For a European side that can’t hole a putt to win a hole, but what a great course - especially when the wind blows.
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For a European side that can’t hole a putt to win a hole, but what a great course - especially when the wind blows.
We are looking a little light in terms of 'Star quality' this year
I can’t ever see McIlroy becoming the player he was a decade ago again. Too many forty pluses in this team for me - nothing wrong with a bit of experience, but you can’t expect someone like Poulter to continue what is a phenomenal Ryder Cup recordwhen you consider his stroke play record down the years indefinitely.
Let's see what tomorrow brings .
Early days. Need to win at least two of the four ball’s this afternoon.
Rahm and Hatton with a gutsy half.
All square Fleetwood and Hovland on the last, advantage US. They should have gone 3 up on the back nine but blew it.
Huge game and need to take a half.
Still early days though.
Edit: Fleetwood up and down from the bunker. 6-2 end of 1st day.
417 yards how fecking ridiculous is that?
Good half from Rahm and Hatton.
Looking difficult from here, seen plenty over the years to not be surprised by anything mind.
Big day today, even from an entertainment point of view it would be nice for most of the singles to have meaning.
Projected score is 20 points to 8 in USA's favour.
Would be the largest win ever :yikes:
Fitzpatrick tied on the last needing a half to avoid the record defeat.... he chips into the creek!
Shocker from captain Harrington.
OP got it spot on.
Why is it a shocker from Captain Harrington????Quote:
Originally Posted by MacAdder
You could be talking about Cardiff City, there.Quote:
Originally Posted by chris lee
I was pleased for McIlroy who did well to get a win from a position where he must have been as low as he’s ever been in his career - he’s still one of our best players and has to be a central part in any recovery. Great that Lee Westwood, a real team man, but with an appalling singles record, won at that format in what must be his last game in the competition surely and you’ve got to admire Poulter as well for going to the well one more time when playing poorly and beating a very good opponent in Finau.Quote:
Originally Posted by MacAdder
I don’t watch enough tournament golf these days to be sure of this, but it seems to me that Harrington just drew the short straw really in that his time came when we were as weak as we’ve been in a long time and we were not good enough to take advantage of the perennial American weakness of having too many in their side who are just not equipped mentally to prosper in team golf - if this strong, younger group coming through are better in that department of the game, then Europe faces a tricky decade or two.
Only one Europe captain has struck me as being poor since we became so much better at this format in the eighties and that is the utterly self absorbed Nick Faldo whose much stronger team than this one also got trashed - Harrington had virtually no chance with the hand he was dealt.
The american team is so much better and whilst i appreciate team golf isnt everyone's cup of tea (Tiger being the exception massively) it is still the same sport so based on course preference would expect US to win.
Get the usual brits slagging off thick and rude Americans which is a bit sour. Yes you get idiots but then look at sports fans over here.
Ive come across Americans playing golf and discussing golf and find them much warmer and polite in general than Welsh and English people.
Im not sure why some US players dont take to the ryder cup. Could it be the lack of international competition they have in their own more popular sports. There's no doubt they appear a lot more patriotic to their country but that appears to be forced into them all through their life.
The Olympics aside in which case they just want to prove they are the superior country in the world. Winning the ryder or presidents cup doesnt prove it.
You don't think captain should take some responsibility for such a demoralising and embarrassing loss?Quote:
Originally Posted by Elwood Blues
It is not simply about just picking a team.
The form of the players, realising their strengths and weaknesses.
He should get inside knowledge of the course and the backroom staff, who I am sure there are many of, getting the players as prepared as they can be.
It was not only the amount of points they lost by, it was the manner of how they lost them.
Very few went down the eighteenth faiway.
The only saving grace is that covid probably played a significant part in some of the prep and would no doubt have been to the advantage of the American team.
However, in years to come, PH will be remembered as the captain who lost the Ryder Cup by a record score.
I don't happen to think that he was just unlucky.
McIroy is a talented golfer, no doubt about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
You don't win multiple majors being average.
I do think though that he has tended to not play the percentage shot when he should and this, in my view, has cost him titles and as for playing in a team, this approach is not the way forward.
His emotional interview did surprise me a bit I have to say.
Maybe he only knows one way to play and that frustrates him.
Pleased for Westwood especially, as you say, he may have played his last Ryder Cup.
World number one on occasions and a very talented golfer who just couldn't put four great rounds together often enough.
Faldo always struck me that it was all about him, doubt he did much "legwork" as captain.
I did love his masters wins though.
As for Harrington, see my reply to Elwood Blues.
Europe handicapped themselves by giving the Captain only 3 picks when the US Captain got 6. Something has gone wrong when Fitzpatrick makes the team ahead of Justin Rose.
Harrington made some questionable calls but in truth it made no difference, this US team is vastly superior to Team Europe. The bigger issue is how does the Ryder Cup retain its competitiveness and interest given the gap between the teams seems likely only to get wider.
What is it with some on here that they assume they know what you mean with no facts to go on??Quote:
Originally Posted by MacAdder
I never said he didn't bear any responsibility, of course he did. And there will obviously be an inquest into the rout.
You just said he was shocking without any further explanation so I replied in the same way
When you say pick a team, that is part of the problem, he doesn't pick 3/4 of the team And those he did pick at least partially justified their choice. Garcia and Lowry on the first two days, and Poulter on the last day. USA picked 6 and Paul McGinley yesterday suggested that the European team captain should in future pick more of the team. Harrington went down from 4 to 3 picks which as it turned out was probably a mistake as he could then have picked Justin Rose, although in a defeat this size I doubt if it would have made that much difference
And how do you know he didn't have a detailed knowledge of the course or didn't prepare the players as much as possible.
How do you cater for the fact that on the last day when it mattered most the three players who had probably done the worst in the foursomes and fourballs based on their experience in the Cup (McIlroy, Poulter and Westwood) rose to the occasion magnificently but the ones who had played pretty well in the first two days (Garcia, Rahm and to an extent Lowry and Hatton) all failed pretty miserably.
And that Casey, although he played well at times would lose all four he played.
The Americans played like a team for the first time in years. The lack of team spirit has often nullified the USA's superior fire power. This time it complemented it.
I agree with pretty well all of this Bob.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I thought it was pretty obvious what I meant but having seen your sharp reply, accompanied by a load of question marks when, if it was a simple question you were asking, one would have been necessary, then I naturally assumed you took up a contrary position.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elwood Blues
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacAdder
It wasn't meant to be a sharp reply, that would have been exclamation marks, just thought that shocker was way over the top, at least until the inevitable post mortem into all the reasons why it happened.
As I think I made plain on my other post doesn't by any stretch of the imagination mean that he doesn't have questions to answer.
Fair dinkum it seems we share some common ground.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elwood Blues