Ryder Cup 2018: How Team USA will end its 25 years of drought in Europe

Jim Furyk was beside himself, unable to describe what had gone wrong in a press conference that was getting out of hand.

"We were a little disappointed, and you know, five of you have already asked me tonight what is the winning formula and what is the difference year after year," Furyk said. "If I could put my finger on it, I would have changed that shit a long time ago."

It is rare, if not unpublished, that Furyk embarks on a microphone for the public to hear. But he was beaten and upset after the United States ended up in Scotland at the 2014 Ryder Cup. It was the US's eighth loss in 10 cups and the most spectacular failure of the tournament. American part.

The press conference at which Phil Mickelson flew a bus over Captain Tom Watson, the PGA of America and the entire US team over the issue was at the heart of the press conference. Furyk. biennial competition of match play.

It's been four years and 25 years since the Americans won a Ryder Cup on European soil, where the most unique event, the most intense and the best is in 2018. So who is the person? at the American point in Paris? Who is responsible for "changing this shit" and ending the 25 years of drought in Europe? Why it's Jim Furyk!

Photo of Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images

The good news for American fans is that a lot has changed for the United States since Furyk could not "put its finger on" this winning formula in 2014. It took 25 years, but states United States put an end to this drought in Europe. Let's go back to the American misery in Europe which pushed us towards this break in 2014, and what is different this time around.

Tiger Woods is back! And he cares more than ever!

The beginnings of the Tiger Ryder Cup came to Europe in 1997 in Spain, where the United States lost to begin this long drought on European soil. He was world No. 2 and was coming out of a season where he won this first green jacket. But he continued his lead (1-3-1) and finished with a single-sided defeat to Constantino Rocca while the United States lost a point on Sunday.

Since that beginning, the Ryder Cup has had a difficult history. This is partly the fault of Tiger, and some of the rubbish he has seen over the past 20 years.

In 1999, his commitment to the event was called into question when he joined a faction of young American players interviewed to find out where all the money generated by this party was going. The players did not receive money from an event that, at the time, generated $ 63 million for the PGA of America. David Duval called the Ryder Cup "big business" and Woods, along with Mark O-Meara, also championed some of those profits that needed to be redirected to the players, who argued that they should be able to donate some of it to their charities of choice.

"I would like us to receive the corresponding amount, be it $ 200,000, $ 300,000, $ 400,000, $ 500,000, and I think we should be able to keep the money and do what we want," he said. said Tiger.

Simply raising this issue has exacerbated the older generation. Some laughably invoked their intention of "dying for their country", so playing for free at the Ryder Cup was not easy. Captain Ben Crenshaw said, "I'm very excited to hear some of their points of view." Another veteran, Tom Lehman, added, "I'm so tired that I could just splash around.

Tiger, um, was less intense about it, saying, "It's an exhibition. It has always been.

The 1999 fights were momentarily set aside and the result was arguably the biggest victory of the US Ryder Cup. Tiger seemed to be interested in it sometimes, as illustrated by this legendary jumping photo, but Payne Stewart still had to pull him off the bed to celebrate with the rest of the team late at night.

In 2002, on his second trip to Europe, Tiger sparked another controversy, stating that his American Express Championship win the week before the Ryder Cup was more important than the team competition for "a million reasons." tried to push him away and said that he was joking, but the avalanche of burning critics followed.

In 2006, Tiger was solidly established as a "team leader". But, along with a few other famous Americans, he was not on the flight of the team to Dublin, meeting the team separately. Tiger was already in Europe, taking an unsatisfactory Ryder Cup between a World Match Play event and a WGC. After losing in the match play, Tiger chose to stay in London and participate in a match between Chelsea and Liverpool, while Jim Furyk, who also lost in the match play, went on the homepage in Ireland to train.

Even Tiger Woods, at the height of his power, could not have coached his team in 2006. Years later, the team's photo, which included Brett Wetterich, JJ Henry and Vaughn Taylor, for no reason. to name a few, would become one of those nostalgias most recognized for his infamy.

His team was awful, but the appearance of Tiger a day later than Furyk fueled criticism that he had not really given priority to this event. A week after Europe smoked its US team from 18.5 to 9.5, matching the record-breaking Euro margin set two years earlier, Tiger dominated the WGC for its sixth consecutive PGA Tour victory for finish the season.

Tiger can not win matches by himself and he could never find a consistent partner while the United States continued to get kicked. The glare of 2006 came after Tiger went 0-6 on the first critical day of the previous three Ryder Cups. In total, his record is 13-17-3 and he has not played in a winning team since the return of 1999. So is it because he does not care about this thing?

Of course not. In the past, he said every game in the Ryder Cup was a big championship. But the teams he played on, especially in Europe, were not competitive. And when you are the best player in the world by a margin that the sport has never seen and you are about to be the best of all time, you will catch the heat when your team continues to be crushed . This is not an individual event, but the disappointing record of Tiger, the series of American defeats and some comments and scheduling decisions were enough for the defenders to tell them he does not engage in the Ryder Cup.

