Ryder Cup Ad Nauseum

Talk about an evergreen.... the Ryder Cup is truly the Blogger Full Employment Act of 2014.  Mind you, it has been helping the readership numbers any...

First up, a hearty thanks to Maggot for the link to one of the more interesting takes on Ryder Cup strategy from Stephen Meyer at, of all places, Forbes Magazine.  Like me, you've probably been wondering whether the Yerkes-Dodson Law has an applicability to the current circumstances, and I'm going to keep you in suspense there for a moment.

Here's his framing of the issue:

A couple assumptions: First, our Ryder Cup players are placed in a position similar to that of the early astronauts. In “The Right Stuff” Tom Wolfe revealed that the seven Mercury astronauts – the cockiest, most sneeringly confident fighter pilots on the planet – were terrified all the time. Not of dying. That was no big deal. They were scared of “screwing the pooch” – making a dumb mistake that would compromise a mission while the whole country was watching. 

The whole nation is watching the Ryder Cup golfers, and they’re in mortal fear of screwing the pooch.

I think I like the cut of this man's jib....what a great analogy, and you can readily analogize how the Ryder Cup is to professional golf as the Apollo program was to military air services.  It takes them out of their comfort zone and makes them oh so very scared, you know, of "Screwing the pooch."

A second assumption is that the leader of a team can influence the pressure team members feel. All good leaders continually ask, “What’s the optimal amount of stress I should apply to my team?”

See where we're going with this?  And now, without further ado, let's see how Yerkes-Dodson explains it all:

And you thought I was just yerking your Dodson above...Here's how Meyer explains it:

Above is the “Yerkes-Dodson Law,” which shows the connection between performance and stress as an inverted U-shaped curve. It shows that on the left side of the curve, increasing good stress – or eustress – boosts performance. But at a certain point, at the top of the inverted U, “eustress” turns into “distress” and performance starts falling off.

You say eustress, I say distress, let's call the whole thing off.

Through the lens of Yerkes-Dodson, Watson’s behavior might have been creating too much distress and not enough eustress. He didn’t seem to realize that pressure and performance are correlated, and that a captain’s leadership style influences stress levels. (I say that knowing full well that if the team had beaten the Europeans by winning nine of 12 matches on Sunday, the headlines would have read, “Tom Watson: Tough-Love Motivational Genius!”)

And no discussion of the Ryder Cup would be complete without addressing the pods:

Consider why Azinger decided on the pod system. The inspiration came to him as a bolt of lightning one day while watching a documentary about how Navy SEALs break units into small groups. In training they eat, sleep and play together. Then they go out and fight together. Think about that. The Navy SEALs pod system was created to help people function in the most stressful environment you can imagine. Yes, breaking special-forces units into pods creates bonds, builds trust and enables teamwork. But those are all inputs. The output is that soldiers in pods don’t panic in the chaos and confusion of battle. 

Azinger intuitively understood that Ryder Cup golfers are totally exposed in a high-stakes war. If you asked them, “Would you rather die or miss a straight, uphill, three-foot putt that lost the Cup?” they’d bargain with you. “Could you re-ask that question and make it a downhill seven-footer with 18 inches of break?”

Now I think his discussion of stress is on point, and I'll remind you that one of the golf writers (there's no time to dig through all the posts for the direct quote) made the point that Watson seemed to deliberately increase the stress on his players, to ill effect.

But let me also share this, before I forget:

No one can prove why the Europeans, who are subjected to the same pressure, routinely beat the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. The best explanation I’ve ever heard is that Europeans teams naturally break themselves into stress-modulating, pod-like groups based on nationality. Much of what the pundits talk about – especially pairings – probably doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

That certainly wasn't true in 2014, as only England had a pod's worth of players and Rose was famously paired with a Swede, yada, yada, yada.

This also caught my eye:

Flashback to 2008 when the U.S. last won the Ryder Cup using coach Azinger’s pod system. In his book, “Cracking the Code: The Winning Ryder Cup Strategy,” Azinger never explicitly says that the pod system was designed to alleviate stress. He mostly talks about how team building, bonding, camaraderie and support can get a small group “to gel as a single… unit.” George W. Bush in the book’s preface suggests Azinger’s biggest task was to get a bunch of talented superstars to “sacrifice their own goals for the betterment of the team.”

Hmmm...anyone remember that '08 team?  Here it is:

Phil Mickelson

Stewart Cink 

Chad Campbell

Anthony Kim

Kenny Perry

J.B. Holmes

Hunter Mahan

Jim Furyk

Boo Weekly

Ben Curtis

Steve Stricker

Justin Leonard

Anyone see a prevalence of superstars?  Excepting Phil, not a one to be found... Yes, Azinger did a great job of melding them into a team.  But it was a uniquely "meldable" team, with six rookies and I doubt that anyone other than Phil and Furyk had been on a winning team.

I think that anything that makes the guys comfortable and shields them from stress is great, but it's still mostly an individual game.  They played the underdog card extremely well that year, but they also had Europe's version of Tom Watson as captain of the favorites.

So, let's do the pods in 2016 and get that out of our system.

In other Ryder Cup news, Commissioner Ratched has come to our rescue.  First, the diagnosis:

“The U.S. in recent years has been winning the Presidents Cup (against the

Internationals) because of their strength in foursomes, and yet they’ve been getting killed in Ryder Cup in foursomes,” he said, noting the Americans’ 7-1 deficit in the alternate-shot format in an eventual 16 1/2 - 11 1/2 loss this year. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense. You can’t play foursomes down 7-1 and think you’re going to win the cup."

Maybe they're only adequate in odd-numbered years.  Plus, no mention of the fact that the U.S. has been better in foursomes than fourballs in recent years.  But on to the solution:

The answer? Finchem says playing more foursomes would help. The format has not caught on in the U.S. but is more popular in the U.K. and Ireland. Finchem warmed to the idea of creating some foursomes exhibitions on the PGA Tour. 

“One of the silver linings on these things would be if foursomes golf could develop some traction in the U.S. We are strapped for (open) weeks,” said Finchem, who acknowledged the possibility of “a little side event” that could include foursomes.

 That couldn't hurt, but when would you do it?

Finchem also mentioned the possibility of a special Monday pro-am that would feature a pro and amateur paired in foursomes.

Thud!  Yeah, paired with an 18-handicap on Monday, that's the ticket.

And in miscellaneous Ryder Cup personnel news, Shack gets a kick out of the Pairing of Webb Simpson and Bill Haas in the first two rounds of the McGladrey, suggesting that perhaps they can talk about Webb's pleas to Captain Watson for his pick.  How'd that work out for you, Webb?

And the Captain himself has emerged from his time out.  You might know that Watson is a proud son of Kansas City, so his appearance last night in full regalia probably shouldn't surprise anyone:

And the good news is that his team won't have to play foursomes in the World Series.

In his discussion of the potential Monday morning foursomes pro-ams, Shack reminded us of his distress when the Northern Trust Open at Riviera closed the Tuesday practice round to spectators for reasons I didn't fully understand (financial, something about more money for the charities).

But in response to a request in the comments, he posted this photo of his first L.A. Open practice round in 1974:

That's his dad Lynn, former UCLA and Laker basketballer, on whose shoulders Geoff sits.  Very cute, no?