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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) - There’s an old adage in football circles that says quarterbacks get too much credit for a win and take too much blame for a loss. Insert golf for football and captains for QBs and you have the same thing happening after the Ryder Cup.
Paul Azinger is being hailed a conquering hero Monday after leading the U.S. to victory at Valhalla. On the other hand, Nick Faldo is being flogged for supposedly flubbing his captaincy of the European side.
While Azinger undoubtedly did a spectacular job bringing the Americans together as a team, he did not hit a shot this week. Neither did Faldo, who made his fair share of decisions that seemed questionable at the time, but aren’t really so upon close inspection.
Europe’s 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 defeat was its first in the event since 1999. What may be so galling to the European team, it’s fans and press is that the U.S. won with a team that was in a word … European.
The Americans seemed to be close knit, they were enthusiastic and excitable and they got off to a fast start. That’s a combination Europe has been using for years and a big reason why they won five of the last six Ryder Cups.
Faldo will get the blame, the quarterback always does after a loss, but he didn’t throw any crucial interceptions, it was his key players who provided the fumbles.
Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington were supposed to be the backbone of this year’s team. Instead the trio turned in three days of spineless golf.
Garcia, Westwood and Harrington won exactly zero matches this week, combining to go 0-7-5. They each played four matches and were definitely expected to rack up more than 2 1/2 points. By contrast, Europe’s four rookies combined to go 6-5-2.
Garcia and Westwood were held out of the Saturday morning foursomes by Faldo and the move was panned initially, but that turned out to be the only session the Euros won. And the criticism that he needlessly backloaded his singles order doesn’t wash because he sent Garcia out first and Europe went 2-1-1 in the first four singles matches despite the fact that Garcia was destroyed 5 and 4 by Anthony Kim.
Also throw in the fact that Faldo’s controversial captains pick Ian Poulter was probably the best player of the week and if not, certainly the best Euro with a 4-1 mark.
But give the three Euro stars at least partial credit for standing up for their captain after the match.
“We hold the golf clubs and we hit the shots, not the captain,” Westwood said. “If you want to talk about me being rested Friday morning and Sergio being rested, that’s the session we won, so Nick was right to do that. So you tell me whether Nick was right or wrong.”
“At the end of the day, it comes down to playing well,” Garcia said. “If I would have played better and I would have won my match, maybe you know, some others coming down the stretch, maybe we would be talking and writing a different story. It has nothing to do with Nick. At the end of the day, we are the guys that need to perform well on the course and we just need to be better on the guys we play. It’s not his fault.”
For his part, Faldo said he had no regrets. Sure he didn’t like losing, but he also wouldn’t do anything differently.
“I am more than comfortable with everything that has happened in the team room this week,” Faldo said. “It was a great event. We can all leave here very proud, chins up, straight back, and we will be back to fight another day.”
Now the question is will Azinger be brought back to fight another day as well.
After steering the U.S. team to victory, the speculation will begin as to whether he will get a chance to repeat his stint as captain and try and attain Ryder Cup glory in Wales in 2010.
In fact, the push is already on.
“Zinger in 2010,” said Phil Mickelson
But Azinger was not looking that far ahead, whether or not his selection would be logical or not.
“I’m not going to think about it. I’m just going to stay up all night and party with my boys,” Azinger said.
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