Europe Takes Ryder Cup Back from U.S. with Yet Another Win on European Soil

We all saw it, the U.S. just got out played in the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National. The Europeans hit more fairways, made more putts, and didn’t make as many mistakes as their American counterparts.

Despite the U.S. claiming three wins in the first six matches, halving one and losing only one, it wasn’t nearly enough to give themselves a chance as the Europeans won three of the next four matches to claim another Ryder Cup win on home soil (they haven’t lost at home since 1993). The clinching putt came from Francesco Molinari, who became the first player to ever go 5-0-0 in the Ryder Cup and win a major in the same year.

There’s plenty to point out…

• Dustin Johnson’s 1-4-0 record is the worst by a sitting number one player.
• Tiger’s 0-4-0 record made him the fourth player since 1979 to win zero points and lose four matches. The inability to find a suitable Ryder Cup partner for Woods is extremely puzzling.
• Tiger’s loss on Sunday tied him with Phil Mickelson for the most losses in Ryder Cup history at 21, but then Phil lost and took that honor back. Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia’s win over Rickie Fowler made him the winningest player (22.5 points) in Ryder Cup history.
• Jordan Spieth is an abysmal 0-6 in singles matches in the Ryder Cup and Presidents cup combined, a statistic that is extremely confusing.
• Jim Furyk’s captain’s picks finished 2-10-0 with both wins coming from Tony Finau (pending DeChambeau finish).

Overall, as I said above, the U.S. got out played and Thomas Bjorn and the Europeans set up Le Golf National in their favor to help that happen.

However you want to look at it, it’s hard to place all the blame on Captain Jim Furyk as his players just didn’t show up. It’s not unreasonable to expect the players on the U.S. team to hit fairways off the tee with irons in hand and give themselves decent looks on approach to the greens, they just didn’t execute, and they paid the price.