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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson had 123 wins on the PGA Tour and 19 major championships. They are regulars on Forbes' list of top performers, with follow-ups that could rival those of a group of boys. But despite all their successes and achievements, their career has a gap in the size of the Atlantic Ocean.
It's an enormously crazy vacuum for such a talented couple, with John Stockton and Karl Malone, of Utah Jazz, retiring without a N.B.A. title after some clashes with players like Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls.
"It's crazy to think," said Bryson DeChambeau, 25.
DeChambeau, one of the three rookies of the US team, which is anchored by Woods and Mickelson, had 10 days when the Americans won the 1993 West Midlands event in England. They have not won in Europe since then.
Woods, 42, and Mickelson, 48, competed for the United States in the biennial competition against Europe, and although long winless droughts on the PGA Tour in 2018 took place, their future participation in this competition. tournament is not a guarantee. Both teams were chosen by the captain this year after failing to secure one of eight automatic qualifying places.
Mickelson, who won a world championship golf tournament in Mexico City in March, has finished in the top 10 since – and none after May – and ranks lowest on the US team, ranking 25th. In Atlanta, Mickelson finished last in the 30-man squad, 25 behind Woods, who won his first win since 2013.
Mickelson did not bother trying to downplay the meaning of a potential victory this time around. "I think it's going to be close," he said, "and something that, if we could come to the fore, it would be something I would cherish the rest of my life."
The matches will start Friday morning at the Golf National, about 35 minutes from Paris, on the course of welcome for an annual stage of the European tour. Alex Noren and Tommy Fleetwood were the last two champions of the tournament and both are members of the European team.
Neither one nor the other can recognize the first tee box, which will be overshadowed by giant stands that can accommodate nearly 7,000 spectators. American players who regularly participate in the Phoenix Open can feel the most comfortable on the first hole: they evoke the arena of 20 000 seats, like that of the Open. par-3 16th hole. Nine of the Americans, including Brooks Koepka, who won in 2015, and four Europeans participated in Arizona this year.
"It's noisy and people are not afraid to boar," Koepka said. "It's fun."
The weekend's weekend wait was the toughest, said Koepka, who has won two major tournaments this year and will make his second appearance at the Ryder Cup. "You feel like you're a horse at the door, ready to go and just a little anxious," he said.
The Opening Ceremony on Thursday at the National Golf Course was like unblocking a bottle of champagne: a highly anticipated event with lots of pop. Pro-European crowd booed Patrick Reed, the reigning Masters champion who earned the nickname "Captain America" for his nervousness in 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cup matches; he responded by playing with his right ear with his right hand to encourage the crowd to boo harder. The last American player to be introduced was Woods, whose return to the Ryder lineup after an absence of six years following an injury was marked by non-partisan songs of "Tiger, Tiger".
Woods was part of a winning Ryder Cup team in 1999, outside of Boston. "It's not something I really enjoyed and really enjoyed seeing," said Woods, who served as vice-captain of the US team who recovered the Cup in 2016 with a six-point win over Minneapolis.
This week, Rory McIlroy, who played alongside Woods in the final round of the Tour Championship, described him as "one of 12" on the US team and said, "We are crazy" . I am looking to beat the American team. We are not trying to beat Tiger Woods.
But the way for the Europeans to take over the Cup goes through Woods, who will play with Reed against Francesco Molinari and Fleetwood in the fourth match of four balls on Friday morning. The other matches are: Tony Finau and Koepka against Justin Rose and Jon Rahm; Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler against McIlroy and Thorbjorn Olesen; and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas against Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton.
Reed was one of the players assigned to work with Woods at the 2016 Ryder Cup, and he tallied a 4-0-1 record, including a 1-on-1 win over McIlroy in an exhausting game that unfolded as a master class in the competition. mind. This week, Reed credited Woods with calming him down before his singles match by telling him a joke.
This Ryder Cup brings together the top 10 players in the world according to their rankings. The lowest ranked participant is Olesen, who is No. 45 and one of five European team recruits. "Everything is being played to be something special," said European captain Thomas Bjorn, adding that the next three days could be "a really, really special occasion for the Ryder Cup and for the golf game."
And it could be a really special occasion for Mickelson and Woods.
"Have a chance to contribute in a way perhaps to a missing piece in their career," said Fowler, "In anticipation of that."
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