U.S. Team Trails By 2 After Day One
Well, it shouldn’t be too surprising, but the Americans find themselves in the hole already after day 1 at the Ryder Cup in Ireland. Without trying to sound too critical, the Americans just don’t seem to be themselves when the Ryder Cup matches start every two years. Woods-Furyk won the opening match in the morning, but it was more sleight of hand than it appeared, as Tiger was all over the course in the morning.
Conversely, Sergio Garcia owns the Ryder Cup like no one else ever has. The man just plays phenomenal golf in September, every two years, and quite possibly might go down in history as the best Ryder Cup player to ever play the game. The same can be said of Colin Montgomerie. Monty struggled with the iron shots today, but drained the putts when it mattered most and like Garcia, can be counted on to win or halve the holes when they’re needed most. What is it about these guys??
On the up side, J.J. Henry showed a lot of mettle today and he might be the go-to guy in Saturday’s matches because the Americans are in dire need of someone to take charge. The Mickelson-DiMarco duo didn’t carry their weight either and Phil, like Tiger, sprayed the ball when it mattered and it was just too much for DiMarco to carry him.
The U.S. team needs to win half the matches tomorrow to have any chance on Sunday of taking the Ryder Cup back to the ‘States and that’s a tall order for an American team that is truly struggling. Based on what I saw today, it appears that it’s coming down to putting, or lack thereof, for the Americans. The Euros drain everything when it counts, and the Americans don’t, and if they don’t start putting on Saturday, Sunday might be a boring day.