Editor’s Letter
Roll on Rome KENT GRAY kent.gray@motivate.ae • Twitter: @KentGrayGolf / @GolfDigestME
HE TEARS WILL BE replaced with lasting resolve and the ugly post-mortem handled with dignity where it should be – behind firmly fastened doors at the continent’s Wentworth war bunker. Still, an awful realisation confronted Padraig Harrington and his humbled European troops as they retreated from Whistling Straits, the victims of a record Ryder Cup trouncing. What next? What if all the forward planning is shrewd, the inevitable young reinforcements carefully picked and perfectly paired, the on-course strategy cunning and Marco Simone Golf & Country Club tricked up to suit the home side. And what if it’s still not good enough the September after next?
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6 golfdigestme.com | october 2021
There is no hiding from the historically lopsided 19-9 defeat in Wisconsin. This wasn’t so much a tide change as a scary sounding of a once in a generation alarm. A tsunami of Ryder Cup hurt, courtesy of this young bunch of ridiculously talented and supremely self-assured Americans, is already onshore. Traditional European fight versus newfound U.S. might, if you will. It’s a sobering prospect for even the most optimistic European fan. It should be remembered that the boys from the Old World Tour have written a rich modern era legacy by throwing plucky passion at a perceived talent divide to win seven of the previous nine matches before Whistling Straits. Forget not, either, that this is golf,
the most predictably unpredictable game ever invented. All the major titles, FedEx Cups, Olympic gold medals and ranking points in the world count for nothing in the Ryder Cup cauldron if those superstars suffer an off week. That could easily happen in Rome but it didn’t in Wisconsin. Steve Stricker had eight of the world’s top 10 at his disposal and they played well to a man. This was the youngest ever U.S. team with eight of the 12 in their 20s and only 5-0 Dustin Johnson older than 32. Imagine being the elder statesman at age 37. The six rookie Yanks combined for 15 ½ of the 19 points, Europe’s three first-timers just two. There is no guarantee the victorious Americans will all make it to Italy, nor that those who do land in Rome will be in such a rich vein of form. But hey, why fret when Patrick Reed will be back and whippersnappers like Will Zalatoris, Sam Burns and Matthew Wolff are itching to join the revolution alongside Captain America. By contrast, many of the battled-hardened Europeans looked battle-weary,
