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What to Expect From This Ryder Cup

9/18/2008 5:39 PM ET By Shane Bacon

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    • Shane Bacon

The Ryder Cup starts tomorrow and for the first time in ages, the Americans are the clear cut underdog. They don't have their best golfer, they are one bad weekend away from the most consecutive U.S. losses in Ryder Cup history and they don't really have someone, as of yet, to step up as a true team leader.

The Europeans on the other hand look great, with the hottest golfer in the world accompanied by one of the hottest Ryder Cup players ever. With the matches beginning early in the morning on Friday, here are five questions that might be asked before the matches begin.

  • What will the absence of Tiger Woods do to the American team? -- Well, obviously not having the best golfer in the world in your corner puts you at a disadvantage, but maybe the biggest loss is with the Jim Furyk-Woods team that had some mild success in 2006. The duo went 2-2-0 which is a huge step up from the success of Tiger with other golfers in the team portion of the Ryder Cup. With some experience behind them, this could have been the two to carry an American team to victory. Now Furyk will have to find chemistry with someone else.
  • Will Nick Faldo Be Smart Enough to Go With the Sergio Garcia-Lee Westwood Team? -- Sergio is honestly the Tiger Woods of the Ryder Cup, sporting a 14-4-2 record with three of those losses coming in singles. That means in four events, Garcia has lost one team match and has never been sat. He has never lost with Luke Donald, but with the Englishman out with a wrist injury, the next best thing is Westwood. The two are 4-1-1 together with the only loss coming at the hands of two players (Woods and Davis Love III) that aren't even playing this week. Some rumors are out that this could be the duo to lead the European team on Friday, and it sure would be the one I'd pick to get an early point.
  • Could an Anthony Kim-Phil Mickelson pairing be like the Woods-Mickelson of '04? -- Lets face it, Lefty does not play well with others. He's like that kid with the really tight shirt at the bar that thinks he's the most awesome person there but nobody is talking to him (the best part of this analogy is Phil's shirts are pretty snug). Kim is a rookie and one of the few people you could debate has as much talent as Phil did at this age, but combining two huge stars like this hasn't worked well for the American team. One of the two will have to defer to the other, and that is hard to see from two guys so content on how awesome they both think they really are.
  • Is the European Team That Much Better? -- Actually, they don't really look that way. Sure, they have Padraig Harrington, Garcia and Westwood, but after those three the list falls off. Unlike 2006, when the Americans went to the K Club with Vaughn Taylor, J.J. Henry and Brett Wetterich, this team actually looks pretty sound from 1 to 12. The team will need a rookie-like performance a la David Toms in 2002 (3-1-1) from more than just one of the new guys. If they can get this, they might actually be the more talented squad (Obviously, this is taking away the fact that once the European team puts on that blue gear with the yellow stars they turn into a completely different species, one sent to kill anyone and anything on the golf course and leave nothing to be traced. We are disregarding that, ok? OK?)
  • Who wins this thing? -- This all depends on Friday. In the last three losses the Americans have fallen behind on Friday a combined 16-8, and have never been able to recover. If the U.S. can find any possible way to hang around that first day, it might give them some much needed confidence for the Saturday matches and the Sunday singles, which historically they have dominated. If they get behind the eight ball on that first day, go ahead and get yourself ready for college football because this thing is over.
Alrighty, that wraps it up for our Ryder Cup preview show. If you've gotten this far, let us know in the comments who you think might win this thing and check in tomorrow for a few updates on the matches in progress.

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