HAVEN, WISCONSIN | Steve Stricker pulled all the right strings as captain, from his six wild-card picks to the course setup to the way he let the players shine without all that hokey motivational nonsense and deployed them to perfection. I mean, every single U.S. player won at least one match.
Pretty good for a guy with a personal 3-7-1 Ryder Cup match record who never won a major.
“This is my major,” Stricker said during the closing ceremony after the record 19-9 U.S. win in his home state at Whistling Straits.
On the other side, three-time major winner Pádraig Harrington will have to live with a lifetime of second guessing after a humiliating defeat. That’s just how it works, especially in Europe. It’s not fair; it just is.
It’s doubtful there were any strings Paddy could have pulled to change the result, but it’s safe to say he overvalued past history, underplayed guys like Shane Lowry and overplayed others like Tyrrell Hatton.
Ryder Cup is ultimately a zero-sum proposition – you win or you lose. But there are shades...
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