hate losing,’’ the stoic Cantlay said.
The U.S. team, which clung to the older guard perhaps a year or so too long, has made the transition to youth, to a group of players with no scar tissue from the run of defeats to Europe.
Now, in the alternate universe, it’s the Europeans who appear to have hung onto their veterans one Ryder Cup too long. Perennial stalwarts Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, for all the great things they’ve done for Team Europe, seem to have lost their fastballs in these matches.
Westwood, playing in his record-tying 11th Ryder Cup, has lost his past six matches, dating to 2014.
Poulter, for so long the heartbeat of the European team, entered the week with a stout 14-6-2 career record. But he’s 0-2 this week and 2-5-2 since he went 4-0 in 2012, when he was the Lord of Medinah. Paul Casey, who’s 44, is 0-3 this week and has a 1-5-3 record in his past three Ryder Cups.
Bottom line: The Americans are simply better than the Europeans now with a team in form at the right time — much the way it used to be for Europe while it on its run.
And they’re having a blast — just as the Europeans are so used to having in these Ryder Cups.
When a reporter probed Stricker for a negative reaction about Thomas and Berger chugging those brews, Stricker said: “To be quite frank with you, it looks like they are having a good time and enjoying the experience. We get ridiculed for being too tight and all that, and then we do something like that where it looks like our team is together and having a good time and trying to get with the crowd. “I thought it was great.’’’ Good answer.