The Official Barstool Ryder Cup Preview Blog

Gary Kellner. Getty Images.

Welcome to the Ryder Cup, the premier match play and international golf tournament in the world. There's nothing like it and nothing better. Raucous crowds, thrilling match play, team golf…. we had to wait 3 years for this to come back. And it's finally here.

Over in Paris back in 2018, the Europeans romped the Americans 17.5 to 10.5. Despite jumping out to an early 3-1 lead on Friday morning, the Americans found themselves down 10-6 going into the final day. This deficit can pretty much be attributed to the European pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari, or "Moliwood" as they came to be known. Those dudes fucking cleaned up in team play, going 4-0. None of the matches were even particularly close. You can also attribute the Friday afternoon foursomes sweep by the Europeans as a reason that deficit existed. Foursomes has been a habitual thorn in the side of the Americans. More on that later.

Regardless, American captain Jim Furyk tried to frontload a ton of firepower in Sunday singles to try to apply some pressure down the stretch, but the Europeans cleaned up singles 7.5 to 4.5 anyway. Complete asskicking on a course that clearly fitted the strengths of the home team.

Friday Morning Fourballs

Friday Afternoon Foursomes

Saturday Morning Fourballs

Saturday Afternoon Foursomes

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Sunday Singles

Overall History and Recent Ryder Cups

Brief history lesson for those not familiar…the first official Ryder Cup was played back in 1927 as a contest between American golfers and golfers from Great Britain…. but it's the British Open back in 1921 that we have to thank for it. No American had won a British Open to that point, so popular magazine Golf Illustrated and the PGA of America teamed up to raise funds to organize and send a dozen American golfers across the pond to play a tune-up tournament at Gleneagles before playing the Open at St Andrews.

From there, an idea was hatched a couple weeks before the trip to have those Americans play a team of Great Britain pros the day before the tune-up tournament. Eventually the dozen was shrunk down to 10 a side, and they played a one day match play event - 5 foursomes matches in the morning and 10 singles matches in the afternoon. Great Britain cleaned up 10.5 to 4.5 on their home turf, but it was an American named Jock Hutchison who ended up winning the Open two weeks later. So in some ways, mission accomplished.

From there, exhibition matches between teams of players were tossed around for a few years including a match led by Walter Hagen in 1926, but eventually an English businessman named Samuel Ryder donated a trophy and the two countries' respective PGA's got their ducks in a row and hosted the first Ryder Cup in Worcester, MA in 1927. The US would win 9.5 to 2.5, and the two sides would swap wins with the home side coming out victorious until a little thing called World War II put the Ryder Cup on hiatus.

From there, it was American dominance. After WWII, they walked away with the Ryder Cup in 18 of the next 19 editions, despite Irish players joining the mix in 1947. The GB&I side was expanded to include all of Europe in 1979, creating a far more competitive playing field. Europe is 11-8-1 since that change, and you'll hear all week about how they've won 7 of the last 9 too. 

It's time for the Americans to fix that. Anyways, here's more info on historical records and recent Ryder Cups.

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The Format and Schedule

The format is as such: 

28 points are up for grabs. As the current holders of the Ryder Cup, Europe only needs 14 of them to retain the cup, and the Americans need 14.5 to take it back. There are 4 team play sessions played over Friday and Saturday under two formats: Foursomes (more commonly known as alternate shot) and Fourballs (also known as best ball). The easy way to differentiate the two given their similar names is to remember that in Fourballs, there are literally four balls in play. Simple as that, dummy. In each of those 4 sessions, there are 4 matches, each worth 1 point. Then on Sunday you've got 12 singles matches to bring it home.

The schedule and TV coverage is as such:

Friday (morning foursomes, afternoon fourballs): Golf Channel (8 am - 7 pm ET)

Saturday (morning foursomes, afternoon fourballs): Golf Channel (8 am - 9 am ET), NBC (9 am to 7 pm ET)

Sunday (singles): NBC (Noon to 6 PM ET)

The Course

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Whistling Straits is an absolute mammoth of a golf course designed by Pete and Alice Dye in 1998. Located in Sheboygan (always a fun word), Wisconsin, It's hosted 3 PGA Championships in its short history (2004, 2010, 2015). It's a links-style course built along the coast of Lake Michigan, which diminishes the home field advantage for the Americans a bit. Most of these European guys grew up playing links style golf along the water with the wind whipping all over the place. With that said, it's long as shit. 7,790 yards is nothing to sneeze at, and that should play back into the hands of the Americans. Guys like Bryson, Koepka, DJ, and Finau can absolutely send it. Strokes gained off the tee had heavy correlation with leaderboard success at the 2015 PGA, so we can feel good about that. It's said to be set up as a par 71 this week, but par is nonsense this week (and really always is if you think about it).

