One of the most amazing things about the European Ryder Cup team is that
despite the fact the Europeans have made winning this competition a habit for two
decades now, their team somehow comes in every year as the underdog. The
toughest task for the Euro side this year might be keeping that woe-is-me
position. But the Europeans will have no problem keeping the Ryder Cup. Here
are five reasons why.
1. Experience
Not only does the United States have four rookies on its
squad, compared to two for the Europeans, but the American side also has
three other guys who have played just once and two more who have been in the
biennial event only twice. Half the European team has played in a minimum of
three of these competitions. Also, the vast experience of the European team
can be measured in more than years and competitions alone.
The European roster is packed with team leaders -- the kind of guys who will step up when the going
gets tough. Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Sergio Garcia, Darren
Clarke and Lee Westwood are all the kind of guys who would never let a
teammate say he's too tired to play an afternoon match, as Chris Riley did
for the U.S. team at Oakland Hills two years ago.
Who is the team leader for the Americans? After Tiger Woods, the pickings are pretty slim. The Euro side has been steeled in the forge of competition. They will handle the heat of what any golfer who has played in a Ryder Cup says is the most pressure he has ever played under.
2. Home-field advantage
Not only is this competition being played in Europe, but it
is being played in Ireland for the first time. The crowds at The K Club near
Dublin are sure to bring a ton of Irish enthusiasm with them and will cheer for
the Euros with perhaps a tad more intensity than usual. The last time a
Ryder Cup was played in a city this heavily Irish -- Boston in 1999 -- it
produced perhaps the most spirited (and spirit-fueled) crowd in Ryder Cup
history. Look for Irishmen Paul McGinley, Padraig Harrington and Clarke, who's from Northern Ireland, to respond to the love from the Emerald Isle folks.
Home crowds always count for a lot in Ryder Cups -- the Euros
did a brilliant job of taking the crowd out of the competition in Detroit in
2004 by charming it -- and this time home-field advantage will be more important than ever. Ian
Woosnam had a third captain's pick this year -- the Irish fans. They will
account for at least one point.
3. Attitude
For more than two decades now the European team has played the
Ryder Cup with a healthy chip on its collective shoulders. The players who
make their base in Europe and play little on the PGA Tour -- guys like
Westwood, Clarke, Montgomerie, McGinley and this year Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson
-- resent the fact that they are viewed by some as not good enough to make
it in America. Every other year in the Ryder Cup they dispel that myth by
taking home the trophy.
In short, this competition means more to the
European players than it does to the Americans. These are players who grew
up around World Cup soccer and they love national team competitions. It is
about pride for them, and they will feed off that pride again this year to
bring home the Ryder Cup for the eighth time in the last 11 tries. The
Europeans will prove once again that it is not about wealth and fame but
rather who has game. It would be an oversimplification to say that the
European players want it more than the American players -- but it would not
be wrong.
4. Chemistry
This factor is so true it has become a cliché. The joke is
that when the 12 American players go out for dinner they need 12 different
taxis. Actually, in this day and age it would be more accurate to say they
would need 12 different private jets. While American players are much more
accustomed to traveling in private jets and staying in private homes rather
than hotels at tournaments, the Europeans are much more likely to hang
together and have a few beers with their mates after a round. And you can
bet on this: One of the things they are talking about when they pound a few
after a round is how much they enjoy beating the Americans in the Ryder Cup.
These guys like each other, they like playing for each other and they love
winning for each other.
In the interview room at the 2004 Ryder Cup, the
winning European team sat in 12 chairs before hundreds of reporters
and not so much gave an interview as it did entertain everyone in the
room. The sense you got was of a bunch of fraternity members who had just won the
college championship and now were going to party all night. There will
be another party this Sunday in Ireland.
5. Heart
Clarke is one of the most beloved players on the European Tour. When he won the World Golf Championship event
at Firestone Country Club several years ago, John Hopkins, the extremely talented writer for
the Times of London, said of him: "He knows the outside of a cigar, the
inside of a Ferrari and the bottom of a Guinness glass." Clarke is, in a
gross simplification of his persona, a Man's Man. He is also down-to-earth.
All of that made it all the more painful for the European Tour community to
watch Clarke and his wife Heather endure a more than two-year battle that ended
earlier this summer with Heather dying from complications from breast
cancer. In August, it wasn't clear if Clarke would even play the Ryder Cup.
But he knew that the best healing place he could be was with his mates.
Those mates will rally around Darren this week and on Sunday even the
Guinness will mix with tears as the European team wins one for Darren.
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine