By John Strege
Foregone conclusions don’t make for compelling viewing in sports, and no conclusion was more foregone than Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau receiving three of the four captain’s picks to the U.S. Ryder Cup team on Tuesday.

Captain Jim Furyk made it official in a drama-free televised news conference in Philadelphia in advance of the BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in nearby Newtown Square.

The fourth and final captain’s pick will be made after the BMW Championship, allowing the captain to add a player with a hot hand. Even that seems to be a foregone conclusion; the consensus choice is Tony Finau, who finished second in the Northern Trust and tied for fourth in the Dell Technologies Championship.

Woods previously had been named a vice-captain of the team, a decision made when his future on the competition side was still uncertain. Woods, however, has played 16 events in 2018, finished in the top 25 in 10 of them, and finished in a tie for second in the British Open and second in the PGA Championship to earn his selection. He will no longer serve in that role.

“Tiger and I have had this conversation,” Furyk said. “What Tiger and I have decided is he will play in this Ryder Cup and we’ll name another vice-captain. He’s been instrumental in helping not only the captains before, but me as well, as far as strategy, as far as planning, as far as pairings. I”m going to continue to use that knowledge and that strategy. I also want to make sure, Tiger gets very focuses on that, I want to free him up.”

Woods last played on a Ryder Cup team in 2012. “I haven’t been part of the team playing wise for six years,” Woods said. “This year to have the honour to be able to play again is beyond special.

“At the beginning of the year, that was one of my goals, to make this team. I got the call from Jim, and he asked if I would serve as vice-captain. ‘Absolutely. Anything I can do to help you out.’ Deep down I wanted to make the team. I hadn’t really started playing golf again. But still, the goal was at the end of the season to make this team. As the year progressed, I kind of gained some traction. I was somehow able to get some high finishes and lo and behold I’m part of this team. It’s incredible, to look back at the start of the year… as I said, it’s beyond special.”

Scott Halleran
Phil Mickelson during singles matches of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club. (Photo by Scott Halleran/PGA of America via Getty Images)

Mickelson, meanwhile, failed to qualify for a Ryder Cup team on points for the first time in his career. Yet he finished 10th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings, ahead of Woods, who finished 11th. Mickelson won the WGC-Mexico Championship earlier this year and has finished in the top 25 in 15 of 22 starts. He has played on 11 U.S. Ryder Cup teams.

“It’s obvious the one thing that’s been missing is for our team to go over to Europe and win,” Mickelson said. “I’m very excited about the team this year, excited to be a part of this team. We have some incredible players, great leadership and a really special opportunity to do something we haven’t done in a long time. It’s going to be a great challenge because we know how strong the European side is and how well they play at home. But it’s a wonderful chance and opportunity to do something I haven’t been a part of in my career.”

RELATED: Bryson DeChambeau continues going where no golfer has gone before

DeChambeau, who finished one spot short of qualifying on points, solidified his standing with consecutive victories in the Northern Trust and the Dell Technologies Championship the last two weeks.

“Obviously, a tough spot,” Furyk said. “Finished ninth in points. He put a ton of pressure on himself, I’m sure. But to see the way he worked through that, hit the ground running, won the first two playoff events, just incredible. Not only won but won definitively on the back nine. I guess, thanks, you made it real easy on the captain.”

DeChambeau had missed the cut in the PGA Championship, another in a string of poor performances.

“I think I had a couple tough goes the past couple months,” he said. “It’s always about how you respond in situations. You can be frustrated and disappointed. That passion is always there. I knew what I could do, the capabilities I had. I just had to figure out a couple things in order to move in the correct direction.

“It was disappointing to miss the top eight. I regrouped. Took a week off. I was able to figure a couple of things out with my putting.”

A Woods-DeChambeau pairing would seem a cinch, too. The two have played practice rounds together on several occasions this year, including at the Players Championship, the Memorial Tournament, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship.

Furyk also announced that David Duval, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar would serve as vice-captains, along with Davis Love III and Steve Stricker, who had previously been named.

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This surprise of a lifetime for one golf fan was caught on video just a week after Atkinson’s letter to Bjorn went viral. In it, the weekend hacker humorously let the captain know he was withdrawing his name from consideration for Team Europe at the 2018 Ryder Cup this fall. The practical joke spread way beyond Atkinson’s wildest dreams when Bjorn shared the letter on Twitter, but Bjorn showing up to his home really caught him off guard. Atkinson even got a free golf lesson out of the whole deal in his backyard (Nice digs, by the way!) as Bjorn took a look at his swing. Check it out:

This @RyderCup fan surprised @ThomasBjornGolf with a letter ?

So the Captain returned the favour… pic.twitter.com/Py3PW92HGL

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) April 30, 2018

Ed’s note: Here’s the original letter, posted by a disconsolate Bjorn on his Twitter feed.

