Tiger missing that 4-footer isn’t really a bad thing if you think about it

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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Rickie Fowler returns to PGA National to defend his title, Tiger Woods makes his second consecutive start and FedExCup Leader Patton Kizzire is back in the field as the TOUR returns The Honda Classic.  First round tee times First round leaderboard HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN TELEVISION: Thursday, 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel) PGA TOUR LIVE: Sunday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. (featured groups).  RADIO: Sunday, 12-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com) NOTABLE PAIRINGS (All times are ET) Daniel Berger, Justin Thomas, Sergio Garcia 7:35 a.m. off the 10th tee Patton Kizzire, Tiger Woods, Brandt Snedeker 7:45 a.m. off the 10th tee Kevin Kisner, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed 12:25 p.m. off the 1st tee Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Padraig Harrington 12:35 p.m. off the 1st tee  

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Believe it or not, International Captain Ernie Els can turn the unfortunate loss of Jason Day into a positive for his Presidents Cup team. Sure, the list of what he has lost is vast, with the news that Day has succumbed to a back injury that will keep him sidelined for two months … • The experience of four previous Cup appearances • A 12-time PGA TOUR winner • A major winner • A former PLAYERS Championship winner • A former world No. 1 • A two-time winner of the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play • A World Cup winner at Royal Melbourne • The best statistical putter on the team from last season • An Australian with a huge following But there are also gains to be had with the introduction of Byeong Hun An into his first Presidents Cup. Stay with us… RELATED: An in as Day bows out of Presidents Cup | Presidents Cup provides bonding experience for Hadwin, Weir | The unlikeliest Presidents Cupper Better form While Day is pure class, the fact remains he has had just one top-10 finish since The Masters Tournament in April – a T8 at the Travelers Championship in June. He hasn’t won since the Wells Fargo Championship in May of 2018. Now An hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR, but just since Day’s last top-10 finish the Korean has two third-place finishes on the TOUR and contended throughout the recent Asian swing. He was T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES and T8 at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP before a T14 at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. He sits 16th in the FedExCup while Day, who ended his fall with a missed cut at the Mayakoba Golf Classic, is 139th. An ranked first on the PGA TOUR last season in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and seventh in SG: Tee-to-Green. The injection of new blood The International team has a 1-10-1 record in all Presidents Cups. Certain players have been there for a while and been unable to come up with a much-needed win. Now of course, the strength of the U.S. Team is the major factor here. They have always been a far superior team on paper. But a lot of European Ryder Cup teams have looked inferior but won. Day played in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 for an individual record of 5-11-4. For all his match play talent, Day hasn’t been able to turn it into Presidents Cup team success. In 2015, Day had won four of his last nine starts leading into the competition and was no worse that T12 over a stretch that included three majors, a WGC and the FedExCup Playoffs. But in Korea he went 0-4-1 and the Internationals lost by a single point. An is now one of seven rookies on the International Team. They don’t have the scars of losing. And An has his own match play history. He remains the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur, a title previously held by Tiger Woods and then Danny Lee. The underdog status Even with the loss of the world No. 1 Brooks Koepka, the U.S. Team is stacked. Matt Kuchar, at 23rd, is the lowest-ranked American player in the world, and only Adam Scott (18th) and Hideki Matsuyama (20th) sit above him from the Internationals. Haotong Li, at 63rd, is the lowest-ranked International. Everyone expects the U.S. to win. They have dominated in the past and are led by Tiger Woods. But Els can harness that underdog mentality. (No one gives you guys a chance. They don’t respect you. They think they can just turn up and win.) Sport is full of underdog triumphs. There is an entire Hollywood movie genre on it. Maybe Els should play Rocky movies on the team bus. Or highlights of real-life upsets like when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson or the New York Giants beat the previously undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. They have an opportunity to create a unique legacy here… the team that finally knocked down the juggernaut. Freedom with pairings Els has stated for months that he will use analytics when making his partnerships and with another rookie he will have more freedom to do so. Day was expected to pair with fellow Australian Adam Scott – a unit that played together at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and wanted to do so again. It looked a good duo, despite a missed cut in New Orleans, taking away some options from Els’ plans. Now Scott is freed up to go where the numbers best suggest – something that might help him avoid adding to the unwanted record of having the most losses in Presidents Cup history. Maybe it will be another ball-striker like An or Louis Oosthuizen. Or will it be a fiery rookie with putting prowess like Sungjae Im or Joaquin Niemann? An also brings a balance as he can seamlessly partner with the other Asian players as well as others. So while it certainly isn’t good news that Day won’t return to his native land this December, it is not as dire as it might seem. Els will make sure his team knows it.

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