Apparently, the most effective way to deep-six an opponent in match play is to bury him in the first six holes. At least that’s been the case so far in the 14th Presidents Cup.
According to a statistic posted on Golf Channel, the Americans’ dominant 8-2 advantage can be explained, in part, by their ability to jump ahead early over the International team. In the first 10 matches over the opening two days at Quail Hollow, the Internationals have yet to lead after six holes. They best they have been able to manage is two ties, those coming in Friday’s second and third four-ball matches. Interestingly, both of those matched ended with halves.
Meanwhile, the U.S. side has forged leads of multiple holes in seven of the other eight games. Only one did it not result in victory, that coming when Cam Davis and Si Woo Kim rallied from 3 down through seven holes to stun world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, 2 up.
Golf Channel’s Paul McGinley, who captained the European team to victory in the 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland, noted during Friday’s “Live From” broadcast that the stats they looked at from Ryder Cup matches showed that the teams that lead after six holes tend to win a large majority of the time. McGinley said that he felt so strongly about the trend that he emphasised additional practice on those first six holes at Gleneagles in order to try to give his team that edge.
Why are those holes so important? Well, of course it’s easier to play with a lead than be constantly be having to comeback against an opponent. The style of play when trailing puts more pressure on players, who they are faced with more difficult situations down the stretch. Of course, matches can always flip, but the need to HAVE to flip the match to always be earning points, particularly when a team is trailing in the overall contest, makes the task that much more difficult.
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Saturday’s four morning foursomes matches might further buttress this argument. Though the Internationals did carve out early leads in two of the four games, by the sixth hole they trailed in two of them and were tied in the other two. That makes the 0-for-14 in the early going. Could they rally, pull out a few wins, and gain some much needed momentum for the road team? But so far, that hasn’t been the case to an appreciable degree.
