2014 Ryder Cup Discussion Thread

[ChrisP]

Watson wasn't the right captain for this team, once again Europe made the better captain selection.   Bubba should have saved us the cost of his plane ticket and just forfeited his matches.

I don't know about that. I think a Captain makes somewhat of a difference, but in the end, the players need to execute. We just don't have the talent Europe does. When the captains picks were made, nobody was stepping up and there wasn't much of a controversy. I think Watson made a mistake here and there, but I guarantee you if you or I or anyone out there were the Captain, we'd be second-guessed by a choice or two we'd make.

I'll say it again. I said before this Ryder Cup that I though the 1977 USA team was the best team ever assembled. I think this 2014 Europe team is right up there with them.

[RandallT]

Destiny says Poulter will get winning points.

[newtogolf]

That shot Mahan just blew looked like something I'd do, c'mon guys.

[Mr. Desmond]

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you "Here am I swinging this steel club

getting beaten to the ground...

[ChrisP]

Wow Mahan. Choke city Part II.

[Silent]

I think Donaldson will get the honor of holing the winning putt.

[newtogolf]

I don't know about that. I think a Captain makes somewhat of a difference, but in the end, the players need to execute. We just don't have the talent Europe does. When the captains picks were made, nobody was stepping up and there wasn't much of a controversy. I think Watson made a mistake here and there, but I guarantee you if you or I or anyone out there were the Captain, we'd be second-guessed by a choice or two we'd make.

I'll say it again. I said before this Ryder Cup that I though the 1977 USA team was the best team ever assembled. I think this 2014 Europe team is right up there with them.

Sitting Spieth and Reed on Friday afternoon and Phil and Keegan the entire day were captains mistakes in my opinion.  You don't sit a hot team and you don't keep guys like Phil and Keegan on the bench an entire day.

He should have played Spieth or Reed in place of Phil on Friday and had Phil on the course on Saturday.

[teeitup22]

Some bright spots: Reed, Spieth, Walker, Fowler but overall the current veterans are not getting it done.

[Valleygolfer]

I honestly would not have brought Bradley or Watson. Bradley barely made the team and Watson is a 50/50 player. If his head is in the match, he is golden. If he is out of it, he doesn't pull it back in at any point.

[teeitup22]

Sitting Spieth and Reed on Firday afternoon and Phil and Keegan the entire day were captains mistakes in my opinion.  You don't sit a hot team and you don't keep guys like Phil and Keegan on the bench an entire day.

He should have played Spieth or Reed in place of Phil on Friday and had Phil on the course on Saturday.

Easy to say that. I'm not sure Phil and Keegan would have done much either.

[ChrisP]

Sitting Spieth and Reed on Firday afternoon and Phil and Keegan the entire day were captains mistakes in my opinion.  You don't sit a hot team and you don't keep guys like Phil and Keegan on the bench an entire day.

He should have played Spieth or Reed in place of Phil on Friday and had Phil on the course on Saturday.

Yeah they were mistakes, but at the same time, he probably made some moves to win matches that others would have lost the first two days. We can always second guess. Bottom line is we didn't have the players they did. They were better top to bottom. This was a loaded European team and they played like it.

[teeitup22]

Really like Jamie Donaldson's swing.

[newtogolf]

Yeah they were mistakes, but at the same time, he probably made some moves to win matches that others would have lost the first two days. We can always second guess. Bottom line is we didn't have the players they did. They were better top to bottom. This was a loaded European team and they played like it.

Of course I'm playing Sunday morning QB, so it's easy for me to critique.  Phil and Keegan are emotional guys, you don't sit them on a critical positioning day.  Furyk is the oldest guy on the team, he should have been rested one match Saturday.

[Mr. Desmond]

I did not think, like everyone else, that the USA team members were playing as well as their European counterparts this season. When that occurs, the difference maker, if at all, is the Captain. Not that it would have made any difference, but getting beat 7-1 in alternate shot ... isn't that a lack of preparation or lack of partnering issue?

I admit to some personal bias, not against Tom, but against poor management. I've seen too much of it in 35 years of business. Whether it is ego, lack of acceptance of new ideas/methodology, personal issues ... it affects the team/organization.

Article in the NYTimes this morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/sports/golf/ryder-cup-2014-tom-watson-not-showing-the-same-steadiness-he-did-as-a-player-.html?ref=international&_r=0

Say this for Tom Watson: He has remained true to himself during this Ryder Cup week even if he has not always been forthright with everyone else. The famous detachment Watson displayed as a player has been his calling card, where, as the captain of the United States squad, he has kept his players and the news media at a club’s length.

