Another close Ryder Cup likely

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2008 The 37th Ryder Cup | Preview | 17 Sep 2008

The 37th Ryder Cup will be played this week at the Jack Nicklaus designed and redesigned Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, with the result very much anybody’s guess.

Despite the domination of the European side in recent years, having won five of the last six encounters, this year’s event still appears evenly matched, perhaps more so on grass than on paper. Since the European side first won the Ryder Cup as Europe in 1985, it has become one of the most fiercely fought and close encounters, not only in golf, but sport generally and this year promises more of the same.

From that historic encounter in 1985 when Europe turned the tide, there have been eleven encounters with the Europeans winning on seven occasions, the Americans three with one a tie. Six of those encounters have been separated by only one point although in the last two Ryder Cup battles, the Europeans have won by 9 points, which given the close nature of this contest earlier, could have been considered a comprehensive thrashing.

Nick Faldo, who has the most successful record as a player in either side of the event, now gets his opportunity to extend that success as a captain. Faldo won 23 points for his European side in the 11 Ryder Cups he contested while on the other hand the USA Captain, Paul Azinger, played in only four Ryder Cups and won only 6 points in the process.

The Europeans are marginally ahead in terms of experience with a total of 20 caps amongst the team while the Americans have 19 caps. Where the Europeans do have an experience edge is that only four of their team in 2008 are debutantes verses six of the Americans although amongst those, Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan have been exposed in a similar cauldron during Presidents Cup encounters.

The World Ranking system hardly serves to separate the sides with seven Europeans inside the current top 20 in the world while the USA has six in that category.

As has so often been the case in Ryder Cup contests, the final result can come down to astute captaincy in the Friday and Saturday Fourball and Foursomes match-ups and in this regard it would seem Europe has an edge. Faldo’s analytical brain and obvious experience in the heat of the Ryder Cup should offer and advantage over the less experienced but still cagy Azinger.

Faldo will be ably assisted by his assistant captain Jose Maria Olazabal and his most experienced player Lee Westwood although Azinger will have the benefit of being able to call on the outstanding talents of Ray Floyd and Dave Stockton, both veterans of many a Ryder Cup battle albeit in a different era.

Azinger has changed the order of the format in 2008 reverting to the structure prior to 1997. The Alternate Shot (Foursomes) will now be played on Friday and Saturday mornings followed by the Best Ball (Fourball) in the afternoons.

Earlier this year Azinger explained his reasoning.

“I believe it was in 1997, when Seve (Ballesteros) changed it back to best ball in the morning of the opening two days and alternate shot in the afternoon. I felt like the Americans had an edge in alternate shot, and I think it’s partly responsible why Europe has gotten off to a pretty hot start since.”

“So I’ve decided to change that back. I hope it’s the right decision. We’re switching back to alternate shot in the morning, and we’ll just see how it plays out.”

As the home captain, Azinger was entitled to make such a change and it will be interesting to see whether there is any logic in his decision.

The benefit of playing at home should work in the Americans favour although apart from the infamous encounter at Brookline in 1999, they have seldom made the most of the hometown advantage.

I see this as a gripping encounter. Many feel Europe will have the edge and one look at the battle hardened and experienced veterans such as Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Lee Westwood supports this theory.

There is a sneaking feeling that being a rookie in the American side might not be the disadvantage it has been previously. All such rookies are in the team because of outstanding golf over the past twelve months and deserve to be there.

It might also be that the Darren Clarke factor could play its part from afar. There is tremendous pressure on both Nick Faldo and Ian Poulter because of the controversy of the latter’s selection in the team over Clarke. If either starts the event poorly then the pressure will mount and the decision made three weeks ago might just be the difference between the teams.

Time will tell but either way this promises to be a very special Ryder Cup. I see the Americans home narrowly and it might just be that the 14½ to 13½ end result will again determine where the Cup is headed.