You're Gonna Need A Bigger Task Force

"You know, it takes 12 players to win. It’s not pods. It’s 12 players."

Tom Watson, 2014 Ryder Cup Press Conference

As I arrived at the club yesterday, I ducked into the pro shop to catch up on any action that might have occurred during the drive.  A couple of the pros were watching, as was a former club prez who noted that the whole team owes Tom Watson an apology...  I don't see how you can pin this on Bryson or Tony Finau, but otherwise....yeah.

This Golf Digest header seems to capture the tone:

Ryder Cup 2018: Anatomy of a beatdown 

How to explain the poor American showing in France? Let us count the ways

The Americans won only that first session, and needing 8 points yesterday they were able to scrape together 4 1/2....  Missed it by that much!

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France—It’s back to the drawing board for the U.S. Ryder Cup contingent after another miserable effort in Europe. Maybe they should throw out the drawing board, too. 

The United States was no match for Europe in the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, losing 17½-10½, the second largest setback for the Americans in the history of the matches. The loss was even bigger than the supposed train wreck Tom Watson oversaw in 2014 at Gleneagles, in Scotland. That squad, without Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson, lost 16½-11½, a defeat so dyspeptic that the PGA of America convened a special Task Force to address U.S. shortcomings in the biennial competition that Europe now has won nine of the last 12 times.

And yet, all the best people had assured me that our years in the desert were at an end.

This was such an overwhelming loss that it'll likely seem petty to focus on specific aspects, but I figure we have time to kill until the 2019 season starts....well, Thursday.  I know, but you know who is in the field?  That would be our hero Phil....  Not important now...

That anatomy included this:

The Tiger Effect on Team USA: It continues to be a net negative when he plays. Woods can’t seem to bring his A-game to these matches, and after an 0-4 record at Le Golf

National, he slipped to 13-21-3 overall. His two partners this week, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau, were of little help in the team games. He now has had 14 different partners in Ryder Cup four-ball and foursomes competition and is 9-19-1. He is the sun burning up those closest to his orbit.

The Tiger Effect on Team Europe: Woods isn’t currently No. 1 in the world like he had been many times in earlier Ryder Cup appearances, but he remains the man everyone wants to beat. And when Europe beats him, the satisfaction is unmistakable. Look at the emotion Jon Rahm exhibited after closing out Woods, 2 and 1, in singles. It appeared over the top. It was just an honest, visceral reaction that meant plenty to a player who has been influenced by the 14-time major winner. A Tiger scalp is a memory to savor. In the case of this Ryder Cup, it also was the catalyst to Europe’s comeback after losing the first three four-ball matches on Friday. When Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood rallied to beat Woods and Reed, it sparked a run of eight straight European wins, which is a record. The U.S. never recovered.

I guess I should take credit for calling it, because last week at this time I noted that the win in Tour Championship could result in a letdown, though I certainly didn't anticipate this level of futility. 

But let's take a moment from bashing those that have it coming to this little nugget from Mike Bamberger's post mortem:

One thing you can say with certainty is that the American loss was not due to lack of effort or preparation. If anything, the Americans tried too hard. If anything, there might have been too much obsession with the pursuit of perfection. Perfect food and perfect clothes. Perfect hotels with perfect mattresses. Perfect statistical analysis, weather forecasting, practice sessions.

I beg to differ, Mike.  See if you have the stomach to reread this Josh Berhow item from last week on that 2014 press conference, including the triumphalism after the win at Hazeltine.   But as I tried to argue in my post, his message, to the effect that they can only play well when properly coddled, is really off-putting.  But it has a seductive appeal to the other players because it takes them off the hook for their poor performance.....  

Joel Beall takes his own whack at the issue at hand:

Ryder Cup: The real reason the United States lost, and why no one wants to discuss it

Actually, it's reasons, as he has two:

How America came on the business end of a primal butt-whoopin' is two-fold. 

The first: The heavily-favored Yankees ran into a European buzzsaw. Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari did something never seen from Team Europe, racking up a peerless 4-0 record. Both are world-class ball-strikers, with Molinari proving his mettle as a big-game hunter at Carnoustie this summer and Fleetwood nearly winning the U.S. Open with a final-round 63.

C'mon, you gotta do better than that.  Moliwwod was a strong team, but hardly a surprise.  At the same time, guys like Rory and Rose didn't play well at all.  

What else you got, Joel?

