So the 36th Ryder Cup Matches have been completed and Europe have romped home to a record 3rd in a row victory, where does that leave us? Well for some of us it’s onward to Valhalla and the 37th Ryder Cup but in the meantime where does this crushing defeat leave the US team and the future of the competition?
First of all credit where it’s due – Ian Woosnam must be congratulated, he was completely vindicated in his captaincy and particularly in his captains picks. He steered the European team to a decisive victory (which would have been a record defeat but for McGinleys generous gesture on the 18th). Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood confounded the naysayers by playing a blinder with 3 points from 3 matches and 4 points from 5 matches respectively.
Here’s an overview of the individual European player performances:
| Played | Won | Lost | Tied | Points | % Performance | |
| Darren Clarke | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.0 |
| Luke Donald | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.0 |
| José Maria Olazábal | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.0 |
| David Howell | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2.5 | 0.83 |
| Sergio Garcia | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0.8 |
| Lee Westwood | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0.8 |
| Paul Casey | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0.75 |
| Colin Montgomerie | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.5 |
| Henrik Stenson | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.5 |
| Robert Karlsson | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0.33 |
| Paul McGinley | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0.33 |
| Padraig Harrington | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
So Clarke, Donald and Olazabal share the top spot with 100% record althought Garcia and Westwood were the top scorers with 4 points each. Harrington had a poor Ryder up with only 1/2 a point from a possible 5.
Back in the US camp Tom Lehman must be scratching his head and wondering how it all went so wrong. (as are most of the commentators!) Despite his best efforts at team building and despite having the top 3 golfers in the world, his team bombed. It has to be said that his picks Verplank and Cink outperformed most of there team mates as you can see below:
| Played | Won | Lost | Tied | Points | % Performance | |
| Scott Verplank | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1.00 |
| Tiger Woods | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0.60 |
| Stewart Cink | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2.5 | 0.50 |
| J.J. Henry | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1.5 | 0.50 |
| Jim Furyk | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0.40 |
| Zach Johnson | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.5 | 0.38 |
| Chad Campbell | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0.33 |
| Vaughn Taylor | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.25 |
| Chris DiMarco | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.13 |
| David Toms | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.13 |
| Phil Mickelson | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.10 |
| Brett Wetterich | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
Wood’s in fairness to him put in a reasonable showing, certainly not in keeping with his PGA status but far superior to his former Ryder Cup record. Mickelson tanked inexplicably and only managed to tie one of his 5 matches.
Where does this leave the US team and the future of the Ryder Cup? I think the US will really have a herculean effort in front of them to save the event – if the US TV viewers tune out because there is no hope of their team winning it could spell major difficulties for the event in the future.
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