SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Delayed a year due to the pandemic, the much-awaited Ryder Cup delivered, even if the final-day drama was missing. Plenty of passion and pageantry, a slew of impressive shots and putts, the usual nitpicky irritation between both sides and — in the end — a joyous winning team and a losing side vowing to do better the next time.
The United States defeated Europe 19-9 in the most lopsided result since continental Europe became part of the competition in 1979. The Americans won four of the five sessions and tied the other, never allowing Europe to get any momentum and seemingly taking out years and years of Ryder Cup frustration in the process.
A few American stars emerged. Europe’s Jon Rahm lived up his No. 1 ranking in the world. There was plenty to take away from this competition as the runup to the next Ryder Cup, slated for Rome in 2023, begins.
The U.S. is loaded for years, but …
Youth was served at Whistling Straits. The Americans delivered. The six rookies went 14-4-3, the most by any collection of first-timers in a single Ryder Cup since the 1979 American team. So much for experience.
And that doesn’t include Brooks Koepka or Daniel Berger. And what about Dustin Johnson, who led the way with a 5-0 record? At 37, he is not going anywhere. Tony Finau has been very good in two Ryder Cups and a Presidents Cup. What if Rickie Fowler regains form? Patrick Reed? It’s going to be a tough team to make. Future captains will have enormous firepower.
But … you always have to be careful with the Ryder Cup. This time, the lineup on paper that was favored prevailed in a big way. That rarely happens. Players fall out of form. The venue matters. And Europe, despite the likely loss of some veteran players, will regroup.
The home-course advantage is real
That’s four straight victories for the home team. In each case, there was no secret the courses — Gleneagles (2014), Hazeltine (2016) Le Golf National (2018) and Whistling Straits (2021) — were set up to favor the home side.
“I said at the start of the week, it seems the way the Ryder Cup is going, the home team certainly has an advantage every time that we play this thing,” said Rory McIlroy. “That was apparent in Paris a couple years ago. I think it was pretty apparent this week, as well. You go back to Hazeltine, same sort of thing. This is the pattern that we are on.”
It is fair to wonder if this has gone too far. There is an inherent advantage already for the Europeans when they play a home match. In almost all instances, the venue stages as European Tour event, as will be the case in Rome in two years. The Americans were in a great position at Whistling Straits early this year. Those seem like advantages.
But you can bet that without any kind of change, Marco Simone Golf & Country Club will have narrow fairways and deep rough for the 2023 Ryder Cup.
Garcia and Johnson were named the inaugural winners of the Nicklaus-Jacklin Award presented by Aon, which is meant to recognize showing sportsmanship in the manner of Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin and the 1969 “concession.” At times throughout this career, that might have seemed unlikely for Garcia. But he has become an older statesman for the European side and showed plenty of game, despite a singles loss to DeChambeau. At 41, he has now played in 10 Ryder Cups, holds the record for most points earned and most matches won. And he’s not planning on going away.
Dustin Johnson, Ryder Cup star
On Thursday evening — following the opening ceremony — Johnson changed out of his sports coat and tie and headed to the practice range to work on his game. That seemed an ominous sign, with three days of practice already behind and the intensity of the Ryder cup to begin in roughly 14 hours.
Either Johnson found something or he simply was refining what was working, because he had a historic week.
Johnson became the first American to go 5-0 at a Ryder Cup since Larry Nelson in 1979. He was just the fifth person to do so. He was 7-9 in the Ryder Cup before this week. For the week, he never trailed by more than one hole in any of his matches. He made eight birdies on Sunday in his match with Paul Casey.
Last hurrah?
It is quite possible we’ve seen the last of Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter in the Ryder Cup. Both won their Sunday singles, so if it is the end, they went out with one last great memory. Both have provided their share over the years.