The United States roster, billed as the deepest in team history, mostly stunk. From superstars to second wave, they didn't bring it. 

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson wasn't on speaking terms with his putter for most of the weekend, scoring a lone point in five matches. Brooks Koepka, he of two majors this summer, was battling a wayward tee ball, no matter the club in hand. Three captain's picks, including arguably the greatest player of all-time, were a collective 0-for-9. Patrick Reed has built a persona off this event, yet appeared to be playing with a borrowed set of left-handed sticks, shooting by one marker's tally an 85 during Saturday four-ball. That Reed didn't score until the cup had been called was sadistically apropos.

Yeah, I kind of figured that one out on my own.

John Huggan goes all-in on the Moliwood thing with this:

Ryder Cup 2018: How Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari became the greatest team in Ryder Cup history

Playing Tiger three times (and Patrick twice) certainly didn't hurt....

They played well, but weren't pressed very hard.  

Jeff Ritter has some flavor for the Tiger-Rahm match:

But there was also a lot going on inside the ropes just out of camera view. The Woods-Rahm pairing traveled with no fewer than two dozen people and an occasional golf cart in its wake. Distinguished guests included Ben Crenshaw, Woods’s girlfriend, Erica Herman; and assistant captains Matt Kuchar, David Duval and Davis Love. Plus there was Rahm’s fiancé, Kelley Cahill, and the rest of the Rahmtourage. It was a scene.

He's supposed to be a team leader, yet seems to require a lot of babysitters.... As for the numbers:

The numbers are ugly. Woods is now 13-21-3 in his Ryder Cup career and 0-7-1 in the last two he’s played. This time he partnered twice with Reed, the team MVP of the last two Cups, and still got waxed. You could ask a sports psychologist what’s up, or you could simply ask yourself: how well would you play golf while paired with Tiger Freaking Woods? As much as he burns to win this thing, he simply may not be cut out for the team game.

And yet those Euros all seem to play well enough when paired with Tiger Freaking Woods....And the matches weren't remotely close, as about the best you can say for Tiger is that he played better than Patrick Reed, a low bar indeed.

Shack had his own post mortem in Golfweek:

We will never know how much Furyk was saddled by task-force influences that also put him in place as captain. Because as shrewd as the post-Gleneagles gathering of power

players turned out to be in bringing symmetry to what was once a disheveled selection process for captains and team, it was Phil Mickelson’s role as task force founder that had him long penciled in for these matches even when it became apparent his inconsistent driving was a bad fit for Le Golf National. Only the task-force crowd — with a combined 63 losses between Furyk, Mickelson and Woods alone — will ever understand the thinking behind the oddball start to the sessions, where some teams better suited to foursomes went out in four-ball and the reverse occurred Friday afternoon, with only a few Day 2 adjustments. That mistake can only be chalked up to letting politics supersede common sense. 

Maybe the real rhetorical question should be whether the time has come for a new task force to override the old task forces?

True but immaterial given the extent of the carnage.  yeah, I still want to know on what planet it makes sense to play Phil in foursomes, but it's not like that made a difference to the result.

You know that Alan Shipnuck has some 'splainin' to do, after this prediction of an era of U.S. dominance.  

The Ryder Cup is over, the theoretically powerhouse U.S. team has laid an egg, and I owe a lot of people an apology. No, not to the smug Euro fanboys who are already

exacting their pound of flesh in my Twitter mentions. 

America, I’m sorry. I let you down. I saw so much potential in this team, and by laying out the case for long-term dominance — admittedly, a bit hyperbolically — I clearly sabotaged the U.S. chances. Judging by the tweets of everyone from Tommy Fleetwood to Sergio Garcia to Justin Rose’s caddie to vice captain Lee Westwood, the Europeans were galvanized to prove me wrong. How else can we explain such an unlikely result?

 Fair enough, although I'm sure Phil can tell us what exactly was wrong with this year's pods....

Though I'm not sure that this is exactly the right time to double down:

The good news is that, long-term, the U.S. team remains in an enviable position. The 2020 Ryder Cup will be played at Whistling Straits, a brawny ballpark on which the long-hitting Americans can exploit their power advantage, unlike the claustrophobic and quirky Le National. By the time of that Cup the average age of European pillars Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Sergio García will be 41. The average age of foundational Americans Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler: 30. 

