Yes, it’s PGA Championship week, but let’s take a quick moment before we dive into the second major of the season and talk about the Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup stands as one of the best events on the golf calendar, an event every two years in which golf sheds its serious and selfish image and becomes, for one glorious weekend, a sport of team.
The US crushed Europe last fall at Whistling Straits to win the Cup, and now a new book documents how that historic triumph was decades in the making. Shane Ryan’s “The Cup They Could Not Lose” (Hachette, $29) looks at the many ways Team USA captain Steve Stricker countered decades of European dominance… as well as years of incompetence. and American mismanagement that led the team to the desert. First of all. It’s golf nerd nirvana, but more than that, it’s a brilliant sociological study of psychology and team building.
“Both teams want to win the Ryder Cup,” Ryan writes, “but there is a specific and unmistakable desire among Europeans to beat the United States that doesn’t exist the other way around. For Americans, it’s never that personal: they’re the reigning kings of support. They know it’s not going to change and it would never occur to them to have a specific grudge against the UK or Europe. They’re just too good.”
The Ryder Cup was established in 1927 as a friendly competition between the United States and England. For most of the first four decades of its history, the event was little more than a biennial thrashing, an American triumph so consistent and complete that the Cup nearly died. Jack Nicklaus, of all people, emphasized the need for the Cup to expand throughout Europe, but it was not until the mid-1980s that Team Europe, under the consistent, precise and visionary captaincy of Tony Jacklin, began to take pieces of the skin of the United States.
By then, America was doomed, though in its arrogance and assumption of superiority… We just show up and we’ll win – It took several more years for Team USA to realize how far behind Europe they had fallen and how much work they had to do to make a win like Whistling Straits a reality. Even after Paul Azinger led the United States to a decisive victory at Valhalla in 2008 using Navy SEAL-inspired leadership tactics, the United States failed to change its mindset on a fundamental level. That led to the 2014 debacle at Gleneagles, where Europe embarrassed the United States and Phil Mickelson humiliated Tom Watson in the post-tournament interview room.
The continued futility frustrated everyone on the American side. “You know, if I could point it out,” said Jim Furyk, lost captain of Team USA in 2018, “we would have changed this [stuff] long time ago. “
Before the 2021 Ryder Cup, Europe had beaten the United States in nine of the last 12 events despite the fact that the United States had the best players in the world (from Mickelson and Tiger Woods to Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth). But the USA seemed to show an uncanny ability to annihilate itself, whether it was Mickelson tearing apart Watson or Patrick Reed disrupting the locker room in 2018. Koepka would have the same effect on his team’s all-too-fragile psyche.
“What we would find out,” Ryan writes, “is that Steve Stricker was a different kind of American captain. He was one who learned from everything, especially mistakes.”
One of the best sections of the book is a deconstruction of all the myths surrounding America’s decades-long futility in the Ryder Cup. “We just need to play better,” “Europe is closer together,” “America is a team of individuals “, “Europe just wants it more”… all those rationalizations have merit and more, but as Ryan documents, there is no substitution. for preparation backed by good old-fashioned psychological motivation.
“We are going to try to win the Ryder Cup, while the United States is not trying to lose it,” said 2021 European captain Padraig Harrington. “Because they are the favorites, because should win, they are afraid, while we are the cousins of the field! We have a point to prove.”
Disclosure: Shane is a friend and rope-walking partner at various tournaments. He is also a great writer, researcher and interviewer. He managed to get microscopic but revealing details of former captains and players that will thrill golf fans, like the way Stricker kept a list of the balls each player used on his phone, or the way European captains staggered alternate shot lineups. to give Jon Rahm the best opportunities to handle his world-shattering putter.
What makes golf great (player against course, player against player) is still present in the Ryder Cup, but amplified to infinity. You make a putt to win a tournament, congratulations, you polished your own career. You putt to win a Ryder Cup, you are a national hero and a golf immortal.
The nationalistic element of the Ryder Cup – you’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for your country – inspires some and terrifies others. Colin Montgomerie, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia have a major among the three, but they are three of the best Ryder Cup players in history. Woods, on the other hand, is 4-2-2 in singles matches but only 9-19-1 in team events.
Contrary to the restrained propriety on display at most golf tournaments, Ryder Cup crowds are loud, boisterous, profane, evil…in short, it’s like a college football crowd in the arcade, and it’s a great advantage of playing at home. Ryan captures every part of that raucous spectacle, from the Packers fans booing Stricker, a Bears fan, to the beer shot Daniel Berger and Justin Thomas had on the first tee when they finished play Saturday.
The Ryder Cup is an event like any other, and “The Cup They Couldn’t Lose” perfectly epitomizes what makes it so great. The next Ryder Cup is scheduled for September 1. 29-Oct 1, 2023, in Rome. Reserve some time for both of you.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at [email protected]