But in 2023, Westwood will be 50, Poulter 47. Both did not rule out making the team, but know how difficult the task will be. Westwood came to tears afterward talking about playing with his son, Sam, as his caddie. It was his 47th Ryder Cup match, tying the record held by Phil Mickelson. Poulter said the situation makes “you wish you were 20 years old again.”
“I’ve only lost one other one, and it’s dismal,” Poulter said of being on only two losing teams. “Watching the guys out on 18 enjoying themselves is something that you come into this week with visions of that happening for you as a team.
“We’ve got a great team this week, and we were outplayed. Every session was difficult. They did their job, and they made it painful for us. This one’s going to hurt for a bit. But you know what, it’s things like that that make you stronger going forward.”
Brooks-Bryson are buds
Well, at least they were for a few hours. We will see how that whole scenario plays out after months of bickering, some of it silly. They put their differences aside at the Ryder Cup. Stricker claims they wanted to play together. They hugged. Posed for photos.
And if they do, indeed, end up in some made-for-TV match, feel free to be skeptical over these last months of tension.
The next captains
Nobody was willing to go there at this point, but both teams will have new captains within months, almost certainly after the beginning of the new year. Stricker made it clear he would be moving aside, because a plan is in place for the next American captain.
And you can read between the lines. All signs pointed to Zach Johnson being the 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup captain in Charlotte. But a major curveball was thrown when the PGA Tour announced Davis Love III as the captain instead. He’s already captained two U.S. Ryder Cup teams. He was an assistant in Paris and at Whistling Straits. It seems an odd choice, and it likely meant some other plans fell through.
It is possible that both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have passed on the 2023 Ryder Cup. Mickelson wasn’t going to take the Presidents Cup job next year, and Johnson can’t take it if he’s going to be the 2023 Ryder Cup captain. So Johnson, a two-time major winner who has assisted on numerous teams, seems likely to lead the Americans to Rome and try to break a 30-year road winless streak.
For Europe, Westwood is the likely choice … unless he decides he wants to try to play, in which case he has a big decision to make — and soon. Poulter seems destined for Bethpage in 2025 — where Woods or Mickelson could go against him. Other possibilities for Europe would be Luke Donald, Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell. But it gets complicated if Westwood declines in the short term.
After giving up Ohtani’s 431-foot blast, Misiorowski responded with another dominant outing. He struck out a career-high 12 batters — including two-way superstar Ohtani in the third inning — to lead the Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
“It’s Shohei Ohtani,” Misiorowski said. “You kind of expect [that]. It’s cool to see him do it in action, but it fires me up even more coming back the next at-bat and striking him out. I’m right there. I think it was a moment of like, ‘OK, now we go.'”
Misiorowski, whose fastball routinely tops 100 mph, threw an 88.2 mph curveball on an 0-2 count to Ohtani, who crushed it for his 31st homer. That’s the most by a Dodgers player before the All-Star break.
It was the 21st career leadoff homer for the three-time MVP, who struck out swinging on a curveball in the third and walked to start the sixth. That was the only walk given up by Misiorowski, who scattered four hits.
“Really good stuff, aggressive in the zone,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “But what really stood out to me was his command and control.”
Misiorowski outdueled three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, who surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts in his previous outing. Asked Monday about his matchup with Misiorowski, Kershaw said he only knew that the 6-foot-7 right-hander threw hard.
“I know him now, huh?” Kershaw said Tuesday. “That was super impressive. That was unbelievable. It was really special. Everything. Obviously the velo, but he’s got four pitches, commands the ball. I don’t know how you hit that, honestly. That’s just really tough.”
Misiorowski was glad to get Kershaw’s attention.
“I saw something online that he didn’t now who I was, so I hope he knows me now,” Misiorowski said. “It’s kind of cool.”
In five starts since the Brewers called him up from the minors, Misiorowski has already beaten Kershaw and 2024 NL Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. In another outing, Misiorowski carried a perfect game into the seventh inning.
