The Greatest Ryder Cup

I almost don't even want to write anything. Anyone who has been watching the last three days knows exactly what I mean. That is the reason we look forward to this week for two years. There are no words that can express the emotion and awe I am feeling at the moment. As a European, I am disappointed. However, it is the finest Ryder Cup I've ever seen, and I can't imagine a better one to come.

 I thought Europe would win. I thought they would win easily. How wrong I was. The United States showed the skeptics like myself that they weren't just trying to keep up their spirits with the positive talk - they knew what they were doing. Paul Azinger was a magnificent captain - he had a plan that he got across to the team, and they all played for him as well as for themselves and their country.

 

The Europeans can't be faulted - they all put in so much, and most of them played some of the golf of their lives. Robert Karlsson had seven birdies in the last ten holes on Friday afternoon, and got a half a point. Graeme McDowell played beautiful golf all week, and yet after two matches of stellar golf he was on half a point. 

The Americans just made so few mistakes. WHen Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan, Anthony Kim - when they had putts, they made them. They took all of their opportunities, and gave precious few to the Europeans.

 They were a phenomenal team. They used the crowd to their advantage, and guys like Boo and Holmes really got them fired up. I thought it was great - the crowd were extremely respectful with only a few blips that you get anywhere.

 The guys I feel sorriest for are McDowell and Poulter - they continued their superb golf into Sunday, and by the time they won their matches it mean very little - the adrenaline was gone and the fist-pumps were omitted.

 I was one of the loudest critics of the decision to leave out Clarke for Poulter, and while I said it wasn't Poulter's fault to be chosen, I still didn't accept that he was right for the team. On seeing him take that point with McDowell last night, I took back everything, and vowed not to criticize him again. He was fantastic for the team - Faldo got that absolutely right - when it came to making birdies and pars to win and halve holes, Poults knew what he was doing, slammed them in the back, and fed off the excitement. He's a brilliant Ryder Cup player, and I'll be delighted when he makes it into the Celtic Manor team on Merit.

 I'm not going to mention my predictions too much, as most of them were wrong, but I managed to get one or two right. I thought Boo would be huge for the States, and I honestly believe they would have found it much tougher without him. The crowd love him, and he kept things lighthearted. Kim, my other pick for the US, got off to a poor start on Friday, but came into his own then, thrived off the atmosphere and Mickelson's great play, and finished it off in style by clobbering Sergio today.

 I really hoped Oliver Wilson would get a few games, and although he only had one appearance before the singles, he played some of the best golf of the Europeans. He showed how level-headed he is, particularly today, where he kept his match against Boo going for a couple of holes more than it looked like. He had a great up and down on the 14th, and then holed out from fifteen feet on the 15th. He played lovely, steady golf today, and got beaten 3&2 by a guy who was about 8 under. My favourite moment of the weekend was his putt on the 17th on Saturday morning to win his foursomes match with Stenson - he's a quiet player, but he deserved a bit of a roar then. He showed himself to be a great player under pressure, and he'll be back in Wales as well.

I'm delighted for Azinger. I'm delighted for the US team. Most of all, I'm delighted for world golf. People were worried the Cup would get boring if Europe won again - by Friday afternoon we could tell that wasn't true, but it is great for the US to take this won. I have never seen a group of 12 golfers play better. Kenny Perry and JB Holmes were the perfect home boys, with Boo Weekley pretty much adopted by the time it started.

 Hunter Mahan showed what a class act he is - the putt against Casey on the 17th today is an image that will be seen for decades, in what was one of the best matches I've ever seen.

If I go on, I'm just going to keep saying how great everything was. It was great. It's the best event in the sporting calendar - 3 days intensive golf. The quality of the golf this time was quite literally unbelievable, and I don't think it will ever be matched.

I'll be back in a day or so with anything else that comes to my mind, and a bit of a post mortem.

All I can say for the moment is congratulations to everyone - they did the golfing world proud.

I can't wait for Celtic Manor already, but let's appreciate Valhalla.

Valhalla Pairings?

Hello again and welcome.

I hope that everyone's looking forward to the Ryder Cup as much as I am - only a week more to go before we see Europe take it for the 4th time in a row. I'm not trying to sound cocky, but I can't see it going any other way.

 Interestingly, Paddy Power have tilted the odds in the last few days to make the US marginal favourites. Now, the only reason I can see for this is that they've been taking in a lot of money on the States...my brother advanced the theory that with Clarke out of the frame, the Irish have lost faith in Faldo's men. I personally am going to go out on a limb and predict an 18-10 victory for Europe. You'd probably get about 66/1 on that, and I won't even charge a commission.

Recently, I saw the Sky Sports men discussing their favourite Ryder Cup moments in history. I'm happy to say that mine is particularly relevant to this particular match, as it involves Paul Azinger. Who could forget his heroic bunker shot on the last in the Belfry in 2002, snatching victory from the hands of Nicals Fasth and Europe, and keeping the Cup alive, even if only for another hole. Even at the time, I was delighted to see it drop, although I was watching it in the bar in my own golf club, and I've never heard a louder profanity shouted in unison when the ball disappeared.

Anyway, who's Faldo going to send out on the tee next Friday morning? It's an interesting question; some captains have held rookies back, even waiting till the singles (1999 - Sandelin, Coltart and Van de Velde only got one match each, on Sunday). This year, though, you just have to look at the quality of the rookies. Justin Rose, a rookie? Surely not!

 It's easy to oversimplify pairings, and suggest that fellow countrymen partner each other, but it can't be denied that it can often be the right choice. I for one think that Jimenez and Sergio would complement each other extremely well, and Graeme McDowell's already put forward a fervent hope that he'll get to play with Padraig Harrington.