Of course, predicting the future is risky business. When I wrote my infamous column last summer, Fleetwood was just a promising young pro with shortish hair, Molinari a likable veteran who couldn’t win the big one and Paul Casey (43 by the time of Whistling Straits) had renounced his European tour membership and was resigned to missing this Ryder Cup. This week, these three players were the biggest difference-makers in partner play as the Euros built their insurmountable lead.

It's an interesting point, and I certainly like the American's chances at Whistling Straits.  But I like their chances mostly because the alternative is too  scary to consider.....

Alan has had good fun with his controversial prediction, but who could have seen this coming.  It's all well and good to talk up the American's youth, and certainly JT and Koepka at least showed up.  But what to make of DJ, Rickie and Patrick?  If that's your foundation, I wouldn't build too high.

Josh Sens gives letter grades for all 24 players, and we can have some fun with it for sure:

Jordan Spieth, B 

He scorched the course on Friday morning with five birdies in his first seven holes. But from that point on, it was hot and cold for Spieth. Then, on Sunday, he got torched by Thorbjorn Olesen (5 and 4) when his team needed him most.

OK, so I guess we're grading on the curve....  Jordan certainly had some moments in team play, but he's now 0-6 in individual matches (including against the jayvee in Prez Cups), so go figure.  But he actually was the only well-rested player, and the magnitude if the thumping from a guy that didn't even tee it up on Saturday is bewildering.

Bryson DeChambeau, D- 

After winning two events in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the captain’s pick rookie came up empty in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup, going winless in three tries for the week. His most sparkling moment was his final approach shot in Sunday singles, which he stuffed on 18 for a conceded birdie. But even that was upstaged by an Alex Noren bomb. 

Tony Finau, A- 

Team USA’s four captain’s picks combined to win just two points the entire week. Both came from Finau, whose solid play included a 6-and-4 singles romp over one of Europe’s studs, Tommy Fleetwood.

No question that Tony distinguished himself, though one can't help but wonder what course things would have taken had he gotten the more likely bounce off the plank at No. 16 on Friday morning.

But to me Bryson was a victim of circumstance.  He was the unlucky guy that got Phil in foursomes Friday afternoon, and there wasn't much he could do.  Early in his Saturday match with Tiger he hit a series of great putts that burned the edges, and of course there was that weird Sunday finish.  I can't remember a similar circumstance, with one match forced to play for an hour with the Cup long decided.  I guess they both did well, but i just seemed unnecessary. 

In any event, Bryson's 0-3 record should be held against him.  For instance, I'd grade him higher than these two, since at the very least he seemed like he wanted to be there:

Rickie Fowler, C- 

Paired with DJ, Rickie won his opening match on Friday morning but spent the rest of

the week either running into buzzsaws or getting in his own way. Down the stretch in singles against Sergio Garcia, he hit water balls on three consecutive holes, punctuated by a splash on the par-3 16th that didn’t come anywhere near dry land. 

Dustin Johnson, C- 

As rumors swirled of troubles in his personal life, DJ displayed flashes. But mostly what he showed was distracted-looking golf. Not nearly up to par for the World No. 1.

Dustin looked like he wanted to be home with the family....  Er, I know, a cheap shot.

Phil Mickelson, F 

After a woeful Friday foursomes session, Mickelson sat out all of Saturday and then put up a Sunday singles stinker, bogeying four of his first seven holes before bowing out to Francesco Molinari 4 and 2. To add to the indignity, Lefty rinsed his tee ball on the par-3 16th. His on-the-spot concession gave team Europe the clinching point. 

Patrick Reed, D+ 

Yeah, he won his Sunday singles match over Tyrell Hatton, but in going 0-fer in partner play, Captain America was anything but his historically heroic Ryder Cup self.

Still grading on the curve, I see....  We'll have more of Patrick in a sec, actually on the Reed family, but one writer noted that he shot about 85 on Saturday, though it didn't seem that good to me.

I'm a little shocked at how easy Phil is getting off, though perhaps Furyk inadvertently gave him his out:

But Mickelson had inexplicably misplaced his game in the run-up to the Cup and by the time he arrived in Paris he was reaching for the panic button. “I spent more time hitting

balls throughout the week than I have all year trying to find something that would click, and it’s just been a struggle,” he said Sunday evening.\ 

Despite that, Furyk did not put him in a position to succeed on the opening day, sending out Mickelson in foursomes, which magnified the ballstriking woes. After a 5 and 4 spanking, Furyk had seen enough, sitting his pick for both sessions and essentially admitting that he had made the wrong call in choosing him. Phil spent the day wearing a tight smile and lustily cheering for his teammates. “He was fine with it, he really was,” said Amy. “He understood. He wanted the team to succeed and once Jim decided that was the best way Phil was totally on board.”

