History Of The Ryder Cup

We have a history in this country when we have sporting events and compete against the world we want to win everything.  Just let us lose a Olympic Basketball Gold Metal with a bunch of college players and we will send Michael Jordan and company the next time to show you.

The Ryder Cup was started in 1927 when America hosted the best Golfers from Great Britian and up until WWII we won every time.  By 1973 we dominated the Ryder Cup so much that it was be decided  to add European players to at least give us a challenge.  There was one unexpected event that happen from the Ryder Cup adding Europe was the European  Golf Tour pick up in quality and now may have better players than the PGA tour. One reason in the last 20 years European golf has improved is coverage by the Golf Channel, letting more people see it in Europe and if you are young a want to be a golfer.

The PGA has more money available but there are more great players in Europe than in the US.  So one of the reasons we not longer dominant the Ryder Cup is we no longer only have to beat Great Britian but all of Europe.  That's almost like Greenville Rose playing North Edgecome but now Rose  has to beat both DH Conley  and South Central all on the same team.

Here is another failure of US Golf.  There is no longer a go for broke player like Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods who played to make every shot.  There is so much money on tour these days that players settle for hitting the ball in the middle of the green instead of trying to hit the ball in the hole. In other words there is so much money to finish fourth in a tournament why do I risk a bad shot which might drop me to tenth.  Most tournaments these days fourth makes 200,000 which ain't a bad week of work. I know a gulp and a great shot might make you a winner and win a million this week but a bad shot I will only win 50,000 for tenth.

So the bottom line is we have better competition to win the cup and PGA players aren't use to playing in competition where every shot could get you in the losers column.  The PGA tour is you have to make shots to shoot about 275 shots in a weekend to win where the Ryder Cup every shot either you win this hole or fall behind.

Quite frankly I like it when there is a challenge and it means you had to work your butt off to win.  Not a whole lot of challenge  to just show up and be guaranteed a win.  Our only problem we can't send Michael Jordan and company  to fix this losing.  We need to improve our golfers we send.  Europe sure has.