So how can any pairing be an insult? It’s not like the European captain sent one of the scrubs up against Tiger on purpose.
It’s an insult to Tiger. He’s #1 in the world and he’s going eighth. Mickleson’s even worse at ten. With a lead, you always put your best players up first, to put your flag on the scoreboard and take some pressure off your rookies. If you’re tied, you might save one or two top guys for the end. Spots 6-10 are filler spots, and that’s where Tiger and Phil are.
That’s interesting. In other sports the logic is often the opposite. You want your strongest players running anchor. Not your rookies. I can think of nobody BUT Tiger I’d rather choose to try to pull off some 18th hole heroics.
The order is supposed to be completely random.
When the US team won in Boston in 1999 with a miracle comeback, Captain Crenshaw “front-loaded” his lineup with his best players. that worked out well.
IMO, Pavin put out the five players who are playing best.
Stricker - Carried Tiger through the first two matches this week. Played kind of well in the Fedex Cup
Cink - Next to Stricker, probably played the best of any Yank this weekend.
Furyk - Just won last week, enough said
Johnson - Has played poorly this week, but he did win in Chicago 3 weeks ago
Kuchar - Also won one of the Fedex Events, and has played reasonably well this week.
the US team needs to win 7.5 out of 12 points to retain the Ryder cup (8 points to win it outright). A point is a point is a point. doesn’t matter where it comes in the lineup
Tiger playing one of the Euro scrubs in the Ryder Cup is part of his legacy. These have been his opponents (and their World Ranking) in the matches and their slot in the singles.
1997 Constantino Rocca #37 (5th pairing)
1999 andrew coltart #66 (6th pairing)
2002 jesper parnevik #59 (12th pairing
2004 paul casey #27 (1st pairing)
2006 robert karlsson #36 (4th pairing)
2010 francesco molinari #32 (8th pairing)
IMO, there is no insult to be #8.
Furyk was in the #8 slot in 2006.
“A rose by any other name…”
Most times in the Ryder Cup the event is over before the final two or three groups finish, making their matches irrelevant. You want your best guys to have an impact on the result.
With Europe needing 14.5 points to win the Cup, and already having 9.5, it could be over before Tiger and Phil finish the front nine.
This is pretty exciting - and I’m only ‘watching’ it by text updates. Tiger has just gone through Francesco Molinari like a dose of salts to make it 13-11 to Europe (including an eagle off the faiway). US requires 3 more points, with 4 games to go - 2 of which are in the bag, so it might well go down to the wire with MCDowell v Mahan.
Molinari keeps it more interesting by pissing away a 4 hole lead.
Shee-ite, he’s bottled it. Great play by Fowler from the sounds of it, though.
Down to the last pair, Mahan and, ahem, G-Mac.
Well in son, McDowell shows Hunter who has the minerals and it’s all done - Europe by one.
Contested all the way down to the last pair on the second to last green - can’t argue with that. Good to see it so competitive, sort of rescued the event after all the weather disruption.
Just like I feared, Mahan could not survive the excruciating pressure. He put a choke on that last hole that will haunt his career for years to come.
It may be that Pavin figured it would not come down to the last pair, but he should have considered the possibility and played to win.
Tiger was unbeatable today. it was great to see and it may be just what he needed. Phil played well too. That has to help their psyches.
Kuchar better qualify again next time, he won’t be a captains pick after this years crappy play.
The captains do not put the players out randomly. They usually want a win or two at the beginning to take pressure off the following players. They lead with their hot player.Then they finish with a hot player in case it comes down to the last pair. Trouble is Pavin had a lot of players to hide, including Tiger and Phil.
Slots where he put Tiger and Phil are generally left to less prominent players. As today showed all slots are important, but golf is a game of momentum. If your team gets on a roll, it is infectious. It seems Mahan was immune.
Hunter most likely had to birdie #17 and #18. No way I can put any blame on him.
Watching the post match US Press Conference, Hunter is taking it really badly. He can barely speak without breaking down. I hope he can recover from this.
Ye can’t put Mahan under the microscope for that fluffed shot - he was 2 back with 2 to play at the time. The pressure clearly got to him, but he was under the cosh anyway - it’s not like he personally dropped the Ryder Cup from his hands.
It was more a case of too little too late from the US big boys - Francesco Molinari didn’t even play that bad today and he got absolutely walloped by Tiger. Mickelson spanked Hanson, Dustin Johnson woke up etc etc, but all to late.
Monty was right. Pavin’s lack of confidence led to two great performances being wasted today. Monty held back a Major Championship winner for the final match, while Pavin had Hunter Mahan, and two players with 18 majors between them were sitting on the grass, their matches long over.
Pavin’s strategy came within a half a point of working.
and if Mahan had been put in the #8 slot, and lost, the match would have never got to the #12 match.
A point is a point is a point. Jeez.
Bullshit. Pavin set the team up for a traditional Ryder Cup. If this thing had gone through the regular format, the US would have won it. Blame the PGA for this one.
The lesson learned here is that the PGA needs to schedule around the Ryder Cup, just like every other US-based sports organization has (belated) recognized international play.
I disagree. Pavin did not set it up like a traditional Ryder. He put a very inexperienced player in the last and sometimes the most important spot. He led with his hottest player.That is fairly sensible, but he hid his most highly ranked players in bad slots where they played weak players. He did not trust Tiger and Phil to go head to head with the Euros best. That was a mistake.
Apparently, in the Ryder Cup, there is a half point between pure genius and pure doofus. :dubious:
if Cink had not 3-putted 15 or missed the 6 footer on #17, Pavin would be bringing home the cup.
The singles line-up was not the problem. the problem was the US team did not play well enough.
Good Grief.
The Captain can do nothing about the play of his lineup. He can, however, schedule his lineup so that he has a top player running anchor in order to prevent what happened today. Like Monty did.
Scheduling the pairings and the singles lineup are one of (maybe the) most important things a Captain does after picking his Captain’s picks. Sending the #1 and #2 players in the world out at #8 and #10 and seeing them win 4 and 2 and 4 and 3 against the dregs of the European squad is not a good use of your team.
I guess you will just not understand that a point is a point is a point. On a any given day, any player can beat any player. Rocca beat Woods in 1997. Nick O’Hern beat Tiger (twice) in the WGC match Play tournament
Pavin’s lineup came within a whisker of winning. Europe’s highest ranked players got beat today. As I said, there is a fine line between champ and chump.
Pavin had to win 7.5 points in 12 matches, not 10 points in 12 matches.