1 surprising stat that could be good news for the U.S. Ryder Cup team

HAVEN, Wis. — I must admit: As GOLF.com’s resident European (and therefore resident European Ryder Cup fan), it feels like Americans are being a little pessimistic about their chances.

The U.S. team has won two of the last three Ryder Cups contested in the United States (and the one they didn’t win required a historic comeback from the European team), and then this statistic popped up on Golf Channel immediately following after Friday pairings were announced: Since 2008, the U.S. is an astonishing 17-7 in the opening Ryder Cup session. That’s European-level dominance!

Of course, the United States only prevailed in two of those six scenarios. The issue historically has been the U.S. team’s struggling with the foursomes format, but there’s even a golden lining to that news: The last time the Ryder Cup kicked off with foursomes, the U.S. swept the session and won the Ryder Cup.

Good news for Americans? We’ll find out.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees all the brand’s service journalism spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University and in 2017 was named News Media Alliance’s “Rising Star.” His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.