The 2018 Ryder Cup made global heroes of some players, while others struggled again to transfer their individual success to golf’s finest team event. Mark Townsend, ranking Team Europe, and Dan Murphy, on Team USA duty, write their Ryder Cup report cards.
Team Europe
Paul Casey
1-1-1
Ten years we’ve been waiting for this. Many questioned whether he was even worth a place on the team, as it played out he chaperoned a rookie in Tyrrell Hatton with the best scoring in the fourballs and was then dispatched second in the singles. From where three-time major winner Brooks Koepka didn’t drop a shot and still couldn’t get a win over the Englishman. From not having won a full point since 2006 we’re now praying he’ll still be around for Whistling Straits. B+
Tommy Fleetwood
4-1-0
Everything was so much in his favour – the course, his form, the Open champion as his partner, it was even the week of his son’s birthday – that you felt something had to give. Nothing did. Even by Fleetwood’s now exceptional standards this was spectacular. The week ‘Moliwood’ was born, the week the two of them had a magnificent clean sweep over the first two days. It would be harsh to say he ran out of steam on Sunday, more that fellow rookie Tony Finau was too good on the day. A
Sergio Garcia
3-1-0
The Spaniard got the most hammer when the picks were announced, now he’s Europe’s most successful ever Ryder Cupper.
Garcia was selected for a very good reason in that he is pretty much the perfect partner – his record is now W18 H6 L8 on the first two days. Europe had five rookies and he was assigned Noren in the foursomes. His finest moment came when, alongside Rory, he birdied 17 to close out a charging Finau and Koepka.
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The draw was kind to him in the singles, he edged the scoreboard further on with a well-deserved third point to cap a remarkable week. A-
Tyrrell Hatton
1-2-0
Anyone would have played second fiddle to Casey in the fourballs and he had a baptism of fire against JT, Spieth and their betterball 61 but still Europe took them down the 18th. Got off the mark and was more involved in a brilliant 3&2 dismantling of DJ and Fowler. Handled himself nicely with more smiles than any silly outbursts and came up against a finally rejuvenated Patrick Reed on Sunday, against a few other Americans he might have got a second point. C+
Rory McIlroy
2-3-0
McIlroy’s Ryder Cup began and ended in desperate fashion with a birdie-free fourball and then having the stinker of the final hole against Justin Thomas after some incredible play which went unrewarded. In between there was some magic with his old sparring partners Poulter and Garcia but the abiding memory is of shaking hands with Thomas by the drop zone on 18. We’re still nowhere nearer to finding a partner for our superstar player and you still wonder how we can get the best out of him. B-
Francesco Molinari
5-0-0
How on earth do you top winning the Open Championship? You do what no other European player has done and take all manner of major winners down, one after the other. To top it all off the record books will show that he deservedly secured the winning point, the odd thing was that it came on the 16th tee after Mickelson stuck it in the water. He had never won a full point before this. Now he has five of them. A+
Alex Noren
2-1-0
The big question was whether we were going to get the thrusting Noren of Friday or the out-of-sorts Noren the following day in the singles? Thankfully we got the former and he got to play a great, if slightly odd, match with DeChambeau. One highlight was an eagle, just the second of the day along with Tiger, at 14, just as Europe reclaimed the cup. Another was the 40-footer at the last to close out the week for the win.
On day one he and Garcia were exceptional, better than anyone, in the Friday whitewash. B
Thorbjorn Olesen
1-1-0
Another to ‘suffer’ from the heroics of Frankie and Tommy, sounds like a food chain, as he was ‘benched’ on Saturday after playing steadily enough with Rory on Friday. Unfortunately McIlroy was out of sorts and they were done for by the 16th.
“Thorbjørn is a good egg and he’s a boy that will turn this around, and he might go out and show his old Danish friend that he was wrong,” said his good mate Bjorn.
And that he did, and then some. To re-emerge two days later and sink Jordan Spieth 5&4 with five birdies is almost unthinkable and came at the most timely moment. Brilliant. B
Ian Poulter
2-2-0
When the singles draw came out there was the suspicion that Poulter might end this, his likely final Ryder Cup, with a 1-3-0 record which would have been a travesty given his input this week. He got Rory going on Friday afternoon but then lost twice on Saturday with faltering partners on Saturday.
But this is Poulter and this is the Ryder Cup and this is the singles where he has never lost. He might be 33 places below Dustin Johnson on the world rankings but why would that matter? For all the quality in this competition there’s not another player you would want playing the last with everything on the line. He bombed it past DJ, drilled it to six feet and the putt was conceded. Magic. B+
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Jon Rahm
1-2-0
We’d waited for this and his first shot ended up wet, something he repeated the following day. On day three he made birdie. Got unlucky on that first morning when Finau ricocheted his way to a birdie at 16, then played poorly with Poulter on Saturday. There was plenty of energy and positivity but no points.
And then he faced Tiger in the singles and a more measured Rahm kept his nose ahead all day. We had to wait for the W when he whiffed a short one at 16, a few minutes later he made the most clinical birdie of the week at 17. Cue bear hugs, cue tears. C+
Justin Rose
2-2-0
After all that went on at East Lake and recent weeks in the States the concern was how much Rose would have left in the tank? The answer was plenty; three times he led us off, twice he brought home the points with the only blip the Finau sleeper and then overshooting the 18th. Still, it was nice to actually see the final hole. He looked a good bet (yes, I did) against Webb Simpson but the underplayed American was rock-solid and saw him off at the 16th. B
Henrik Stenson
3-0-0
He might have played in one of the fourballs if it wasn’t for the brilliance of ‘Moliwood’, as it was we had to settle for two lead-off foursomes with his old mucker Rose. And how reassuring it was to see him appear after the opening morning, and how depressing for the Americans to see him reappear when you’re 8-4 down.
