Nick Faldo’s Europeans look a blinding bet at totesport’s 10/11 to defend their Ryder Cup crown on US soil in September.
US skipper Paul Azinger’s preparations took a massive blow when Tiger Woods pulled out for the rest of the season following knee surgery and some recent comments from potential team members haven’t been doing him any favours either.
Hunter Mahan’s well publicised “slaves” quote suggests that morale is not high among the US players.
Speaking about the Ryder Cup the talented American commented: “You’ve got dinners every night, not little dinners, massive ones.
“As players, that’s the last thing we want. We want to prepare ourselves. You’re just a slave that week.”
Mahan hasn’t even played in a Ryder Cup so we’d have to assume that he’s picked those thoughts up from a previous team member.
With a mind set like that is it is no surprise that the Americans appear beaten before they reach the first tee?
Europe have of course won the last three renewals (the last two by humiliating nine point margins) and at just a shade of odds-on they must be supported to make it four-in-a-row.
It promises to be an interesting few weeks as we count down to the Valhalla show down.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer finished 14th at the recent SAS Masters in Sweden to move to within just 272 points of Denmark’s Soren Hansen who currently occupies the 10th and last automatic Ryder Cup place.
