Could the USA’s dominant Ryder Cup win usher in a new era of dominance?
As the dust settles on what was a proper Ryder Cup trouncing, it’s only normal for there to be some concern among European fans that this could be the start of a new era of US dominance in the biennial contest.
Coming into the week at Whistling Straits, eight players on Steve Stricker’s side were ranked in the world’s top 10. Three more were inside the top 16, with Scottie Scheffler the ‘outlier’ at World No. 21.
In contrast, only one member of Padraig Harrington’s team was in the top 10 – to soften the blow it was World No. 1 Jon Rahm – and the Irishman’s highest-ranked player was Bernd Wiesberger at No. 63.
The outcome? A record-breaking 19-9 win for the hosts.
The correlation is far from direct, of course, and this wasn’t anything new, but it was only a matter of time before dominance in the rankings equated to Ryder Cup supremacy – for one edition at least.
From a European perspective, what’s most worrying though, is that this group of Americans is here to stay.
The average age of the 2021 home charges was 29. At 37, Dustin Johnson was the ‘elder statesman’ of the bunch. He went 5-0 for the week, becoming just the third player to do so.
And it’s not a stretch to say Team USA will look pretty familiar in Rome in two years. All that might be different is that they’ll be sporting another major champion or two in their line-up. Daunting prospect? It should be.
Especially when you consider how “together” they looked. There were no inspirational videos or fan gestures in the build-up but, to a man, each player truly did appear to have “bought in” as captain Stricker mentioned more than a few times.
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Still, the usual question marks surrounded the US side ahead of the 43rd edition of golf’s team extravaganza. Every one was answered.
Even Brooks and Bryson managed to put aside their differences – as promised – for one tournament, sealing it with a half-hearted hug at the closing presser. There was…
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