Now that the Ryder Cup 2014 has concluded, let's see
how peerless The Golf Album Blog’s prognostications in a prior post here actually
were. For the total score I protected 16 to 12. It turns out I was off by half, Europe 16 ½ points
to the USA’s 11 ½. I predicted that no Americans
would win more than two matches; how did that work out? Well, I was close. Only one golfer, rookie Patrick Reed won more
than 2 matches. In fact, Mr. Reed won
three matches, and did not lose a match (record 3-0-1). However, only two other golfers won at least
two matches, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth.
(Good thing Phil only played in three matches!)
Gleneagles
was a disappointment as a venue. Save
for the mountains in the distance and the bundled-up customers due to an
occasional breeze, the course could have been located somewhere in Northeast or
Midwest United States, not Scotland. The
course actually gave a better chance to the Americans which they flubbed. (It was designed by Old Jack Nicklaus, not Old
Tom Morris!)
Boy Wonder Rory did not have to go back to his old driver
as he crushed his buddy Fowler on Sunday in singles anyway.
In order to avoid another loss and numerous sardonic
postmortems such as this one, the current player selection for the American
Ryder cup team must change. Simply put,
the current system is broken. On the one
hand, you simply can't bring 12 golfers
together two weeks before the event with a coach that has little or no
experience with the same 12 men and expect them to win against the Europeans. That system is a vestige of the 1960s and ‘70s
when you could roll out Palmer, Nicklaus, Miller and Watson and bury the
English team. However, once the
American’s opponents expend the universe from England and Ireland to include continental Europe
in 1979, the talent pool shifted so substantially that the American lost their
talent advantage.
So, now that the
talent is equal and the Europeans seem are better prepared to win the
competition. What can be done to maximize
the Americans’ chances? See the following
post.
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| Staying On European Soil |
AMDGTM
© 2012-14 R.E. Kelly
