Three American winners in three Playoffs-Is US side stronger for 2010 Ryder Cup?
Americans have topped all three Fed Ex playoffs. Does this signify that we will have Americans as the winners of the 2010 Ryder Cup?
In the last three weeks, a trend seems to be emerging. This trend shows Americans over-taking the Europeans on the leader board. It may start with an early lead taken up by the European clan but by the end of the forth day, an American from nowhere shoots his way to the top.
Take the example of Matt Kucher, who seized the trophy at Barclays while Martin Laird had remained in the second position. Then comes the Duetsche Bank Championship, where Charlie Hoffman took the late lead and maintained it till the time he took the winner prize away from the British Boy, Luke Donald.
Most recently, Dustin Johnson won the BMW Championship with the runner up being yet another European; Paul Casey. OK, now that seems bizarre for the European Team Captain, Colin Montgomerie, who already seemed to have been going through a severe headache while finalizing his team and now a strange but apparently clear picture of the possible future is flooding in front of his eyes.
Speculations are ripe that the American side headed by Corey Pavin is stronger than the European side. This rumor has also reached the bettors and now the betting is on. But, for Pavin this is a sign of relief especially after the BMW Championship. Although, he seems to be proud of Johnson’s form but Tiger’s recent performances are worrying him. Tiger Woods had earned the wild card form Corey after rising from 67th spot to the 42nd in the FedEx standings.
Tiger’s performance at the Cog Hills has given panic attacks to the captain who now appears to be reconsidering his decision regarding the current world no. one. Media reports suggest that Corey might be thinking of calling Tiger off from few matches of the Ryder cup. Tiger might play in three or four matches but not in all five which means that it would be the captain’s call that will decide Tiger’s fate.
The overall picture seems even worse. Out of the twelve team members, only one player, Luke Donald, has made the cut to the playoffs’ last leg. Donald played his last nine holes in a devastating 42 to slip alongside Mc Ilroy. After this tournament, he stands on the seventh spot in the point race, while Laird, the runner-up from Barclays, is ninth and Justin Rose is thirteenth.
As for others, Padraig Harrington, who was considered to be Tiger’s counter attack, fell out of the playoffs a week ago while on Sunday night, Rory Mc Ilroy and Ian Poulter also joined him by failing to make it into the top 30s. McIlroy is ranked third in the European team but he could only manage to reach the 37th place at Cog Hill. This means that he has dropped from the 29th to 36th place in the FedEx points’ race.
His another teammate, Poulter started out pretty well but fell out of contention after going out of bounds and taking a triple bogey eight on the 11th hole. Resultantly, he dropped from 25th to 39th place on the FedEx standings. Experts believe that Monty’s team is made of the finest players and it is them who deserve the credit for winning the Ryder Cup five times in this decade. However, it was only four times for the American side but currently the team is showing a much promising form with four rookies and eight veterans. After looking at the current scenario, one can predict another American win at Wales.
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