In the Tank

I could see it coming, another loss for the Americans in the Ryder Cup. My brothers and I talked about the Ryder Cup on our last podcast and we wondered if Tiger could lead this team to victory. My brothers felt that he could, I was a little more pessimistic, and I proved to be right.

First to address Tiger. I firmly believe that in order to be a leader you have to at least have some of the basic traits and I am not sure that Tiger does to be an effective leader, especially in this situation, one that he is not accustomed to. Plus I am not sure how much of leader you can be on a golf team. In other team sports you can be a leader because you have others on the field with you to lead. In golf you can lead your twosome and that is about it. I believe the coach or captain has more of a leadership role/influence than any one player. This is all you need to know about Tiger's leading abilities . . . first hole, first day, first shot off the tee, Tiger goes in the water. What that told me, and I knew it at that moment, things weren't going to be different and that the Americans would struggle all weekend.


Now what's the overall problem? I don't know. Here are at least some observations:
1. The Euros were playing out of their minds. I saw at least 4 chip-ins to win holes on Saturday morning and they seemed to get all the breaks and make all of the shots they needed to. So first you have to credit the Euros with great play.

2. Secondly, the Americans made no shots. Every time the Americans had a chance to win a hole they couldn't get the ball to drop, or they opened the door for the Euros to walk through and they did.

3. No strong play from the "All-Stars." Tiger went 3-2, Phil went 0-4-1 and Furyk was 2-3-0, enough said. When guys like Scott Verplank, J.J. Henry and Zach Johnson are playing the best golf. You are in trouble.

4. The Euros have the better players overall that love this format and strive in this type of environment. Sergio is the perfect example put him paired with Tiger on the last round of any major tournament and he folds like a 2-7 hand in Texas Hold Em but place him anywhere near a Ryder Cup match and he is out of his mind going 4-0 over the weekend and overall is 14-3-2 in Ryder Cup.

The US team got thrashed. They all tanked as far as I am concerned. No one showed up and they should be embarrassed as a whole of their performance and their representation of the US. To me I am far more outraged over this loss than I am over the USA basketball team losing in the WBC. At least team USA basketball played hard and showed up. This US Ryder Cup team should be ashamed of their performance and US golf fans should be up in arms over such a lack luster and unmotivated performance from our players.