Who will win the Golf Ryder Cup? USA or Europe?
Europe, USA or a tie? Three days of top quality golfing action at Celtic Manor will decide the destiny of the trophy.
After their shock 16.5-11.5 win at Valhalla in 2008, the USA head to Wales as the defending champions. That victory, under the shrewd captaincy of Paul Azinger, came against a run of form which had seen Europe win the three previous events in 2006, 2004 and 2002. In fact, the Europeans had been successful in five of the previous six Ryder Cup events prior to that loss in Louisville, Kentucky.
Corey Pavin is now the US captain and the 50-year-old Californian faces a difficult task to emulate the feat of Azinger. Team USA appears to have several problems to overcome if they are to retain their trophy.
1) Europe have the better Ryder Cup players with better Ryder Cup records. Forget about Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk. The best players, statistically are Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
2) Team spirit. How will Woods effect the US team – the world No.1 was noticeably absent (through injury) when the States won the trophy in 2008. Europe captain Colin Montgomerie isn’t famous for his good humour but he has very able vice-captains in Thomas Bjorn, Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke and Sergio Garcia.
3) Europe have a better balanced side. Pairings might not come quite so easy for Pavin as he tries to keep tabs with the hosts during the opening fourballs and foursomes. As usual, Team USA will look to be strong during the 12 singles matches on Sunday but by that time they could well be too much ground to make up – even if their players are good enough to win the majority of these closing matches.
Add to this home advantage (the last six Ryder Cups have been won by the home team), possible bad weather which will undoubtedly help the hosts and the form of several American players (i.e. generally poor) compared to some blistering recent play by the likes of Jiminez, Molinari, Donald, Kaymer and McDowell.
In all, it looks as though the US team is in for a tough time as they try to hold onto the cup which formerly remained almost exclusively in their safe-keeping until the mid-1980’s. That trend has now changed, a fact which Pavin has been quick to note:-
“It’s been a long time since we won in Europe, since 1993. If there is any motivation, I think that’s plenty, but I think everybody wants to win. We are all over here to compete and play the best we can to try to keep the cup.”
Despite such optimism, the bookmakers have Europe 7/10 (Paddy Power) to win the trophy and despite a short price it’s hard not to see them regaining the cup, provided they play to form. Europe had the best side at Valhalla two years ago under Nick Faldo but somehow managed to lose, now Montgomerie must guard against a repeat of that performance.
If he does, Europe look a very strong bet indeed to come out on top.
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