At 65, Watson has 21 years on his two most senior players, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, and is 44 years older than his youngest, Jordan Spieth.

Unlike his predecessor Davis Love III, whose team lost to the Europeans for the seventh time in the last nine competitions, Watson does not have a close relationship with the players he would be leading. Instead of the big-brother closeness that Love brought to the team room, Watson appealed to Ted Bishop, the P.G.A. of America president, because he was a no-nonsense, old-school patriarch with a record that commanded respect.

But Bishop should have known that the distance, in age and in temperament, between Watson and his players would be hard to bridge. Even if the Americans can pull off their own miracle by erasing a 10-6 deficit in the Sunday singles, as the Europeans did two years ago at Medinah, the flaws in Watson’s captaincy will not be easily forgotten. Nor should they be, lest history repeat itself with the appointment in two, four or six years of another revered retread.

A crucial quality for any leader is to have the constancy of his convictions, which Watson did not. On Tuesday, he stressed the importance of going “with the horses that are really running strong.” Three days later, after his yearlings, Spieth and Reed, broke out of the gate quickly and beat Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, Watson sat them in the afternoon.

After telling the players he would play the hot hands in the afternoon, he sat his two hottest players, which confused Spieth.

“I take the blame for that,” Watson said.

[AmazingWhacker]

It's almost over now . . . .what a terrible showing by the US team.

[ChrisP]

I seriously think we should look at making our Captain's picks after the TOUR Championship. If that were the case, we'd probably have Horschel and Kirk on our team rather than Simpson and Bradley or Mahan. The youth on this team played well. The veterans, outside of Phil, not so much.

[pepsiplusconker]

I seriously think we should look at making our Captain's picks after the TOUR Championship. If that were the case, we'd probably have Horschel and Kirk on our team rather than Simpson and Bradley or Mahan. The youth on this team played well. The veterans, outside of Phil, not so much.

This seems obvious to me.

You've got what is effectively a league table with the top players on top, in the fedex cup, and 2 or 3 of them aren't here.

[newtogolf]

I did not think, like everyone else, that the USA team members were playing as well as their European counterparts this season. When that occurs, the difference maker, if at all, is the Captain. Not that it would have made any difference, but getting beat 7-1 in alternate shot ... isn't that a lack of preparation or lack of partnering issue?

Article in the NYTimes this morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/sports/golf/ryder-cup-2014-tom-watson-not-showing-the-same-steadiness-he-did-as-a-player-.html?ref=international&_r=0

Say this for Tom Watson: He has remained true to himself during this Ryder Cup week even if he has not always been forthright with everyone else. The famous detachment Watson displayed as a player has been his calling card, where, as the captain of the United States squad, he has kept his players and the news media at a club’s length.

At 65, Watson has 21 years on his two most senior players, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, and is 44 years older than his youngest, Jordan Spieth.

Unlike his predecessor Davis Love III, whose team lost to the Europeans for the seventh time in the last nine competitions, Watson does not have a close relationship with the players he would be leading. Instead of the big-brother closeness that Love brought to the team room, Watson appealed to Ted Bishop, the P.G.A. of America president, because he was a no-nonsense, old-school patriarch with a record that commanded respect.

But Bishop should have known that the distance, in age and in temperament, between Watson and his players would be hard to bridge. Even if the Americans can pull off their own miracle by erasing a 10-6 deficit in the Sunday singles, as the Europeans did two years ago at Medinah, the flaws in Watson’s captaincy will not be easily forgotten. Nor should they be, lest history repeat itself with the appointment in two, four or six years of another revered retread.

A crucial quality for any leader is to have the constancy of his convictions, which Watson did not. On Tuesday, he stressed the importance of going “with the horses that are really running strong.” Three days later, after his yearlings, Spieth and Reed, broke out of the gate quickly and beat Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, Watson sat them in the afternoon.

After telling the players he would play the hot hands in the afternoon, he sat his two hottest players, which confused Spieth.

“I take the blame for that,” Watson said.

I agree, Watson seemed more interested in rambling clichés and spewing false bravado during interview opportunities than developing an actual strategy that would allow his team to win.  I liked his captains picks, but fail to see any form of strategy in his matchups other than keeping Phil and Keegan together.