The US lost the Ryder Cup again for the second time in a row and on its home turf.  The Monday Morning quarterbacking from the avalanche of media commentary is amazing and completely boring.  The golf media is spending considerable effort at questioning the pairings, USA performance, and the capability of Captain Keegan Bradley. Most of this commentary is tiresome as the results speak for themselves.

These teams bring out the top 24 professionals in the world and the level of competition in these Cup matches is beyond comprehension of the golf fan.  Europe has won 9 out of the last 13 Cup Matches and there are some common threads that have developed from the competition.

1.  Europe takes the matches more seriously than the USA and there is a significant focus on the team concept.  The team focuses on the “whole” person in all aspects of their lives and bring a common bond of success into the matches.  The USA side are individuals that are striving to qualify for the competition and the concept of “team” doesn’t enter the picture until the Cup schedule is upon them following the rigorous series of events leading up to the Tour Championship at East Lake.

2.  Europe has excelled at foursomes and fourballs for virtually all of the history of these matches.  The team concept employed by the Europe team lends itself to a degree of superior mental acuity that is required to play alternate shot.  The USA team has not been able to close this gap for many of these matches and the Captain of the USA is usually criticized for making less than efficient pairings.  My opinion is that this is really nonsense but in recent matches, the use of statistics and data analysis is trying to put some science behind this USA issue.  The US usually can win enough points in the first two days to position the team for the Sunday singles matches.  Scores such as 10-6 or 9-7 deficits thave enabled the USA to win Cup matches in the past.

3.  The USA is dominant in singles play on Sunday and has always been responsible for Cup victories.  This Sunday was no different as the USA came from way back to win or tie in every match but one.

In my view, the USA performance in the singles matches on Sunday saved the credibility of these matches.  The USA golf fan loves a winner and is not interested in losing and especially when the event is up against a weekend of collegiate football, NFL football and major league baseball.  Many fans didn’t even bother to watch the Sunday singles matches because it was viewed that the USA was hopelessly behind.

The USA demonstrated some serious professional mettle on Sunday with a determination and spirit to try to win the event despite Europe  needing only 3 points to keep the Cup.  Bryson DeChambeau came from 5 down after 7 holes to tie Matt Fitzpatrick on the 17th hole to have the match and win a 1/2 point.  Cameron Young and Justin Thomas holed putts on 18th to win their matches.  Scottie Scheffler who lost all four of his matches in the prior two days defeated world No. 2, Rory McIlroy.  The team could have folded their tent as the mental anguish of the first two days of continuous thrashing by Europe could have caused the USA to throw in the towel.  The Sunday USA play will avail the US brain trust to reevaluate their approach as the plan for trying to win in Ireland two years hence.  The USA hasn’t won on foreign soil since 1992 at the Belfry in England.

I had been developing a negative opinion on this event primarily due to the jingoistic behavior of the fans attending the event.  Bethpage had at least 50,000 in attendance and it was loud, boisterous and boorish to say the least.  A new standard of bad behavior was set here and must be dealt with or someone is likely to eventually get hurt.  Fans threw beer at Rory McIlroy’s wife and a female comic lead the crowd in a chant of F……you Rory on the first tee.  There were many more incidents that made this venue an embarrassment  for the United States.  Tom Watson in congratulating the Europe team acknowledged and apologized for the fan behavior.  The PGA of America needs to address the issue as a real problem that threatens the viability of this competition.  It seemed that the PGA knew that this was going to happen and did nothing to prevent it from occurring.  However this problem is solvable–what is missing is the will to put an end to the behavior–this is not the NFL–this is golf.

My proposal is quite simple and it has already been done in the United States for years where fan behavior is absolutely stellar.  It is the Masters and the standard of behavior is zero tolerance–if you misbehave you will be shown the exits.  If you obtained your Masters badge through resale, the badge holder might lose the badge forever.  You cheer for your player but there will be no catcalls in a backswing of over a putt.  What usually happens is that after a few people have been shown the exits, the behavior changes from the rest of the crowd.  This issue is a matter of will and management and isn’t complicated-tell the fans what the rules are and deposit those that do not comply.  It can be and should be done immediately and the PGA should come out with a public statement of apology to the Europe side and an edict that this will never happen again.  Thus far the PGA is silent on the issue, which is very disappointing.

USA Captain Keegan Bradley took full responsibility and accountability for the loss.  Its tough to lose a Ryder Cup especially on home soil and the Monday morning quaterbacking is going to go on for quite some time.  He gave the task tremendous effort but it just wasn’t enough and I believe that inexperience had a lot to do it with it.  The USA needs a captain that will manage the team for at least two cups.  I would nominate Justin Leonard as a very capable experienced professional who can get this situation organized.

Congratulations to Europe on an outstanding performance.  Europe was classy and respectful in victory while the USA demonstrated the same in defeat.  Congratulations to the USA for their Sunday performance creating a pyrrhic victory for the USA.  The USA team persevered and left it all out there only to fall a bit short.

At the end of this intense competition with the best players in the world, the game of golf wins again.