What were they thinking?   The weaknesses in Phil's game are apparent to all, leaving me gobsmacked that he was out there Friday in foursomes.  He still makes plenty of birdies, and that's the name of the game in fourballs.  After his Friday meltdown, the decision to bench him Saturday just assured that he'd lose his singles match on Sunday.  Crazy bad management.

Some Euro grades?

Tommy Fleetwood, A 

At some point over the weekend a meme went around that showed the long-haired Fleetwood in Christ-like beatific light. Maybe not the second-coming, but he sure looked great in his first Ryder Cup. 

Sergio Garcia, A 

After a subpar season for Garcia, some questioned his selection as a captain’s pick. Sergio’s answer? He went 3-0, en route to surpassing Nick Faldo as the winningest player in Ryder Cup history.

Bjorn staked his captaincy on the Sergio pick, and it all worked out.  But we do need to knock Tommy down a notch for that Sunday no-show.

Thorbjorn Olesen, B+ 

After losing his opening match while paired with a struggling McIlrory, Olesen sat out the action until Sunday singles, when he bludgeoned Spieth, 5 and 4.

It's completely irrelevant at this point, but the one move of Bjorn that I found inexplicable was the Saturday benching of the Dane.  He had absolutely carried Rory in fourballs on Friday morning, and I thought we were all in agreement that every guy should play each days.  Kudos to Thunder Bear for taking it like a man, and I'll also add this little vignette that I found interesting:

Woods went through his warm-up just before noon, camped at the far end of the range, as he does at most Tour stops. He had a few words with captain Jim Furyk, a few with Webb Simpson, who was stationed next to him, and not much else. Before he was finished Thorbjorn Olesen, the Danish rookie, sauntered over to Woods’s end of range and stationed himself tight to the corner. Bold move from the diminutive Dane, cramping Woods like that. Olesen then went out and thumped Jordan Spieth in his match, so the rookie had quite a day.

Anyone remember Tiger invading Y.E. Yang's personal space at Hazeltine in '09?  Turnabout is fair play....

Rory McIlroy, B- 

In playing all five sessions, Rory swung on both ends of the spectrum, alternating between inspired and erratic. What may stand out in memory, though, is his implosion on the 18th hole in Sunday singles, which seemed reflective of a season in which McIlroy has wilted when it matters most.

Did Josh watch the same event?  Not only did Rory wilt, we all knew he would wilt....  Though the bigger issue was the stinker he laid down Friday morning, forcing Bjorn to focus on a babysitter for him.  

Some more that are clearly too high:

Justin Rose, B+ 

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, and he was again this week, playing rock-solid partner golf before falling to a red-hot Simpson in Sunday singles. 

Henrik Stenson, A- 

Plagued by injuries this season, the big Swede more than earned his keep as a captain’s pick, winning all three of the matches he played.

Rose played surprisingly poorly this week, perhaps another victim of the Tour's crazy scheduling.  Stenson's grade is fine, not so much that he played all that great, the putter seemed awfully suspect.  But, and Captain Furyk might want to take notes, Henrik was always going to be on the team because he's so perfect for foursomes.  You put the right players in the right situations and it all works out....

Of course the Tour Confidential panel has some thoughts, first on the importance of the venue:

3. The watery, rough-choked layout at Le Golf National clearly did not play to the Americans’ strengths. How crucial was the course setup to the success of the European team? 

Zak: It was crucial, sure, that Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, Bubba Watson and Justin Thomas couldn’t simply bomb their way around the course. But elite golfers are elite golfers, and you know you can skin this cat in so many ways. Looking at the leaderboard each day, I just saw too much blue and too little red — that is, too many bogeys and too few birdies. It was average golf for a lot of Americans, and their drivers weren’t allowed to help them break out of the rut. 

Ritter: Huge factor. DJ was neutered. Tiger and Phil sprayed it all over the place. Putting normally tells the story at this event, but the U.S. missed so many fairways this week, it eliminated their chance to lose by missing more birdie putts than their opponent. Europe’s dominance started on the tee box. 

