September 30th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
How do you figure the US is going to lose?
September 30th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^
Because all the Europeans need to do is get to 14 and US needs to get to 14 1/2. I won't go as far to say that the US will lose like the OP did, but it's probably going to come down to the last 2 groups.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:02 PM ^
Yes, I understand that. I was asking how the OP figures we would lose when we already have 11, currently lead in 3 matches, and the other two are all square. I think that's a little on the fence to essentially say US defeat is imminent.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:05 PM ^
I was just going off the ridiculous momentum Europe is riding, but it looks like it's gone down a bit. I really think it's going to come down to Tiger. And Tiger should be able to dig deep and beat this Italian guy.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:43 PM ^
If tiger comes through.
September 30th, 2012 at 4:56 PM ^
Well USA isn't doing themselves any favor, but it doesn't look like they are going to lose it. Do you know how the Ryder Cup works?
Phil did what Phil does best though and choke away his match.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:01 PM ^
Yeah, but it seems very probably Europe will reach 14. I think Tiger can do it, but don't have the same confidence in Stricker and Dufner.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:01 PM ^
Well....If Stricker can find a way not to lose that puts us in good shape...but he has been putting like poop all weekend long so I'm not so sure.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
It's going to come down to Tiger....
September 30th, 2012 at 5:34 PM ^
Europe will win fact...
September 30th, 2012 at 5:35 PM ^
I want the U.S. to win, but the European team has played great.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
This should be a great finish that is for sure.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
Last two groups, golfers are a combined 0-9 this week. Clash of the Titans!!
September 30th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
It's over, Europe owned it up today.
September 30th, 2012 at 5:55 PM ^
Stricker fails yet again...he needs to jump on a plane and get the hell out of chicago as fast as he can.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
I think he lives in Illinois. He's an Illini anyway
September 30th, 2012 at 7:04 PM ^
Stricker is a Wisconsinite.
September 30th, 2012 at 8:15 PM ^
Cheesehead
September 30th, 2012 at 5:56 PM ^
The U.S. simply did not execute when it came to crunch time. Europe has just seemed to have had a certain confidence about themselves the last few Ryder Cups that pisses me off, while our guys back down from adversity.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:01 PM ^
Stricker and Furyk pretty much sunk our chances.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:53 PM ^
give credit to Rose, he sunk 3 big putts on the last 3 holes to turnaround his match. Without that, the US wins.
I will say Furyk and Stricker were painful to watch on the greens, they out thought themselves all day. No rythym or trust in their instincts, every putt read looked like an excercise in calculus.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:14 PM ^
Nice work Stricker....take your ass home.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:16 PM ^
Great comeback, great collapse. Congrats to Europe.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:28 PM ^
Europe deserved it. Fun event to watch.
September 30th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
I guess
September 30th, 2012 at 6:56 PM ^
what a kick in the stomach... Americans blew a great chance to bring it home...
September 30th, 2012 at 7:14 PM ^
Nothing like a good ol fashioned come from ahead loss. I think this event matters to the European players a little bit more. Maybe they are used to playing those games more? Who knows.. Good event tho
September 30th, 2012 at 7:42 PM ^
Based on the intensity of the Americans, the hype of the crowd, and the fact that the US has withered in quite a few of the recent Cups, I would say that each side sees this as a "war" that needs to be won in order to establish some golfing legitimacy - even the way the course was prepared showed serious thought toward ending the European dominance of the past twenty years.
It isn't easy to explain what happens to the Americans in these events - a hyper-individualism, self-focussed culture, whatever, but they certainly had a difficult time handling the pressure after the mini-meltdown of yesterday afternoon.
Who knows?
September 30th, 2012 at 7:36 PM ^
In the end that is all that matters to me when it comes to golf. I'm a big fan of half the European team.
September 30th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
Me too. I root for the US more because they have won been dominated since the turn of the century rather than being a US citizen myself. There are golfers I love on both sides, as well as ones I'm not fond of. If the US reels off 3-4 in a row, I'll probably root for the Europeans.
September 30th, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^
Sounds like you should move to Canada then.
September 30th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
Great golf. Medinah was spectacular as well. A major needs to go back there ASAP.
September 30th, 2012 at 10:41 PM ^
in returning to Medinah. However PGA Championship venues are booked through 2018. The USGA has its Open booked through 2019. The Open at Medinah in 1990 was outstanding.
PGA Championship
Oakhill, Valhalla, Whistling Straits, Baltusrol, Quail Hollow, Bellerive
US OPEN
Merion, Pinehurst, Chambers Bay, Oakmont, Erin Hills, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach
September 30th, 2012 at 10:19 PM ^
pick than Furyk. Guy choked all season long.
October 1st, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
Def agree furyk choked it away and last Ryder cup we saw Fowler down 4 w/ 4 to get a huge halve which would have won the cup if not for a huge win by McDowell with the Mahan choke
September 30th, 2012 at 11:46 PM ^
In Ryder cup history by the US team. They literally had this in the bag going into the final day. Mickelson was a disgrace, act like you want to win.
October 1st, 2012 at 1:33 AM ^
his thumbs up to Rose were like whistling through the graveyard. He had the cockiest 'we got this' look on his face like he had no idea what was going on.
Mickelson choked away a US Open on that same stretch of holes 16, 17, 18
October 1st, 2012 at 2:02 PM ^
Wether Mickelson was being "sporting" when he applauded the spectacular put on 17(?) made by his opponent, and some of his other shots, or if he just didn't give darn and was there just to have fun. (EU guys clearly were there to win.) Color-guy Miller noted that almost the entire US team melted down on 16-18 that afternoon and lost those holes. I think some of that is due to, frankly, age of the US players, as in the case of Furyk, and maybe Mickelson (who we all know from the commercials is battling arthritis), both of whom faded in the stretch. I watched most of Sunday, and it seemed as if the entire EU team got hot putters, and the US got cold. Also, it seemed as if the EU players were constantly hitting the green inside of the US players. Poulter hit several incredible approach shots to stay in the game and compensate for his erratic tee shots. With maybe a couple exceptions, team USA looked flat on Sunday.
