Not long to go now, so i thought i would give you my run down on what im picking up regarding the US Team, and what the media are leaning towards. Davis Love seems to want the crowd behind him, and rightly so, but he is also right behind his group of players when it comes to how he wants them to play. JUST GO FOR IT...!!! We are already hearing that the fairways are wide and that the rough is just a slight inconvenience with the rough around the greens even less so. Why would Love want this sort of set up for his players. Well obviously to gain as much advantage as he can for his team, that's a given. So he must have looked at the strengths of his team in some detail. So here is what i think he is looking at... Driving... This team have some monster hitters with Bubba, Keegan and Dustin all averaging over 300 yards on the PGA Tour. They also have 5 players in the top 50 for driving where the Europeans only have one, Rory. The other players in the field arnt shrinking violets either when it comes to using the big hitter and the lowest ranked hitter, Jim Furyk, still gets it out there at 279.9 yards. This seems to be a good tactic but don't forget that in this format its as much about creating pressure on the opponent as it is to play good golf... Top 5 in Driving Average... Bubba Watson, 315.5 yards ave, ranked 1... Dustin Johnson, 310.4 yards ave, ranked 4... Keegan Braddley, 302.7 ave yards, ranked 14... Tiger Woods, 297.4 ave yards, ranked 32... Jason Dufner, 292.4 ave yards, ranked 60... Greens Hit in Regulation... Obviously if the fairways are wide and Love wants them to go for it, with the rough no where near as tough as it would be for a Major, approach shots to the green are the key to putting maximum pressure on your opponents next shot. Again Bubba heads the list as the number 2 ranked player with another 6 players in the top 40, as opposed to only 2 players for Team Europe. So, matching up driving distance to GIR, you can see why maybe that Davis Love wants them to go for it, they are better at it than us. Top 5 in GIR... Bubba Watson, 69.9%, ranked 2... Jason Dufner, 69.1%, ranked 4... Steve Striker, 68.3%, ranked 11... Tiger Woods, 67.5%, ranked 19... Webb Simpson, 67.4% ranked 20... Total Putting... One of the most interesting comments that Davis Love has made is that he wants his team to score low and get lots and lots of birdies. He is implying that the course will not be as harsh as the Major comps and that also he will not be setting the pins in inaccessible positions. This is where all golfing games are won and lost and its interesting that he makes this point as yet again they have much the better stats than we do. Again, playing in the Ryder Cup brings its own pressures, but to have the main three stats you need in golf, Driving, Hitting the Green (GIR) and putting all better on paper than your opposition must bode well for the Americans this year... Top in Total Putting... Brandt Snedeker, ranked 2... Matt Kuchar, ranked T5... Jim Furyk, ranked 10... Phil Mickelson, ranked 15... Zach Johnson, ranked 16... This is where i believe that Davis Love will be targeting the European Team this year, all out attack. The Americans have traditionally been the better side in the singles for some time now and maybe by making the course slightly easier to play it gives his boys a better chance to gain more points in the two days before the Singles match ups on Sunday. He is encouraging the Americans to go for it from the off and get at the Europeans with what he described as 'Free Wheeling Golf'... Its going to be fascinating to see how it plays out...
Quite a long course and with the rough cut ridiculously short the advantage goes to the long hitters not disadvantaged too much if they sway off the fairway, Bubba struggled last time out but I think he will be one of the big point scorers this time round.
I know for a fact that there is no way that Love will pair up 2 big hitters together, like they did with Micky and Tiger a few years back. It if course will come down to applying pressure at the right moment and dont be surprised to see a board full of blue at the start of the day only for the Europeans to pull it back... My prediction for the first day will be that we are in front by 2 or 1.5 points... Double that up and it will be a good lead going into Sunday, but will it be enough...?
I did question the 'fun' factor in how the Americans played the Ryder Cup but i have to be honest they ALL seem to be enjoying it, even Tiger put a smile on for show today...!!! I do think that this is the main reason for their dominance today, they are enjoying the pressure, crowd, moment, shots and challenge of beating a very good European side... Congratulations should go out to the yanks for they put on such a wonderful display of golf today. Bubba was -10 after 13 holes...!!! How on earth do you keep up with that...
