We are just six days away from the commencement of the biennial Ryder Cup Matches between teams from the United States and Europe. Both squads have assembled their top 12 golfers for two days of foursomes (alternate shot) and fourball (better ball) matches with Sunday’s concluding day of matches featuring individual one-on-one play.
This time around it’s a home game for the Americans with the matches contested at Hazeltine National Golf Club in suburban Minneapolis. Designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1962 and with major revisions done by his son, Rees, Hazeltine has a major championship pedigree. It hosted a pair of United States Opens, with Tony Jacklin winning in 1970 and Payne Stewart coming through in overtime against Scott Simpson in 1991. More recently, Hazeltine was the site of journeyman Rich Beem’s triumph over a fast-charging Tiger Woods in the 2002 PGA Championship. The latest grand slam moment was in 2009 when Y.E. Yang ran down Tiger to win the PGA. Next week, Hazeltine will play to a hefty 7,678 yards with a par of 72.
It was just two years ago in Scotland, following a third consecutive triumph by Team Europe at Gleneagles, that Phil Mickelson finger-pointed and put some degree of blame upon American captain Tom Watson for the defeat. Mickelson contended that Watson didn’t involve the American team in decision making. Mickelson’s revolt led to the formation of an 11-member Ryder Cup Task Force that included players, former captains and PGA of America officials.
Was a task force necessary? Winning Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger and victorious Presidents Cup captain Freddie Couples didn’t think so, but the committee meant nonetheless, formulated plans for future matches, and brought back captain Davis Love III from 2012 to take charge this time around. The 2016 Ryder Cup Matches are now upon us and golf fans on both sides of the Atlantic are looking forward to the drama of next weekend.
Ryder Cup regulars such as Americans Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods along with Englishman Ian Poulter are just three of the aging veterans who won’t be a part of the action this time around at Hazeltine. Instead, America’s new breed of 20-somethings featuring Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler will face a European squad with six Ryder Cup rookies, including Masters’ champ Danny Willett. All four major champions from 2016 are in this year’s matches with Jimmy Walker and Dustin Johnson representing Team USA while Henrik Stenson is on the Euro squad. Add American putting wizards Mickelson, Zach Johnson and Brandt Snedeker to the mix alongside European stalwarts Rory McIlory, Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia, and you have all the makings of a tightly contested Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
So, is this the year Team America rights the ship or will the Euros continue to prevail in their quest to retain Samuel Ryder’s Cup? It’s a question that I feel is best directed toward expert advice. I decided to seek out someone who knows something about the Ryder Cup and the pressures it can produce and enlisted three-time winning Ryder Cupper Johnny Pott to give our readers his insights into next week’s matches in Minnesota. Pott was front and center during golf’s golden era of the 1960s, making three American Ryder Cup teams on the basis of performance points. Pott just so happened to play for three Hall of Fame captains, namely Arnold Palmer, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan in 1963, 1965 and 1967, respectively.
Johnny Pott believes the American team will prevail this time around, but he cautioned that the matches “will be close, very close.” His impression of the European team is that “the six Ryder Cup rookies (Willett, Thomas Pieters, Chris Wood, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan and Rafael Cabrera-Bello) are going to hurt their overall chances.” Pott added that “to expect that the European rookies won’t feel the intense pressure is entirely false.” Pott mentioned that playing in the Ryder Cup was the “most nervous” he ever felt during his playing career, even more pressure packed than playing in a major or having a chance to win on Sunday.
Pott also thinks Hazeltine will be a factor in favor of the Americans. “Our boys’ biggest advantage is playing at Hazeltine. It is an American-style course and it will be an awful lot for the European rookies to have to absorb,” Pott added. He said the Europeans still have “a greater sense of camaraderie,” yet the task force, the top eight Americans on the points list, and the four wild-card picks “are all about who gets along with an eye towards avoiding conflicts.” Pott felt that captain’s picks Matt Kuchar and J.B. Holmes were playing well and that the Rickie Fowler pick was all about team play and team spirit.
Johnny Pott is strongly of the belief that Bubba Watson will be the 12th and final pick for the Americans on Sunday evening. He said that Team USA captain Davis Love III had his picks largely determined right after the PGA Championship with an emphasis upon team chemistry and team playability. Because Fowler didn’t qualify for this week’s Tour Championship, Love had to put Rickie on the team right away. He likely will add Watson, the world’s seventh-ranked golfer, on Sunday.
Pott continued to emphasize the greenness of the six European rookies when he stated that European captain Darren Clarke “probably wishes he had Paul Casey on his team this time.” Casey, a Ryder Cup veteran, has been on fire during the Fed Ex Cup playoffs and is ranked within the top five. Two years ago American Billy Horschel won the Fed Ex Cup but the American team had already been chosen and the top American golfer at that moment was sitting on the sidelines. Sometimes you don’t always have your 12 best when they tee it up.
The 2016 Ryder Cup Matches tee it up this coming Friday at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minnesota. A four-time site of golf’s major championships, Hazeltine is a bomber’s course with testy Robert Trent Jones-style greens. Prior to 1985, Team USA was 18-3-1 in the Ryder Cup, but since then the Europeans sport an impressive 10-4-1 record. Three-time Ryder Cup winning team member Johnny Pott is of the belief that Team America will prevail although it will be close to the very end.
I guess we’ll know a whole lot more a week from Sunday as we ready ourselves for golf’s most entertaining and arguably most pressure-packed three days of team competition.