Now? In 2018? No one hate to argue that Tiger does not care about these team events. Whether it's injuries that left him out of business or a change of perspective at the end of his career, there's probably no one in American golf investing in these teams anymore. .

He asked to be part of the team as assistant captain for the last Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. From behind-the-scenes reports, he plunged into the depths and served as the leader of the American "working group" to diagnose and revise the American approach after the embarrassment of 2014. He then served as captain de facto during this 2016 victory in Hazeltine, going through all the concrete details for a whole year before the three-day matches. Davis Love III called him the "tactician" of this 2016 team. He received the same praise at the 2017 Presidents Cup. American players expressed something very shocking about how he played a leading role and how many studies he has devoted to each aspect. It is not a person sitting at home on the injured sofa who does not care about an "exposure".

After a few years in this leadership perspective, he now returns as a player after a return season that he called a "gift". Being part of the Ryder Cup team was a goal of the season and it was not chosen. He has proven himself and comes to the test after his first victory in five years.

Tiger cares so much more than ever, but he showed that a single person could not win the Ryder Cup. The good news is that unlike many other trips through the pond, hell comes with it.

A new generation of American strength

Because the United States is the deepest pro golf country in the world, it is assumed that the list is filled every two years. We tend to look at the past 25 years simply as a series of heavily favored US teams, underperforming in a dysfunctional context. But many of these teams that went to Europe during this drought were also old and bad.

This has started to change significantly and this year's team is the newest and most powerful indicator of spectacular turnover and a new core taking the reins.

The average age of this year's US team is 32, with the 42-year-old Tiger and 48-year-old Phil in the captain's selections. Their average world ranking of eight qualifying points is 9. Again, for the eight auto-qualifiers, their average world ranking is 9! Compare that to the abomination that was the list of 2006. The average age of this team was 34.17 and its average world ranking was nearly 30 years.

Of the three rows lost in Europe in 2002, 2006 and 2010, there were six players in their twenties combined. This 2018 team alone has seven.

Photo of Andrew Redington / Getty Images

And it's not as if this young nucleus had not proved itself and was unfinished. These players in their twenties? They have eight major championships among them. Untested recruits? Well, it's Justin Thomas, the world's No. 4 player, Bryson DeChambeau, the No. 7 global leader in FedExCup, and Tony Finau, who finished in the top 10. majors of the year, the ball off the tee, and is 17th in the world.

Here are the average ages and average world rankings of the last five losing teams on European soil and in 2018.

• 1997 – average age: 32.58 / average WR: 14.58
• 2002 – average age: 36.17 / average WR: 31.08
• 2006 – average age: 34.17 / average WR: 29.42
• 2010 – average age: 32.75 / average WR: 17.33
• 2014 – average age: 32.58 / average WR: 16.33
• 2018 – average age: 32 years / average WR: 11.17

This is the youngest and strongest team the United States has taken to Europe since the beginning of this drought.

Match play golf is a different animal from the typing game. The Ryder Cup is a totally different pressure cooker. This large number and world rankings do not win the games, but the fact is that these guys are extremely good golfers and we can not hurt that we have returned the list with young stallions. Europe is also full of world class players. Earning majors does not automatically mean you're an ace of the match, but it's better to take Brooks Koepka in Europe than Brett Wetterich.

The youth movement really began to take off in 2014, when the team had five players in their twenties and the rookie duo composed of Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth had become the star. Of course, you can have an infusion of young people and talents, but you must still be able to succeed. The US management of this 2014 list and these three days in Scotland have been catastrophic. These management errors are a theme of this drought that has been raging for 25 years in Europe. This year, it should change.

Trust the process

You may think that Furyk – the exasperated who said that he could not cope with the last Ryder Cup in Europe – is a bad choice to lead the team in 2018. But the US approach has changed so much since 2014 mess. The new process took a lot of power from the captain and the PGA of America, and put it in the hands of the players. Furyk was part of this review. So, instead of a new voice that comes every two years and completely changes everything that was done last time, there is more consistency, communication and a new set of reliable expectations for the players.

During this 25 year drought? Nobody knew what kind of captain or partner or approach, they went from section to section. Hal Sutton could have told Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods that they were playing together with almost no comment or understanding of how their games and equipment were incompatible. Tom Watson could abruptly abandon a predetermined strategy or alignment that the team leaned on during the week.

In 2008, the United States ended a series of three embarrassing defeats when Paul Azinger put the so-called "pod system" into play. The team of 12 people was divided into three groups of four. Your partner was essentially limited to a group of four people. The subgroups were paired according to complementary and compatible golf styles, and Azinger even studied the types of personality that he thought he should insert into each group. He also let the first three self-qualifiers that he put into a pod choose the fourth player that they wished to complete. Players knew who they were playing months in advance and did not show up this week trying to figure it out within a few days of training.

