Thought for the Day
Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go and move on
Almost there
The phoney war is almost over; we now know the constituent parts of the teams (almost) that will represent Europe and America and it’s about time to start getting excited, with the Ryder Cup just over a week away. I say we ‘almost’ know who will be teeing it up at Hazeltine because US captain Davis Love has announced three of his four wild card picks and is waiting for the outcome of next week’s Tour Championship, the fourth and last of the season-ending FedEx Cup series, to give us the final name. The decision to delay his fourth pick is known as the Horschel Rule, after Billy was selected two years ago at the same point in the calendar, having put in a hot performance at the Tour Championship.
It means that the American captain is choosing players on current form because there are always at least a couple in any team who qualified early in the season but have subsequently lost a bit of their edge – Danny Willett and Chris Wood, for example. As a policy it makes sense to select on current form rather than history. Two years ago at Gleneagles an out-of-sorts Ian Poulter was named in the European team because of his stunning exploits in the two previous competitions. But he had no recent form and it showed, as he scraped two halves and a loss, and was benched for both foursomes.
It’s a lesson several American captains failed to understand, consistently picking Tiger Woods, no matter how well or badly he might be playing – none of them, it seemed, had the courage to leave aside the most dominant figure in modern golf, even on the occasions when he couldn’t hit the ocean from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Of Davis Love’s three announced picks – Matt Kuchar, JB Holmes and Rickie Fowler, it is Fowler’s name that has caused most raised eyebrows, especially as he is selected ahead of Bubba Watson, whose world ranking and FedEx standings are both above Fowler’s. In his last 10 events, Fowler’s best finishes are tied-7th and tied-10th but then, Watson’s recent record is no thing of beauty, either. What seems to have dominated the American captain’s thinking is a desire for experienced players who have faced the Ryder Cup cauldron before, even if it has largely been on a losing team. For that reason I suspect he will overlook Bubba for his final choice and opt for Jim Furyk.
If he does, that will mean he has only one rookie in his team, Brooks Koekpa, as opposed to six in Darren Clarke’s side. Much has been made of the relative inexperience of Team Europe, especially as they are the away side and will be facing a loud, patriotic and quite probably hostile gallery. History doesn’t help too much when assessing their chances because for every disastrous rookie performance, such as Webb Simpson two years ago at Gleneagles, there are one or more notable successes – Patrick Read, Jordan Spieth and Jimmy Walker at the same event.
Nevertheless, because they have home advantage, and half the European team are new to the Ryder Cup, I’m going to follow the bookies and pick Team USA to come out on top.
Footnote
Whatever you may think of Ian Poulter, and I’m not his greatest fan, it is sad to see him out of the game for four months with an arthritic foot. He has become so synonymous with the Ryder Cup that his presence at Hazeltine as a vice-captain and not a player is cause for regret.
Quote of the Week
All I’ve got against golf is that it takes you so far from the clubhouse
Eric Linklater