RYDER CUP: Golf’s most exciting event gets underway on Friday, as the best of Europe and America gather in suburban Minneapolis for the 41st edition of the Ryder Cup.
By now, most know the setup: 12 men on each side, with Friday and Saturday both featuring four alternate shot and four best ball matches before finishing with 12 singles matches on Sunday. Most are also aware of Europe’s recent dominance in this competition, winning six of the past seven stagings, including each of the past three.
The one-sidedness only seems to have dialed up the intensity, especially on the American side, where task forces have been created, insults hurled, and bridges burned in an effort to right the ship. Who could forget the aftermath of Europe’s 2014 win at Gleneagles, when Phil Mickelson told the whole world just how poorly Tom Watson had done as captain right in front of Watson himself. Or just this week, when Mickelson seemed to blame the U.S. defeat in 2004 on captain Hal Sutton’s decision to pair him with Tiger Woods twice. Sutton responded that he’s happy to “shoulder the blame for Phil’s poor play” if necessary. Well then.
Of course, the intensity isn’t limited to one side or to intra-team bickering: Europe has long carried the reputation as the side with the most passion and camaraderie, and the stories of their post-Cup celebrations in recent years are the stuff of legend.
And though the competition is devoid of true nastiness, a friendly dislike for the other side is ever-present amongst both fans and players, giving the event a uniqueness and a bit of an edge that you simply won’t find anywhere else in the world of golf.
That “friendly dislike” rose to the forefront this week after the comments of P.J. Willett, brother of Masters champ (and Ryder Cup rookie) Danny Willett. P.J. described American golf fans as “pudgy, basement-dwelling irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red.”
Willett continued, describing how the European team needs to “stun the angry, unwashed Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators… squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.”
Shots. Fired.
Well, as one of the unwashed masses he is referring to, I can confirm that his criticisms are based in truth: I do have a bit of a gut (5’10, 175, so not that pudgy), I love cookie dough and hotdogs (who doesn’t?), I believe in the right to defend oneself, I own at least two pairs of cargo shorts, and if I had a political conversation with Mr. Willett he’d probably clutch his pearls and retreat to his pub full of tight pants, bad food, and substandard women.
Let the games begin!
As far as the golf itself goes, the venerable Hazeltine National takes center stage this week and should provide a good, fair test. A par 72 that tips out at over 7,600 yards, Hazeltine has hosted plenty of championship golf over the years, most recently the 2009 PGA Championship that was memorably won by Y.E. Yang. The rough has been cut down this week so we should see plenty of birdies, and the course has been divided up a bit, with holes 1-4 and 14-18 constituting the “front nine” while 10-13 and 5-9 will serve as the back.
Scotsman Richie Ramsay, a links specialist, won the U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine back in 2006, so the course can obviously be conquered by many different styles and shouldn’t necessarily favor one side over the other. In this way it’s probably the perfect venue for a Ryder Cup.
The odds here might surprise the casual observer: the U.S. is a fairly substantial favorite, priced at 1.63 to win the Cup, while Europe can currently be backed at 3.15. This has everything to do with the makeup of the European team, which features an astonishing six rookies and therefore is not the same group that has been triumphant in recent years. The U.S. side, by contrast, includes just one rookie ( Brooks Koepka) and features several “young guns” who haven’t been around for many of the losses and are surely tired of hearing about them.
Will the presence of six vice-captains and the ever-growing pressure to bring the Cup back to American soil have an adverse effect on the U.S. team? Will the young, inexperienced Europeans be able to maintain the same loose, carefree style and tight-knit camaraderie that has served them so well in the past? The next three days will provide all the answers…
Recommended Bets
Dustin Johnson- Top U.S. points scorer at 5.0
Johnson was the world’s hottest player until Rory McIlroy pulled the rug out from under him at the Tour Championship, and he’s one of only four players on the American team with a winning match record in Ryder Cups. Something tells me he’ll be nearly impossible to beat this week.
Justin Rose- Top European points scorer at 6.0
Rose has played very solid golf over the past few months, logging five top-25 finishes in his past 8 starts and taking home Olympic gold in Rio. He’s also figured out how to best perform at the Ryder Cup, as his 9-3-2 record in 14 career matches clearly indicates. He should be a rock for the Euros.
U.S.A. to Win Cup at 1.63
Up yours, P.J. Willett!
