LITTLE ROCK — American golfers Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk have combined to win 146 tournaments around the world, including 19 majors, and they have qualified or been selected to every U.S. Ryder Cup team since 1997.
All of which makes their Ryder Cup record look all the more inferior.
Fifteen years ago at Valderrama they were a combined 3-6-1 as the United States lost the cup, and it hasn’t gotten any better. For all their individual achievement, none has a winning record in the Ryder Cup, with Woods (13-14-2) the only one of three even close.
Combined, Woods, Mickelson (11-17-6) and Furyk (8-15-4) are 32-46-12, which goes a long way to explaining why they have shared only one celebration — Woods missed in 2008 at Valhalla while recovering from knee surgery — and that was at Brookline in 1999.
“I would have expected and definitely wished for a much better record than that,” Furyk said Tuesday.
It leads to questions about who’s at fault.
Do they all have losing records because they are playing on losing teams? Or does the U.S. keep losing because these three losing records?
“I think it’s both,” Woods said Tuesday. “In order to win cups, you have to earn points. And we certainly have not earned points. And on top of that, Phil, Jim and myself have been put out there a lot during those years. So if we’re not earning points, it’s hard to win Ryder Cups that way.”
They will be leaned on heavily again at Medinah as the U.S. tries to win back the cup.
The Americans, dressed in navy blue shirts, headed out for the first full day of practice under warm sunshine in the Chicago suburbs. They played fourball matches among the three groups, which was evident when Bubba Watson and his pink-shafted driver drove through a dogleg on the 440-yard 11th hole and over the gallery’s head. He still played that shot (and they won the hole).
U.S. captain Davis Love III finally showed his hand — and confirmed some obvious pairings in mind — by sending out Woods and Steve Stricker, Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, Watson and Webb Simpson. Other pairings were Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson, Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson, and Furyk and Brandt Snedeker.
Woods, despite his 86 worldwide victories and 14 majors, has never had a winning record in the Ryder Cup. He is a combined 6-3-0 in his past two Ryder Cups to raise his career record close to .500. Even when Woods was at the height of his game, Europe would say that he could only win five points out of the 28 points up for grabs.
Woods never came close to that, which helps explain why Europe has won six of the seven Ryder Cups in which he played.
Mickelson began his Ryder Cup career in 1995 at Oak Hill, where he went 3-0 and privately burned that he wasn’t used more often. That turned out to be the most points Mickelson contributed in a week.
Their contributions are so noticeable that Mickelson and Furyk are tied for losing the most fourball matches (eight) among American players. Furyk is 1-8-1 in fourballs, though there are pleasant Ryder Cup memories. He took down Nick Faldo in his debut at Valderrama, and it was his big victory over Sergio Garcia at The Country Club in 1999 that was critical in the great American comeback.
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/26/2012