The opening day to the Ryder Cup, at last, and the pairings are out for the Foursomes. Both teams look strong but i do have my fancies... 1st Group... Rory McIlroy/Graeme McDowell - 5/6... Tie - 11/2... Brandt Snedeker/Jim Furyk - 6/4... This had to be the right call. Putting out the number 1 player in the World coupled with one of his best mates. A very solid pairing that will just relish going out 1st and to hopefully quieten down the Chicago home support. Although Snedeker is in the form of his life and Furyk is a very solid player i do think that the game of Rory and G-Mac will be to much for the yanks... McIlroy/McDowell to win... 2nd Group... Luke Donald/Sergio Garcia - 4/5... Tie - 6/1... Keegan Bradley/Phil Mickelson - 6/4... Yet again Europe has followed up with a strong pairing, and to be honest they dont get much stronger than Donald, 6-0-0 and Garcia, 8-0-1. This coupled with the first group could get Europe off to the flyer that they need. When Keegan Bradley started out as a golf pro Big Phil was his idol and i think that this pairing will need some hero shots from both of em to stop this European combination... Donald/Garcia to win... 3rd Group... Lee Westwood/Francesco Molinari - 11/10... Tie - 6/1... Jason Dufner/Zach Johnson - 11/10... The European pairing that worries me the most of the opening four pairings is this one. We have to hope that Lee's putting game is in tip top order because as good a player Molinari is the biggest weakness to his game is his putting. He missed two crucial putts in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor last time, and although he is playing with one of the best Ryder Cup players ever this pairing will struggle to stop Dufman and Zach from winning this one... Dufner/Johnson to win... 4th Group... Ian Poulter/Justin Rose - 13/10... Tie - 6/1... Tiger Woods/Steve Stricker - 10/11... What a group of players we have going out last. So trying to pick out the winner or not is going to be absolutely crucial in Europe's quest to bringing home the Ryder Cup. Woods and Stricker seem to be unstoppable since there pairing in the Presidents Cup some 3 years ago. Woods dos not lose many of the Foursomes and his record of 4-7-1 suggests that you will have to turn up to beat him. But if there is any partnership that can break the Woods/Stricker combo then surely it has to these two. Poulter is a beast when it comes to this type of battle, and his record suggests that he will not be a push over for the point on offer. This is the one group that all eyes will be on for me and im not sure you can separate them... This match to end in a tie... So my morning score after the 1st round of Foursomes is Europe 2.5, USA 1.5... Betting for the matches... Group 1 - McIlroy/McDowell to win, 5/6... Group 2 - Donald/Garcia to win, 4/5... Group 3 - Dufner/Johnson to win, 11/10... Group 4 - Match to be tied, 6/1... Accy of all 4 results, £1 - £45.88 Correct score of 2.5/1.5 - 4/1...
Edit the following... 4th Group... Ian Poulter/Justin Rose - 13/10... Tie - 6/1... Tiger Woods/Steve Stricker - 10/11... What a group of players we have going out last. So trying to pick out the winner or not is going to be absolutely crucial in Europe's quest to bringing home the Ryder Cup. Woods and Stricker seem to be unstoppable since there pairing in the Presidents Cup some 3 years ago. Woods dos not lose many of the Foursomes and his record of 4-7-1 suggests that you will have to turn up to beat him. But if there is any partnership that can break the Woods/Stricker combo then surely it has to these two. Poulter is a beast when it comes to this type of battle, and his record suggests that he will not be a push over for the point on offer. This is the one group that all eyes will be on for me and im not sure you can separate them... This match to end in a tie... I read this wrong... Its 4 wins, 7 loses and 1 halved match...!!! All these figures and reading up this one slipped me by... Dosnt alter the fact that i still think this will go to a halved match result... Bring it on... I cant wait... Less than a hour to go...