Best Hole - 17th hole par 3, 249 yards

The 17th is the signature par 3 on this course and will obviously hold a ton of weight down the stretch in some of these matches. They'll likely move the tee around a bit, but it can measure anywhere from 220 to 250 yards and that number can grow depending on the wind. There is NOWHERE to go if you miss left. Lake Michigan awaits down there. On days where they put the pin on that side of the green, any player down 1 or 2 is going to have a very tough decision to make standing on that tee box. Perfect hole to throw some pressure at these guys.

The Weather

Weather is gonna play a big factor here, especially in a format where players are playing off each others balls. Temperatures relatively mild, but the wind was always going to be the thing to keep an eye on. It'll be whipping during the day, especially on Friday as each team tries to jump out in front. Rain late that too might be a factor, but doesn't look like there's any danger of any major delays.

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The Trophy

Harry How. Getty Images.

Simply put, it's a thing of beauty. Iconic as they come. When you see a silhouette of it, you know exactly what you're looking at. Looks great on a polo or a hat too. Easy 10/10.

The Teams and Keys To Success

USA

Montana Pritchard/PGA of America. Getty Images.

Dustin Johnson (5th Ryder Cup, 7-9-0 record)

Collin Morikawa (Rookie)

Patrick Cantlay (Rookie)

Xander Schauffele (Rookie)

Justin Thomas (2nd Ryder Cup, 4-1-0 record) 

Bryson DeChambeau (2nd Ryder Cup, 0-3-0 record)

Brooks Koepka (3rd Ryder Cup, 4-3-1 record)

Tony Finau (2nd Ryder Cup, 2-1-0 record)

Harris English (Rookie)

Jordan Spieth (4th Ryder Cup, 7-5-2 record)

Daniel Berger (Rookie)

Scottie Scheffler (Rookie)

As you can see, there is not a ton of experience on this team. Half of them are rookies. Gone are the days of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, or at least this time around. And that may be a good thing. Like I said, we've lost 7 of 9. There's been a need for new, young blood for the Americans and they're getting exactly that.

On paper, this team simply should not lose. They've got 9 of the world's top 11 players on their side. That doesn't even include Jordan Spieth, who is so clearly a top 10 player on planet Earth and has played that way the past 6 months. And he's got solid Ryder Cup history to go with it. Reasons like that are why they're favored around -200 to win it.

The key for the Americans and Steve Stricker is to get the matchups right for foursomes. The Europeans have historically kicked our ass at foursomes. I really think all the Americans need to do is split foursomes and the rest of will take care of itself. They've got too much length and too much firepower not to birdie their way to at least 5 of the 8 points in fourballs. At least. And they should outclass the Europeans in singles too. Foursomes is the one spot where they can give back ground.

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It seems as though the pairings there are close to set, at least to start the week. JT/Spieth is a lock. Childhood friends who have had success in the past. Apparently Cantlay and Xander are great friends and they've each spoken about how it's easier to play pressure-free when you've got trust in the guy beside you. So that's apparently another pairing. DJ and Morikawa might not complement each other perfectly, but they're too good not to put out there and from what everyone's hearing, they'll be together. 

And then some are saying Berger/Koepka is the last pairing. Not sure where that one is coming from given that one is a rookie and the other is coming off injury. That's the pairing that I'm questioning. There's no manual for this type of stuff. I like Koepka's length and Berger's overall game, but I think I like Finau or Scheffler (both guys who will thrive in fourballs) as a better fit for Whistling Straits. But a lot of this is really just dumb luck. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

UPDATE: Yep, those are the Friday morning pairings:

The Europeans

Andrew Redington. Getty Images.

Jon Rahm (2nd Ryder Cup, 1-2-0 record)

Viktor Hovland (Rookie)

Tommy Fleetwood (2nd Ryder Cup, 4-1-0)

Rory McIlroy (6th Ryder Cup, 11-9-3)

Paul Casey (5th Ryder Cup, 4-3-5)

Tyrrell Hatton (2nd Ryder Cup, 1-2-0)

Lee Westwood (11th Ryder Cup, 20-18-6)

Matthew Fitzpatrick (2nd Ryder Cup, 0-2-0)

Bernd Wiesberger (Rookie)

Shane Lowry (Rookie)

Sergio Garcia (10th Ryder Cup, 22-12-7)

Ian Poulter (7th Ryder Cup, 14-6-2)

FUCK these guys. They're not worth my breath.

GO USA.

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 ENJOY THE RYDER CUP.