Ryder Cup - Who and how many?

[Chilli Dipper]

I'm saying the Americans win by less than two points. With all the doom-and-gloom that has become of the U.S. roster without Tiger woods, few people have pointed out that Europe is presenting its worst squad since the one that lost to the Americans in 1999. The roster of European players who dominated this event from the 1990s to recently are mostly absent. Montgomerie, Clarke, Olazabal, Bjorn, McGinley, Langer, Howell, Donald...none of them are present at Valhalla. Seven players on the team haven't won a tournament in 2008; Oliver Wilson has never won a tournament, period.

Even without Tiger Woods, this U.S. team is better than the ones at the last three Ryder Cups. Other than Harrington, Garcia, and Westwood, there isn't a returning team member on the European side that I would take over any one of our returning players. I'll take this year's rookies (Kim, Curtis, Weekley, Stricker, Mahan, Holmes) over 2006's rookies (Henry, Johnson, Taylor, Wetterich) any day of the week. We don't have any pea-shooting geriatrics holding us down, like Jay Haas and Fred Funk did in 2004. There are no Chris Rileys on our team. We don't have a bunch of guys who got in on last year's achievements, like what happened when the 2001 Cup was delayed a year but the rosters weren't adjusted to reflect the change.

The U.S. has a much better team than a lot of people are giving them credit for, and it won't surprise me one bit if we end up winning this thing.

[mikelaw]

UK would still win.

Thanks Rich. :)

[mikelz]

I've got the us on sunday. Europe is clearly the favourite but we all know that means nothing in the Ryder cup. I just hope it's entertaining.

I think your hopes were fulfilled.

I'm never erasing Stricker's up and down at the 18th on Saturday.