A new #1?

I like Lee Westwood. He's a great player and by all accounts he's a nice guy. He's had five top 3 finishes in his last eleven majors. He was sidelined at the PGA for a calf injury but came back for the Ryder Cup and played well. I read today that he will more than likely become the #1 player in the world on October 31st.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Couples and Duval are the only other players to be #1 without having a major championship. Couples won his next major at the '92 Masters. Duval didn't get his major for almost two full years after becoming #1. But Duval was clearly the best player in the world in late '98 and early '99. Duval won two tournaments late in '98 and won four tournaments before the Masters in '99. He was on fire. Is Westwood on fire?

Westwood is essentially going to be #1 in the world due to being in the hunt so much lately. He won at St. Jude earlier this year, but he doesn't have a career defining win. No Players, Memorial, Bay Hill, WGC or any other big event. He lost the 54-hole lead at the Masters and hasn't played for two months before this week. But he will somehow be #1 in the world in a few weeks because he's been in contention lately. I think you need to win big in order to be #1. I hope Lee can justify this ranking or he won't have it long.

Other thoughts

I think this event means something to the Americans. I'm tired of hearing it doesn't. Steve Stricker almost cried on t.v. in front of Roger Maltbie. That guy cares. Hunter Mahan had a hard time in front of the press afterward. Tiger's record is 6-2-1 in his last two Ryder Cups. These guys care. Now, they may not care as much as the Euro's.

Here's a question I'd like to propose to the every member of the European tour. You can win five majors and be one of the best players in the world and lose every Ryder Cup for the next twenty years or you can have an average career and win every Ryder Cup for the next twenty years. I'm betting at least 90% will take the Ryder Cup wins. I bet the number is around 50% if you ask the American players the same question. Maybe even less than that.

A Ryder Cup win makes a European tour players career complete. A Ryder Cup win is a nice footnote for an American player. It's been the biggest tournament on the European tour schedule for thirty years. It's been about the tenth biggest tournament on the PGA Tour schedule for twenty years.

I also think that's part of the reason Monty didn't take Casey and Rose as picks. They play the U.S. tour and not the European tour. That makes qualifying for the Ryder Cup more difficult for those players and maybe that means it doesn't mean as much to them.

This tournament is the European tours Superbowl. It might be our NFC Wildcard game. It's hard to blame our players. There are so many big tournaments.

Maybe that's why we have success in the President's Cup. Those players on the international squad play the PGA Tour. They are exposed to the same conditions as the American players.

I guarantee you that the European papers will be talking about captaincy for 2012 in the next few weeks. That's something that won't cross the American minds for quite some time.

I hope this isn't true but I think it might be. This might be the last Ryder Cup that Seve Ballesteros sees. I keep reading that he is gravely ill. The man epitomizes European golf and the Ryder Cup. The event may not be what it is today without him and what he did in the 80's to fuel this event.

Two years until Medinah.

They made it really exciting.

If you told Corey Pavin, after the format change, that his team will win three of the four sessions, I think he'd that that. He just wouldn't think that he would lose the other session by five points. If we've learned anything about the Ryder Cup is that it's a big putting contest.

On Sunday, the U.S. team lipped out putts while the Euro's lipped in putts. The Euro's hit crucial putts when they needed and the U.S. didn't. It really is that simple.

Steve Stricker: Stricker's game got better as the week went on. He carried Tiger for two days and played a near flawless singles match against Europe's #1. A-(3-1)

Tiger Woods: He seemed to fill in the blanks on holes where Stricker didn't have it. Woods wasn't great but he didn't play poorly by any means. He played like Tiger in singles. B+(3-1)

Hunter Mahan: Played a solid foursome match in session two but leaked some oil in session three. He was put in an impossible position in singles and just couldn't pull it off. This was not his fault. B-(1-2)

Jeff Overton: What a surprise this was. Overton played with more emotion than anyone else on the team. You can tell he thrives in this environment. He carried Bubba around for two days and often played holes two against his one. A (2-2)

Phil Mickelson: Phil didn't have his long game or his putter for the first three sessions. He really played poorly and cost this team. He played well in singles but it wasn't good enough. He needs to take a lot of the blame for this one. C-(1-3)

Dustin Johnson: DJ hit the ball good all four sessions but couldn't buy a putt until singles. He was clearly outmatched on the greens. This should be the first of many Ryder Cups for Johnson and hopefully he remembers this feeling. C (1-3)

Jim Furyk: Furyk does not have a great Ryder Cup record but that is not entirely all on him. He looked tired this week. He didn't play well in session three with Johnson and got behind early in singles. He looked like he had Donald on more than a few occasions only to see Donald hole a twenty-footer. Going for the pin on 18 in singles, he pushed his third shot into the bunker. C (0-2-1)

Rickie Fowler: He made a horrible mistake in session two, only to battle back and get a halve in the end. He and Mickelson played poorly together in session three but his singles comeback will go down in history. His four birdie finish to tie Molinari was brilliant. That's why Pavin chose him and this is probably the first of many Cups to come. B-(0-1-2)

Matt Kuchar: Kuchar paired well with Stewart Cink but really didn't get going until session two. He looked tired from a long season trying to win the FedEx Cup. He started to hole a few putts and played some brilliant iron shots at times. B-(1-1-2)

Stewart Cink: Cink holed a crucial putt at the end of session two to give the U.S. a feeling that this might actually happen. He and Kuchar managed a half-point in session three for the U.S. but he didn't have the magic in singles. A three-putt on 15 cost him as well as a five-foot miss on 17. He managed a halve in singles but he will think what could have been. A deserved captains pick. B+(1-0-3)

Bubba Watson: By far the worst U.S. player. Watson was carried by Overton in session one. He constantly left crucial putts short and contributed little. He played Jimenez in singles and got waxed for Jimenez first career singles win. This is where the format change hurt the Americans. Pavin may have sat Watson if it wasn't for the rain. A disappointing effort. F (1-3)

Zack Johnson: Zack was tough. He had a tough session three but he isn't afraid to hole crucial putts. He drives it in the fairway, hits a ton of greens, and makes the putts when they count. He has the perfect game for Ryder Cup competition. B+ (2-1)

It was really nice to see the U.S. rally and make the Euro's sweat. In the end, it was the best Ryder Cup since Kiawah Island in 1991. The U.S. should be proud of how they played. I felt disgusted in '02, '04, and '06. It came down to the last singles match. You can't ask for anything more.