Bye, Bye Ryder Cup

Technically, it's not over yet. The Americans could post the most remarkable comeback in golf history and capture the Ryder Cup, but let's be honest. That isn't going to happen. Not only would a number of U.S. players have to rise to occasion, something very few of them have done the last two days, but the Europeans would have to choke in epic proportion. That's something they haven't done much of yet, either.

The pundits have already begun to analyze and criticize the situation. Much like USA Basketball's Olympic collapse, their is plenty of blame to toss around, but this thing was lost in the first pairing Friday morning.

Captain Hal Sutton probably cost his squad their best chance of winning by pairing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together. As nearly everyone on Earth knows, the top two players in the U.S. don't like each other. However, Sutton handled the pairing the way he's handled the rest of his captaincy, he shoved it down our throats.

Now, there is a time when the captain is expected to make a golfer do something he would prefer not to. I would think that would be on Saturday, especially if your team is behind. It's not first thing Friday morning. That type of "I don't give a crap about who you like" speech is probably best reserved for a dramatic moment. By pairing his team's biggest antagonists together first thing Friday morning, Sutton made Friday the dramatic moment.

Running the same pairing out for the afternoon was just plain suicide in retrospect. Sutton helped the Euros by taking all the pressure off them, not that they faced much to begin with, and put all of it on Woods, Mickelson and himself. Arguably the most pressured filled golf most of these men will ever face, was minimized as even casual fans wondered and watched to see if Tiger and Phil would play nice together.

Sure, neither threw a punch at the other, but neither enjoyed the day and their play revealed that. If you don't believe that, look at how much better both played Saturday. Paired with friend Chris Riley, Woods won. He even looked excited. Mickelson, after his Saturday morning benching, looked much better, too. He and partner David Toms won 4 and 3. The U.S. still lost Saturday, 4.5 to 3.5, but you have to wonder if the score on Friday might have been as close if Tiger and Phil had spent more time apart on the opening day?

Since Day 1 of his captaincy, Sutton has appeared to have two agendas. I have to believe the first was to win, but it's the second that seemed to be his pre-occupation. Sutton appeared driven to prove to someone, anyone that the U.S. was a "team" just like the Euros are perceived to be. They were every bit as close as the Europeans, dang it, as he would show us by putting Tiger and Phil together.

Sutton also acted as if any old pairing would turn out just fine. He played all of his players, including his rookies Friday, while European captain Bernhard Langer let his rookies sit on the first day. He skipped the previously successful Mickelson/Toms coupling and ignored the Woods/Riley friendship.

Then, Sutton let Riley excuse himself on Saturday afternoon when he should have offered up his "I don't give a hoot what you want" speech and made Riley play with Woods again. Woods needed Riley's friendship and Sutton needed a motivated, happy Woods. Sutton should have convinced Riley he was just going along for the ride, it was Tiger's job to do the work. Captain Hal refused to let go of the unsuccessful pairing of Tiger and Lefty Friday afternoon, but wouldn't force Riley to compete with Woods after they were successful Saturday morning. It's hard to explain.

I have to give Detroit Free Press golf writer Carlos Monarrez some props here. Monarrez suggested last month that Sutton would be the one to cost the United States the Ryder Cup. His analysis was, and still is, much more detailed than mine. He hammers Sutton harder than I do, but looking at the largest deficit in Ryder Cup history tonight, it's difficult to argue with his observations.

To be completely fair to Hal Sutton, there is plenty of blame to go around. Woods if often criticized for not caring about the Ryder Cup, something he almost admitted as much to this week, but Mickelson's recent club change also doesn't sound like a man too concerned about his upcoming performance. Riley's begging out of Saturday's afternoon pairings will not settle well with some, either.

In the end, it all came down to the beginning. When Friday concluded, after Woods and Mickelson spent their day look for their wild tee shots in the rough and losing matches, the United States faced the worst first day deficit in Ryder Cup history. It's a margin that now requires the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history. It's seems unlikely. Kind of like the odds of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson getting along.