“He’s just broken the shell,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He’s just out of the egg, all arms and legs. He’s still got gooey stuff coming off, you can see it, all arms and legs, but there’s something special about him.”
The numbers would indicate as much. Misiorowski is 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and has given up only 12 hits in 25⅔ innings.
He topped out at 101.6 mph and threw 20 pitches of at least 100 on Tuesday. He also threw 19 curveballs after using curves only 10% of the time before Tuesday.
He was coming off his only shaky performance, giving up five runs — including a grand slam by Brandon Nimmo — and three walks over 3⅔ innings Wednesday in a 7-3 loss to the New York Mets.
It looked as if it might be more of the same after Ohtani went deep. Misiorowski responded by striking out 12 of the next 16 batters.
“I think that’s my job, is to figure it out on the fly,” he said. “I feel like I did it tonight.”
He got out of a jam in the sixth. The Dodgers trailed 2-1 and had runners on second and third with one out, but third baseman Andruw Monasterio fielded a grounder and threw out Ohtani at the plate, and Misiorowski retired Michael Conforto on a grounder.
Misiorowski pumped his fist as he headed toward the dugout, then watched the Brewers’ bullpen nail down the win.
“It’s so satisfying,” Misiorowski said. “It’s just a dream come true, to do what I did.”
Bailey became just the third catcher in MLB history to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park home run, joining the Chicago Cubs’ Pat Moran in 1907 and the Washington Nationals’ Bennie Tate in 1926.
Bailey’s homer would have been an outside-the-park home run in 29 of 30 ballparks, with Oracle Park being the exception.
Mike Yastrzemski reached base twice and scored to help the Giants to their sixth win in seven games.
Bailey, who grounded into a double play and struck out in two of his previous at-bats, then smashed a 1-0 fastball from Jordan Romano (1-4) into right-center field that ricocheted off the brick part of the wall.
Ryan Walker (2-3) retired one batter, with two on in the top of the ninth, to earn the win.
Phillies All-Star Kyle Schwarber had two hits, including his team-leading 28th home run.
Schwarber flew out, struck out and was hit by a pitch before homering off Giants reliever Spencer Bivens into McCovey Cove. Brandon Marsh, who singled as a pinch hitter leading off the inning, scored on the play.
Two days after being named an All-Star for the second time in his career, Robbie Ray gave up four hits and one run in 5⅔ innings.
BALTIMORE — The New York Mets consider Juan Soto to be a bona fide All-Star, despite the snub he received from those who selected the National League squad for the Midsummer Classic on July 15.
Soto, in his first year with the Mets, has performed well enough to earn the respect of his manager and teammates. In their opinion, he’s deserving of a place in the All-Star Game next week in Atlanta.
“He’s an All-Star for us,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday night after the Mets beat Baltimore 7-6. “It’s frustrating, but I’m hoping in the next couple of days we hear something and he makes it.”
Soto drove in the winning run with a sharp single on the first pitch of the 10th inning. That capped a night in which he went 3 for 5 to raise his batting average to .269 with 21 homers and 52 RBIs.
Soto has walked 72 times, by far the most in the majors, but he can also lash out at a pitcher when necessary.
“He’s got a pretty good understanding of what the pitchers are trying to do to him,” Mendoza said. “There is his awareness of the game, he’s going to see pitchers. There are times when he’s going to be aggressive. Tonight was one of those nights. First pitch in the 10th, he’s attacking.”
Soto made the All-Star team as a member of the Nationals, Padres and Yankees each year since 2021. The streak appears to be over. But his teammates believe he deserves to go.
“What he done all year is just incredible, and the results are good enough,” Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes said. “The consistency he’s showed up with, at the at-bats he’s taken, is more than an All-Star. He’s one of the best in the game and a big part of our lineup.”
Soto seems rather philosophical about the snub.
“Sometimes, you’re going to make it and sometimes you don’t,” he told reporters after Sunday’s loss to the Yankees. “It’s just part of baseball.”
