Collin Morikawa a popular pick for World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba

Live leaderboard: Spieth in driver’s seat at Northern Trust

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Amid talk that this might be the strongest U.S. team ever, Europe falls into an early 0-3 hole but roars back for a 17.5-10.5 victory over the U.S. at Le Golf National, the third-most lopsided U.S. loss ever in the Ryder Cup. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where the Americans ventured across the Atlantic with high hopes to end the losing streak that has seen them lose every Ryder Cup on foreign soil since 1993, but didn’t even come close to doing so despite looking like the better team on paper. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. This was a predictable result. There were problems for the U.S. even as they touched down in Paris. Although Tiger Woods had won the TOUR Championship at East Lake, Phil Mickelson looked out of sorts and finished last (30th). Bubba Watson finished 29th, Patrick Reed 28th and Brooks Koepka shot a second-round 78 and tied for 26th. Overall, the results were worrisome. Sure enough, Mickelson went 0-2 in France and was benched all day Saturday. Reed, the vocal MVP of the U.S. side that took down Europe in 2016, struggled after being split up from his usual partner, Jordan Spieth, and didn’t earn a point until the singles. Koepka played better but went 1-2-1, and the U.S. never looked fully comfortable with the course, where Europe came in having played a combined 236 tournament rounds compared to eight for the U.S. Justin Thomas (4-1-0), the best American player, had played the French Open this year; Koepka had played it during a stint in Europe early in his career. 2. This was an unpredictable result. Mere days after collecting the 80th win of his PGA TOUR career at the TOUR Championship, Woods went 0-4, the worst Ryder Cup performance of his career. Who saw that coming? After winning the first two stops in the FedExCup Playoffs, THE NORTHERN TRUST and the Dell Technologies Championship, Bryson DeChambeau went 0-3. Wait. Wasn’t he the hottest player in golf just a month ago? Patrick Reed didn’t win so much as a half point Friday and Saturday. OK, now that’s just borderline crazy. You could say that Europe was always going to win this Ryder Cup because, well, that’s what always happens in Europe. But the eye-opening seven-point winning margin was the result of a perfect storm. It was the smart/fortuitous pairing of Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood (Moli-wood went 4-0); Jim Furyk’s hotly debated decision to split up Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth; the U.S. players’ wildness off the tee on the tight course; Mickelson coming into the week totally out of sorts; and Woods’ struggles on the greens, among other factors. In other words, the lopsided nature of this contest must be considered something of a fluke. 3. Momentum is everything. Still. The Europeans have the Ryder Cup in their blood and seem to have a visceral understanding of it in a way that the Americans don’t. One example: The Euros’ ability to harness momentum. The U.S. was on cruise control at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah before Ian Poulter went on a crazy run of birdies and he and Rory McIlroy emerged with a crucial point for Europe. It set the stage for the wild European comeback in singles the next day. This time around the big swing came earlier, on Friday afternoon. Europe not only whitewashed the U.S., going 4-0, no match even reached the 17th hole. The Americans, who had gotten off to a 3-0 start in the morning, were immediately on their back foot, and they never recovered. “We just didn’t quite execute,� said Mickelson, who admitted this Ryder Cup may have been his last. 4. Europe’s team ethos paid off. Thorbjorn Olesen could have gotten down after losing his first match with struggling partner Rory McIlroy, but Olesen merely bided his time until Sunday, when he beat Spieth 5 and 4 to extinguish any embers of a U.S. comeback and run his Ryder record to 1-1. Jon Rahm could have sulked after starting his Ryder Cup career 0-2-0, but instead he went out and beat everyone’s golfing idol, Tiger Woods, in another important singles match Sunday. By the time it was over, every European had earned at least a point. Three Americans, meanwhile, went winless: Woods (0-4), Mickelson (0-2) and DeChambeau (0-3). 5. Hindsight is still undefeated. It seemed like four pretty easy decisions when it came time for U.S. Captain Jim Furyk to make his four picks, adding Woods, Mickelson, DeChambeau and Tony Finau. Somehow, though, Finau (2-1-0) was the only one to earn any points for the U.S. Mickelson looked lost, Woods tired and confused by the greens, and DeChambeau like the victim of circumstances and hot players for Europe. Meanwhile, European pick Sergio Garcia, who hadn’t shown much form all season, went 3-0-0 to become the winningest player in Ryder Cup history. Henrik Stenson, who has battled injuries but also got a pick from European Captain Thomas Bjorn, also went 3-0-0. Who could have predicted that? FIVE INSIGHTS 1. The U.S. struggled mightily off the tee Friday, finding the fairway or first cut just 57 percent of the time in the afternoon Foursomes compared to 74 percent for Europe. Not surprisingly, Europe won the session 4-0, taking a lead that that they would never relinquish. Mickelson, who came into the week ranked second to last on TOUR in Driving Accuracy, looked especially lost in trying to find the bowling alley-like fairways at Le Golf National. 2. The accuracy disparity only got worse. Saturday morning Four-balls saw the U.S. hit just 54 percent of fairways/first cut, while Europe was at 74 percent. In the afternoon Foursomes, where keeping it in play is especially crucial, the U.S. was at 67 percent, Europe at a telling 81 percent. Although the U.S. would miss several putts, their scattershot ways off the tees proved especially damaging to their chances while falling behind 10-6 in Foursomes and Four-balls. 3. Ian Poulter was not perfect, losing a couple of matches with partners McIlroy and Rahm, both times at the hands of the powerful U.S. team of Spieth and Thomas. But in beating Dustin Johnson, Poulter remained unbeaten in singles and ran his Ryder Cup record to 12-4-2. 4. Woods played better than his 0-4-0 record indicates, but he could be excused for feeling tired. After not playing a full schedule for years, he was competing for the seventh time in nine weeks. 5. Italy’s Francesco Molinari was the first European to emerge with a perfect 5-0-0 record, and the fourth overall, as Europe won for the seventh time in the last nine Ryder Cups. More good news for the top European point-earner: The 2022 Ryder Cup will be in Rome.