Bamberger: HUUUGE.

It was HUUUGE, but only because the Americans had their heads up their you-know-whats.  Phil and Bubba in foursomes on this tight track?  Hard to see what could go wrong with that...

This inevitable question:

2. The last time the U.S. lost in Europe, in 2014 at Gleneagles, Phil Mickelson threw Tom Watson’s leadership style under the bus, and it set in motion an eventual task force and then a Ryder Cup committee, its purpose to get the U.S. back to winning. The formula worked in 2016 but this week’s result will raise yet more questions. Does the U.S. side need to rethink its roadmap again? 

Zak: I don’t even really think they had a “formula.” Davis Love said he was going to be analytical at Hazeltine, and then he wasn’t. They won Hazeltine with sheer depth, which we once believed they had here in France. It’s not time to blow up the system they’ve put in place. Just refine it. While it’s a total cop-out to say they lacked an “attitude,” you all watched the matches. There was none.

Dethier: They need to do both less thinking, I’d say. Stop this task force nonsense! If it were up to me I’d scrap the Vice Captains, too, and make the players choose pairings themselves. Play ping-pong for it, for all I care. Any way these guys can get 10 percent closer to the level of Fleetwood-Molinari love and openness would be a boon for the U.S. side.

When you think about the actual output of the Task Force, it's almost comical that anyone thought it mattered.   

Bamberger: I think player-driven teams make sense when you can control more things, most especially the course. On the road, you need something to compensate for that. What that is, I could not say. Maybe Tiger Woods will figure out, as captain, in Rome at Ryder Cup 2022.

Maybe when you have different players, Mike?  Phil thinks a lot of himself, but there's no reason the rest of us have to sit there nodding like idiots....

 A week or more ago, Alan Shipnuck was asked about all of the hate for Patrick Reed.  His response was that he didn't see it, just that Patrick was a loner....  All righty then, but they seem awfully determined to ensure that they're hated, and I use the plural because it all started with Justine.

First, she goes after the media with this series of tweets:

He shot 85, so he must have scrambled well....

And she also had this to say about the demise of his partnership with Spieth:

Sigh.  What is wrong with these people?  As with Phil, this is the wrong time for any of this, as if it would have mattered.  But you know when I want hear what Justine thinks?  Is never good for you?

But that's just a WAG wagging, the man himself made an ill-fated decision to take a call from Karen Crouse, and had these unfortunate words:

Furyk said the decision to split Spieth and Reed had been his call. As Reed silently seethed, the news conference ended. In a telephone interview less than an hour later, Reed expressed his frustrations with how the pairings were handled.

He said he had conveyed to Furyk his desire to be paired with Spieth, who is not a good friend but with whom he has a chemistry that is hard to pinpoint, much less replicate. Spieth was his first choice, Reed said. His second choice, he said, was Woods, whom he said he loved. 

But Reed fully expected to be paired with Spieth, and he felt blindsided, he said, when Furyk decided to pair Spieth with Justin Thomas, who starred with Rickie Fowler in last year’s Presidents Cup.

Oh the hate!  A lot of guys would have killed for that Tiger pairing, but getting his second choice is somehow an indignity.  Of course, there was that comment about carrying Jordan back at the Match Play...

But Patrick isn't being selective, he's throwing everyone under the bus:

Reed described the decision-making process as “a buddy system” that ignores the input of all but a few select players. 

“The issue’s obviously with Jordan not wanting to play with me,” Reed said, adding, “I don’t have any issue with Jordan. When it comes right down to it, I don’t care if I like the person I’m paired with or if the person likes me as long as it works and it sets up the team for success. He and I know how to make each other better. We know how to get the job done.”

“For somebody as successful in the Ryder Cup as I am, I don’t think it’s smart to sit me twice,” Reed said.

There's a very serious point to be made here, but the parallels to Phil are scary.  Phil's coup in taking over the process did lead to a buddy system, and that is worthy of dissection.  But, also like Phil, wrong timing and wrong messenger.  Patrick did not play well enough to have an opinion....

Now if this sounds like Phil, that was his intention:

When Reed and Spieth were asked about their split-up in the interview room, “I was looking at him like I was about to light the room up like Phil in ’14,” Reed said.

Yet another reason to hate what Phil did in '14, he's incentivizing copycat assholes.  I hope they all had a wonderful flight home.