Sal Johnson recaps the Ryder Cup giving us all the stats and what was good, bad and awful about the matches.
So we have had a day or two in which to collect our thoughts on the Ryder Cup. In driving back to Washington from Louisville yesterday what really struck me over what happened is the fact that it really shouldn't of happened. In a way for the American's to win the Ryder Cup was about as stunning as the New York Giants winning last year's Super Bowl.
It's amazing how being an underdog makes life so much easier. Just a month ago at the PGA Championship the consensus of most people was that the American's were going down and that again they were going down big. When Padraig Harrington won the PGA Championship with Sergio Garcia second, it sparked the conversation to new heights wondering just how bad the Americans were going to win. Still in a way what many of us didn't realize how much European captain Nick Faldo was about to me team USA's "13th man" and do a lot of things that leveled out the playing fields for Paul Azinger and team.
To begin with many thought that Faldo blundered things for not taking either Darren Clarke or Colin Montgomerie as wild card picks, still the Europeans were wildly favorite and it looked like an easy victory for team Euro, but it didn't turn out that way.
So what happened then? How did the American team and Paul Azinger turn it around?
To do it we have to look at what was Good, Bad and Ugly about the Ryder Cup.
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The Good
No too ways about it the best part of the Ryder Cup was the job that captain Paul Azinger did. Just about every move and decision that he made starting two years ago with the reformat of the point system and getting four wild card spots was the right thing to do. In the course of the two years that he was captain, Azinger was also very positive and always found a way to put that right spin on things.
Azinger also got the respect from all circles, including officials from the PGA of America to the players to the media and to the fans. Azinger worked hard on maintaining that respect and in my 30 years of covering the Ryder Cup he is probably the first American captain to have total backing and respect from everyone since Dave Marr captained the 1981 team.
We have heard inside stories on how close American teams are at the Presidents Cup and not at the Ryder Cup, Azinger made sure to not only protect his players from a lot of the BS that is related to the Ryder Cup and really got a close knit family atmosphere for all of the players. All during the week that's all the players were talking about, how special this experience was for them and for the six that have been on other Ryder Cup teams they found this to be the best experience of all.
On Thursday evening I was having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in the fourth street mall in Louisville when a disturbance was happening on the outdoor stage. What had happen was the American team showed up for a bit of a pep rally, the kind that you see on a college campus before a football game and all the American players were there and having a great time. In talking with Azinger on Friday he related how shocked he was at the players attendance. In the team room on Thursday afternoon he told the players how he was going to this rally but the team didn't have to attend. To Azinger's surprise he was shocked when he got to the lobby of the hotel to see all 12 of his players ready to go and support their captain. So it was things like this that helped bring the unity that hasn't been seen in past Ryder Cups.
The Good - The best performances
No two ways about it the best performance for the week belonged to Ian Poulter. He was terribly mangled by not only the press but the fans that felt that he shouldn't of been picked over Darren Clarke. So when Poulter got off the plane on Monday for the press it seemed like he had this big bull's eye target on him. A lot of people, including myself used heavy ammunition in discrediting his place on the team and many rooted against Poulter. So under this ugly microscope, Poulter gave the performance of his life.
He was the only European player to participate in all five matches as he scored 4 points with a 4-1 record. Now many don't realize it but Poulter had even more pressure to endure when in the first match with Justin Rose on Friday morning, they lost to Stewart Cink and Chad Campbell, even though they had a 3 up lead after seven holes. So despite that lost Poulter fought back and was able to win four points after that.
A lot will be said of his friendship with Captain Faldo. I feel that it did give him a edge for getting the "nod" from Nick but there was no more worthy guy in the matches and he proved a lot to the world of golf. Just wonder how much he learned from all of this and can relate this to his golf game so that he could win again.
The Good - The American rookies
As for Hunter Mahan, J.B. Holmes, Boo Weekley, Anthony Kim, Ben Curtis and Steve Stricker they proved the keys to victory. Looking at Steve Stricker, who was the only American not to win a game his up and down on Saturday afternoon on 18 to protect a halve with Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey could of been just the springing board effect to set up Sunday's singles. If Stricker didn't get up and down the American's would of lost a full point and the score of 2 and a half to 1 and a half would of looked and felt a lot worst than 2 and 2. In looking at the other five rookies they has a combined 4-0-1 singles record which just happen to be what captain Azinger was looking for.
