The US is aiming for a rare road win at this year’s Ryder Cup

Mark Cannizzaro

Golf

By means of Mark Cannizzaro

Italy is famous for its pasta, bread and wine.

What is not known is that this is a golfing country.

In just a week, those numbers will change dramatically when the 44th Ryder Cup is contested, beginning Friday, at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome, the “eternal city.”

Whatever lack of love there is for golf in Italy, that will change this week as the US team tries to win the Ryder Cup on European soil for the first time since 1993 at The Belfry outside Birmingham in the United Kingdom, while the European side looks to avoid the evil that comes with that.

The US team now owns the Ryder Cup, thanks to a 19-9 loss in 2021 at Whistling Straits.

The home team has won seven of the past eight Ryder Cups and 10 of the past 12. US players are tired of hearing about that narrative. But they know that only 12 of them can do something about it.

“I think one of the best achievements in our game right now is winning a fight in the Ryder Cup,” Rory McIlroy, who will be playing in his seventh Ryder Cup for Europe, said. “I think how partisan it is in terms of having a home-field advantage, being able to set up the golf course in a way that benefits your team, I think the next team to win a Ryder Cup on foreign soil, I think it’s a great success.”

Two words make up this biennial affair: love and pride.

For years, European players, who have long believed themselves to be second-class citizens and underdogs on the larger and more lucrative PGA Tour, were thought to be more proud of winning the Ryder Cup. , more passionate about the cause.

That narrative has changed in recent years, with Americans tired of drumming up so-called underdogs. There have been more engaged, emotional teams in the US in recent years, and that has enhanced this delicious rivalry.

American players will be sipping champagne from the Ryder Cup two years ago when Jordan Spieth, looking ahead to this weekend in Italy, proclaimed at Whistling Straits: “If we play like we did this week , the score is the same there.”

Surely, that comment will stand front and center on Marco Simone’s European bulletin board.

“Flying home, we’re all a little sore and hungry, but we’re already planning what we can do better at the next Ryder Cup to bring it back,” European stalwart Tommy Fleetwood recalled of the Wisconsin loss. “We all stood there and thought, ‘We want our chance back.’ ”

That chance will come starting later this week, just miles from the Colosseum in Rome, where battles to the death take place.

A lot has changed since the 2021 Ryder Cup, especially the birth of LIV Golf, which has driven a wedge between the PGA Tour and the DP European Tour and the players “defecting” the profitable tour backed by Saudi. The PGA Tour still has a ban in place that does not allow LIV players to compete on its tour. The PGA of America, however, is the governing body for the Ryder Cup and does not ban LIV players.

Only one player of the 24 competing this week is a member of LIV Golf – Brooks Koepka, who won the 2023 PGA Championship and finished runner-up at the Masters. US captain Zach Johnson would have committed captaincy malpractice to not make Koepka one of his six captain picks.

Team Europe does not have a single LIV player on its roster, which is a true new era, with the likes of Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood on the outside watching an event that defines their individual careers.

Henrik Stenson was the captain of the 2023 Ryder Cup for Europe until he was relieved of his duties once he joined LIV Golf and was replaced by Luke Donald.

So, there are injuries, mostly for Europe, when it comes to personnel. Garcia and Poulter are two of the most prolific and beloved European Ryder Cup players ever, and if it weren’t for their participation in LIV, both would certainly be part of this team in some capacity, likely as vice captains.

The injuries for the US team, of course, are rooted in an inability to win on the road.

Five players on the US team – including Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player – weren’t even born the last time the Americans won the Ryder Cup on European soil, which spanned six sets of matches .

“It’s really wild,” said Scheffler when he considered that during the series of losses the US had iconic players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in their respective primes. “Very good players. [It] just proves how hard it is. But we have a lot of fresh blood in the team this year. Only a few guys have played there. I like our chances. Ignorance is bliss.”