Europe 18.5, USA 9.5

Europe wins the Ryder Cup in convincing fashion: with a new winning victory margin.

The US had their backsides handed to them yesterday, losing to the European squad 18½ to 9½ in the 35th Ryder Cup matches at Oakland Hills Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. Not only did the US lose the Ryder Cup, but it did so in an unprecedented fashion: losing by the largest margin in the 77-year history of the Ryder Cup.

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“We haven’t been winning it,” Davis Love III said. “If they keep bringing the cup back on their airplane, we are the underdog.” No kidding, Davis. The US has lost seven of the last ten Ryder Cups and shows no signs of reversing that trend. The same comments were made before this Ryder Cup as have always been made: “The Euros have more chemistry,” “It means more to them,” and – our favorite – “They have more heart.”

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Practice Fades and Draws

Practice shaping the ball to get you out of trouble and to enhance general shotmaking.

Practice fades and draws on the range. If your normal shot is a draw, experiment until you find the smallest possible change that provides a fade. Note the difference in distances (fades tend to go higher and a bit shorter) and how different clubs react to the same swing (the longer clubs tend to impart more sidespin than the shorter ones). Practice punched three-quarter and half 3I slices and some huge bending 7I hooks. You never know when you’ll need a slight fade to a back-right pin position or a huge hook to get you out of trouble.

Trust the Loft on Lobs

Trust the loft on your clubs when playing pitches and lobs.

Many players hit thin lobs and pitches when they try to help the ball into the air. Your pitching wedge has about 50° of loft, and your lob wedge around 60°. Believe us, they’ll hit the ball in the air. Swinging down and through the ball and the ball will pop up with some spin. Trust the loft on your clubs and stop thinning the ball over the back of the green.

Mickelson Dropped

Phil Mickelson has been dropped from Saturday’s morning fourballs.

phil_mickelson.jpgPhil Mickelson has been dropped from Saturday’s morning fourballs by US captain Hal Sutton, presumably as a result of failing to win a point in his first two matches. His playing partner for those matches, Tiger Woods, will partner Chris Riley in the second match against Darren Clarke and Milton Keynes‘ very own Ian Poulter.

Bernhard Langer, on the other hand, is ensuring that his remaining rookies, David Howell, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey all play their first matches, while retaining the successful pairings of Garcia/Westwood and Monty/Harrington. Montgomerie will maintain his record of playing in every series since Kiawah Island in 1991, a span of 30 (and counting) consecutive Ryder Cup matches.

Giving rookies their first game in fourballs, as opposed to foursomes, is a shrewd move. It gives them a chance play their way into a match, without the pressure of knowing that every stroke they play is crucial. It also gives them marginally more Ryder Cup experience; they’ll hit 60-70 shots in fourballs, and roughly half that in foursomes. Those extra few shots may count for a lot come Sunday.

Inhumane, but Funny

Someone has a sickly funny sense of humor, and doesn’t want to meet any golfers in dark alleys.

You’re standing on the tee box, fancy driver in your hands. You’ve been hitting the ball fairly well, and you stare down the open par five. You take a deep breath, and all the stress and worry of the round – your swing, your alignment, the three-putt on the last hole – disappear. You wind up in your backswing, and come down with a smooth, fluid motion.

Yardage? You WishYour driver sings as you make contact with the ball, and the little white devil just leaps off the clubface. Straight, long, you watch the ball hit the fairway and roll. You smile – no, you beam. Your chest swells and you pick up your bag and take the walk to admire your Shot, with a capital “S”.

You walk up to the ball, and look out at the green, thinking to yourself, “If I hit my three wood from here, I could …” Glancing around, you see the sprinkler head and walk up to it to get a range to the green, when you realize that the greenskeeper is a sadistic bastard.

I was using my RSS reader to grab images from Flickr with the tag of “golf” when this image popped into my Inbox. Honestly, I’m glad the groundcrew at my club doesn’t have this cruel sense of humor. After hitting that Killer Drive, and feeling like I could take on the green in two, to look down and see that on the sprinkler head …

Okay, who am I kidding? I’d laugh my proverbial ass off.

Europeans Stretch Ryder Cup Lead

After a 3½-½ advantage from the morning fourballs, Europe stretched their lead to 6½-1½ in day 1’s afternoon foursomes.

Monty and HarringtonDespite the alarming amount of bleach in their collective hairstyles, Team Europe stretched their lead to 6½-1½ after day one following a 3-1 victory in the afternoon foursomes.

The talking point will of course be the pairing of Woods and Mickelson, who lost their second match of the day. Three up after 4 against Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, the “Dream Team” were pegged back to all square by the 10th, and fell 1 down on 11, where they remained until they won the 17th. With the momentum seemingly on their side on the 18th tee, Mickelson hit a wayward drive into a position from which Woods could only drop and punch out down the fairway. An average wedge by Mickelson’s standards left Woods with a 15-footer for bogey, which he missed – double bogey. After Darren Clarke left his par attempt within gimme range, matchplay’s cardinal sin of losing a hole to bogey had been committed, giving the Europeans the hole and the point.

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Well, That Hurt…

The US Ryder Cup team gets spanked in the early morning four-balls.

Chris DiMarcoWhat was that about the importance of the four-ball matches?

Most people would think that, if you pair together Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods – unquestionably two of the best golfers in the world – that they’d win their four-ball match. Sadly for the US Ryder Cup team, nothing could be further from the truth. Woods and Mickelson lost their four-ball match two and one to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, capping off a morning of four-ball losses and a European lead, 3½ to ½.

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Rhythm = Distance

Rhythm and Balance are the keys to distance from the tee.

Too many golfers believe that raw power = distance from the tee. If the power is misdirected, then you may as well spend the energy forking over cash to your buddies at the end of the round. Rhythm promotes balance, and balance promotes clean ballstriking. Nick Price and Tom Watson may have a fast tempo, but they’ve maintained the same rhythm for 30 years. You get a lot more power making solid contact with the ball at the right moment in your swing than you do lashing wildly at the infuriating little white ball.

The US Advantage

Fred Funk sports US Flag golf shoes in Thursday’s practice round.

US Flag golf shoesOk, the US team is definitely going to win the Ryder Cup. Check out the shoes Fred Funk donned in Thursday’s practice round. Apparently he hiked up his pants every time he got to a green so everyone could get a good look. The crowd loved it, of course. It would be great it they were standard fare for all the US players.