The Good - The Fans
They couldn't of been any better and really helped relay the message to the other singles players when Anthony Kim ran away from Sergio Garcia. Of course you never can win events because of the fans but the support that they gave the players was important.
The Good - Odds and Ends
According to Sports Business Journal: NBC earned a 3.3/7 overnight Nielsen rating for yesterday’s Ryder Cup telecast from 12:00-6:00pm ET, which saw the U.S. defeat Europe 16.5-11.5 to claim the Cup for the first time in nine years. The ratings are up 22.2% from a 2.7/8 for the Sunday telecast in ’06, when the U.S. was defeated 18.5-9.5. Saturday’s telecast from 8:00am-7:30pm ET earned a 2.8/7 overnight rating, down 12.5% from a 3.2/9 in ’06.
Now it's misleading to use the 2006 telecast to compare ratings since it was played in Ireland and the telecast finished at noon here, which means lower ratings. In looking the Sunday 2004 matches, that year got a 3.4 rating so in a non-Tiger year this year's 3.3 is fabulous.
Over in England Sky Sports reported good ratings also as more than 1 million viewers watched the telecast from 7:15 to 10:15 (UK time). That audience dipped down to 795,000 after the cup was clinched at 10:20, still it was the most watched show in England.
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Ryder Cup stats:
- Hard to believe that in 1979, the 23rd Ryder Cup and the first time that the matches were made up of players from all of European that it would be the last time in 29 years that the USA would lead after every session. It has never happened again, until this week..
- The 16 and a half to 11 and a half victory was the largest margin of victory for the USA since there 18 and a half to 9 and a half win in 1981.
- With the USA winning 7 singles matches, to four defeats and one tie it was the first time since 1999 that the USA won the singles.
- The last time the United States led heading into singles play at the Ryder Cup was 1995, when the Americans also held a 9-7 advantage, only to lose the Ryder Cup the next day, 14 ½ to 13 ½.
- The 5 and a half to 2 and a half lead held by the USA team represents the first time since 1995 that the U.S. has led after the first day of the Ryder Cup. The Americans led that year, 5 points to 3.
- The three-point advantage for team USA is the largest for them after Day One since 1979, when the U.S. led by the same score at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
- Team USA won both sessions on Friday, something the Americans had not done on the same day since 1981.
- Team USA won the opening session on the Opening Day, the the first time that this has happened since 1995.
- On the first day the USA team of Justin Leonard and Hunter Mahan won both matches, the first time that has happened since Tiger Woods and Davis Love III captured both matches on Day Two of the 2002 Ryder Cup.
- The six rookies on the U.S. Team Ben Curtis, J.B. Holmes, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker and Boo Weekley combined for a 9-4-8 record. The four rookies on the European Team Soren Hansen, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose and Oliver Wilson -- also fared well, with a collective record of 6-5-2.
- U.S. Team rookies Anthony Kim, Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes won their singles matches today, marking the first time since 1989 that three American rookies won their singles matches. The three from 89 Mark McCumber, Chip Beck and Paul Azinger, the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup Team Captain.
- In the singles matches, the U.S. made 56 birdies and Europe had 52. Five eagles were made today, with four of them coming at the par-5 seventh hole. Three of the eagles at No. 7 were made by Americans (Kim, Perry, Weekley).
- Another big key on the week was the fact that every American player participated in at least three games, playing every day. The last time that happened was back in 1995.
- A total of 10 of the 28 matches this week finished on the 18th hole, with Europe winning the 18th hole three times and the U.S. twice. Five times the home hole was halved.
- Statehood pride saw Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes deliver 5 points to the USA's 16 and a half point total as the duo had a combined 4-1-2 record.
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The Bad
They say that a captain can't lose a Ryder Cup because he doesn't hit a shot and if you go on this premise then who are you going to blame on the European Tour? The answer is easy.
In looking at the reasons for the European Tour's house it had to be the poor play of it's three stars Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. Going into this year the trio had a 35-20-7 record for a winning percent of 56.4%. But this year things were totally different as the trio didn't win a single game and had a combine 0-8-5 record.