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Golf’s future in the Olympics is expected to extend into 2024, thanks to a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board. In a meeting held Friday at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Executive Board approved the inclusion of all 28 sports that were held at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. That includes golf, which made its return to the Olympics program after a 112-year absence. The recommendation is scheduled to be ratified by all IOC members at the 130th IOC Session held on Sept. 13 in Lima, Peru. That’s also when the host city for the 2024 Summer Games will be announced – either Paris or Los Angeles. The International Golf Federation released a statement Saturday: “The IGF is gratified to learn of the IOC Executive Board’s decision to include golf in its recommendation for the Olympic Games Programme in 2024. We look forward to learning the outcome of the final vote at the IOC Session in September. “We were always confident that golf would deliver exciting men’s and women’s competitions in Rio de Janeiro and even at that, it exceeded our expectations. Now, we are excited to build upon the success from last year as we prepare for the 2020 Games in Tokyo and, hopefully, beyond.â€� Golf had previously been approved for 2020 in Toyko, with the men’s and women’s competition held at Kasumigaseki Country Club. Golf’s return to the Olympics in Rio was considered a success, especially by the players involved. Justin Rose (gold), Henrik Stenson (silver) and Matt Kuchar (bronze) were the medalists in the men’s competition, with Inbee Park (golf), Lydia Ko (silver) and Shanshan Feng (bronze) grabbing podium spots on the women’s side. In a non-traditional golf country, players were pleased to see a significant amount of fans at the new Olympic course designed by architect Gil Hanse and his team. “To look at the support that was out here, to look at the guys that came through, won medals – I think it speaks for itself,â€� Kuchar said after winning bronze. “This event has gone over, I think, fantastically well.â€� The fan support should be larger in Tokyo. According to a 2015 study by the R&A, there are 2,383 golf facilities in Japan, second most in the world next to the United States. Included among the estimated 10 million golfers in the country are Hideki Matsuyama, the fourth-ranked men’s player in the world, and Harukyo Nomura, ranked 18th among all women’s players. Korean golf fans, who made up a big contingent for the women’s event in Rio, should have an even larger presence in Japan, its next-door neighbor. Eight of the current top 14 women’s players in the world are from South Korea. If Los Angeles gets the 2024 Olympics bid, the host venue is expected to be Riviera Country Club, the annual site of the PGA TOUR’s Genesis Open. If Paris gets the bid, the host venue will be Le Golf National, the host course at next year’s Ryder Cup.

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