Ryder Cup 2008 Will Europe Defeat USA Again?
Now that the teams have been finalized predictions of which team will win the 2008 Ryder Cup begin. Team USA has been badly beaten in the past two Ryder Cups and have not won since 1999. Can Faldo lead the European Team and retain the cup?
Team USA Ryder Cup records and winning percentages:
- Phil Mickelson (9-12-4) (44%)
- Stewart Cink (3-5-4) (21%)
- Kenny Perry (0-2-0) (0%)
- Jim Furyk (6-12-2) (35%)
- Anthony Kim (Rookie)
- Justin Leonard (0-3-5) (0%)
- Ben Curtis (Rookie)
- Boo Weekley (Rookie)
- Chad Campbell (1-3-2) (16%)
- J.B. Holmes (Rookie)
- Hunter Mahan (Rookie)
- Steve Stricker (Rookie)
Team USA has six Ryder Cup rookies this year. For the other 6 players their accumulative Ryder Cup record is 19-37-17 and a match winning percentage of 34%. If you include draws then the point percentage is 65%.
Team Europe.
- Paul Casey (3-1-2) (66%)
- Sergio Garcia (14-4-2) (70%)
- Søren Hansen (Rookie)
- Padraig Harrington (7-8-2) (41%)
- Miguel Angel Jiménez (1-3-0) (25%)
- Robert Karlsson (0-1-2) (0%)
- Graeme McDowell (Rookie)
- Ian Poulter (1-1-0) (50%)
- Justin Rose (Rookie)
- Henrik Stenson (1-1-1) (33%)
- Lee Westwood (14-8-3) (56%)
- Oliver Wilson (Rookie)
Europe has 8 players who have past [tag]Ryder Cup[/tag] experience and 4 Ryder Cup rookies. Their playing record is 41-27-12 and a complete point winning percentage of 51%. Combined with draws/ties they have won at least 1/2 a point 66% of the time.
Wait a minute if Team USA has won at least 1/2 a point 65% of the time and Team Europe why has Europe won (retained) the past three Ryder Cups. Look at the number of wins Europe has 22 more outright wins from their returning players than USA. Only 3 of Europe’s returning players have a losing record where as all of the returning USA players have a losing record.
Does Team USA have a home course advantage? Looking a the past 25 years the Ryder cup has been played 6 times on American soil. Team USA, 3-3-0, has a .500 record with all of their wins by the scores of 14.5 to 13.5. However their last time having the home course advantage they lost by the score of 18.5 to 9.5 at Oakland Hills.
Why go back 25 years? The reason is that is when European began to becoming equals competitively. Before 1983, the Europeans won the cup 3 times. Since 1983 they have won 7 times.
And the most points they have lost by since 1983 is 2 points.
Looking back at just historical records and winning percentages of returning Ryder Cup players I feel the advantage goes to Europe in 2008. They have more players with Ryder Cup experience. Better yet they have more players returning with positive Ryder Cup experience.
For the Americans to win they will have to play better in the team events. In the past two Ryder Cups the Americans had record going into the singles matches of 5-11 in 2004 and 6-10 in 2006. To win the Ryder Cup in 2004 they needed to win 9 matches and have a draw in one match out of twelve. And in 2006 they would have needed to win 8.5 points in the singles matches to win. Last time in recent memory where they did that was in 1999. And in the miracle in 1999 they won 8 and halved 1 to get 8.5 points.
If I were to chose between the two teams I would chose the European team to win again. Current history is in their favor and the American record in the team events gives the European team a big advantage. Going by past history Team Europe will win.
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I’ve just been getting into golf and I’ve been reading your blog. It’s one of the ones I’ve bookmarked in my learning/reading. Thanks for all the posts.
I think it’s going to be a tight race this time round. Like you say the US team have got to get some points on the board early doors on Friday and Saturday because they seem to do better in the singles on home turf. Jack Nicklaus believes the USA has better players but I think Europe has the better team. What they will need is a leader as Monty had proved to be in previous outings. I just hope that Harrington is up for the job. My money is on a draw.
As you say the USA have got to get points on the board early doors Friday and Saturday as they generally do well in the singles on home Turf.
Jack Nicklaus believes that the USA have the better players. I think that Europe have the better team. What they will need is a leader as Monty had proved to be in previous outings. I just hope that Harrington is up for the job.
My money is on the draw.
[...] this seems like a strech, consider how the media has portrayed the recent string of American defeats. Many media commentators claim the the Americans lose since their cowboy individualism fails them [...]
Well i think American are in great form and they have been performing well in last few matches so their chances to win are more.
Now that the cup is over and the US won. I really think that we looked good. I wonder if not having Tiger on the team helped them or what?
I dont think it anything can be predicted on the basis of past record because team can be made better anytime by practising and more over it all depends on the day of the game.Whoever performs better than the other is the winner.So this time US won as it performed better than the european team.
Like Peter said the Americans look good. A lot of young talent is brewing up here in the states.
ohh i saw this guy and its fabulous… incredible Robert Karlsson.
hope see him on the top
It was a great team this year. They picked them right. I really liked the way they played this year…
Im neutral when it comes to the Us or Europe at this point. any other opinions for the next year? This is a nice site to compare stats and Ill save his for next year
predicting the winner is always the hardest part, but this website does make it easier to see some stats on the us vs europe from post and articles. next year should be fun
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The Americans certainly whooped our backsides this time round. The European stars such as Garcia and Harrington just didn’t shine. If they had performed to their potential the score going into the final day would have been a lot tighter.