Golf Tidbits: Why the Europeans won the Ryder Cup

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – The Europeans have won three straight Ryder Cups and six of the last seven after they cruised to victory over the weekend.

Do they have a secret formula? The American players and some of the American press would lead you to believe that is that case.

Winning captain Paul McGinley said on Sunday, “There’s no special secret.” Of course, he was referring to the Europeans’ domination in foursomes play at Gleneagles, which led them to a 16 1/2 – 11 1/2 win at the 40th Ryder Cup.

His team won seven of the eight possible points in the two foursomes sessions, and that was one of the major reasons they won the Cup, again.

If the Americans had been able to split the foursomes matches, 4-4 instead of 7-1 in favor of the Europeans, the Americans would have won their first Ryder Cup in Europe since 1993.

Foursomes, as opposed to fourballs, is the harder of the two formats. Yet, the Europeans combined to post a 19-under par score in the two sessions. The Americans? They were 4-over par.

Game. Set. Match.

If you lose two sessions by a combined 23 strokes, there is no way you’re going to win either session or garner more than a single point, which came via a pair of halves.

The Europeans were roughly 94-under par, including concessions, for the tournament. The Americans were approximately 74-under par.

Just another reason the Europeans won another Ryder Cup.

The Europeans did enough in the first seven matches on Sunday that only one of the last five meant anything. That was the 10th match to tee off, which was the eighth to finish and that was the clinching point for Europe.

In the first seven matches of Sunday, the United States had 19 birdies on the front nine, which helped them grab the early lead in several matches. The Europeans countered with 19 birdies and an eagle on the back nine, which helped them erased those early deficits.

As McGinley intimated, there is no secret formula. The secret is just playing better golf.

“We talked about it in the team room (Saturday) night, it doesn’t matter if you’re 4-up or 4-down, try to win the next hole,” Graeme McDowell said of what pushed him on Sunday.

That’s an apt description of what several European players did on Sunday.

The teams both had four players ranked in the top 10 in the world. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy was a fairly pedestrian 2-1-2 for the week, yet his three points nearly matched that of the top-four ranked Americans.

McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose are ranked in the top six in the world, and they combined for a 10-3-5 record this week.

The Americans top four? Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar and Rickie Fowler, who are ranked between fourth and 10th in the world, posted a 2-11-3 mark for the week.

The Europeans’ top four had 12 1/2 points, 1 1/2 shy of them retaining the Ryder Cup and two short of then winning the Cup outright. The top-four Americans’ 3 1/2 points were about 30 percent of their team total.

There are many ways and plenty of statistics to describe the reason Europe won the Ryder Cup for the eighth time in 10 tries.

Good golf, plenty of birdies and not nearly as many bogeys as the Americans are chief among them.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR EUROPE?

Do they really need to change anything? Doesn’t seem that way. The Europeans dominated the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

McGinley, the captain, left Luke Donald and his 10-4-1 career Ryder Cup record at home.

He overlooked Joost Luiten, who would have been playing his first Ryder Cup, as well as Francesco Molinari and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Sure, those two are 2-11-5 combined in their five Ryder Cup appearances, but Jimenez was there as a vice captain for a third time this week.

He might not help the Europeans as a player at the Ryder Cup, but Europe is 3-0 with Jimenez as a vice captain. Jimenez is 50 years old and maybe too old by some people’s standards to be captain when the next Ryder Cup rolls around.

But the beloved Jimenez would be tough to overlook as a future captain.

If they do pass over the Spaniard, there are plenty of options. Thomas Bjorn, who would be 45 in 2016, has been on the tournament committee for the European Tour recently and would be another popular pick.

If those two are on the outside looking in on the selection process, there is little doubt that Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood will lead the European Ryder Cup team in the future.

Clarke is 46 and outside of Jimenez seemingly the odds-on favorite to lead the 2016 European team.

If the Europeans had that pesky rule that the Americans have about their captain being a former major champion, that would remove Jimenez, Bjorn and Westwood from that list, which would make selecting a captain a little harder.

The Europeans have plenty going for them at the Ryder Cup. Several players with great records in the event and plenty of solid potential future captains.

MINI-TIDBITS

– The Europeans had seven players with winning records at Gleneagles. Two of them – Rose and McDowell – were undefeated as they combined for a 6-0-2 mark.

– Paul McGinley’s captains picks – Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood – went 2-5-2 for the week. They earned the same amount as the American captains picks, but did have one more loss.

Categorized in: PGA