Europe Gunning for Fourth Straight Ryder Cup Trophy

The United States flag has been in the news a lot lately. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Brexit has Europe and the United Kingdom taking long looks in the mirror and sideways glances at each other. With a backdrop like that, could there possibly be a better time to wage the 41st Ryder Cup?

There may be no better sporting event on earth that combines intensity, high drama and love of one’s homeland like the Ryder Cup, which pits the best golfers from the United States against the best from Europe in three days of agonizingly tense match play competition.

And it’s all happening right here in Minnesota!

That’s right, beginning next week, the eyes of the sports world will turn to Chaska, Minnesota and Hazeltine National Golf Club, as the United States attempts to keep Europe from winning their fourth straight Ryder Cup.

U.S. captain Davis Love III named three of his four captain’s picks last week, adding Rickie Fowler, J.B. Holmes and Matt Kuchar to the team. Love will complete his roster by adding his final captain’s pick on NBC at halftime of the Sunday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the Dallas Cowboys.

Many were surprised that Bubba Watson wasn’t named to the team already (he’s the seventh-ranked player in the world), which makes Love’s final choice for the team all the more interesting. Most expect the final choice to be between Watson, Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger, all three of whom are playing in this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

While it may sound like the three players are trying to play for the final Ryder Cup roster spot this weekend, Love insists that the last pick won’t simply be a matter of who plays the best this weekend.

Like the Ryder Cup needed any more tension attached, right?

Team Europe has sort of collectively snickered at the American’s drawn-out process of selecting their team, with Rory McIlroy terming it, “sort of weird” and teammate Lee Westwood suggesting that a snub of Watson could hurt the U.S. team’s spirit.

All of the above should only take what is always a fever-pitch atmosphere at the Ryder Cup matches to another level. EMC couldn’t be more excited to be on-hand all week, and of course we’ll be rooting for the home team when the matches are played Friday, September 30 through Sunday, October 2.

Check back here for a final preview blog next week and then again the week after when we’ll have a full report on the proceedings from Hazeltine.