So what happened after this resounding success of 2008? Corey Pavin arrived, took the team to Europe and abandoned the entire concept of the pod, using his own ideas on how to become the captain of the group in 2010. The pod system is not a magic formula to win the Ryder Cup. There are many ways to win it. But Azinger's approach has been hailed by the players and just worked for them. Pavin, however, did not want to have anything to do with him and managed on his own, returning the script for the people who were actually hitting the plans. The United States lost to Wales and, once again, they showed general resentment over the management of the best American golfers.

Photo of Jamie Squire / Getty Images

The European success of the last 25 years is largely based on a system with a minimum of surprises on which players can count from one exercise to another. Captains step out of the ranks of assistant captains and get to know the role in at least one, and usually more, Ryder Cups before taking the high chair. There has always been empowerment of players, but not without study and research. When Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy begged Captain Paul McGinley to play together in 2014, McGinley spent the summer studying the feasibility and compatibility of such a coupling and then assembling them together. They knew weeks in advance that this was happening. McGinley also asked veteran Graeme McDowell to spend the year under the arms of French mercurial and solitary Victor Dubuisson, creating the partnership for September's success.

On the side of the United States, the captain's constant show to the captain finally reached its climax with Watson's autocratic quirks. The last captain to win on European soil simply lost his return in 2014. He beat his best players when he said he would not do it. dark with a minimum of communication.

So, Mickelson left that at the 2014 press conference and since then we've had something that looks like a predictable process. The PGA of America, which operates the Ryder Cup on the American side, has less power in the captain's choice. Players, especially Phil and Tiger, have more power, insight and control. The captain comes from the group that was largely responsible for implementing these "working group" changes. The captain also comes from the ranks of the assistant captains. Furyk was assistant in 2016 and at the Presidents Cup in 2017. There is a membership, although not as strict as Azinger, to the pod system, which has also worked so well in the American dominance of the Presidents Cup. Each pod receives an assistant captain who is assigned to him. The configuration and most voices that direct it are consistent from year to year.

This new group controlling operations and the new approach does not guarantee a victory. It could go wrong on the course. But what the United States did before did not work. Changes needed to be made and everything else would have been better. Unpredictability, lack of communication and sometimes the occasional approach of preparation work in the months leading up to the matches are no longer.

There is also some consistency in their appearance.

Look good, play well

As the wise Deion Sanders once said, "If you're beautiful, you feel good. If you feel good, you play well. "

The Ryder Cup is the rare golf event where players actually have a uniform. Well, this 25-year drought in Europe has highlighted some of the worst atrocities of the American team in the history of the event. The looks were the measure of the game on the course.

There was this deeeeeeep V sweater vest over the loose turtle collar in 2002. This 2002 team seemed to like the V-pull vest. And folds. Deep folds Large folds Wide folds Many folds.

And 2006 was pretty much a disaster from the start, when the team appeared as if the aircraft toilets had burst in the cabin. Perhaps the worst American training in the history of the event was probably the worst set of team photos in the history of team photos. The vests are now delivered with a front-back argyle. And there were folds, still a lot of wrinkles. Man, 2006 was bad in many ways.

But the worst uniform rotation in this series of winless victories in Europe probably occurred in 2010, both a form AND function disaster. There was this garish purple cardigan, which was also shaped like a vest. And that strange thing that they had been spending all week, that no one had ever seen before or since.

But the most absurd coup de grace of the Ryder Cup, perhaps the most emblematic of American dysfunction and nonsense of the simplest things, came from the infamous combination of rain 2010. In the United States, the states United States came with faulty rain suits. The costumes were these basketball-style warm-ups with stripes on the sides and a nameplate on the back. They would have been designed at the request of Captain Corey Pavin's wife, who insisted that the names and stripes 20-some meetings with the manufacturer. The problem, however, was that the seam to add these designs would puncture a bunch of holes in the fabric, which the manufacturer cautioned against in advance. But the US operation continued and the result was a weekend where players whispered to the press and complaints that the suits were not working, they were soaked and had trouble playing to golf because of that.

But, as with the captain's role, a much better system has been put in place to ensure greater consistency and better control of uniforms. Captains and their associates do not have as much power over the uni. There is now an official partner in the manufacturing process of uniforms and related weather equipment every two years. They remain consistent, respecting the drawings with variants of red, white and blue. It's simple and logical and looks good, relatively. He also avoids catastrophic bidding by a daring captain. And they also function functionally, which is important!

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The arrival in 2014 and the very public press struggle constituted the breaking point of American failures in Europe. He has followed two decades of apathy, weak teams, old teams, hideous uniforms and volatile captains.

While the explosion of Tom Watson by Phil Mickelson consumed the post-mortem, the often forgotten fact of this 2014 Cup is that Americans were neglected. The tiger was injured. Dustin Johnson was on leave. The list was starting to turn and the captain was coming from another era. Europe had to win and they did it.

The United States is coming in 2018 as a favorite. The list is filled with accomplished and highly ranked players. They are younger. They are more talented. They win a dominant victory at home. Management has changed Tiger Woods is back. The US team may not win in Europe, but since 1993 it has never been better prepared to do so.