Mourning Sickness

The after shocks keep coming... and it's well worth losing half my readers (both of them) to continue to ride the Ryder Cup story.... 

First up is Jaime Diaz, probably the best golf writer not named Jenkins working today.  This piece in Golf World may be the best single piece on this subject yet written, though unfortunately it's in the dreaded (for bloggers) digital magazine format, rendering it unexcerptable.  

Shackelford had this to say about it:

Jaime Diaz noted in his Golf World analysis that it’s telling “that as of Sunday, not one

player or even assistant captain has publicly come to Watson’s defense” and also points out that the Europeans, while not thrilled with certain captaincies of late, have never broken ranks like the Americans did at Gleneagles and since.

That's similar to a point I've tried to make which is that there's less to the Euro's "Template" than we think, and we try to copy it at our peril.  In all the hagiography of Paul Azinger that's ensued, we forget that he drew the long straw in opposing Faldo, which won't be repeated at Hazeltine.   And even when Faldo stupidly called out Sergio as "Useless" on the Friday broadcast, the reaction of the Euros was quite muted.

Jaime also explains how the Euros have had captains every bit as autocratic as Watson, it just didn't render them unable to take the club back.  But I thought the best insight was that the error in Watson's approach was that instead of protecting his team from pressure, he sought to ratchet it up at every opportunity.

Jeff Babineau is next up with his thoughts, including this lede:

An 11th-hour Webb Simpson for Bill Haascaptain’s pick swap? Tom Watson outwardly

degrading his players? High confusion and misdirection in the team room? Players with no say on pairings? A "MickMutiny" in the post-tourney presser? 

Why, who needs to set the DVR each afternoon to “Days of Our Lives” when we have a real-life reality show that is the U.S. Ryder Cup team? We had everything but Kim Kardashian anchoring the Sunday singles.

For the record, I started this post with the sands through the hourglass opening of Days of Our Lives on the Wednesday before the event began, admittedly a case of premature articulation.  But in my defense, it was the first time, it happens to all bloggers and it's not a big deal...

Jeff's points are as follows:

1. To this writer, the saddest part about the spotlight being turned up bright on a divided U.S. camp is that a great European team really isn't getting its due.
2. That said, it brings us to Thought No. 2: Certainly captains play a bigger role in the Ryder Cup than one might think (despite what Johnny Miller says), but at some point, a ball gets placed on a tee and the players decide these things.
3. The PGA of America will deconstruct every piece of this latest trouncing and try to come up with a new magic potion now that Uncle Sam’s boys have dropped eight of 10 in this little exhibition for a 17-inch gold cup. (Anyone for Foursomes Fridays across the nation?)
4. Speaking of razor thin and Medinah, McGinley, a man of incredible class, paid a nice compliment to 2012 U.S. captain Davis Love III once Europe raced out to its 10-6 lead heading into singles. You’ll remember, that four-point margin was the same cushion the U.S. went to sleep on in Chicago two years ago, only to see the matches flipped 

“We were the beaten team the first two days,” McGinley said at Gleneagles. “They were sensational the first two days, the Americans. Davis Love did a fabulous job. We were pulled from pillar to post.”

No argument with any of that, though he also makes the case based upon Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang that Hazeltine is suited for upsets.  Ummmm that's quite the leap of faith considering the guy that got upset is one Tiger Woods.  Don't we kinda think he'll be on that 2016 team?

John Hawkins, in his Hawk's Nest feature, made these points:

• How could a man so gracious in defeat after losing the 2009 British Open in
  
  somewhat tragic fashion (at age 59) be so hard on his team five years later?
• • Why would a captain lambaste his squad for its performance in foursomes, a format indigenous only to the Ryder Cup, when a majority of his own strategic blunders occurred in that same portion of the competition?
• • How does perhaps the greatest wind-and-rain golfer ever turn into such an accountability-dodging curmudgeon amid a foul-weather team atmosphere?

First of all, it's called the Open Championship.  Second, maybe he shouldn't have lambasted them, but they did suck and somehow the Euros managed their way through the format.  And lastly, what does playing in the wind have to do with the climate in the team room?  

But last up is my favorite, a Golf Digest piece from the previously-unknown-to-me John Barton, who goes analytic about Ryder Cup captains.  But stay with me here, as not only will this amuse us today, but it provides a fun template (there's that word again) for reviewing our options for 2016 and beyond.  Here's his lede:

I used to think Ryder Cup captains were irrelevant. They choose the uniform (who

cares?), make a speech or two, and do the hardly-rocket-science pairings. On the day, they flit around the course in a cart looking anxious. Meanwhile, the real action is taking place on the fairways and greens. As a result, I've always thought the captaincy should be an honorarium, bestowed on one of the game's elders in recognition of their lifetime achievements. 

This year's Ryder Cup showed such foolish beliefs to be wildly out of bounds. The two captains couldn't have been more different. Europe got it right: Paul McGinley was deeply passionate about wanting to win, and as a result was meticulous, smart and relentless in his preparation. At the same time, while certainly not lacking in confidence, he is a humble man. He recognized that his team were the stars of the show -- it wasn't about him. The best Ryder Cup captains -- or coaches, bosses or parents, for that matter -- know that while they are there to lead their charges, they are also there to serve them. They nurture greatness through love, respect and attention, mixed with an ability to be tough and disciplined when needed, and plenty of inspiration and humor thrown in, too. McGinley knew all that. He created a team. It's not just the 12 men that need to be managed but the 66 one-on-one relationships between them. As Al Pacino says in Any Given Sunday, you either win as a team, or die as a collection of individuals.

OK, so where does he go with this?  He gives us this truly wonderful graph of Ryder Cup captains that we can spend days laughing over:

Like me, you'll no doubt look for Watson, Wadkins and Sutton first and foremost, and it doesn't disappoint in that regard.  And no doubt its' that upper left quadrant that speaks to us, with precious few U.S. entries to be found.  Which of course leaves Azinger, Monty and Seve as outliers... though I'm guessing that Ollie is quite a bit further left than he should be.

So for 2016 the two choices that are out there are Azinger-redux or Steve Stricker.  Azinger has defied this graph once, so I just have to ask, "Do you feel lucky today, punk?"  And Stricker would no doubt be at the far left, but he wasn't passionate enough about the Ryder Cup to want to play in it.  

Or again, maybe we could just find some better players...