Presidents Cup Wrap Up

The reality was it was over before it began.

The United States won its seventh straight Presidents Cup with a 19-11 win over the Internationals at Liberty National. It wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.

In fact, the United States was one point away from clinching the Cup on Saturday, well before any of the 12 singles matches took to the course.

Heading into the event that the United Sates holds a 10-1-1 overall advantage, it seemed like it would be one-sided, but throughout history, the opposite is usually what happens.

Not this time.

Anything United States captain Steve Stricker sent out worked. It was so dominating, it was boring by Saturday.

Personally, to me, the biggest thing to come out of the four-day event was how good this American team will be next year when the Ryder Cup takes place. In the past, much has been made about how close knit the European teams always area and that has been a key in their wins.

The United States is there and it’s only going to get better.

Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are three of the best players in the world and are close friends, vacationing together and hanging out off the course.

If one is contention in a tournament, the others hang around to see if they win and then the party is on. If Smylie Kaufman gets into the top tier with those three, the party really will be on!

Outside of those, Patrick Reed is also a young gun and brings the Red, White and Blue fire.

When the Ryder Cup takes place September 25-30 in France next year, the United States should be prohibitive favorites and that’s something that just hasn’t happened.

In the post-Tiger Woods era, this is exactly what the game needed here and it should be the perfect time to grow the game.

By Dennis Miller