The Ryder Redemption

For the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan, U.S. captain Hal Sutton came up with a brazen strategy to launch his team. He would start the competition by pairing the top two players in the world, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, ignoring any history suggesting that the two men didn't care for each other, as well as any indication that the two were uncomfortable with the decision and would prefer other partners.

What he couldn't ignore was that the power pairing put the U.S. team one point down to Europe when they lost the morning four-ball to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington. Still, Sutton, undeterred, came back with the same mismatched and miserable duo for the afternoon foursomes only to see them lose again, this time to Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood. It launched the team all right--on a Titanic-like course that sunk the Americans by a humiliating 18½-9½ margin. Two years later, Europe would again rout Tiger, Phil and the other Americans by the identical score.

Apart from the mortar-and-bricks verbiage of a sportswriter's craft--ball, game, run, shoot, pass, etc.--perhaps no word gets used more than redemption. The Boston Red Sox gained it memorably in 2004. Tom Coughlin found it in Super Bowl XLII. The Williams sisters always seem to be seeking it (and finding it), as did Roger Federer at the U.S. Open. At the Beijing Olympics, it was the quest of goalkeeper Hope Solo and the U.S. women's soccer team as well as that of the NBA's starry aggregate, which had relinquished its "Dream Team" designation in favor of the "Redeem Team." And I've already begun writing, at least in my head, the redemption story about A-Rod and the Yankees before the 2009 season.

Still, no sports stars or team has more to make up for--is more in need of redemption--than the recent golfing aggregates that have gone by the name "U.S. Ryder Cup team." Beyond the two most recent European romps, the Americans' would now be on a six-Cup losing streak but for one miracle putt--Justin Leonard's 45-footer in '99 that halved his match with Padraig Harrington. And all this losing has come at a time when America not only boasts the best player in the world by a long drive, but could field squads with higher rankings and far more distinguished golfing pedigrees.

If the Americans couldn't win with those advantages, how can they possibly win this weekend at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville without their injured superstar, Woods, and with a team that for the first time, at least on paper, doesn't measure up to the European dozen? The Americans have just five players ranked among the top 20 in the world (compared to seven for Europe), have a cumulative record of 24-33-9 in Cup competition (compared to 29-21-12 for the Europeans) and have six Ryder rookies (compared to just three on the Continental squad). Nobody on the American team has a winning Ryder Cup record. Its three most-experienced players--Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink--have a combined 15-29-10 mark; Leonard, the hero of the '99 U.S. victory with his come-from-behind tie, has still never won in eight Ryder Cup matches. Meanwhile, Cup stalwarts Sergio Garcia (14-4-2) and Lee Westwood (14-8-3) lead Europe.

Why should the Americans bother showing up? Because this year, I believe, they can recapture the Cup. And if they do win, it will likely be because they will compete for the first time since 1995 without a Tiger in their golf bag, not in spite of it. Strange as that may sound, as blasphemous as it may be, the absence of the player regarded by many as the best ever to play the game could prove to be the decisive boost for the U.S. team.