American press slams US Ryder Cup team

Europe’s stunning victory over the USA in the Ryder Cup has left the American press wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth about exactly just how the supposed underdogs walked away with a comprehensive 18 1/2 9 1/2 win.

We look at some of the reaction Stateside.

EUROPE FINISHES OFF UNITED STATES IN RYDER CUP

A team that played with no fear captured the 35th Ryder Cup with no doubt. It has become a painful biennial lesson for the United States. And the Europeans loved teaching it.

“We’re a closer-knit team,” said Colin Montgomerie, who improved his Ryder Cup record to a spectacular 19-8-5 by going 3-1.

“It’s amazing how well we play for each other, and that’s huge. I’m not saying the Americans don’t. They play for their country, or whatever. But we really do play for each other.” – NEW YORK TIMES

EUROS’ HEROES – EMBARRASSED AMERICANS GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED

The reason for the Americans’ Ryder Cup difficulties was evident Sunday amid the spray of champagne and modeling of national banners. So was the solution.

The victorious Europeans weren’t cordial friends. They were best buds.

They were giddy little boys, momentarily distanced from the glitter and glamour of celebrity. They playfully rode piggyback on their teammates’ shoulders, dueling each other with loaded bottles of Laurent-Perrier champagne. They genuinely enjoy each other’s company.

The Americans could have jotted mental notes for future reference, but this kind of charisma isn’t a laboratory concoction. You can’t create it by enlarging the sweet spot as you would an oversized driver.

It’s just there. And that’s why the Ryder Cup remains over there. – DETROIT FREE PRESS

EASY RYDER FOR TEAM EUROPE AS U.S. IS NEVER ON COURSE

History will remember the 2004 United States Ryder Cup team. But it won’t be a fond memory.

Europe kicked the best American golfers in the teeth, dragged them helplessly around Oakland Hills Country Club for three days and, in the end, left them battered and bruised as they took their inglorious place in history with their worst defeat ever in the Ryder Cup.

This time around, the United States also posted its largest deficit after the first day and the second day.

The U.S. team boasted eight of the top 20 players in the world, compared with only four for Europe. – PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

U.S. FLAMES OUT ON BIG STAGE, AGAIN

You have to hand it to the rich, pampered individualists who once again were assembled to pretend to be teammates for a week on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. They were very efficient losers.

They were beaten so thoroughly and so easily that you could watch the entire drubbing Sunday afternoon and still catch most of the late NFL game. Or mow the lawn. Or go to an early movie.

Let’s look at the dream pairing of Woods and Mickelson, who seemed to spend more time glaring at each other than actually speaking during their 0-for-2 run Friday to put the Americans so far behind they could never catch up.

Such is the nature of Tiger and Phil’s relationship that when Woods showed up to support Mickelson on Sunday on the 16th hole of Phil’s tight match with Sergio Garcia, Phil promptly dribbled his approach shot into the lake. Minutes later, he lost the match. Now that’s camaraderie American-style.

Then again, good ol’ Captain Sutton (did you notice he lost his first name this week?) didn’t help matters that first day when he abandoned any sense of leadership by putting Tiger and Phil together because, as he said many times, that’s what the people wanted to see.

Since when did the Ryder Cup turn into American Idol? Did anyone bother to look those two superstars in the eye and ask them, really and truly, if that was what they wanted? (I think we all know the answer to that question.) – USA TODAY

EUROPE COMPLETES ROUT

The corks popped, the champagne was sprayed, the victory chants spilled over the 18th green, Colin Montgomerie smiled and posed for photos with his fans, Thomas Levet hoisted Bernhard Langer on his back and Sergio Garcia heaved his champagne-soaked cap into an adoring crowd.

The celebration had begun, although the festivities probably could have kicked off a little earlier.

“That’s been our problem,” Davis Love III said. “The team that gets way behind hardly ever wins.” – LA TIMES

FOR THE EUROPEANS, FUN IS THE TEAM INGREDIENT

The European Ryder Cup team ambled into its post-match news conference like a dozen blokes picking out their favorite bar stools in their local pub.

With three hours of liquid celebration already under their belts, some wobbled a bit as they walked. A couple pretended they couldn’t hit their chairs on the first attempt.

They all looked like they’d been in similar circumstances many times – often together – waiting for last call in some corner of the itinerant golf world. - WASHINGTON POST

MONTY LEADS THE CHARGE: SCOT EMBLEMATIC OF EUROPEANS’ COMPLETE THRASHING OF U.S.

Call it a fine bit of symmetry, or call it poetic justice. Call it something, because it was not just a meaningless twist of fate that a 41-year-old Scot named Colin Montgomerie stood over a three-foot putt on Sunday afternoon, on the 18th green, with the ability to close out the 35th Ryder Cup matches and bring Europe victory over the United States.

There he was – Monty himself. For years, his startlingly clutch play has symbolized this era of European glory in the Ryder Cup, and were he to make this putt, Europe would have the final point needed to clinch retention of the trophy the continent’s players won in 2002 at the Belfry, and in 1997 at Valderrama and in 1995 at Oak Hill, Monty a part of each triumph.

This one would be a fourth European win in the last five Cups, utter domination forged out of a spirited team attitude that permeates every European side to play against the United States.

Nobody embodies that attitude more than Monty – the man who openly chooses to sublimate his often prickly personality and not inconsiderable ego one week every two years and preach, time and again, the value of the team effort.

Monty to win the Ryder Cup? Of course.

“(The final putt), to me, personally, means bugger-all,” Montgomerie said later.

“My personal record means nothing. I’m here as part of a team.”

The 18th green was ringed by European players and officials, wives and girlfriends. They chanted his name, “Mon-tay! Mon-tay!” as he approached and, really, there was never a doubt. He made the putt. – SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE