Team USA in Prime, what would the greatest team ever look like?
As Keegan Bradley discovered this year, assembling 12 good guys, being loyal to winning the Ryder Cup is not an easy task.
But what if he had a ’98 Ryder Cup golf option? What if we had the opportunity to pick each American golfer since 1927, when they were in their best shape?
It’s an attractive prospect, but it’s also tricky because there’s a lot of wealth.
Select the need for care. We need good records, but we also need to go beyond statistics.
We need 12 golfers without funnel. For example, Billy Maxwell played four games in 1963, his only Ryder Cup and won all the games, but he didn’t.
We are also very specific – looking for the 12 best performers of Team USA in the Ryder Cup.
This ruled out two of the great players of the modern era: no Tiger Woods, and no Phil Mickelson.
Woods played in eight Ryder Cups, played in 37 games and scored just 14.5 points, returning 39.19%. He scored only 9.5 points in 29 four-game and four-goal games!
Mickelson has performed a little better in his 12 games, winning just 21.5 points in 47 games (45.74%).
The couple is one of the greatest individuals, but just a traveler on a team.
Who will achieve results? let’s see.
Ben Hogan
The great Hogan only played two games, but there are good reasons to include him. It was mainly because he was involved in a life-threatening car accident between his appearances.
When debuted in 1947, the nine-time minority champion played in just one quarter of the competition and won the competition as a captain. Four years later, after the accident and won into his only two majors that year, he won his foursome and singles.
As tough as teak, he was never beaten, never halved, and in honor of Bradley we will make him play the captain.
Arnold Palmer
The King played six times between 1963 and 1971, winning 23 points in his 32 games. Additionally, 16 of those points have 21 foursomes and four goals, so he can do what Woods and Mickelson can’t do: perform well with his teammates.
The seven-time main champion has never been better than five of the six games in 1967 and has brutally beaten every game on the visiting team of the Champions Club in Houston, Texas.
Jack Nicklaus
If Woods and Mickelson are modern stars, Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus played on this team before them and the entire trio.
Nicklaus played six games, but that would have been more because the arcane rules kept him out of line until 1969 (when he had won seven majors).
In this debut, the 18-time Major champion’s famous putt led to the first game of the Cup, but he wasn’t soft. Overall, he won 18.5 points in 28 games and he won’t be excluded from four goals as he won 8 points in nine games.
In 1971, he won five points in six games.
Walter Hagen
Hager was a superstar of the pre-war era, winning 11 Grand Slams, with the US Ryder Cup team surrounding him. He played in only nine of his five games, but he won 7.5 points in them and was unbeaten in a quarter.
Take the Bow Scotsman George Duncan – the only one to beat Hagen in five Ryder Cups of all time.
Billy Casper
Buffalo Bill is the three-time champion and eight-time representative of the United States. He won 23.5 points in 37 games, marking him as the highest-scoring champion of the Americans ever.
He dominated the first two games, winning 4.5 points in three games in 1961 and five games in 1963. Unbeaten during that time.
Sam Sneider
Slammin’Sam is a winning machine that won seven majors and 82 PGA Tour titles (still tied for the first time ever). Between 1937 and 1959, he was also Ryder Cupper seven times, winning 10.5 points in his 13 games.
He never won his quartet five points and four years old in 1951, and then abandoned open champions Max Faulkner 4 and 3.
Lee Trevino
Supermex scored 20 points in 30 of six matches. The six-time main champion was in a wise, harsh best score at Muirfield in 1973, when he lost only one of six games.
It is crucial, however, that on the first day, his 1.5 points allowed the United States to avoid trouble before overwhelming the host.
Lanny Wadkins
If Trevino is a street man, then Wadkins is another one. “People like Hale Irving and I,” he said. “We’re mean. We’re the dump.” The former main champion scored 21.5 points from 34 games in eight games.
He liked the Ryder Cup at the beginning, winning all three games when he debuted in 1977 and earned four points from 1979.
Hale Irwin
Wadkins liked Irwin and had good reasons. His glasses look clumsy, but he’s as hard as nails scoring 14 points in 20 games in five games.
His famous half-width against Bernhard Langer regained the Ryder Cup in the iconic 1991 war.
Larry Nelson
Probably the most popular golfer of all time, and Ryder Cupper. He played only at the age of 21, scoring three majors and 9.5 points in 13 of the three Ryder Cups.
In the 1979 and 1981 matches, he played nine games and won all the matches.
Patrick Reed
The 2018 Masters champion Captain America won seven points in nine games in the first two games in 2014 and 2016, but it was his battle with Rory McIlroy in the latter singles, which will live long in the memories of the Ryder Cup.
One of the great matches, Reed showed up with the winner.
Tom Weiskopf
The 1973 Open champion only competed in the Ryder Cup twice, but his best performance was irresistible. He won 7.5 points in eight games after his first two games debut.
But maybe it’s too easy. When he was re-elected in 1977, he chose to go hunting.
