The Ryder Cup preview

by Michael Barwise
One of the biggest events in the golfing calendar is back as the 41st Ryder Cup takes place at Hazeltine, Minnesota this weekend.  

Team USA captain Davis Love III will be hoping his side can stop the rot, after three straight defeats in the competition. But do Team Europe have what it takes to make it four wins a row? Well former US Ryder Cup player Johnny Miller certainly doesn't think so, branding the team as the worst team they've (Europe) had in many years."

Whether this is true or not is up for debate, but there's no doubt that Captain Clarke's team has got it fair shares of problems. 

Firstly there's the issue of inexperience. In the world of golf,  The Ryder Cup is a tournament like no other. The chance to represent your country/continent, as well as playing in front of huge rowdy crowds, takes a player with a lot of nerve who can deal with the pressure. So the fact that half of the European team have never played in a Ryder Cup before, may well prove to be their downfall.

But in their squad they do have the current Masters champion (Danny Willett), Open champion (Henrik Stenson), Fed Ex Cup champion (Rory McIlroy) and Olympic gold medal winner (Justin Rose).  

Team America, on the other hand, have had a less successful end to 2016, with players such as Zach Johnson and Rickie going into this tournament badly out of form.  

But Davis Love III's team has much deeper problems than that. A big factor which has led to their three successive defeats has been the lack of real team spirit in the USA camp and fractured relations between players and captain, resulting in Phil Mickleson to publicly blame captain Tom Watson for the team's defeat to Europe at Gleneagles two years ago.  

What they do have in their favour is arguably the best player in the world right now in Dustin Johnson. He's had a fantastic past few months, winning his first ever major at Oakmont in June and narrowly missing out on the Fed Ex Cup last week. If Team USA are to stop Team Europe's winning streak, they'll need Dustin Johnson to be their catalyst.