Very impressive first day from Europe . Americans totally dominated in the morning and then denied some wins at the last by great putting in the four balls . Looks like the momentum is with Europe already today too . McIlroy and Fleetwood leading the way again . Already 3 up .
There's something quite interesting about the psychology of the Ryder Cup. The Americans seem to subscribe to the view that because they have a lot of the "best" players they should win. They never seem to grasp that team golf is very different – even fourballs. They're so used to strutting round the PGA Tour in front of thousands of whooping Trumpers while wearing baseball caps sponsored by hedge funds thinking no further than their own next shot that they can't seem to get their heads round the dynamics of playing with a partner. Having said that, they are unstoppable if they are on top, winning well and have the crowd behind them. Update: Turns out Cantlay is refusing to wear a USA hat in protest at not getting paid to play the Ryder Cup. He and Schauffele are sitting apart from the rest in the team room, apparently.
He's only won the $9.5m in prize money this season and he's sponsored by Goldman Sachs. He's got private jets, a coach, a chef and a nutritionist to pay for out of all that
Another fantastic session as Europe dominate again. Rahms tee shot at the 17th was just pure class under that pressure.
Was listening to an interesting item from Talksport's golf correspondent (one of the few genuinely knowledgeable people they have on their station). He was saying that as well as the above, the home captain has a big say in how the course is set up and Luke Donald chose very long rough as American players are generally bigger drivers of the ball but are consequently more likely to end up in the rough. Another symptom of how the sport is approached over there, those same fans you've described much prefer seeing someone blasting the ball into infinity and beyond rather than carefully and skillfully making their way up the middle of the fairway.
The Americans had the chance to play the Italian Open and get a feel for playing a European course, but decided against it Have the LIV excuses started yet? Despite the fact DJ hasn’t exactly been tearing it up
The Americans mostly hate each other so when they travel to Europe, they are forced upon each other for a long period of time which is why most of them skipped the Italian Open and the bad twins went on a stag do instead of turning up to the preparation sessions two weeks ago. They had a detente back at Whistling (and the Koepka/DeChambeau drama dominated the team) but that didn’t last long.
Like at Medinah when they cut all the rough short to help the US. Only to inadvertently help Europe when they got on a roll on Miracle Day.
I mean they haven’t won here since 1993 which probably says it all about their mentality and attitude. Their only win has come from 2 of the smaller names in the team for example- not one of the big names leading by example like McIlroy and Rahm do . One was seeing upset and being comforted after getting hammered but not sure if that was just his ego being battered . Suppose the Americans will win the big events next year so all will be forgotten .
Yeah obviously the bloke wasn't saying that every single American can drive it further than every single European.
One bunch of overpaid multimillionaires taking on another bunch of overpaid multimillionaires supported by two groups of numpties who seem to think there is an actual USA v Europe rivalry. Only perhaps for a very small fraction. The sooner this incredibly environmentally damaging sport is consigned to the history books the better.
To be fair, whatever one might think about golf it's just about the purest expression of capitalist free-market economics going. So they're not overpaid, they are paid (and win) precisely the money the market dictates. Fair point about the environmental damage though. A grotesque waste of space but, once again, the pure expression of how a protectionist, capitalist society works. What I do enjoy, though, is that golf and its players and followers are also very conservative / right-wing, so seeing people who, ahem, probably don't like the EU or the EU flag very much getting very excited supporting the European team really is priceless. To be fair, they ought to be forced to support just GB (and not even Northern Ireland), watching Arthur Heckingbottom and Barry Scragg or Sir Nigel Dull and Horace Peculiar getting beaten 10 & 8 every round.