For Garcia, Friday was a day of awakening. After dominating the previous 4 Ryder Cups with a 14-4-2 record in which he played everyday and contributed at least a point a day in those previous matches, it was as if Garcia had taken Kryptonite. In his first match on Friday morning, paired with Lee Westwood who together had run up a 4-1-1 record with the duo was only able to get a halved match against Kenny Perry/Jim Furyk. But that opening match broke up one of the longest streaks in Ryder Cup history. Since the first hole in Saturdays Foursome match in 2004, Garcia has either led or been tied on each of the holes. Coming into this year's match the streak was up to 103 holes and continued for another six hole until Perry and Furyk won the 7th hole to take a one up lead, the first time in 109 straight Ryder Cup holes that Garcia was behind.
Anthony Kim's 5-and-4 victory over Sergio Garcia in the singles match was the most dominant win by a U.S. rookie since David Duval defeated Jesper Parnevik, 5 and 4, in 1999. Both more importunely it was Garcia's biggest defeat in 24 games in his Ryder Cup career.
Slight improvement from Phil in Ryder Cup:
Phil Mickelson had a record of 1-2-2 to record 2 points for the team. Not much to write home to mother about but it was a half a point more than Mickelson had won in both the 2004 and 2006 matches. Putting seems to be the problem child in all of this and I just have to wonder what Phil's relationship with short-game guru Dave Pelz is. We haven't seen Pelz since the British Open and have to wonder if there is some problems in this relationship.
Other Europeans: Despite poor performances from Garcia, Westwood and Harrington it doesn't mean that the whole European team had problems. We have already told you about the good play of Ian Poulter, Justin Rose had a great week compiling a 3-1-0 record including a great singles victory over Phil Mickelson. Graeme McDowell (2-1-1) also had a good week along with Robert Karlsson (1-1-2), Oliver Wilson (1-1-0) and Henrik Stenson (1-2-1) If I had to give poor marks out Paul Casey (0-1-2) would barley get one while Soren Hansen (0-2-1) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (0-2-1) would receive "D's" for their efforts.
The Ugly
We have to mention Boo Weekley unfortunely because some of his antics this week went a bit overboard. Of course we know that Weekley is a good old boy with a big heart and this was a very exciting week for him, but may of gone to far to incite the crowd. Weekley did get more respective towards his playing partners as things progressed once he realized that on Friday he went over the top with Lee Westwood. Westwood is a pretty easy going guy but he wasn't very happy with the Weekley antics. Also it looked great on TV, Weekley riding the horse off the first tee on Sunday, but still it's a bit stupid and unnecessary. Of course I am going to get folks writing to me to loosen up on this, I just think some of the things that Weekley did was over the top.
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In looking at Faldo's captaincy it's very easy to make a judgement just based on the results, a lose is an "F" grade. Faldo had some that defended his week (Family members, his dog and fans that really don't know the fraud that Faldo really is), thus pointing out what a great choice that Poulter was, that they won the morning session on Saturday when he left Westwood and Garcia out and that he didn't get the right start from Sergio Garcia in the singles which left him venerable when he put out his stars last.
But I found other problems with Faldo, here is a list of them:
Faldo spends a lot of time with Ian Poulter, who lives near Nick in Lake Nona, Florida and it seems that Poulter was his eyes and ears on European Golf. Still many feel that because of all the time he spent in America working on television, he lost touch on European Players and didn't know Oliver Wilson from Soren Hansen and that others close in the race like Martin Kaymer, Ross Fisher, Carl Pettersson and Peter Hanson didn't have a snowball chance for a wildcard.
I also have to wonder if Soren Stenson appreciated being called Soren Stenson and how about his remarks in the closing ceremonies with officials from the Celtic Manor, the site of the 2010 games, listening to Faldo tell the world "to be sure and bring your waterproofs." Hey I bet you this didn't go over very well with the folks from Wales.
In conclusion
Be interesting to see who in the next couple of months will be named the next captains. For the European Tour the name Jose Maria Olazabal seems to be the main guy, with Ian Woosnam's name coming up along with Thomas Bjorn and Miguel Angel Jimenez. As for the United States, the name of Paul Azinger surfaced right away when several players led by Phil Mickelson chatted "Zinger in '10, Zinger in '10. No too ways about it he would be a great choice but the PGA of America really likes to pass this around. There is a lot of good people that can be chosen like Corey Pavin, Davis Love III or even Jeff Sluman. The choice of Paul Azinger would be great but honestly I would have to think that Azinger wouldn't want to spend another two years doing what he has. And lets be real about this, it will be very nice for Azinger to spend the next two years with the title winning Ryder Cup captain, I would love to soak in that glory and not have to worry as Nick Faldo puts it, "bring your waterproofs" to Wales.
