The American team has been criticized in events past, both Ryder and Presidents, for being 12 individuals and not a team. Not the case this year, and that, I think, was the key to their success. What is slightly amusing in retrospect is the picture the American team (to be more fair, the media) tried to paint of their being the underdogs. I think they just got tired of always being portrayed as the team to beat, and then the underdogs beating them (as in last year's Ryder Cup). Having the world number one, two, three, and four on your team and calling yourselves underdogs is a little bit of a stretch. Especially when arguably the backbone of the Internationals in Els, Singh, Goosen, and Weir came off less than spectacular years (ranks 5, 12, 17, and 47 respectively). But my point is trivial and what I should be focusing on is the fact that the entire event was a success, and a nice fall follow-up to what has been an exciting finish to the golf season in the FedEx Cup et al.
Speaking of the FedEx Cup - nice segue huh - this week of course we are going to announce the winners of the FedEx Cup Playoff Restructuring Contest, or FECPRC (pronounced fek-purk in much of North America). I should say that while I think the system needs to be revamped, I do think the playoff concept the PGA Tour wants to implement is great and has proven in its first year that it can and will be successful. Like anything new, it simply needs to be tweaked as they see what works and what doesn't. And while we can't assume the PGA Tour is going to listen to us, I thought all of the entries were very good and that is evidenced by the fact that the voting was spread all across the board. So look below for the results.