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If anyone summed up the beauty of Bjorn’s plan it was Stenson. The singles, against Bubba, seemed a formality given how rested and dominant the Swede had been. He did him 5&4. A
Thomas Bjorn
Let’s not forget how fancied the star-studded and spangled Americans were going into these matches and how, after all this time, they would win over here. Let’s not forget how his picks were questioned.
Now let’s remember how he had the course set up and quite how calm and calculated Bjorn has been throughout his leadership. Whatever the situation he’s trusted himself, he had a plan and he both stuck to it and was fluid with it and, what really came across, is how his team bought into his captaincy. He was beautifully low key and deserves all the credit that’s on his way. A
Head to the next page for Team USA’s report cards…
Team USA
Bryson DeChambeau
0-3-0
Hard to understand why an individual as complex and particular as DeChambeau was only played in the foursomes. It would surely have made more sense to give him a chance in the fourballs to do his own thing. His singles match at the back of the field was very good – sadly Noren holed a monster at the last to deny him the consolation of a half point. E
Brooks Koepka
1-2-1
When he and Finau managed to flip, as the Americans say, the opening match of the week it felt like the two-time US Open champion would have a big role to play. That’s not quite the way it turned out and he lost twice on Saturday. Recovered to share a high-class half with Casey in the singles. B-
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Tony Finau
2-1-0
Spectacular singles performance to take down Fleetwood – six birdies and no bogeys. Was given the honour of hitting the first shot of the week. In fourballs a little erratic, as you might expect from a big-hitting rookie on this course, but also a very handy partner for Koepka. Highights included holing out from a bunker, chipping in and an outrageous birdie two at the 16th on the first morning via the greenside sleepers. B+
Rickie Fowler
1-3-0
A poor singles effort against Garcia typified his week. Had been quiet on the PGA Tour in the build-up to the Ryder Cup with rumours of an injury hampering him. Started well but by he and Johnson’s third match was virtually a passenger. Overall cup record is also sub-standard for a player of his quality. D-
Dustin Johnson
1-4-0
Only rarely did he look like the world’s best player. Sometimes looked detached from the action and periodically came to life. Putted so poorly over the first two days that he switched to a new putter for the singles. It kind of helped as a couple of bombs against Poulter at least took the match down the last but was never convincing. America needed much, much more. E
Phil Mickelson
0-2-0
A miserable week for the veteran ended with him dunking one in the water on the 16th to confirm Europe’s win.
If this is to be his last taste of the Ryder Cup as a player then he may wish he hadn’t bothered. Like his fellow lefty Bubba, arrived out of form and did not relish Le Golf National’s penal rough and narrow fairways. Molinari gave him what many feared and expected in the singles. F
Patrick Reed
1-2-0
A shadow of the player we saw in the two previous Ryder Cups – at least until the singles. Furyk would surely have liked to use him more but his game just wasn’t up to it. It’s hard to play the Captain America role when you can’t hit a fairway and your putts are all for pars. Didn’t give Woods enough support in their fourballs and was subdued throughout. He did at least win his singles, but it summed it up that the cup had already been lost by then. C-
Webb Simpson
2-1-0
Easy to underestimate – far from box-office and has an unorthodox style. However, he won at Sawgrass earlier in the season and Le Golf National is a similar style of course. Played well in all three of his matches and claimed the prize scalp of Rose in the singles. Should he have been utilised more by Furyk and could he have been paired with someone other than Watson? B+
Jordan Spieth
3-2-0
Another American to arrive out of form. But unlike, say, Reed, he was inspired by the Ryder Cup and delivered another big week in alliance with great pal Justin Thomas. They combined for three points out of four and produced the best fourball numbers of the week. For the third successive Ryder Cup, though, he was beaten in the singles. In fact, Olesen gave him a thumping. B
Justin Thomas
4-1-0
The Americans’ most impressive player throughout. Played with real heart as well as his undoubted class. Didn’t look like a rookie and likely to play in many more instalments of this event. Partnership with his lifelong friend Spieth will be seen again too. They didn’t just win three points of four – they scored superbly too. Then he outlasted McIlroy in a superb top singles match. A
Bubba Watson
1-2-0
Short of form, under the weather and the course didn’t suit him. Surely it would have been better to play him in the fourballs? No joy on Friday but fed off Simpson’s excellence in the Saturday foursomes to post a comfortable point. Was routed by a relentless Stenson in the singles – he never won a hole. C-
Tiger Woods
0-0-3
Another miserable week for the GOAT was capped off by a singles defeat to Rahm. Winning the Tour Championship clearly took a lot of him emotionally while the FedEx Cup play-offs are a slog physically. Had little in the way of assistance from his partners (Reed and DeChambeau) but still not the same player he is by himself. His overall record in this event is atrocious. F
Jim Furyk
A decent and genuine man and behaved with class throughout. However, he appeared to have given little thought to the art of Ryder Captaincy and his pairings were uninspiring. Having put out his eight best players in the Friday morning fourballs, he was then short of options for the rest of the first two days. You couldn’t say he inspired his players and nor did he shepherd them with any great skill. C
