Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minnesota 7,628 yards, par 72

Defending champion: Europe @ Gleneagles in Scotland in 2014, 16 1/2 to 11 1/2. U.S. was destroyed.

Series: Since 1927, the U.S. holds a 25-13-2 lead, but Europe holds a 10-7-1 edge since the Great Britain and Ireland squad was expanded to the entire continent in 1979. And mainly thanks to Europe’s eight victories in the last 10 matches.

TV: Friday: Golf Channel, 8:30 AM-7 PM ET/7:30 AM-6 PM CT

Saturday, NBC, 9 AM-7 PM ET/8 AM-6 PM CT

Sunday: NBC, Noon-6 PM ET/11 AM-5 PM CT.

Weather: Friday: 71, Sunny, wind 6-9 MPH; Saturday: 70 clouds and sun, wind 5-7 MPH; Sunday: Mostly cloudy, wind 4-5 MPH. So a relatively tame course, though very long.

Issues

After the 2014 disaster at Gleneagles, Phil Mickelson openly criticized captain Tom Watson in front of Watson and the press in the press conference. He said the captain’s decisions since Paul Azinger in 2008 had not led to any success for the teams. It was a real shot at Watson, but there may have been some validity to it. After that press conference, an 11 person Ryder Cup task force was formed, with Phil and Tiger being two of the task force members, and selected Davis Love III as the captain for the 2016 team. While Love seems to be a nice guy, his 2012 team blew it on the last day, and lost to Jose Maria Olazabal’s team, 14 1/2-13 1/2, after being blown away in the singles matches on Sunday and losing a huge lead going into Sunday. So not sure that Love is the answer to this team’s continual problems. But with all the pressure on the U.S. team they are probably hungrier. I just don’t know if they have the drive that the European team has every time out. Phil blamed Watson that day in 2014, but his record at the Ryder Cup is 16-19-6. While Tiger Woods, who is a vice captain, has a record of 13-14-2. He’s 4-7-1 in the Foursomes, and 5-8-0 in the Fourballs. The foursomes feature a two man team for each side playing against  another in an alternate shot format, where one player, say Jordan Spieth, will hit the drive, and his partner, Patrick Reed, which could very well be the case, hits the second shot on a par 4 and they rotate hitting each shot. Same thing for the Europeans. The first team in the hole wins the match. In the fourball, all four players, two from each side, play. The player with the better ball of the two man team and the better ball over the other team, wins the hole. The foursomes and four ball matches will take place Friday and Saturday, and the 12 singles matches will be on Sunday. There are 12 players on each side. Tiger is 4-1-1 in the singles matches since he started playing in 1997. The  time he played was 2010.

The difference between Spieth and Woods is that Spieth was quoted as saying, “I’d rather win the Ryder Cup than the Fed Ex Cup,” while Woods was asked before a tournament where the prize was $1 million for winning it which he’d rather win, that tournament or the Ryder Cup. He said, “I can think of a million reasons why I’d want to win this tournament more.” So there’s a difference in outlook to me between the younger guys, and a guy like Woods, who doesn’t seem to put much stock in the event. Maybe he’s different now that he’s older.

Brandel Chamblee and David Duval of the Golf Channel got into a heated discussion on that issue last night on the Golf Channel on the Live From the Ryder Cup show. Chamblee was saying that Woods and Mickelson have been failures on the teams and Duval was attacking Brandel saying the European teams have a lot to do with it. I side with Brandle more. Both Mickelson and Woods have been disappointments at the Ryder Cups, but I do agree that the European teams seem to want it more. But Mickelson and Woods have been pretty big disappointments in their Ryder Cup careers.

Key holes

Par 5’s, No. 3, 633 yards, No.6, 642 yards, No.11, 606 yards, and No. 16, 572 yards. The par 4 7th is a hole Johnny Miller described, as the “hardest par 4 I’ve ever played.” It’s got water all over it and is about precision more than distance. Zach Johnson will do well there most likely. Dustin Johnson and Rory could be an interesting singles match on Sunday just for a driving contest match in itself. And it would be a heckuva match any way. The par 3 17th is a 176 yard hole with bunkers on the right and left side and water on the right. If you hit it in the middle of the green you’ll have a putt of 15 to 20 feet and with the nerves cooking with the match in balance. It will be a test of the player’s mettle and mental toughness. No. 18 is a par 4 with bunkers on both sides of the fairway making this one of the most difficult driving holes on the course. The players will face an uphill second shot, so being precise with their yardages on their pretty much blind approach shots will be critical. Anything long or left of the hole, when the hole’s on the right side, will likely lead to bogey.

Teams-players

U.S.

Jimmy Walker: 1-1-3 in his Ryder Cup debut in 2014. Coming off the PGA Championship victory, though he had a quiet Fed Ex showing.

Jordan Spieth: 2-1-1 in his Ryder Cup debut in 2014. He’s focused and hungry. He’s a leader and a super teammate. Trust Spieth. Two time major winner. Didn’t have his best year in 2016, but would love to make up for it at Hazeltine. Johnny Miller said on NBC in 2014 during that Ryder Cup of Spieth and Patrick Reed, “You know these guys aren’t used to losing.”

Brandt Snedeker: 1-2 in his only Ryder Cup appearance in 2012. Eight time PGA Tour winner. Not sure about his clutchness when it counts. Maybe this year will be different.

