Anyway, along with all the post-mortems and he said-she said scandals, many statistics have been collected about this year’s Ryder Cup. And, as I’ve said before, I love me a good statistic!
Pre-tournament analysis put the teams pretty even and I suspected it would be the team that wanted to win the most that would be victorious. I believe I was correct on that score.
Still, it’s always fun to do a little post-tournament analysis so here we go…
Day One
5 v 3 lead for Europe
Day Two
10 v 6 lead for Europe
Day Three
16.5 v 11.5 win for Europe
Yay for Europe. A resounding win.
That tells the overall story but let's look more carefully at the various chapters.
Day One - Morning (Fourballs)
USA won 2.5 v 1.5
Day One - Afternoon (Foursome)
Europe won 3.5 v 0.5
Day Two - Morning (Fourballs)
USA won 2.5 v 1.5
Day Two - Afternoon (Foursome)
Europe won 3.5 v 0.5
Day 3 (Singles)
Europe won by 6.5 v 5.5
If we just look at the Fourball matches USA had the upper-hand winning 5 v 3 over the two days.
The strategy seemed to be similar between the teams in the fourball matches with the two-player pairs consistent between day one morning and day two morning.
In total Europe were 39 under par and USA were 48 under. Interesting.
In the foursome matches Europe trounced the USA 7 v 1.
Europe maintained stable pairings across the weekend with only Stenson being replaced by Kaymer (due to fitness issues, from what I’ve heard).
The USA had only one pairing the same across the weekend (Walker and Fowler) with two pairs changing partners and Speith and Reed being brought in for Mickelson and Bradley.
There seemed to be a little bit of a disconnect here since foursome golf depends on a good match of player's games. For example a player who normally hits approach shots with an 8 iron should not be left with a 5 iron shot due to mismatching players. There is also the psychological aspect of ensuring that the players get on well together.
In these matches Europe were 31 under par and the USA were 2 under par.
This is the chapter which went seriously wrong for the USA and very well for Europe. (7 v 1)
The singles were reasonably even with Europe having a slight advantage (6.5 to 5.5).
Of these games 6 went the way of the world rankings (3 to each side). In the other 6 games Europe turned over the world rankings in 2 of the 3 games.
For the three halved matches, one went against Europe (Rose v Mahan) in terms of world rank and two went against the USA (Poulter v Simpson and Dubuisson v Johnson).
In conclusion, my opinion is that team USA lost the Ryder Cup primarily in the foursome matches as the rest of the games were evenly matched.
I really don’t want to give more column inches to the (blown out of proportion, in my opinion) supposed tiff between Watson and Mickelson at the final press conference but I do think that Mickelson’s comments tally with my thoughts above. He made specific comments about the ‘pods’ that Azinger had implemented during the USA’s last win in 2008. I think that he particularly was referring to the well-matched and complimentary play between the teams of players that the USA had in Valhalla. Although this is simply supposition, I think that Mickelson felt that there wasn’t the same camaraderie or team feeling either between the foursomes or between the group as a whole. I personally don’t think he was criticising Watson’s leadership (although he certainly wasn’t agreeing with some of the choices made) but just stating what he thought needed to be done to bring the USA back to winning form. The fact that the media jumped on this as an attack on Watson and his leadership, is unfortunate as it takes away from what was a great Ryder Cup.
There was some phenomenal golf played at Gleneagles and I want to say a huge well done to all the players.
I’m looking forward to the Ryder Cup 2016 at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minnesota. It’s just a shame that we have to wait 2 whole years!
Yay for Europe. A resounding win.
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| Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images |
That tells the overall story but let's look more carefully at the various chapters.
Day One - Morning (Fourballs)
USA won 2.5 v 1.5
Day One - Afternoon (Foursome)
Europe won 3.5 v 0.5
 |
| Mickelson on the 6th Green. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images |
Day Two - Morning (Fourballs)
USA won 2.5 v 1.5
Day Two - Afternoon (Foursome)
Europe won 3.5 v 0.5
 |
| Rose and Stenson leaving the first tee. Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images |
Day 3 (Singles)
Europe won by 6.5 v 5.5
If we just look at the Fourball matches USA had the upper-hand winning 5 v 3 over the two days.
The strategy seemed to be similar between the teams in the fourball matches with the two-player pairs consistent between day one morning and day two morning.
In total Europe were 39 under par and USA were 48 under. Interesting.
 |
| Keegan Bradley and his awesome jumper Photo by Harry How/Getty Images |
 |
| Rory in the bunker on the 9th. Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images |
Europe maintained stable pairings across the weekend with only Stenson being replaced by Kaymer (due to fitness issues, from what I’ve heard).
The USA had only one pairing the same across the weekend (Walker and Fowler) with two pairs changing partners and Speith and Reed being brought in for Mickelson and Bradley.
There seemed to be a little bit of a disconnect here since foursome golf depends on a good match of player's games. For example a player who normally hits approach shots with an 8 iron should not be left with a 5 iron shot due to mismatching players. There is also the psychological aspect of ensuring that the players get on well together.
In these matches Europe were 31 under par and the USA were 2 under par.
This is the chapter which went seriously wrong for the USA and very well for Europe. (7 v 1)
 |
| Useless? Hardly. Image by sportpix.co.uk |
 |
| GMac hits a beauty on the 2nd. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images |
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| Kaymer celebrates on the 16th. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images |
The singles were reasonably even with Europe having a slight advantage (6.5 to 5.5).
Of these games 6 went the way of the world rankings (3 to each side). In the other 6 games Europe turned over the world rankings in 2 of the 3 games.
For the three halved matches, one went against Europe (Rose v Mahan) in terms of world rank and two went against the USA (Poulter v Simpson and Dubuisson v Johnson).
 |
| Poulter plays it cool. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images |
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| Bubba hypes up the crowd on the 1st tee. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images |
I really don’t want to give more column inches to the (blown out of proportion, in my opinion) supposed tiff between Watson and Mickelson at the final press conference but I do think that Mickelson’s comments tally with my thoughts above. He made specific comments about the ‘pods’ that Azinger had implemented during the USA’s last win in 2008. I think that he particularly was referring to the well-matched and complimentary play between the teams of players that the USA had in Valhalla. Although this is simply supposition, I think that Mickelson felt that there wasn’t the same camaraderie or team feeling either between the foursomes or between the group as a whole. I personally don’t think he was criticising Watson’s leadership (although he certainly wasn’t agreeing with some of the choices made) but just stating what he thought needed to be done to bring the USA back to winning form. The fact that the media jumped on this as an attack on Watson and his leadership, is unfortunate as it takes away from what was a great Ryder Cup.
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| Stevie G lines up on the 8th. Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images |
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| Patrick Reed holes a blinder on the 11th. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images |
I’m looking forward to the Ryder Cup 2016 at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minnesota. It’s just a shame that we have to wait 2 whole years!
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| Donaldson plants one on McGinley Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images |
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