Unbelievable
Where do I go from here?
Stephen, please reconsider @RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/eCcYZ3fDDT

— Thomas Bjorn (@thomasbjorngolf) April 23, 2018

Well played Stephen and again, Bjorn and the European Tour’s outstanding social media team.

The post Thomas Bjorn surprises fan who wrote that hilarious Ryder Cup withdrawal letter appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

And who can blame them? For Team USA and its notorious ‘Task Force’, this Ryder Cup is no laughing matter. A record of eight defeats in the last 10 outings (when they have often gone in with a significantly better side on paper) has to rank as one of the most unenviable in all of modern sport. Colin Montgomerie gleefully told me two years ago that if the USA were to lose this one on their home turf, they ‘won’t want to come to France [in 2018]’. 

Paradoxically, the more seriously the American team takes the Ryder Cup, the more likely they are to lose again

The U.S. are doing everything they possibly can to ensure victory at Hazeltine. They’re plotting, they’re planning, they’re conference calling, and no doubt they are tailoring the course to the exact specifications that will most suit their players. Even a choreographed drinks party at Jack Nicklaus’s house has formed part of this new, winning attitude to the Ryder Cup. 

Members of the ‘Task Force’ designed to build a formula for Ryder Cup success included Mickelson and Fowler

Course set-up at Hazeltine will be geared towards favouring players on the home side

What they cannot buy for love nor money is the unshakeable confidence held by the Europeans that they know exactly what it takes to win this event and whatever off-course intangibles dictate the outcome, well, the Europeans just get it, and the Americans don’t.

Paradoxically, the more seriously the American team takes the Ryder Cup, the more likely they are to lose again. What they need is faith in an environment that will allow them to play their best golf. It’s like a football match between two sides where one manager is still trying to work out his best formation and style of play, while the other has been drilling the same philosophy for decades – the golfing equivalent of Roy Hodgson versus Pep Guardiola.

I was at Gleneagles two years ago, and that final U.S. press conference was painful to watch. How could there have been such a disconnect between Tom Watson and his most senior player, Phil Mickelson, to the point where it sparked such open rebellion? Juxtaposed with Paul McGinley’s relationship with his tight-knit team, it was impossible to go along with the idea still propagated by many experts that Europe just ‘hole more putts’. Anyone who thinks the Ryder Cup is a mere putting contest really doesn’t understand much about the psychology of team sport.

Amusing as it was for us Team Europe fans, the U.S. needed that Task Force. It was a jolt in the arm, a recognition that they couldn’t carry on lurching from one set of captaincy styles to another. Davis Love’s role as skipper this time round may be familiar, but not much else about the U.S. approach will be. And crucially, they’ve been presented with a gilt-edged chance to win this 2016 contest against a weak-looking European side whose big guns – Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson aside – are not playing as well as they were two years ago.

The likes of Danny Willett, Andy Sullivan, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Matt Fitzpatrick and Chris Wood are fully deserving of their place in the side, but that’s a lot of rookies for Darren Clarke to manage (with at least one more rookie likely to take one of the three wild card spots). Meanwhile, when you consider that at the time of writing, world top 10 players Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson weren’t even in the U.S. team, the superior strength in depth clearly belongs to the Americans. They have two of the world’s top three, and their highest ranked player (even based on the likely wild card selections) is Zach Johnson at World No.24. No fewer than half of Europe’s likely team is ranked outside that mark, and in terms of world ranking average the USA is a cut above, 13.41 versus 25.25.

In Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, Team USA will have the top two ranked players at this September’s showdown

With his win at the Barclays last night, Patrick Reed qualified automatically in fourth spot, while Rickie Fowler is likely to earn one of the four wild card picks

Supporters of Europe will point out that having a stronger team of individuals has seldom helped America in the past. But this time, with a vociferous home crowd behind them and a Task Force-sized point to prove, I think it has to. Europe – sport’s most unlikely underdog having won six of the past seven contests – will relish that tag and this will be a typically nailbiting contest with all the volatility that we’ve come to associate with the Ryder Cup. But ultimately, I think the superior fire power of the American team will get them across the winning line.

The automatic qualifiers on both sides are now set, and we’ve added our wild card predictions. The USA will have a healthy advantage in terms of average world ranking

The post Blog: Can Team USA defy weight of expectation at Ryder Cup? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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Related: 2016 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship Preview

The four global golfing superstars went head-to-head in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship ‘Rider Cup’, at the ocean-front Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, combining Texas scramble golf and revolutionary GolfBoards in a race to complete the hole first.

The USA team showcased their speed credentials to finish just seconds ahead of their European counterparts in what could be one of the quickest holes to be completed in years. Is this an omen for the Ryder Cup, which will be held at Hazeltine in September? After losing eight of the last 10 matches between the sides, the Americans certainly hope so!

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