Friday Afternoon Fourballs 1st Group... Peter Hanson/Paul Lawrie - 8/5... Tie - 9/2... Bubba Watson/Webb Simpson - 10/11... Not sure which way this will go but i have to lean towards the Major Winning pair of Bubba and Web... Watson/Simpson to win... 2nd Group... Rory McIlroy/Graeme McDowell - evens... Tie - 9/2... Keegan Bradley/Phil Mickelson - 11/8... How well did Keegan Bradley play today...!!! Some of his monster putts just knocked our best partenership of Donald and Garcia for six... Maybe the slowness of the Ryder Cup suits him as he was the best player out there today. But, can the Irish lads stop the flying pair of the yanks in the Fourballs... Yes...!!! McIlroy/McDowell to win... Group 3... Martin Kaymer/Justin Rose - 13/10... Tie - 9/2... Dustin Johnson/Matt Kuchar - 11/10... The yanks look solid here with Johnson's long hitter and the ever consistant Kuchar, but it wont be a one way match up. Kaymer has had time to sort his game out and maybe the Ryder Cup will be the catalyst that the bloke needs. Rose come into this with a very impressive win in his earlier Foursomes... Match to be tied... Group 4... Nicolas Colsaerts/Lee Westwood - 7/5... Tie - 9/2... Tiger Woods/Steve Stricker - evens How bad did Tiger play this morning...!!! Stricker carried him around all day today and i am massively surprised that this pairing are going to go out again. Can he be as bad as he was before...? Well Tiger is a class act but his game is so far off the pace i dont think so. They are playing their own ball now which might make a difference but he was so bad today that any improvement would be welcomed by the yanks. So its going to come down to rookie and monster hitter Colsaerts and Westwwod to pile on the misery to this US pair... Colsaerts/Westwood to win... Watson/Simpson to win, 10/11... McIlroy/MacDowell to win, evens... Group 3 match to be tied, 9/2... Colsaerts/Westwood to win, 7/5... £1 accy on all these, £42.65...
It seems my biggest decision tonight is to go for cans or bottle(s)... Not had a Friday or full weekend off for ages and im going to enjoy it...!!!
So them pesky yanks played well and go themselves 5-3 up... what can i say, they played well... No they played unbeleivably well. Some of the scoring was just out of this world and they deserved everything they got tonight. And without being to negative towards our performance, of which it has to be said we didnt play well. You have to give credit to the opposition... We shall have to come back at em tomorrow or this Ryder cup will be over and done with sooner than we think...!!!
What can we say about yesterdays performances... Well first off they were spectacular at times, although i will say that they are using the good fortune better than we are. Some of the Yankee driving is crap to be honest but they are all finding ways to find the fairways or greens after there miss-shaped drives. Non worse was Tiger and Stricker who's pairing in the Presidents Cup is very good but here was the worst pairing for the US. Woods did show a bit of form for the Fourballs in the last 5-6 holes or so but even then he couldn't get anything going. His missed put on the 18th to salvage a half with the Europeans would have been gobbled up had it been the Tiger of 10 years ago. Not now... I do think that Davis Love has got the Americans enjoying there play, something that i think has been missing from their previous teams. Jeez, even Tigger smiled when he hit a good shot, and that is something that is missing from our faces. Yeah its easy to smile and sing when your winning, we are all like that, but the 'Home' crowd have bought into the players of America and they are reveling in some of the quality, quality shots that they are producing... The unbeaten Donald/Garcia pairing finally tasted defeat but to be honest any partnership would have lost so good were Phil and Keegan. Especially Keegan who must have holed 5 or more putts from over the 12 foot mark. Plus Keegans play gave Phil the confidence to go for his shots because his partner was 'in the zone' for so long yesterday. A formidable pairing indeed... Two of our pairings though yesterday were in my mind never going to get much out of the match ups, and im afraid Molinari's putting continues to plague him and Westwood for that matter, and they struggled. But the match up of Hansen and Lawrie was rabbits and headlights against the scoring of Watson and Simpson. Yes no-one could have lived with them but our paring only had 2 birdies between them in the 13 holes that they played. You arnt going to get any points playing like that...!!! The European team seems to be carrying a few this year. Kaymer, Lawrie, Hanson and Molinari looked short of match sharpness, and thats a third of your team...!!! There is hope and as long as we keep believing that we can get back the 2 point deficit then we have a chance. To be honest the Americans have played that well i wonder if they can really believe that they are ONLY 2 points in front, so good has there dominance been. Tiger has struggled as has Striker, and that has been the only weakness from the Americans players so it no surprise to see them 2 stood down. We have more pressing problems and we can only hope that the 'Spirit of Seve' can inspire us to win on US soil again... All to play for again today... Im out with the lads to watch the days play today so i will miss updating any of todays scores until tomorrow morning...
