The US Ryder Cup team produced a hugely impressive fightback during the Sunday singles matches at Bethpage Black.
However, if the PGA of America use that to paper over the cracks, there will be more Ryder Cup disappointment lying ahead for Team USA.
While the US Ryder Cup players deserved great credit for their fightback on Sunday, it’s fair to criticize them for the way they performed during the foursome and four-ball sessions on Friday and Saturday.
Keegan Bradley made a vast array of errors as well which proved costly in the end.
Bradley has admitted the setup at Bethpage was a mistake but he surely realizes now that some of his pairings selections were really poor, particularly the Collin Morikawa and Harris English partnership.
However, another big error was seemingly made by the Ryder Cup powers that be at Bethpage Black last week.
US Ryder Cup team accused of ‘arrogance’ after Bethpage Black decision
There was a sense at Bethpage that the Americans thought they would beat the Europeans simply by turning up and playing better golf.
Johnson Wagner was stunned that Paul Azinger was not some way involved in the Ryder Cup setup at Bethpage.
When speaking on the 5 Clubs Podcast, Wagner really went to town with his criticism of the US Ryder Cup setup.
He said: “Why doesn’t the American have Paul Azinger out there?
“The guy reinvented the American Ryder Cup idea in 2008 with the pods and the profiling of characters and pairing people together.
“Boo Weekley was on that team and he was a star on that team. It was his only Ryder Cup, Tiger Woods didn’t play in ’08.
“It was arguably one of the worst, data-wise, collective teams we had by Paul Azinger figured it out and got everybody together and that’s what Europe does every single year and that’s what we don’t do.
“I think the US team has a tremendous amount of arrogance and they think they’re better on paper and they don’t have the right data, and things need to start changing.“
Two of Keegan Bradley’s decisions prove the US Ryder Cup team were arrogant
The arrogance stemmed from the higher ups, Bradley included, down to the players during the first two days of action at Bethpage.
The perfect example of this is the fact that Bradley selected Morikawa and English as a partnership, despite them being ranked 132nd in the list of potential optimal pairings at the Ryder Cup.
Then he struck with them again for day two!
If that’s not a clear sign of ignoring the data then I don’t know what is.
The fact that Russell Henley teed off from the odd numbered holes rather than Scottie Scheffler was a baffling call as well.
It was clear to see the odd numbered tee shots suited the longer hitters who shape their shots left to right.
Another shining example of how the Americans thought they would win the Ryder Cup purely by playing better golf last week.
Johnson is right, there was a huge amount of arrogance involved in the US Ryder Cup setup and that has to change moving forward.
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