International squad seems to be weaker than usual
By Mike Blum
While the U.S, Ryder Cup team was consistently losing to its European counterparts from the mid-1990s on, the American squad was winning on an equally frequent basis in the Presidents Cup.
Not that a whole lot of people noticed.
The Presidents Cup was played for the first time in 1994, about the time the U.S. began its run of losing efforts in the Ryder Cup.
For most of the last 15 years, the International side in the Presidents Cup has sported teams that were more impressive than the European squads that won five of six Ryder Cups from 1995 to 2006.
Why the U.S. teams consistently beat International teams that included Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, Nick Price and Stuart Appleby, but lost to European squads with the likes of Andrew Coltart, Ignacio Garrido, Per Ulrik Johansson Thomas Levet, Jarmo Sandelin and Jean Van de Velde is an unanswerable question.
Part has to do with the differing formats for the two events. The Ryder Cup allows the two captains to keep their lesser players on the sidelines as much as they want in the team matches, which has benefited the European side, which almost always has a weak link or two.
In the Presidents Cup, players sit for no more than one of the four team matches, and a sizeable number of the participants compete in each session. Europe would likely not fare as well in that format, but that still doesn’t explain why the talented International teams have fared so poorly.
The U.S. leads the Presidents Cup 5-1-1, with the lone International win coming in 1998 in Australia in December, neither a site nor date that was very conducive to American hopes.
The Presidents Cup has been played five times in North America (four in the U.S., one in Canada). The Americans are 5-0 in those matches. The two times the Americans have had to travel considerable distances, they are 0-1-1, managing a tie in South Africa in 2003.
This week’s matches will be played at Harding Park in San Francisco, and the combination of home country advantage and a weaker-than-usual International team would appear to point towards another U.S. victory.
On paper, this appears to be one of the stronger American teams. The team has talent and experience, with only one player on the squad who has not competed in either the Presidents/Ryder Cup.
The International side has three rookies, two of whom may encounter come communications issues with their teammates.
While all but one of the 12 U.S. players were in the field for the Tour Championship (Anthony Kim the lone exception), the International squad has several players who are not exactly in top form, surprise wild card pick Adam Scott chief among them.
International captain Greg Norman will have some interesting pairings decisions to make, beginning with rookies Ryo Ishikawa, Y.E. Yang and Camilo Villegas, who was in a prolonged slump until a recent strong showing at Cog Hill.
Very few of the International players come into the Presidents Cup on much of a roll, and if some of the team’s key veterans (Els, Singh, Goosen, Weir, Geoff Ogilvy) don’t find their form in the matches, things could get ugly, which is not what the PGA Tour wants.
On the other hand, the American team runs the risk of being (A) overconfident and (B) over-golfed in the wake of the hectic run-up to the Tour Championship. Last year’s U.S. Ryder Cup victory was in large part a product of the frustration resulting from the series of beatdowns applied by the Euros.
Four of the five American wins in the Presidents Cup have come by margins of three points or higher, including a decisive victory in Canada two years ago.
There are, however, a few questions regarding the U.S. squad, beginning with the return of Tiger Woods, who was sidelined during last year’s impressive U.S. showing inn the Ryder Cup.
Over the course of his 10 appearances in the two team events, Woods has an overall losing record (23-24-3), even with a 6-3-1 mark in singles. He has been surprisingly unsuccessful in best ball matches (3-7 in the Presidents Cup), with the U.S. team as a whole not so great in the four-ball format.
Jim Furyk is 5-4 in the Presidents Cup in best ball, but just 1-7 in the Ryder Cup. He and Woods are likely to pair together, with youngsters Lucas Glover and team event rookie Sean O’Hair other possible partners for Tiger, whose alternate shot record (7-2-1) is excellent.
Woods has never been the strongest advocate of team competitions, with Phil Mickelson for team events in spirit but not so much when it comes to the actual physical act of competing.
Mickelson has typically been less than his best in the late stages of the golf season, and his team event record (21-27-15) is testament to that fact, including a 4-7-3 mark in singles (1-3-3 in the Presidents Cup).
Judging by his exceptional effort at East Lake in his Tour Championship victory, that does not appear to be the case this time around. However, of Mickelson’s favorite partners, one is absent (David Toms) and the other (Kim) is on the team, but hasn’t done much of late,
If Kim’s not up to a prime time pairing with Phil, look for Hunter Mahan to partner with Mickelson.
Given the make-up of the U.S. team, the Americans should do quite well in alternate with the likes of Furyk, Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker and Stewart Cink, who is 4-1 in that format. Without a large number of birdie machines on the squad, best ball matches are a little less promising, with no American having a particular stellar record in four-ball.
Cink is the lone American with a winning record in best ball in the two team events, and has accomplished that by halving more matches (4) than he’s won (3) or lost (2).
Like Norman, U.S. captain Fred Couples has some interesting decisions to make regarding who pairs with who, and the ability of the two captains to determine most of the match-ups make the Presidents Cup a more entertaining event in that regard than the Ryder Cup, where all the matches are blind draws.
Without the history or good old fashioned nationalism of the Ryder Cup (what exactly are the connections between Fiji, Canada, South Africa, Korea and Colombia?), the Presidents Cup has been overshadowed by the U.S.-European battle, with little pre-tournament buzz preceding this week’s event.
A down-to-the-wire finish hinging on a singles match between Woods and Yang or Mickelson and Els might help to elevate the status of the Presidents Cup, but it’s more likely that Stricker will plod his way to a win over Tim Clark in a minimally exciting U.S. win by a fairly comfortable margin.
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