 I'd be a little surprised if Faldo sent out Oliver Wilson on Friday morning, but I'd be delighted. I think he's going to be a Ryder Cup hero in many matches, including this one. He's a magnificent player, and the guts he showed last Friday week in Gleneagles are just the sort you want inside a player who you're counting on to make the shot or putt when you need it.

I think he'd be great with Harrington, Sergio, and McDowell in particular, and I hope Oliver gets a run out in both a fourball and a foursome (at least) before Sunday.

 If McDowell wants to play with Harrington, then that's probably the best for him - it's what he's most comfortable with, but we'll have to see. I think he'd be a great partner for Paul Casey and Lee Westwood as well.

 I suppose you've got to look at who's going to be out there everyday. Realistically, and for Faldo ideally, he's going to play Sergio, Westwood, and Harrington every match. That only leaves five spots for the first four sections.

When Poulter comes out to play, I'd like to see him with one of his countrymen, Rose or Casey, and I think I'd go with Casey. I think the wildcards could team up well to take a point or two. Casey and Rose themselves would also be a great pairing.

 What about the Scandinavians? I'm not the greatest Stenson fan, but I reckon he'll get two or three games before his singles match, possibly with Karlsson, again, going with the pair of Swedes. I think Karlsson could be the ideal match for our final rookie, Soren Hansen - I'll plump for them in a fourball on one of the afternoons.

As you can see from the last however many lines, Europe can pair most players with any others and have a great partnership. 

Europe's esprit de corp has always been our greatest strength, and I'm convinced it's going to take us over the line once again, added to the fact that this time we actually do just have better players. 

I'm not going to bore you with what I think Zinger should do - I'd love to see Boo Weekley and Anthony Kim pair up - I think they'd be a formidable duo, but he might want to use them to prop up other pairings. Cink will be a mainstay of the team once again - he's been out of form of late after his great start to the year, but I'm confident he'll up it again for the match. Just remember him kicking the stuffing out of a till-then impeccable Sergio on Sunday in 2006 - pity he was the only USAsian who was making them look good.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back again with more of my thoughts, so I'll say goodbye for the moment, and I hope you enjoy the weekend. There's some great golf being played in Germany this week, and after one round I'm going to go with the man two shots off the lead, the man who was so close to making Valhalla himself, and who'll feature in several Ryder Cups in the future.

Good luck Ross Fisher.

Take care.

Ryder Cup Selection Process

Omega European Masters

To be honest, this week has a sense of anti-climax about it as far as the European Tour is concerned.

 The Ryder Cup team is finalised, everyone's talking about it (not all enthusiastically, not least myself), and we're ready for it. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen for another couple of weeks. We back to the week-in-week-out golf. The tension and incentives for various players have been removed, so don't be surprised to see them taking a well-earned rest. Congratulations in particular to Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson, who played some great golf last week to make sure of their places in the team. Wilson in particular played the best back nine of his life, given the circumstances, to improbably survive the cut and fight all the way to the end.

This week - all eyes have to turn to Jimenez first of all - he's the senior man here, and will be looking to put together a bit more of the form he showed early this year before the Ryder Cup. This year, he's very much one of the elder statesmen, without the likes of Monty and Clarke, and other players will be looking to him. He's quietened down a little over the past weeks, but expect him to be back this week.

 Another player I'm backing this week is Welshman Bradley Dredge. He's had an up-and-down year by his standards, but he's won on this course before (2006, I think), and showed some good play last week despite not quite being in the final reckoning. Bradley's an excellent player with an excellent temperament, and earlier in the year I'd hoped that we'd see him make a serious bid for a Ryder Cup spot. Unfortunately that didn't materialise, but I'm sure he'll be there in the future.

 Marc Warren and Mikko Ilonen are two other players I'd like to see have a good week, and wouldn't be at all surprised if they did. Warren had some pressure on him last week as defending champion, but now he's back to the sort of week he's used to. He's been playing good golf recently and it might well be time for another good finish.

 Ilonen has come on leaps and strides in the past couple of years, and I'm always excited when I see him on the entry list for a tournament. He's got buckets of talent and this could well be another of his weeks.

A word for last week's champion? Havret played beautiful golf to pick up his third Tour title, and his second in Scotland. He's definitely a player who thrives on confidence from previous weeks, and as long as he didn't spend too much time celebrating this week, don't be surprised to see him in the mix again come Sunday afternoon. Until a couple of years ago, Gregory had a problem with finishing the job, even for a top-5 finish, but he's come on enormously now and has experience down the stretch in the final round.

As we head into the third playoff event in the States it's worth having a look at that as well. Vijay is back playing the sort of golf he did in his 9-win 2004. I haven't yet seen whether he's confirmed that he'll play this week in the BMW - having won the first to playoffs it's not essential, but Vijay's not a player who minds several-week stretches of golf, so I'd expect him to play, and quite possibly win again, this week.

Tonight Paul Azinger's going to reveal his own wildcard picks for the Ryder Cup. He's got four as opposed to Faldo's two, but I'm still not sure where they're going to go.

I'd expect him to take Stricker - he's an experienced Tour player and matchplayer, and is only just missing out on the automatic spot. I'd probably give one to Zach Johnson - hasn't had a great season, but was very impressive in his first appearance in the matches last time round. He's the sort of guy who can get people fired up as well, and I think Azinger knows that and will reward him.

The others are trickier - I'd probably take two out of Sean O'Hair, Rocco Mediate, Woody Austin, and D.J. Trahan. Nne of these guys necessarily shouts out Ryder Cup to you, but they've all been playing well this year - Trahan's had one of his best seasons ever. O'Hair's been quiet for a while, but he's got loads of talent, and I see him as the sort of young blood they need to put up against the likes of Wilson, Poulter, Casey, and even Sergio.

Ryder Cup Picks: Reaction