October 1st, 2012 at 12:51 AM ^
I listened to Monty do the Euro commentary on satellite. He rooted for the Euros with a passion that is rarely seen in a US golfer. What happened Sunday is exactly what has been happening to the US tour for the last five years: their working class players beat our country club brats because they wanted it more. They were desperate and the US wasn't.
There is no excuse for not being able to get 4-1/2 points in 12 matches, especially when singles is supposed to be the main strength of the US team. This is the biggest choke job in the history of the Ryder Cup.
October 1st, 2012 at 1:01 AM ^
please. every player on both sides is doing very well.
this year, Europe sent a young. hungry bunch. we lost because our old line guys (Tiger, Furyk, Stricker) couldnt win squat.
October 1st, 2012 at 10:39 AM ^
the veterans: Woods, Stricker and Furyk. And even Phil (who was carried by Kegan to win 3 points) failed the team on Sunday when it mattered most.
They all have bad Ryder Cup records and are largely responsible for the US's terrible record over the last 16 years. Yet for some reason, DL3 thought it would good to use his captains picks on 2 of them.
This team needs to go with more new blood next time. Let guys like Bradley, Simpson, Dustin, Fowler, etc lead the team going forward.
October 1st, 2012 at 11:10 AM ^
I think Stricker and Furyk deserve a lot more of the blame than Tiger or Phil. Tiger's been historically very good at singles match play (4-1-1 in the Ryder Cup, 4-2-0 in the President's Cup, 3 US Jr. Amateur wins, 3 US Amateur wins, and 3 WGC Match Play wins), and his match yesterday was rendered meaningless when he was 1-up going into the 18th hole (yes, he ended up halving the match, but holding that half against him is just finding a reason to pile on the guy - whether it's 14-14 or 13.5-14.5, the US loses). Phil played very well with Keegan in the team events, and Rose did more to win that match than Phil did to lose.
Stricker and Furyk, however, did absolutely nothing. They blew it down the stretch by hitting some really bad shots and being worthless on the greens. Stricker did absolutely nothing in the four-ball matches with Tiger (Woods' birdie barrage on the back 9 in both matches made them competitive, Stricker was just awful). Granted, Tiger wasn't very good in the foursome match he played with Stricker (both, frankly, sucked real bad), but that match wasn't the reason the US lost.
People see Tiger out there and expect him to hit nothing but perfect shots and reel off 10+ birdies a round and win all of his matches regardless of the situation, and when he makes a mistake people love to pile on the guy. The US had the advantage throughout the singles matches, but nobody played well outside of Dufner and the Johnsons. Keegan had an opportunity to put a dagger to McIlroy (think of the pressure on Rory if he went down quickly after being so late to the course), but got nothing going in his round. Bubba was too worried about getting the crowd going that he hit a lot of indifferent looking shots from 30 yards in front of Donald (seriously, every time NBC showed a segment from their match, Donald is sitting half as far from the pin as Bubba, and had to use 4 clubs more to get there). Snedeker had a gift matchup against Lawrie and did nothing with it. Webb got up on Poulter early but didn't keep his foot down and let Poulter get momentum.
Frankly, I'm somewhat surprised that Love didn't back-load his lineup to get the hotter guys (Lefty, Bradley, Watson, Simpson) against the weaker Euros since he only needed 4.5 points and had to know that Olazabal was putting his big guns out first. Sacrifice Stricker and Furyk to McIlroy and Poulter in the hopes that Bradley and Simpson can take out Garcia and Kaymer.
October 1st, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^
the lone US win recently was in 2008 when Tiger was off the team.
October 1st, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
The 2008 Euro team for the Ryder Cup was awful. Hansen, Wilson, and Casey were really weak players. McDowell wasn't the player he is today (the 2008 Ryder Cup was two years before his US Open win, and he had 4 career wins in 6 years at the time). Jimenez was the Stricker of that team, and older guy who was probably in over his head in a match play event where birdies rule the day. Karlsson hadn't won an event anywhere in the world two years prior to that Ryder Cup except for the week immediately before. The US team wasn't great either, but if Tiger isn't injured he takes the place of Campbell or Holmes, and the US still wins that Ryder Cup.
This year's European team had maybe 4 guys who I'd consider weak right now - Lawrie, Hanson, Kaymer, and Molinari - none of them won a team match. Everyone else on the team is either an excellent player (Donald, McIlroy, Westwood, Rose are all in the OWGR Top 5) or has a history of being a great Ryder Cup player (Garcia, Poulter, McDowell). Or was Colsaerts (who was absolutely ridiculous with the flat stick in the afternoon fourball Friday against Woods/Stricker) - I think he's the European Dustin Johnson, a guy who can hit it for miles and has a fairly decent short game that's really overlooked because of his power.
Also, about this year - with Love setting up the course to play to the main US advantage (power), it makes the Stricker and Furyk picks look even more questionable. I don't think Fowler is a great player by any stretch, but he's got way more pop and actually won a tournament this year (unlike Furyk; Stricker did win but in a small-field event at the beginning of the year). Even Hunter Mahan (despite his ridiculous choke at the 2010 Ryder Cup; plus he did win the WGC Match Play event earlier this year over McIlroy) would have been a better pick. Maybe guys like Kyle Stanley or Bill Haas.
October 1st, 2012 at 11:49 AM ^
I concur