Ryder Cup woes
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rogerdodger
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The Euro's played better. They hit the ball in the fairway more consistently than the US, hit their seconds closer and chipped and putted better as well. Captain of the Ryder cup is in my opinion the most over-rated position in sports. All he has to do is pick a few decent wild-cards and not mess up the pairings. He should have had Speith-Reed in foursomes both days. Mickelson and Bradley were not the best choice for alternate shot, but they should have played fourballs both days. His wild card picks were questionable but the results would be the same even if he picked Horschel and Kirk. The Euros played better. That said, would love to see Brian show us how to correctly play the shot Mahan blew on 18 to halve with Rose. He has the worst short game under pressure, it was painful to watch that shot.
duckjr78
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I'm not trying to be a tool, but in the same breath, you say the Captain is over-rated and then state 3 glaring mistakes that were made. In a contest where the margin for error is so small, 3 huge mistakes seems like a big deal, no?
duckjr78
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To answer your questions, yes, yes, yes, & yes. Tiger and DJ would have been huge in foursomes and Hoerschel and Duff would have helped in fourballs.
Take 3 of the 12 off the Euro's team and put 13-15 on the team and tell me it doesn't hurt them.
Watson had a difficult task ahead of him. Road game against a better team while missing some key players. But he did himself no favors either.
BrendanC
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McGinley should get plenty of credit too.
He put a lot into helping his team to perform by getting dozens of small decisions right.
To give an example, he understood that Graeme McDowell would make a "great mentor" (writing a note to that effect beside his name a couple of years ago) because of his personality.
He therefore paired McDowell with Victor Dubuisson, who was a guy some players might have struggled to gel with. Whether it was the pairing of other factors, Dubuisson played some of the best golf of his life.
Generating team spirit and giving the team a roadmap to victory is under-rated.
Watson's approach was very poor and looked likely to be very poor from a long way out.
The Ryder Cup captain is about as important as a caddie - so call him a 5-10% influencer of the result.
In other words, at elite level, a huge factor.
He put a lot into helping his team to perform by getting dozens of small decisions right.
To give an example, he understood that Graeme McDowell would make a "great mentor" (writing a note to that effect beside his name a couple of years ago) because of his personality.
He therefore paired McDowell with Victor Dubuisson, who was a guy some players might have struggled to gel with. Whether it was the pairing of other factors, Dubuisson played some of the best golf of his life.
Generating team spirit and giving the team a roadmap to victory is under-rated.
Watson's approach was very poor and looked likely to be very poor from a long way out.
The Ryder Cup captain is about as important as a caddie - so call him a 5-10% influencer of the result.
In other words, at elite level, a huge factor.
duckjr78
New
I agree. I just don't understand those saying that the Captain doesn't do much. Does the Captain make putts? No. Does he make tons of small, good decisions that help his players make putts? Yes.
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