Green Posse

Wow. What else can you say at this point? The Americans got their collective clocks cleaned by the Europeans once again, and once again, the Euros are in great shape heading into the Sunday singles matches. The A-Team of Woods-Furyk was the only winning team in the afternoon Foursomes and it’s a good thing they got a point, or it would be all over, save for the crying.

While watching the matches today I was particularly watching the Americans demeanor during the day and even in the morning matches, most of the Americans looked like they’d rather be having a root canal than playing in the Ryder Cup. Granted, it’s easier to have a positive demeanor when your team is winning on a home course, but that doesn’t mean the Americans need to have a “heading-to-the-firing-squad” look about them.

Like Friday’s matches, the Europeans left the door ajar many times for the Americans to take advantage of and rarely did the boys from the U.S. walk through. The Mickelson-Toms team especially looked like they’d rather be at a Republican fundraiser instead of in the middle of Dublin amongst all those Irish-Catholics. Toms had some serious difficulty with the flat stick today and it cost his team at least two and maybe three holes.

And Cink-Johnson got utterly creamed by Garcia-Donald in the afternoon and it wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Ironically, even though Woods-Furyk beat McGinley-Harrington, the boys from Ireland looked like they were truly enjoying the experience. I loved watching McGinely’s huge smile whenever he made a good shot or putt.

And what’s happened to Scott Verplank, one of Lehman’s captain’s picks? He’s only played one match and that was a winning effort by him and Zach Johnson in the morning Four-balls. But he was MIA after that. Was Lehman second-guessing his pick? And where was J.J. Henry in the afternoon matches? He’s played brillantly this weekend and might have made a difference if would have played.

Maybe this team thing just doesn’t work for today’s Americans. Face it, they don’t play well with others (teammates) and the PGA Tour’s equivalent of computer geeks. Just leave them alone to fend for themselves and they’ll be fine. Which is also why the Americans play so well in the Sunday singles matches. There’s no phony team stuff going on.

So what’s on tap for tomorrow’s matches? Look for Lehman to front-load the matches with big guns Woods, Furyk, Mickelson, and DiMarco and hope that by the afternoon matches, there’s still a reason to play.

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