GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND // America's greatest golfers were left searching for answers once again after losing the Ryder Cup to Europe for the third time in a row and eighth time in 10 tries.
The 16.5 to 11.5 defeat at Gleneagles kept the United States winless in Europe since 1993, ensuring a quarter-century before the Americans get their next chance for such a victory in 2018 in France.
A US squad that has not won the event since 2008 cannot reclaim the cup until 2014 on home soil at Hazeltine in Minnesota.
“We’re going to come back in two years,” US captain Tom Watson said. “We’re going to come back stronger.”
But it will be tough to solve the reasons why the Americans have lost so often after once dominating so much – they lead the overall rivalry 25-12 with two halved.
Phil Mickelson felt the team should have tried to replicate their winning recipe from 2008.
“We had a great formula in ’08 and I don’t know why we have strayed from it,” American left-hander Mickelson, a veteran of 10 Ryder Cups, said after Europe had retained the trophy. “I don’t know why we don’t ever try going back to it. What ‘Zinger’ [Paul Azinger] did was really a good format.”
Six years ago, Azinger’s imaginative captaincy paved the way for a first US Ryder Cup victory since 1999 after he revamped the selection process to give him the hottest players and switched the opening cup session from fourballs to foursomes.
His most successful ploy was implementing a “pod” system whereby his team was split into four groups of three players who gelled superbly at Valhalla after practising and playing together.
Watson – whose advice to his 2016 replacement was “embrace the moment” – made two tough calls in the afternoon foursomes, benching rookies Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed from the format on Day 1 and Phil Mickelson and Webb Simpson for all of Day 2.
Watson, who was captain when the US last won on foreign soil in 1993, singled out the woeful display by the Americans in the foursomes as decisive.
“The combined scores for our team in foursomes were really, really high compared to theirs,” the 65-year-old told NBC Sports. “That was the biggest difference in the play this week.”
US nine-time Ryder Cup veteran Jim Furyk said: “To sit down and digest that, I don’t think that takes minutes or even days. I’m sure it’s going to take a little time.
“We always think we have an answer, we’re going to move forward and this year is going to be different. We’ve obviously struggled.”
The Americans were outscored 7-1 in foursomes matches over the first two days, to take a 10-6 deficit into the 12 singles the Americans could not overcome.
Jimmy Walker, the third US rookie from a newcomer line-up that delivered 8.5 of America’s 11.5 points, was left wondering what to do to stop the European juggernaut.
“They played great,” Walker said. “Need to figure out if there’s some kind of formula they are doing or what. I don’t know. They’re all great players. We see each other week in and week out and we beat each other week in and week out.
“It was a bummer to not win it. We all thought it was possible. It’s one week. We look forward to the next time.”
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