Ryder Cup factoid.

[Brian Manzella]

Records of All Players With Minimum 15 Matches Played

Sergio Garcia, Europe, 14-4-2, .750
Arnold Palmer, USA, 22-8-2, .719
Hale Irwin, USA, 13-5-2, .700
Tom Watson, USA, 10-4-1, .700
Julius Boros, USA, 9-3-4, .688
Gene Littler, USA, 14-5-8, .667
Lee Trevino, USA, 17-7-6, .667
Jack Nicklaus, USA, 17-8-3, .661
Jose Maria Olazabal, Europe, 18-8-5, .661
Colin Montgomerie, Europe, 20-9-7, .653
Billy Casper, USA, 20-10-7, .635
Lanny Wadkins, USA, 20-11-3, .632
Lee Westwood, Europe, 14-8-3, .620
Seve Ballesteros, Europe, 20-12-5, .608
Tom Kite, USA, 15-9-4, .607
Darren Clarke, Europe, 10-7-3, .575
Bernhard Langer, Europe 21-15-6, .571
Hal Sutton, USA, 7-5-4, .563
Peter Oosterhuis, Europe, 14-11-3, .554
Nick Faldo, Europe, 23-19-4, .543
Ian Woosnam, Europe, 14-12-5, .532
Howard Clark, Europe, 7-7-1, .500
Bernard Gallacher, Europe, 13-13-5, .500
Tony Jacklin, Europe, 13-14-8, .485
Payne Stewart, USA, 8-9-2, .474
Brian Hugget, Europe, 8-10-6, .458
Fred Couples, USA, 7-9-4, .450
Sandy Lyle, Europe, 7-9-2, .444
Davis Love III, USA, 9-12-5, .442
Maurice Bembridge, Europe, 6-8-3, .441
Dai Rees, Europe, 7-9-1, .441
Phil Mickelson, USA, 9-12-4, .440
Tiger Woods, USA, 10-13-2, .440
Raymond Floyd, USA, 12-16-3, .435
Paul Azinger, USA, 5-7-3, .433
Brian Barnes, Europe, 10-14-1, .420
Peter Alliss, Europe, 10-15-5, .417
Neil Coles, Europe, 12-21-7, .388
Christy O'Connor Sr., Europe, 11-21-4, .361
Sam Torrance, Europe, 7-15-6, .357
Mark James, Europe, 8-15-1, .354
Jim Furyk, USA, 6-12-2, .350
Curtis Strange, USA, 6-12-2, .350
Bernard Hunt, Europe, 6-16-6, .321
Dave Thomas, Europe, 3-10-5, .306
Harry Weetman, Europe, 2-11-2, .200
George Will, Europe, 2-11-2, .200

 

[2mongoose]

Lanny got screwed out of the captaincy.......

 

[LilDonV]

No he didnt. He "screwed us" by picking his Wake buddies, Strange and Haas who blew it for us.

 

[Ryan Smither]

"Asked if he would make an appearance at the Ryder Cup in September or be an assistant captain if captain Paul Azinger inquired, Woods said: "I'm not part of the team. I'm out of it now. It's about those 12 guys. It's not about me. I'm not a part of that crew."

Tiger Woods = prima donna

 

[CarlSpackler]

I can't picture Tiger taking the time or effort to even be a captain one day.

 

[fronesis]

The Tiger quote above *could* be interpreted as Tiger trying to prevent the media from making everything about him. That is, it could be read as Tiger saying the Ryder Cup is about the 12 guys competing in it, not about Tiger.

It's perhaps unfair to criticise Tiger as being a 'prima donna' in a quote where he says 'it's not about me'.

And some day I predict Tiger will captain the team.

 

[niblick1]

"Asked if he would make an appearance at the Ryder Cup in September or be an assistant captain if captain Paul Azinger inquired, Woods said: "I'm not part of the team. I'm out of it now. It's about those 12 guys. It's not about me. I'm not a part of that crew."

Tiger Woods = prima donna

I view Tiger's statement in a positive fashion. I thought he was saying the people on the team are the team, and his being involved would be a distraction, something I agree with. They need to forge their own identity without him. I don't think the outcome will hinge on who has the best non-playing cheerleaders.

