Can Europe continue amazing home soil Ryder Cup record
Captains Luke Donald and Zach Johnson in historic Rome – photo DP World Tour
That the USA side has not won a Ryder Cup on European soil for 30 years is a stat that many would not readily recognise or one that most would find difficult to believe, but it was indeed in 1993 when the Americans, led by captain Tom Watson, last tasted success there.
The tide in the results of the contest had turned just eight years earlier when success came for the first time for the Europeans who morphed from a Great Britain and Ireland side just six years prior to that.
All of a sudden in 1979, the addition of the likes of Spaniards Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido began a journey that, with the further addition of Bernhard Langer and Spaniards, Manuel Pinero, Jose Maria Canizares and Jose Rivero in 1985, turned the nature of the event from essentially a one-sided exhibition into the great sporting contest it has become.
The Europeans defeated the USA by a massive five-point margin at the Belfry that year and gave Europe the confidence and momentum to win 12 of the next 18 contests, the Americans unable to win an away game since 1993.
The event has become one of the sporting world’s great contests, more often than not pitting the might of the USA (whose side typically outranked the Europeans by some margin) in what has often been perceived as a David and Goliath battle and to many that is very much part of its intrigue.
As was the case at last week’s Solheim Cup, it has often been a case of a ‘star team’ outgunning a ‘team of stars’ and, on rankings alone, this week’s contest carries the same dynamic ahead of the event.
For just the third occasion since Continental Europe boosted the hopes of the embattled Great Britain and Ireland side, the Ryder Cup will be played on the Continent, Italy hosting after Spain (1997) and France (2018) had done previously.
The Marco Simone Golf Club and Country Club designed by Jim Fazio and David Mezzacane in Guidonia on the outskirts of Rome will ensure a passionate and partisan European crowd to urge their team to victory.
The disparity in world ranking between the two sides, whatever world ranking is now worth, again favours the USA side but it is a stat the Europeans have overcome so often in recent years.
Allowing for the inclusion of Brooke Koepka, who would be inside the top ten under different circumstances, seven of the American side are inside that category while only four of the Europeans are but that would be of little concern to the Europeans, in fact, it is likely to serve to motivate them further.
The Ryder Cup will not only capture the attention of golf fans worldwide but that of sports lovers generally who will be fascinated to see if the USA can overcome their lengthy European shutout and just how a passionate Italian-dominated crowd can assist their team to its 13th victory since its first in 1985.
