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PARIS – We use analysis much better to understand sport. It is easier to examine the data and to explain why something is constantly happening. It is also a welcome antidote for many very stupid catches.
Some things, however, remain a mystery.
Some things are difficult or impossible to quantify.
For example: Why does the United States sting every time the Ryder Cup goes to Europe?
Twenty-five years is not bad luck, it's a trend that spans a generation. The last time the United States won this event in Europe, Raymond Floyd was the best player in the US, with three points. He is currently 76 years old. Why two and a half decades have passed with the same frustrating results?
Let's go, are we going?
1. For whatever reason, this event makes Deadly Tiger Woods.
In addition, its partners seem generally hesitant. No data can explain it. It's like an enigma that might not have an answer.
Why can not one understand this? Is it because his father, Earl, has never focused on team golf when he was raising a prodigy to dominate? Is it because American golfers of every generation are too scared to be around the biggest Alpha Wolf in the game?
Do not tell me it's just a matter of bad luck, or just how the ball bounces sometimes in match play. This event is Tiger's kryptonite. The only thing that changes is the place. It was so early in his career, at the peak of his career and now at the twilight of his career.
Europe started the second day with a two-point lead. He stretched the four-point margin, leaving the Americans in a deep and deep hole before Sunday's singles.
The United States spent a lot of time developing a formula that worked so well two years ago at Hazeltine. So why delete it this time in France?
The United States is down four points. Only once before, he came back from far behind. This is what happens on the decisive day at Golf National.
2 related
The United States has spent a lot of time trying to find the right partner for Tiger, but at some point you have to step back and look at the big picture. It has worked badly with his friends, his enemies, his stars and his companions. It did not work well with long hitters, good fairway finders, excellent putters, old and young. Sometimes it is on them, other times, it has been. Usually, it's a mix of both.
Here is a difficult and uncomfortable truth: it is the thread of all this.
Of course, it's not Woods' fault. Patrick Reed was awful this week. Reed, despite all his bragging past, was the worst player of the Americans in France. On Saturday morning, Reed found almost as many water obstacles on the tee as the fairways. But when Woods was finally released from Reed in the Saturday afternoon foursome, the result was no different. Bryson DeChambeau and he seemed equally apathetic and uncompetitive.
Woods has now lost seven consecutive the teams face off during the Ryder Cup, raising his career record in the 9-17-1 event with a partner. He has been such an important figure in the growth of golf in America that we can not resist looking for apologies for him. (It was just not his day! Or … decade!) But be honest: it makes no sense that the Michael Jordan of American golf does not seem to be able to find his Scottie Pippen, nor even a Steve Kerr or John Paxson will pick him up at important times.
But that's where we are. It seems too late to change now. Woods has already said that no one remembers the Jack Nicklaus record in the Ryder Cup, and he's right. It will not be his legacy. But it will be a footnote in his legacy, and it's a disappointment.
2. Americans on the PGA Tour play too much golf, and when you take away that, they find it difficult to adapt collectively.
I know what you think: Wait, most of the European team players do not play the bomb? Some of them (like Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm), but none of their best Ryder Cup players are cut from this cloth.
Watch Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari, who are 4-0 this week and who have completely tormented the Americans with a precision shot. Watch Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson. None of them had a good season on the PGA Tour, but put them on a course whose accuracy is more important than the length, and suddenly they look like the best versions of theirs. youth.
It must be remembered that the PGA Tour, where almost all young American golfers have reached the age of maturity, is an entertainment activity. The Tour has decided (perhaps rightly) that fans want to see golfers hit the ball far and far away from the tee and not be severely punished for that tie. This is what the players like too, because they want to make birdies, not peers. But this week is a welcome reminder: the way in which modern courses must fight against excessive distance gains is not to lengthen the course, but to pinch the fairways, to create strategic obstacles to the water and to raise the bar until the surface is so thick that you can not touch the green if you miss the fairway.
The PGA Tour, without excuses, regales its players. This is not like other sports. They are the product, not the work. If the players do not like the configuration of a course, they will complain about it until it is modified. If this is not the case, they will skip this event.
Every four years, Europe will play a leading role when the Ryder Cup comes here. It's a life in professional golf. Americans do not have an incentive to change. Their team qualifies for the Ryder Cup by playing (mostly) American courses, and the American courses reward the type of golf that does not play well in Europe.
There will always be exceptions (Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are so talented that they can adapt), but that is not enough. The way Americans play their role on the team is in the hands of Europe. There will always be horses for golf lessons. Maybe the PGA of America should have six captain's choice for each Ryder Cup played by the United States in Europe and declare one year in advance that it has full discretion to choose from the players who play golf from European style.
3. Americans are too eager to need a partner or balloon to feel comfortable.
Ask yourself this: Have you, in 25 years, ever heard European players talk about how they would like to be matched with someone because they both play the same golf ball?
Justin Rose and Stenson do not play the same ball. Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia do not play the same ball. Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke did not play the same ball. These are some of the most successful Ryder Cup couples in recent history, but they were not married either. European captains have always been able to exchange them according to their game or their fatigue. This gives them great flexibility in knowing that there will never be mutiny.
It may sound like a small thing, but it's another example of how American players have convinced themselves that everything must be as close to normal as possible to perform well in this event. You do not need to play with your friends to play golf properly. Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth were not really good friends when they played together well at Gleneagles. They hardly knew each other. But we have the impression that Jim Furyk was separated from this pair because Spieth and Thomas really wanted to play together. It was a good move for Spieth and Thomas, but it left Reed looking lost all week.
4. American golf can not help but think that all members of the team must play before Sunday.
Imagine if, in the NBA, you suggested attending Kevin Durant or LeBron James during a half day of the NBA finals, because you felt that you had to give the 12th person on the bench the chance to see him. opportunity to contribute? People looked at you like you were crazy. But that's exactly what happens in the Ryder Cup.
It does not matter if you do not play someone before the simple Sunday does not suit the course. Or the format. If Bubba Watson qualifies again for a Ryder Cup team, especially if she is in Europe, he should sit until Sunday. Tell him to treat Sunday as if it was the first round of the Masters and all he has to do is go out and shoot an excellent score. Do not worry about team events because it's just not for them. Nothing personal, but it's the best thing for the team: flying Spieth, Thomas and Koepka.
The captains seem to be afraid to do this because European captain Mark James did it in 1999, sitting in front of Jean van de Velde, Jarmo Sandelin and Andrew Coltart until the singles change, and they all lost against the United States. Do you know what nobody's talking about? This same strategy has allowed Europe to take a 10-6 lead. James rode his best players and almost led them to a huge setback.
American captains do not do it for two reasons: they do not want to hurt anyone, and it would be easy to tear the captain if it went wrong. (James was severely criticized when the move returned to Brookline.) But guess what: they'll get scammed after a defeat. If the United States fails another miracle, Furyk will become a seer for movements that did not work, even if they made sense at the time.
If Tiger Woods is part of the team in 2022, either as a captain's choice or as an automatic qualifier, the best way to use it might be an assistant captain for two days, tracking groups with a writing strategy. Then let him go out as a single player on Sunday.
This is worth at least worth taking into account, right? Nothing else seems to work.
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