2010 Ryder Cup Thread

[Hoosier Red]

Pavin's captain's picks actually fared very well in the Ryder Cup. It would have been a much bigger loss without Cink, Woods, and Fowler.

Bubba was not surprisingly a bad fit for this format. He rode Overton's coat tails as long as he could, but he really hurt the team overall. And Phil/Dustin cost them big-time up until today.

Like I already mentioned, I'll always look back at the final match of Sunday's session as the make or break point for the US. Cink and Kuchar really blew that one the last two holes. If they wind up winning instead of halving, the US retains the cup. That one was costly.

The Europeans played out of their minds and still barely pulled off the win. If these 24 guys played the same tour year-round, the Americans would well out in front. But they put their heart and soul into the Ryder Cup whereas I still don't think most of the American players do. I mean, outside of Westwood, they don't have a player as good as Jim Furyk. Yet, he rarely does much of anything in the cup. That's the way it goes for the US team.

I'd love to see the Ryder Cup go to a format where half the points would come from team play and the other half from individual.

Odds are that it will be Davis Love III if he wants it in two years. The captains picks played well and a lot of young guys proved they had the mettle.
Three points/possible bad moves from Pavin that hurt the US.
1) The rain gear fiasco. Not sure if Pavin gets all the blame, but really when the players were voicing displeasure early in the week, they should have had a backup rain suit that was actually you know waterproof.

2) Playing Woods and Stricker in 4some match on Saturday/Sunday. I understand the idea behind this because the 4some played first, so when it was thought the singles would start immediately after the final 4ball matches, you wouldn't have wanted Woods or Stricker to have to turn right around and play an early match. Still this worked out terribly. Westwood and Donald played absolutely out of their minds, it would have been better to have a weak team against them as no one was going to win that point.

3) The Cink/Kuchar match really did hurt the US. Tough to fault Pavin for this, but Kuchar just hit a spell late Sunday/Monday where he forgot how good he really is. Tough way to end the weekend.

[MWM]

3) The Cink/Kuchar match really did hurt the US. Tough to fault Pavin for this, but Kuchar just hit a spell late Sunday/Monday where he forgot how good he really is. Tough way to end the weekend.

Yep. Neither guy could birdie a par 5. They were both sitting there with wedges in their hands in the fairway for their 3rd shot and neither one got it within 20 feet. They lost the hole and it went from being down only 2 points, to being down 3. But overall, that team got 2 points in 3 matches, so they did add to the effort.

It's amazing to think how well overton played on Sunday just to have that team lose. Bubba was pretty much awful except the first few holes of the whole thing. Bubba and Dustin's putter were the two biggest factors in the loss, IMO.

But I love the Fowler played so well. Now we just need Anthony Kim to be healthy.

[Redhook]

Was playing in a tournament so I only got to see the highlights today. Great comeback by the US. It's very difficult to single out one player, but after watching the highlights, it looked like Cink blew the Cup for the US. He missed very short putts on 16 and 17. If he made either of them, the US would've won the Cup.

BTW, I loved seeing Fowler make that comeback. He was one of my favorite players prior to this event. And now he's moving even higher. Fun to watch.

[bucksfan2]

Its hard to place singular blame on one player when the Americans went down to the last match of European soil. I do think the match changed when Stricker and Woods went out in the 4 some match and got spanked Sat/Sun. That set the tone for the Europeans in their historic Sat/Sun.