The top 10 (or 12) americans in golf could not have beaten the Euro's this time or last time. The Euro team is flat out better than us, and have found ways to raise their game to the appropriate level when it is needed for the Ryder Cup. The same cannot be said for Tiger and Phil.

My only suggestion to the next captain is to focus on tweaking the course for the US Style of play.

I would also endorse a "silly season" event where the top 12 americans play in four ball and foursome matches to decide who wins the most money.

The ryder point system has it's issues, and for once I agree with Erik about the OWGR and using it. Unfortunately, this concession will go to his head. EB already thinks he knows it all.

BTW...I was impressed with the K Club, and it had some interesting holes where players found the water on some risky shots. I like that. Maybe, I had lower expectations. Ballybunion would have been great to watch, but give the K Club some kudos.

b.

Erik good point about Tiger playing in the 97 Ryder Cup. I use the term 'playing' loosely- for the record he went 1-3-1 for the week getting pumped 4&2 by Constantina Rocca in singles. That whole episode in Spain proves my point about not playing Tiger in every round of Foursomes and Fourballs at Ryder Cup.

The question you should be asking previous Team Captains is this; Why would you set your #1 player up to be the whipping boy of the Europeans every time in the Foursomes and Fourball format?

After five goes at it Tiger's foursomes and fourball record stands at: (7-12-1) or in plain english Played 20, Won 7,Lost 12, Halved 1. He has had 11 different partners in those contests. For the past four Ryder Cups every US Team Captain has rotated another player to partner Tiger after a loss. Give credit to Lehman this year- he at least persisted even though Tiger and Furyk lost two on the trot.

Compare that to Europe's #1 Colin Montgomerie who in the same period has played 18 foursomes/fourballs, won 10, lost 4 and halved 4 with only 5 different playing partners over the course of 5 Ryder Cup contests.

It's clear the US players lack stability at the top and seem to go from one Ryder Cup to the next looking for the perfect pairings. The Europeans meanwhile turn up with pretty much the same team of regulars(Monty, Harrington, Sergio, Clarke, McGinley and up till this year Langer) and go "all right what have you (US Team) got for us this time?". To them its about the competition- not finding out who wil gel with who.

So yeah- I would leave Tiger out of it until the afternoon of Day 2. It's not like he is a big impact player on Friday's and Saturday mornings. In the five Ryder Cups Tiger has played he is 5-10-0 for the first three sessions of play. Amazingly he is 1-2-0 for every one of those Ryder Cups playing Friday and Saturday morning.

Or in plain english he is only a 50/50 bet in fousomes and fourballs for the first day and a half!

Any American golfer that finishes in the top 10 at a major should get more points than a golfer winning a second-rate tournament.

If a tournament takes place against a major or a special event and only 3 of the world best 50 are present, the winner should not get more points than the second guy at the British Open.

Set up a formula: the tournament gets a rating for each of the top 50 players playing in the event (or 25 or whatever...): 50 points if #1 is there, 49 points if #2 is there...and so on. Apply that to the theoretical total for the top 50 which is 1275. Make a ratio of that week's total over 1 275 depending on the field (637 points would make the ratio 50%).

The winner of a weaker event would then get half the points (or 60% or 35%...)which would avoid the situation where a one tournament winner would almost automatically make the team.

Seems complicated ? Not really and it would favor stronger players in stronger fields.

That's a simple tweak, yet effective. I agree with Tom Watson's comments on the points sytem.

1. I'd have paired the rookies with other rookies. I've never liked pairing rookies with veterans because I think both play differently. The veteran "tries harder to make up for the rookie" and the rookie gets a bit dazed like "I have to hold my own or I'll be letting down {veteran name here}. That's my one criticism of Tom Lehman. A Henry/Johnson pairing would have done really well, I think.
2. Phil Mickelson disgusts me at this point. Tiger took a leadership role, but Phil is even older. Yet all we get from Phil is "I give up after the PGA every year" and "Hey, the Ryder Cup starts in one week. Ooh, new equipment! I'm gonna switch!" Disgusting.
3. Shame on JJ Henry? Sorry, but those were the rules. If you think for one second a Euro player wouldn't have done the same thing, you're nuts. The area was wetter than most areas because it was near a sprinkler, so he followed the rules to his advantage. The rules aren't there just to penalize.
4. Colin and Sergio don't play in the Presidents Cup, of course.
5. Tiger played on the 1997 Ryder Cup team.
6. You wouldn't play Tiger until the afternoon? You're crazy.
7. I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater in regards to the selection process. Tweaking, fine. Wholesale captains picks? Never.