You’d probably be surprised to learn that there were at least 20 former Ryder Cup players at this week's Constellation Furyk & Friends PGA Tour Champions event, as well as several past captains.
As they concluded their rounds, a few of the former Ryder Cuppers were kind enough to provide some comments on the recent contest at Bethpage Black.
“I look at the way our players played,” said Jim Furyk, namesake of the Furyk & Friends tournament. “Look at the scoring on Saturday. Both teams played phenomenal. Set scoring records for a Ryder Cup.”
Furyk was a captain in 2018 and played on teams in 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014.
Tom Lehman said the loss was a tough one for the United States.
“They certainly dug themselves a deep hole Friday,” he explained. “Then the European team played amazing, amazing, amazing golf on Saturday. The U.S. showed amazing heart on Sunday. They were probably one turn of the ball from something interesting.”
What he was referencing was Russell Henley’s putt at the 17th.
“If he had made that putt, I would have been curious about how the rest of the matches would have finished,” Lehman added.
“You could see the Americans being really tight because they were falling further and further behind on Friday, Saturday, because they were so far behind,” he noted. “(On Sunday) you could see the Europeans getting really tight as they saw this seemingly really impossible lead evaporating.”
Lehman was a Ryder Cup captain in 2006. He played on teams in 1995, 1997 and 1999, the astonishing comeback in the Battle at Brookline.
Jay Haas played on three Ryder Cup teams over a 20-year span. His first was in 1983. The second was in 1995, and the final one was in 2004.
“Overall, it turned out to be very exciting,” Jay Haas said. “Obviously when the team got so far behind it was a bummer for everybody.”
He said he was proud of the way the team played.
“It made it exciting at the end, but they just got too far behind,” he noted.
Haas played Bethpage Black for U.S. Opens.
“It was one of the harder courses, but it wasn’t set up that way,” he added.
“So, they set up ( Bethpage Black) with less rough,” he said. “It just played into Rory’s hands, and I don’t know where it said that the U.S. team was not good drivers of the ball.”
He said he had heard that in Rome, the course was set up to take the drivers out of the hands of the U.S. players and that the Europeans thought they were better drivers.
“The fact is, the first two days, the European team played really well,” he added. “Eighteen holes is so fast, and it’s over. The Euros got momentum and the American team, as hard as they tried, which is too hard, I think, everybody’s trying to make putts and get the home crowd into it, and the harder you try, the less you succeed it seems.”
He admitted that he didn’t know what the answer is to get the US on the winning side again, but he did think it might be one of the best teams, top to bottom, that Europe has had in the Ryder Cup.
Chad Campbell, relatively new to the PGA Tour Champions set, is not new to golf. His first victory was in 2003 at the Tour Championship.
“I thought Sunday was great,” he said about the recent Ryder Cup. “I was glad to see 'em play better on Sunday and have a chance. The first two days were a little rough for us, but we fought back.”
Campbell played Bethpage Black in a U.S. Open and in a FedEx Cup event.
“The greens were hard and fast and the rough was nasty. It was totally different than the setup that they had last week,” he noted.
Campbell was also on three Ryder Cup teams in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Davis Love III, who was on six Ryder Cup teams and was in New York for the most recent one, declined comment, saying that the team had already been beaten up enough. He was going to adopt, he said, the philosophy of George W. Bush and just not say anything at all.