Ryder Cup 2018 Preview as Europe are out for revenge

-
Team Captains Jim Furyk and Thomas Bjorn

Hey, all I know this a little different to the usual but this week in the golf world it's a little bit special. I know what you are thinking, golf is where people walking around for hours on a day, but this week it's not a tournament it's an event that has been around for nearly 100 years but provides entertainment every two years. It's the Ryder Cup.  If you don't know what it is, it's Europe's 12 best golfers who have the likes of Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia in the team. They were up against America's top 12 golfers which features the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Speith, and Dustin Johnson.
Team Europe ready for redemption

The match is remembered for moments of unbelievable stories and close events, and that was since the mid-'80s. Some events are remembered for titles that have lasted since the end of the match, these include 1991's "War on the Shore", 1999's "Battle of Brookline" and 2012's "Miracle at Medinah". It originally started with golfers from Britain vs the USA. Irish golfers were added in the 1950s and then at the end of the 1970s after 5 decades of dominance it became the current format of Europe vs the USA. Since the 1983 Ryder Cup in which the USA crushed Europe. America has won only 5 Ryder Cups meanwhile Europe won ten matches and only one tie 14-14 in 1989. Team USA is currently the defending champions after winning 2 years ago at Hazeltine, Minnesota, which was their second win since Brookline in 1999. This year it's at Le Golf National in Paris, which is the second time that a course in Continental Europe and the first for 2 decades, the last being in 1997 at Valderrama, Spain.

Europe's Medinah hero Ian Poulter is back. 

Also unlike the tournament's that you're used to hearing about like, the Masters and the Open, which a winner is determined by the least amount of shots over four days, it's a different style of golf called match-play which means fewest shots win the hole and the most holes won wins the match. So you will be seeing me do scores like 1 up, 2 and 1 or 5 and 4.There are 28 matches in total, 8 matches on both Friday and Saturday and 12 on Sunday. The 12 on Sunday is usually the big day where every golfer plays against each other while the rest are 4 players against each other. It also had provided entertainment with some great comebacks two of the most famous happened in 1999 when the USA turned around a 10-6 deficit to win at Brookline and then Europe turned around a similar situation at Medinah in 2012 to win 14½-13 ½.

The big headline leading up was Tigers win on Sunday.
Both teams have got significant champions. In particular, the USA have two future Hall of Fame golfers in Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods who is coming off a colossal headline weekend winning his first PGA Tour tournament in 5 years last weekend. They also have World number two Dustin Johnson, US Open and US PGA champion Brooks Koepka, Masters champion Patrick Reed. They also have three rookies in the team in Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, and Bryson DeChambeau.


Phil Mickelson ready another match

Meanwhile, Team Europe captain Thomas Bjorn made headlines in him selecting 5 rookies in Tommy Fleetwood, John Rahm, Tyrell Hatton, Alex Noren, and Thorbjorn Olesen. However, to compensate for this the other seven golfers are Europe's best-known golfers in World no.1 and Olympic champion Justin Rose, former Open champion Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, the heart of team Europe Ian Poulter, former Masters champion Sergio Garcia, 2018 Open Champion Francesco Molinari and Ryder Cup veteran, Paul Casey.

Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed ready to showcase their skills again


I'll be doing a review of each of the day's actions at the Ryder Cup as Europe look to regain the trophy, and the USA look to win on European soil for the first time since 1993. I'll explain how the format works on Friday and what the big headlines are from the day's play.



KRO Mark





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Miracle of Istanbul". Move over for a modern classic

-
Image
A happy Klopp Tuesday night provided one of the greatest nights of football madness. Liverpool and Barcelona were going into the game with Barcelona looking at a comfortable 3-0 advantage courtesy of the magician named Lionel Messi. Barcelona also had another advantage in that two of Liverpool's main strike force Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah due to injuries. That forced manager Jurgen Klopp to put Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaquiri into the lineup. There were returns for James Milner and Joel Matip. Barcelona put out the same team believing they can hang on to the lead. Messi with a sprinkling of magic at the Camp Nou However, for Barcelona, there was always one thing that never plays in anyone's hands. Anfield. The fans always seem to provide something extra especially on European nights like this one. That was made clear 5 minutes before kickoff as Anfield went into full-on You'll Never Walk Alone. Some in the media were thinking of this could be the Miracle of I...
Read more

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

-
Image
What a week in Europe first off Liverpool coming from 3-0 down to win 4-3 last night and then Spurs pulling off an Istanbul. Spurs had a disadvantage in that they had to go to Amsterdam to play, which was a bad sign for them as they didn't have the home support like Liverpool. Spurs had to go out without Harry Kane but luckily had Jan Vertonghen back after coming off concussion symptoms. Also, Pochettino put Victor Wanyama for Eric Dier. Meanwhile, Ajax who had been creating headlines by defeating former champions Real Madrid and Juventus were looking to add to their trophy collection after they won the Dutch Cup at the weekend. Spurs had the advantage of away goals if needed. Captain de Ligt scores for Ajax The first half didn't go Spurs way. Dusan Tadic formerly of Southampton fired a shot 18 yards from the edge of the box which was deflected by Kieran Trippier but brilliantly handled by Hugo Lloris. On the ensuing corner, the Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt got free of...
Read more

Rugby World Cup kicked off in Tokyo

-
Image
After a busy summer in which England's cricket team were dominating the headlines with their World Cup and Ashes, and England's women's football team got to the semi-final of the Women's World Cup, now its the turn of the Rugby squad to take the headlines. Though they don't play until Sunday morning in the Sapporo Dome,  against Tonga. That completes a breakfast of rugby after Ireland face Scotland and Wales take on Georgia on Monday. It's the first-ever Rugby World Cup tournament in Asia. Japan team getting their names announced Japan is hosting the first match against Russia and is looking to build on their shocking victory of South Africa in 2015. Meanwhile, Russia only qualified after Spain, Belgium and Romania were disqualified after fielding ineligible players during their qualification matches. Russia's players only play in the Russian league while two of them play outside the country in Valery Mozov who plays for Sale in the Premiership and ...
Read more