Europe’s Bitch
The 2014 Ryder Cup has just ended, and, as expected, Europe trounced the United States 16 1/2 to 11 1/2. That makes three straight Ryder Cups Europe has won, six out of the last seven and eight of the last ten. Ladies and gentlemen, that constitutes dominance. Europe has officially declared that they own the U.S. and the U.S. golf team has meekly acquiesced. The United States is officially Europe’s bitch.
The event wasn’t really as close as the lopsided score would indicate. Europe entered the final day leading by the same five points they ended up winning by. They won the alternate shot part of this year over two sessions, which is the ultimate “team” part of the competition, by a score of seven to one. (Each team should score something close to four to four and a half points in this. They are supposed to be nearly equal.) European players were actually seen popping champagne while players were still on the course playing.
The U.S. really didn’t have a chance in this event. The Ryder Cup lacked its usual drama as to who would win this year, because the U.S. was without two of its best players, Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson, due to injury and substance abuse problems, as well as this year’s BEST American player, Fed Ex Cup champion Billy Horschel, who did not make the team due to Ryder Cup team choices being made JUST BEFORE he won the last two big events of the year (after the teams were named). Take away an equivalent trio from the Euro squad (say Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson) and it might have been close. And yet, it was STILL fun to watch. It’s great golf.
The U.S. used to win most of these Ryder Cups. But that was before, when the opponents of the U.S. were all members of the United Kingdom. In the early 80’s, that team added mainland European countries to it to make the matches more competitive and thus became the present day European team.
The biggest problem in this competition is that the European team WANTS it more than the U.S. team. They play this team competition in this individual sport more like a “team.” Sure, the U.S. team WANTS to win, but they are all pretty much a group of individual millionaire golfers that go their own ways after tournaments and will go home to their expensive homes after the competition and life will go on just fine whether they win, lose or draw.
The European team also has some wealthy golfers, but they don’t make as much prize money for winning in Europe as they do in America, and the simple fact is that the European players play a hungrier brand of golf than the Americans. Also, the U.S. has a second competition in the off years when there is no Ryder Cup called the President’s Cup. The U.S. team has to “get up” for something every year, while the Euros only have to do it every two years. It’s not trending the right way for U.S. golf at this time. Most of the top players in the world right now are Euros and they really do like this winning of Ryder Cups.
Nevertheless, it is still fun to watch TV. Players are playing for their country. They really care (yes, the Americans really care, too – just a few degrees less than the Euros) about doing well for their country. People who ordinarily never do more than mildly tip their cap when they hit a great shot or make long birdie putts, give passionate shrieks and fist pumps when they do it in Ryder Cup. There is passion involved that is at the pinnacle of the golfing experience. Indeed, players have equated the pressures of Ryder Cup to being either equal to or greater than coming down the stretch in the final group, trying to win a Grand Slam Major.
The bottom line though is that the players will all go back to their regular lives after this year’s event, and this once every two year spectacle called The Ryder Cup will have to wait until the next time it’s played in 2016. And for that whole time period, the United States of America will have to live with the fact that the European team is just better than them. Until they can man up enough to get that hallowed piece of hardware back, they are now and will continue to be… Europe’s bitch.
