Event: 41st Ryder Cup matches.
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Woods was part of a task force assigned to improve the USA team after the Gleneagles loss in 2014, and was instrumental in choosing Love as captain.
Maybe this time will be different.
Europe have triumphed 10 times in the last 15 editions but they face a challenging task on American soil where the USA have lost only four times since the matches began in 1927. The most recent triumph arrived at Gleneagles in Scotland two years ago, when Europe’s 16.5-11.5 win was so conclusive it prompted the USA to set up a Ryder Cup Task Force to turn around their form. They are playing on home soil and before the most raucous atmosphere in golf.
Earlier this week, USA captain Davis Love III lavished praise on his squad, bragging that “this is the best golf team, maybe, ever assembled”.
Europe, led by Darren Clarke, has a pair of major champions in Danny Willett (Masters) and Henrik Stenson (British Open). He is 4-5 with 2 halved in his three trophy-less Ryder Cup starts, including 2-1 with 2 halved in four-ball.
Europeans quietly mocked the US team for creating its task force, which included Mickelson and Tiger Woods, Love and former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, all of them part of a losing culture in these matches. Love noted the Americans don’t have to do anything “super human”.
Foursomes matches involve two-man teams, with each team playing one ball.
And it built a model geared toward continuity so that assistant captains could only be past captains or players considered to be future captains.
Though he predicts an easy win for the USA, Miller disagrees with Love’s comments, saying this America team doesn’t come close to the one he played in in 1981.
“Rickie is great in the team room”. “We’re going to learn from our mistakes in the past and build on it”.
Mickelson was largely responsible for this.
American Ryan Moore was alongside McIlroy on six under, with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama on five under and former US PGA champion Jason Dufner another shot back.
Assistant captains: Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter, Sam Torrance, Paul Lawrie.
Watson sat out Mickelson and Keegan Bradley all day Saturday.
Either way, this is a ratio of experience that US fans can only hope will help pave the way for a much-needed home victory.
It was a bold move by Lefty, who put his image at risk with his public and blunt assessment of Watson.
Regardless, the first shots of the 2016 Ryder Cup have been fired with it all set to kick-off on Friday. Justin Rose was unbeaten in five matches. It won in 2010 mainly because Rory McIlroy escaped with a half-point against Stewart Cink.
Phil Mickelson: No US player has been in more Ryder Cups than the 46-year-old left-hander, who makes his 11th consecutive appearance in a run that began in 1995.
Europe, meanwhile, have won 11 of the past 15 Cups. That’s what I need to focus on and if I can do that, someone has to tie with DJ for me to win. He went 6-2-2, and the Americans won those two Ryder Cups (1975 and 1981) by a combined 19 points. And it was another decade before continental Europe was allowed to play. It will be unusual, in this year of all years, to see British Ryder Cup golfers draping themselves in the 12 gold stars of the European Union flag, but Clarke turns passive-aggressive at the very suggestion.
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And all that time, Europe never had to create a task force.
