Ryder Cup: Keys to an American Victory

There is no question that the American team will enter this week’s Ryder Cup as the underdog.  Paul Azinger has said it, the players have acknowledged it and, well, it is downright obvious. 

Despite the matches taking place on American soil, the European team has far more experience and a confidence that can only come with winning the past three Ryder Cup events.

Here are the four main factors that will determine whether the Americans can finally regain the cup for the first time in nearly a decade.

1)      The Rookies Must Come Out Firing

Many people believe that the Americans are too inexperienced and have created a team composed of far too many Ryder Cup rookies.  There is no question that the American team is entering the matches with a less experienced team than their European counterparts.

Just saying the words "Ryder Cup rookie" seems to paint a negative picture in the minds of most. 

Sure, the pressure a player sustains in the Ryder Cup trounces any they will experience in an average PGA Tour event and arguably even a major.

But, before automatically associating the word "rookie" with a negative, one must actually take a look at just who the rookies are on the American team.

Anthony Kim has two PGA Tour wins this year and carries himself with a swagger that oozes confidence. 

Will Kim be nervous come Friday?

Of course he will.

But, I highly doubt the Ryder Cup pressure will overcome Kim this week.

Hunter Mahan is another confident, some might even say overconfident, young player. 

The one aspect of Mahan’s game that has held him back on the PGA Tour is his propensity to make a lot of bogeys.  However, Mahan counters his many bogies with an even larger number of birdies. 

In a PGA Tour event, that is not the traditional recipe for success.  But, the Ryder Cup is not a stroke play event and Mahan’s ability to string together a ton of birdies could be devastating to his opponents.

Ben Curtis has won a major and came very close to winning this year’s PGA Championship.  Curtis is not the most talented player in the event, but he is clearly experienced and has dealt with pressure similar to what he will face this week at Valhalla.

J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekly are more difficult to predict than the others. 

Entering the final round of the PGA Championship with the lead, J.B. Holmes took all of one hole to completely melt down and take himself right out of the tournament. 

But Holmes will have a helping hand that only one other player, Kenny Perry, in the matches will have; that is the hometown Kentucky crowd. 

Holmes and Perry will each be followed and supported by galleries that could trump those of Arnie's Army or Tiger Woods' gallery at, well, just about any tournament he plays in.

If Azinger pairs Holmes and Perry together, my best guess would be that that the European team would sit around a draw straws to see who has the unfortunate luck of taking on Holmes, Perry and their circus following.  

The biggest knock on this year’s American Ryder Cup team is the lack of experience.  If the rookies on come out firing and win their early matches, it will strike its first blow against the European team.

2)      Team Unity

It’s been said before and will surely be mentioned about 1,000 in the days and hours of the Golf Channel’s pre-tournament coverage. 

The American team has clearly lacked the unity seen in recent European teams. This has been one of the major factors in the American’s Ryder Cup demise over the past decade.

Azinger has the job of harnessing and bringing together a group of multi-millionaires, many of whom believe the Ryder Cup cuts into their personal schedules and time off from tournament play. 

Facing a decade of defeat, there should be no more unconditional support and babying from the American team’s captain.

Azinger will need to motivate and promote team unity through good old fashioned fear; the fear of embarrassment. 

If a decade of Ryder Cup defeat is not embarrassing and does not play a motivating factor for the American team, I am lost for ideas as to what would.

3)      Get Out To A Quick Lead

The European team has not trailed at the end of a single day in the Ryder Cup since 1999.  If the American team comes out like a juggernaut and builds a decent lead at the end of the first day, it will strike fear and intimidation into the European team and hand them a feeling they have not experienced in a decade. 

Trailing in the Ryder Cup is not a feeling that most of the European Ryder Cup team has ever experienced, and it could throw them for a loop.

4)      The Hometown Crowd

Americans appear to be more interested in this year’s Ryder Cup than any of the Ryder Cup matches played over the past 10 years.  

Maybe it’s the fact that the American team is facing a decade of defeat, or maybe Americans are simply sick of being beaten in international sporting events.  The Americans got trounced by the Chinese in the Olympic gold medal count, got knocked out of the World Baseball Classic a few years ago, and have not won the Ryder Cup in close to a decade.

With hometown players such as Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes as well as the American fan’s strong desire to regain the Ryder Cup, expect the crowd to rival that of a NFC Championship game.

For any European player who has not experienced a NFL playoff game, the intensity of a football-style American crowd could be a very intimidating factor this week.

America is a nation that is facing a period of uncertainty due to a recession that has no end in sight, a housing market collapse and fears of a complete economic collapse.  A Ryder Cup upset might do more to lift the spirits of a nation than Paul Azinger and the American Ryder Cup team could ever imagine.