Patrick Reed: 3-1 in 2014, his only Ryder Cup. Five time winner on tour at 26 years old. Really like this guy in the clutch.

Ryan Moore: Rookie. The 33 year old has won five times on tour and was hugely clutch last week fighting it out with Rory in the Tour Championship, going to the fourth playoff hole. Moore had a par putt from 14 feet to stay alive as McIlroy had eight feet for birdie. Moore sank it, but Rory sank his birdie putt. Moore is super clutch. During the summer of 2004, prior to his senior year at UNLV, Moore won the U.S. Amateur, the Western Amateur, the U.S. Amateur Public Links, and the NCAA individual championship. Wow. That’s unbelievable. I like Ryan on this team.

Phil: 16-19-6 in 11 Ryder Cups. Five majors. He’s a leader on this team, so we’ll see if he can put his money where his mouth is.

Matt Kuchar: Fourth start at a Ryder Cup, 4-5-2 in three previous starts. Seven time PGA winner. Not sure I trust him in the crunch time though.

Brooks Koepka: Rookie. Won the 2015 Waste Management Open. Lost in a playoff this year to Sergio at the AT&T Byron Nelson. He had a pretty good lead at the Nelson and kind of collapsed. I like his youth and energy, and newness to the team, along with his distance off the tee and his talent overall. We’ll see how he handles the pressure. I like him on this team though.

Zach Johnson: Four Ryder Cups, 6-6-2. 12 Tour wins, two majors, the 2007 Masters and the 2015 Open Championship. Like Zach’s precision on this course. Tom Lehman said Hazeltine is a little misunderstand, as it’s just as much about precision as it is length. So that makes Zach a real factor on the U.S. team.

Dustin Johnson: On the 2010 and 2012 teams. 4-3. Captured his first major this year at the U.S. Open at Oakmont CC just outside of Pittsburgh, putting on a clinic. He’s the player of the year on tour, as he barely lost out to Rory for the Fed Ex Cup and won 3 times this year. Along with the U.S. Open, Johnson won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and the BMW Championship in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in the team competition. I noticed when he and Jordan were playing together in a match against Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel at last year’s President’s Cup, Jordan told him to play to the middle of the green after Day and Schwartzel had hit their approach shots off the green. When Johnson did that, Spieth said, “Good play D.J.” It was like the 23 year old was the leader. Spieth is a leader. I think Dustin needs a leader playing with him in the foursome and four ball matches. Maybe a Phil or a Zach.

John Bradley Holmes: I love this guy on the team. J.B. played in his only Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville, KY in 2008 and was 2-0-1 leading the U.S. to one of their 2 victories in the last 10 Cup matches. J.B., Anthony KIm and Boo Weekley were the key guys in 2008. They were young, hungry and not going to lose that Ryder Cup. He’ll have that same mentality at Hazeltine.

Rickie Fowler: Fowler has not had much success playing in 2010 and 2014 going 0-4-4 overall. I think he’s capable of snapping out of that though. He’s a good competitor and I see him being ready.

European team

There are 6 rookies on the European team: Rafa Cabrera Bello, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Thomas Pieters, Andy Sullivan, Masters Champion Danny Willett and Chris Wood.

Rest of the team

Lee Westwood: 9 Ryder Cups: 20-15-6. Good stuff.

Henrik Stenson: 4 Ryder Cups, 5-4-2.

Justin Rose: 4 Ryder Cups, 9-3-2. Wow.

Rory: 4 Ryder Cups, 6-4-4.

Martin Kaymer: 4 Ryder Cups, 4-3-3. Sank the winning putt in 2012 at Medinah to clinch the Cup for Europe that year. Clutch guy.

Sergio: 8 Ryder Cups, 18-9-5. Very, very impressive.

Couple of records that are interesting:

The most points won by a pairing: Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal:  11-2-2.

The youngest player to play is Sergio who played in 1999 at 19 years old, 258 days.

The oldest player to play: Raymond Floyd. He was 51 years, 20 days in 1993.

Prediction:

This European team loves  the underdog role. They relish is and  always seem hungrier than our players. As for this year, I like Spieth, Reed and Zach Johnson to be America’s leaders. Dustin will do his part, Phil will do his part, and Jimmy Walker will be pretty decent. I really like J.B and Ryan Moore on the team. They’re definitely hungry. Don’t trust Snedeker and Kuchar really, and not sure about Koepka as a rookie. Rickie’s been terrible, but he should be better this time. Don’t really trust Love for that matter. I give the edge in captaincy to Darren Clarke, because he can out coach Love in my opinion. While the Europeans have horses in Rory, Rose, Stenson, Kaymer and super Ryder Cup players in Westwood and Sergio, I think this time they have too much youth, and the home turf will be rockin in the great Midwest. So I’ll go with the U.S. like I did in 2014, mainly because of Spieth, Reed, John B. and newcomers Ryan Moore and Brooks Koepka. I like the more experience that the U.S. team has, though Europe has 6 veterans who are horses. This should be an epic. The Europeans are extremely hard for us to beat, but I’ll go with the U.S.

U.S. 14 1/2, Europe 13 1/2

Tomorrow:

College Football Week 5, previews and

predictions