40th Ryder Cup

I disagree with sitting Lefty for at least the morning session Saturday. Don't disagree with sitting Keegan. He stunk up the joint at times. And if Mickelson couldn't play with Furyk or Mahan or Watson or Fowler or someone else. Then I understand why he sat.

Next captain needs to find better pairings for alternate shot. Best ball is easy. Each guy can play their golf game and hope the other backs it up. Alternate shot requires guys to make the best shot for their partner, not themselves, and that's where this team really struggled. You have to match similar styles and abilities.

 

Shipnuck had a great piece torching Ted Bishop and Watson and talking to Zinger about the shit that needs to change. Players were texting saying Watson was one of the worst captains ever, and reasons why will soon come out. Phil wasn't just speaking for Phil, he was speaking on behalf of most of the players, apparently.

 

Shipnuck's not the only one. JoPos rips Watson and Bishop, and points of the differences in the Capt. selections of Watson and McGinley.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nbc-yahoo-sports/united-states-needs-to-change-ryder-cup-captain-selection-process-190639267-golf.html

He makes a lot of good points. He does. But there's a lot of blame to go around and not just among Watson and Bishop. Those guys could have picked the Super Friends and prolly still got beat.
The guys actually playing have to win.
Bottom line, the 12 U.S. players flat out failed to get it done.

Mickelson is not a great Cup player. Which is funny, with his risk/reward attitude, creativity and short game, he'd be a great complimentary teammate.
The same with Bubba Watson, Fowler and Mahan.

Aside from Rory, I think the U.S. had the better individual players, on paper anyway.

Watson certainly earns some fault for this mess, but this Cup wasn't even close. And that's not all on him. Not by a long shot.

Given that the players' (specifically Mickelson) feelings were hurt by not being consulted (right or wrong), It was prolly a given Watson was going to be blamed if they lost. Or they won in spite of him.

If the Euros had lost they would've handled it better and not thrown McGinley under the bus. Win as a team, lose as a team. That was not the case on U.S. team this year.

 

Here is the Shipnuck piece.

http://m.golf.com/1158155/united-we-stand/

I think it's silly to say "We suck, the players don't care enough and Europe destroys us."

Throw out alternate shot and the US actually led in points. If a few guys don't gag at Medinah, the US rolls to victory. That Cup was a razor thin margin.

We need to figure out alternate shot. That's the difference. And a lot of that is just pairings.

You're absolutely nuts if you think these guys don't care. They might care too much actually. And Bubba played pretty well on Saturday. I think he made eight birdies. He just ran into Rose, who might be the best RC player of his generation. He's Poulter without the theatrics.

We didn't have three of our best players and Watson fucked us with a moronic Webb Simpson pick. No effing way does Billy Horschel get waxed like Webb. Webb got to go because they needed someone to babysit Bubba. That's it. He should have just been forced to play with Zach Johnson, our other uber Christian, and called it good.

 

From my (limited) experience playing alternate shot, that is a format that's very hard on you mentally.

One thing I will agree with is that its all about team and it sure looks like the Euros have more fun together than the Americans do.

 

It's causation and correlation though. They have fun because they win. We had a shit ton of fun when we won under Azinger. Remember Boo Weekley riding his driver like a pony up the first fairway? Anthony Kim and Mickelson high fiving like teenagers?

 

The Shipnuck article: http://m.golf.com/1158155/united-we-stand/ really points out the contrast in the Euro run up and the US run up.

The Euros groom their captains; the US has absolutely no grooming;

The Euros have the players participate in the selection of the captaincy; US, zip.

I have a better understanding now of why Phil went off the way he did and can see how he was voicing what the others players were thinking; essentially took it for the team.

 

You do realize, right, that that's the same article DD posted in the post you quoted one post earlier?

 

It would make sense to have the assistant captains be a previous captain and the next one and let the captain select a "crony" as a third if he must.

Posnanski is an interesting read:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/joe-posnanski/us-got-ryder-cup-captain-it-hired/

 

Yes, but the first time, I had not read it, just addressing DD's thought.