United States Ryder Cup Team of the Decade for the 2010’s
By Matt Coles
With the decade coming to an end, here at ProGolfNow, we wanted to take a look back at who would make the United States Ryder Cup Team of the Decade.
There have been five Ryder Cups contested in the 2010s, with the United States having only been victorious in one of those Ryder Cup events, winning at Hazeltine in 2016.
The USA side suffered defeat in the first Ryder Cup to finish on a Monday, at Celtic Manor in 2010, before then losing from an improbable position in 2012 at Medinah. They also lost heavily at Gleneagles in 2014, and at the most recent edition of the tournament, the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, Paris.
In total, 25 Americans have featured in the Ryder Cup, with over two-thirds of those having played in multiple editions, with Phil Mickelson being the only player to have played in all five Ryder Cups in the decade.
Compare that to the 33 Europeans that have played in the event in the 2010s, with only a third of those having played multiple times. Like the USA, only one man has played at all five, with Rory McIlroy joining ‘Lefty’ in achieving that feat.
As is the tradition with the Ryder Cup selection, our Team of the Decades have been made up of the top eight players in points ratio won, plus a further four picked by us, those who deserve to get in.
Of the eight to automatically make it into ProGolfNow’s European Ryder Cup Team of the Decade, five of those have only featured in a single Ryder Cup, with the other three golfers having played in nine editions between them in the same period of time.
Across both teams, all 24 players won at least half of their points, but some big names missed out on both sides. For the European’s, the likes of major winners Tiger Woods (29% points won), Dustin Johnson (44%) and Bubba Watson (29%) failed to make the cut, while Bryson DeChambeau has the unwanted record of being the only American to come home with a 0% points ratio over the course of the decade, as he won none of his three matches.
Although Keegan Bradley won 57% of his points during his two appearances in the Ryder Cup this decade, more than four of the picks, we feel that the four that have been chosen did more for the team over a longer period of time.
So here it is.. the United States Ryder Cup Team of the Decade. We know you won’t agree with all of them, but here is our best 12 anyway!