Ah yes, I have it. I'll run another Ryder Cup -- no, wait, TWO more Ryder Cups -- to prove my point!
I know, that sounds silly... but I think I can make it work. Okay, here are the ground rules:
We have the results of every single match that was played at Gleneagles -- in fact, you can find them right here. All you have to do is click the little "details" button under each match to see the scorecards. Of course, I doubt that most of you will take the time to click on each of those little buttons to see each individual scorecard...
But I did. And I came up with a way to use these scorecards to stage two more Ryder Cups. In the table below you'll see every match for all three days listed down the right side. Then there are three more columns, each one representing one of my Ryder Cups:
- Actual Results are what really happened.
- US Bogey-Free is my first test match-up. I simply replaced every US score (on every hole, on every scorecard) that was a bogey or worse with a par -- Euro scores remained the same -- and then recalculated the results to see who won.
- Europe Birdie-Free is just for comparison to give me an extreme. I replaced every European score (again, on every hole, on every scorecard) that was a birdie or better with a par -- US scores remained the same -- and then recalculated the results to see who won.
The Other Info column simply tells you if there were holes that didn't get played. (There were a couple of matches that didn't go the full number but my recalculations showed that those holes would never have been played in any case, so I didn't note the extra holes there.)
The results should be mostly self-explanatory -- eu5&4 means Europe won 5&4 while us1up means the US won 1up. If there are extra holes listed in the Other Info column, I had to make some guesses. Out of fairness, I assumed matches that were dormie or all square (as) were halved, and other matches were awarded to the leader at the last hole that was played -- if Europe was 1 up and there were 3 holes left unplayed, Europe wins the match.
All point totals list the US first, then Europe. I'll have my conclusions after the table.
Match-ups | Actual Results | US Bogey-Free |
Europe Birdie-Free |
Other Info |
Rose / Stenson Watson / Simpson |
eu5&4 | eu3up | as | 4 to play |
Bjorn / Kaymer Fowler / Walker |
halve | us1up | us4&2 | |
Gallacher / Poulter Spieth / Reed |
us5&4 | us6&5 | us6&5 | |
Garcia / McIlroy Bradley / Mickelson |
us1up | us3&2 | us2up | |
Friday Morning Fourball Totals |
2.5-1.5 | 3-1 | 3.5-.5 | |
Donaldson / Westwood Furyk / Kuchar |
eu2up | halve | us1up | |
Rose / Stenson Mahan / Johnson |
eu2&1 | us1up | us1up | |
McIlroy / Garcia Fowler / Walker |
halve | us4&3 | us3&2 | |
Dubuisson / McDowell Bradley / Mickelson |
eu3&2 | us1up | as | 2 to play |
Friday Afternoon Foursome Totals |
.5-3.5 | 3.5-.5 | 3.5-.5 | |
Rose / Stenson Watson / Kuchar |
eu3&2 | eudorm | as | 2 to play |
Donaldson / Westwood Furyk / Mahan |
us4&3 | us4&3 | us4&3 | |
Bjorn / Kaymer Spieth / Reed |
us5&3 | us5&3 | us6&5 | |
McIlroy / Poulter Fowler / Walker |
halve | halve | us5&4 | |
Saturday Morning Fourball Totals |
2.5-1.5 | 3-1 | 3.5-.5 | |
Donaldson / Westwood Johnson / Kuchar |
eu2&1 | as | us2&1 | 1 to play |
Garcia / McIlroy Furyk / Mahan |
eu3&2 | eu1up | eudorm | 2 to play |
Kaymer / Rose Spieth / Reed |
halve | us5&4 | us2&1 | |
Dubuisson / McDowell Fowler / Walker |
eu5&4 | eu2up | eu3up | 4 to play |
Saturday Afternoon Fourball Totals |
.5-3.5 | 1.5-2.5 | 2.5-1.5 | |
McDowell Spieth |
eu2&1 | us1up | eu1up | 1 to play |
Stenson Reed |
us1up | us3up | us2up | |
McIlroy Fowler |
eu5&4 | eu5&4 | as | 4 to play |
Rose Mahan |
halve | halve | us5&4 | |
Gallacher Mickelson |
us3&1 | us3&1 | us4&3 | |
Kaymer Watson |
eu4&2 | eudorm | us1up | 2 to play |
Bjorn Kuchar |
us4&3 | us5&3 | us5&3 | |
Garcia Furyk |
eu1up | halve | us4&2 | |
Poulter Simpson |
halve | us3&1 | us2&1 | |
Donaldson Bradley |
eu4&3 | eu3up | eu1up | 3 to play |
Westwood Walker |
us3&2 | us3&2 | usdorm | 2 to play |
Dubuisson Johnson |
halved | us2&1 | us3&1 | |
Sunday Singles Totals |
5.5-6.5 | 8-4 | 9-3 | |
Final Points Totals US-Europe |
11.5-16.5 | 19-9 | 22-6 |
This table hints at some very interesting things. Let's compare the Actual Results with those of the hypothetical Bogey-Free US Team.
- First of all, the Fourball sessions aren't much different between the two. The BF team is slightly better but not enough to make a stink over. In fact, many of the matches turn out exactly the same. Clearly the US Team didn't struggle in fourballs.
- But that certainly isn't the case in foursomes. In the actual matches the US won 1 out of 8 points. If they had merely eliminated the bogeys they would have won 5 of the 8 available points! You do realize that fourballs used to be a strength of the US team, don't you?
- Here's something you may not have noticed immediately. While the US Team's scores in fourballs are nearly the same, that's not the case when you compare the Singles results. But they're playing their own balls in both cases. What gives? Simple -- more bogeys start slipping through.
But perhaps the most striking thing to me is the comparison between the Bogey-Free US Team and the Birdie-Free Euro Team. Do you understand what I did? I created a Euro Team that was so bad that they couldn't make a single birdie on any hole in three days! And yet my rigged scores show that the US Team wouldn't have beaten that straw team much worse with their actual scores than they would have beaten the actual Euro Team if they had just avoided making so many bogeys.
In fact, there are a few matches where the no-birdie Euro Team (vs actual US scores) actually got better results than the no-bogey US Team (vs actual Euro scores). Consider the McDowell / Spieth singles match or the Spieth / Reed / Kaymer / Rose foursome on Saturday, for instance. The reason is simple. There were too many holes where replacing a Euro birdie with a par was still good enough to beat the US players' actual score. It's ALWAYS better to make par than to depend on your opponent screwing up!
David Feherty probably said it best. "It wouldn't have mattered if you sent them out paired by height. The Europeans just played better."
I think I've made my point. You want a winning system? MAKE PARS, NOT BOGEYS! That's a system that would have an immediate effect!
I'll take a little time tomorrow to rant about what I think should be done.