2021 Ryder Cup: Why the European “wildcards” could bring it home

In 1875, the future Liberal Prime Minister H.H. Asquith went on a Reading Party with some friends to St Andrews and discovered the joys of golf, which he would play for the next half-century. At that time, as Roy Jenkins wrote in his biography of Asquith, golf was “so little developed that he and his modest-living student companions were able to hire the services of the British Open champion to carry their clubs” – that is, to act as caddie for one of them.

Professional golfers might already have local and, in a few cases, national fame, but they still belonged to the servant class, even though, at St Andrews, Musselburgh or Prestwick, they might be outspokenly critical of their temporary employers. How different today, when leading golfers are multi-millionaires and even their caddies are more than well-off.

However, in next weekend’s Ryder Cup between Europe and the US, the prize is glory, not a mammoth cheque. That’s one of the two things that makes it unique. The other is that it takes golf back to its roots: match-play, not stroke-play. Many of us find tournament golf with its four rounds of stroke-play sadly repetitive and, except for the four Majors, often a bit boring.

The cut and thrust of match-play is different. All golf is a test of character and skill, but in match-play, the test is keener. In a stroke-play tournament, even The Open or The Masters, the golfer plays the Course. In match-play, he plays both the Course and his Opponent.

The Ryder Cup is almost a hundred years old. It used to be Great Britain & Ireland against the US, and the Americans almost always won. This wasn’t surprising. There was a more or less full-time professional tour in the States long before there was one this side of the Atlantic.

There were a number of tournaments, of course, some besides The Open that were highly regarded, but the British and Irish golfers mainly were first of all club pros and only part-time tournament players. In reports of tournament results, the players’ club names would appear in brackets- for example, Dai Rees (South Herts), John Panton (Glenbervie). Moreover, for years matches were played over 36 holes, which gave even more advantage to the better golfer. Cutting this to 18 holes gave the British & Irish team a better chance, And indeed they won at Lindrick in 1957 soon after this change was made.

The development of the European Tour and the decision to make the contest between Europe and the US soon made things more equal, all the more so because of the example and influence of Spain’s Seve Ballasteros. Seve was not only brilliant and exciting; he was perhaps the first in the European team to have no sort of inferiority complex concerning the Americans. Not quite the first, some would say, pointing at Tony Jacklin, winner of both The Open and the American Open, and later a very successful Ryder Cup captain.

Be that as it may, the balance has shifted, and this century the Europeans have won more often than the Americans. It’s difficult to say why because every American team looks on paper to be stronger than any European one. It always has more winners of Majors than Europe and more high-ranked players. This year is no exception. Jon Rahm is ranked number one in the world, but he is the only member of the European team to be in the top ten, while eight of the American team are in it.

The three players selected by Europe’s captain Padraig Harrington to join the nine who have qualified by their performance on either the American or European tour are all ranked in the Forties. Two of them – Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter are themselves aged over forty. Indeed in three years, Poulter will be eligible to play on the Seniors tour.

Yet, even though this year’s match is being played in the US where the course at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin is likely to favour the Americans, and, just as significantly, even though the US won 17-11 last time the match was staged in the States, few will write off the European team. There are two reasons for what might otherwise seem ludicrous optimism.

First, over the years, it has been evident that European players are happier than Americans in a team contest. This isn’t just history. Even this week, the American Brooks Koepka, winner of four majors, has been saying he is uncomfortable with team golf. “It’s hard to decompress,” he says, complaining that in a Ryder Cup week, he can hardly see his personal team, poor lamb. His moans have indeed had a former US captain Paul Azinger saying that if that’s how he feels, he should drop out.

Then there is the difference between stroke-play and match-play. Sergio Garcia has won only one Major in more than twenty years on the tour, but his Ryder Cup record is formidable and he is as inspiring a team player as his hero and mentor Seve used to be. Likewise, nobody would call Ian Poulter one of the best golfers of his time, but he is a remarkable competitor in match-play.

It’s interesting to compare his Ryder Cup match record with Tiger Woods’s. Woods: won 13, lost 17, halved 3; Poulter: won 14, lost 6, halved 2. This covers the three formats: foursomes, four-balls and singles.

Of course, as always, bare figures can be misleading, just as batting averages can in cricket. Results depend partly on your immediate opponent’s quality and in the first two formats on how well or badly your partner is playing.

Nevertheless, the disparity between the Ryder Cup records of Woods, by some way the greatest golfer of the last quarter-century, and Poulter, who on his tournament record would scarcely squeeze into the Top Thirty or Forty, and the difference between 72-hole tournaments and the Ryder Cup is clear.

This is why Europe, so much weaker on paper, may nevertheless pull off yet another, probably nail-biting win in Wisconsin.