What Went Wrong For the Europeans in the Ryder Cup

The Europeans have owned the Americans in the Ryder Cup for a long time now. Since 1995, Europe had won 9 of the last 12 Ryder Cups, including 3 on American soil. I was born in 1995, so most of what I’ve known in those 25 years has been disappointment.

On a certain weekend, on the shores of Lake Michigan, in a town called Kohler, Wisconsin, the tables weren’t just turned. The tables were snapped in half.

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It was pretty much a disaster from the beginning. The names that have been so reliable for so long or the Europeans, all faltered this weekend. All five sessions were a train wreck.

Padraig Harrington got nothing from Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy in the team sessions, McIlroy would lament in an emotional interview after his lead off singles victory over Xander Schauffele. Viktor Hovland had trouble getting to the finish line all week.

The rookies, Hovland, Shane Lowry, and Bernd Wiesberger went a combined 1-8-2. Compare that to the American rookies going 14-4-3. Now you may be thinking that the numbers for the Americans are a bit inflated having six rookies, but that win percentage is undeniable.

The Europeans as a team struggled so much this weekend that it took until the afternoon four-ball session for someone not from Spain to win a match. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia went 3-0 together in the foursomes. It wasn’t until Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton beat Tony Finau and Harris English in the first match of the afternoon session on Saturday.

By the time Sunday came around, the Europeans had a deficit the size of Everest. They needed a quadruple inside straight that was ultimately completely unrealistic. An 11-5 spread is almost impossible to pull off, and with the weekend that the Americans had, there was no chance that it could happen.

The Europeans won only three of the twelve singles matches. The veterans Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood were the only ones able to carry the flag for Europe. The Americans would win Sunday 8-4, on their way to a historic 19-9 incineration of the men from across the Atlantic.

I really don’t think it was as much of the Europeans not playing that well, though there was a bit of it. The Americans were on fire from the get go. Dustin Johnson went a perfect 5-0, Bryson DeChambeau made seemingly every put he stood over, no matter the length. The aforementioned rookies shined. Europe may have underachieved, but they also ran into a freight train that they had no way to stop, and they were run over.

Any way you slice it, this will be an incredibly tough pill to swallow for the Europeans. They had so many veterans on that team, most of which know what it feels like to win this event. They learned firsthand what going up against 8 of the top 10 players in the world all on the same team was like. Add to that a raucous, USA partisan crowd, it was a tall, tall order that they couldn’t overcome.

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The Europeans lost with grace, as expected. The emotion of the moment was not lost on anybody. I’ll refer back to Rory McIlroy’s post round interview with NBC to show how much it means to them.

The Americans will be the holders of the Ryder Cup for the next two years. The Europeans will be very hungry to claim redemption and take the cup back when we do this all over again at Marco Simone in Rome.

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