Don't believe the pundits. - by ffox
ffox on 1/10/2018 at 10:30
The Ryder Cup result (Europe 17.5, USA 10.5) shows that the pundits can make awful mistakes. In September, Golf Digest magazine published an article praising the USA Captain's picks and casting doubt on the European Captain's picks.
(
https://tinyurl.com/y85sm8aq)
Jim Furyk's picks (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson, Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Fineau), either playing in a pair or singly, won 2 points and lost 10. Thomas Bjorn's picks (Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson) won 9.5 points and lost 4.
If it had been the other way round the USA would have won 18 to 10.
Ratings can't be relied on in match play either. The 8 high ranked players in the USA team scored 6.5 more points than Furyk's picks, but Bjorns 4 picks scored 1.5 more points than the 8 European higher rankers.
demagogue on 1/10/2018 at 11:23
In semi-related news, a woman from my high school, Angela Stanford, won her first LPGA major championship (Evian Championship) one or two weeks ago. She grew up on the same golf course I did.
I stopped following golf sometime in the late '90s and am not sure who's who or what's going on now. So I can't really contribute to this discussion here.