And I would bet a lot of money that Tiger will one day be the captain and try very hard to select a team that wins.

Finally, it's a bunch of golf matches that should be enjoyable to watch and it's not storming the beaches of Normandy. You pull for your side, enjoy the theater, and hope some semablance of sportsmanship outweighs partisan ugliness. Civilization does not hang in the balance.

Sergio's record and Monty's record are the most interesting to me on the list. Not sure what to make of those two.

 

[suns11111]

I think the US team will pull together as a team. Kind of lacking recently. Nice to see Justin back and Kenny Perry finally holding his own. Please tell me Johnny Miller wont be there, oh please, please, please!!!! He drives me nuts.

 

[ThomasTheTank]

I hope its more of a competition this year and the US team pulls together .. i've actually really enjpyed watching europe compete the last few times and you can see how some of them are genuine friends. Heck, most of the US team seem on better terms with the european guys than their playing partners !

I think Tiger being out of it will actually help them and it's hard to see Europe having Monty or Clarke this time

 

[jimmyt]

If in fact Tiger would be a distraction, that may be good for the team it takes the heat off of them. They can play golf.

 

[rogerdodger]

Amazing how underrated Irwin is as a ryder cupper. Why Hal Sutton as a captain and not Irwin? I never saw this list before and had no idea Irwin was so effective in match play. Why he and Larry Nelson never were captains makes no sense at all.

 

[dashfan87]

Amazing how underrated Irwin is as a ryder cupper. Why Hal Sutton as a captain and not Irwin? I never saw this list before and had no idea Irwin was so effective in match play. Why he and Larry Nelson never were captains makes no sense at all.

true dat.

wow with Sergio, i didn't realize how good he was at these matches.... good for him.

 

[Kevin Shields]

Rocco! Rocco! Rocco!

 

[holeout]

The 15 match minimum is understandable, but it does keep one of the best American Ryder Cup players off this list.

Larry Nelson went 9-3-1 in his Ryder Cup tenure (3 total appearances) for a winning percentage of .730. He is the only man ever to go 5-0 in a Ryder Cup.

The fact that he never was named captain of a Ryder Cup team is a tragedy.

 

[welshdentist]

Then again, not all winning European Captains were great Ryder Cup players....

Although we do seem to be falling into the trend of giving it to our best golfers, not best for the job.

I always thought a good Ryder Cup Captain would be someone who is a tough competitor but very well liked on tour.

What make a good Ryder Cup captain?

Not just a good personal record imho........

 

[vjcapron]

Amazing how underrated Irwin is as a ryder cupper. Why Hal Sutton as a captain and not Irwin? I never saw this list before and had no idea Irwin was so effective in match play. Why he and Larry Nelson never were captains makes no sense at all.

Because Irwin never won a PGA and past Champions get the nod over a non-winner.

 

[dashfan87]

The 15 match minimum is understandable, but it does keep one of the best American Ryder Cup players off this list.

Larry Nelson went 9-3-1 in his Ryder Cup tenure (3 total appearances) for a winning percentage of .730. He is the only man ever to go 5-0 in a Ryder Cup.

The fact that he never was named captain of a Ryder Cup team is a tragedy.

and he will tell you that... a quote from nelson went "if the highest point in my career was winning on the ryder cup, then the lowest is not being named captian."
that sucks..... i feel for him.

 

[Jared Willerson]

Nelson won a PGA too. Oh well, I guess he didn't have enough "personality".....like Hal Sutton....that worked well didn't it? Maybe if he had given everyone a pair of custom made boots like he does for everyone that joins his golf club....what a dork.

 

[Chris Sturgess]

Who cares about one PGA, Irwin won multiple US Opens and had a better career than Hal Sutton. Hal Sutton is also not a very intelligent person in general judging by everything I've ever heard him say. At least Irwin was captain of the Presidents Cup, I think it was way back in the late 90s.

 

[Chris Sturgess]

Nelson is such a quiet, nice person that people forget he was a ten times better golfer than Hal Sutton who is a real life Hoss from Bonanza and should not be in a position of decision making.