AMERICA AT LARGE:BENJAMIN DISRAELI once noted: "There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics." (Disraeli, who twice captained the Britain and Ireland side in the 19th century, apparently forgot about unplayable lies.)
Mark Twain, who defined golf as “a good walk spoiled”, had an even lower regard for statistics than for golf. “Figures don’t lie,” said Twain, “but liars figure.”
In matters of sport, America’s long-standing fascination with statistical data sometimes borders on the obsessive. When we pore over the morning sports pages, we’re inclined to monitor the latest trends in batting averages, earned-run averages and runs batted-in as closely as we watch baseball’s pennant races.
This time of year the agate page of the sports section will also include lists of the American football’s top ground-gainers, as well as its passing leaders, whose efficiency is determined by a arcane formula so complicated that in 40 years I’ve come across only one NFL quarterback who fully understood it.
The cumbersome lists of statistical data measuring golfing performance is of a comparatively recent vintage, but the PGA minions churn out the spreadsheet data, and the newspapers dutifully print it, even though in most cases the analysis of performance in various aspects of the game is hardly a predicator of success, and in some cases it can be almost meaningless.
This is particularly true in relation to the Ryder Cup, in which the competition consists exclusively of matchplay. Logically speaking, only two numbers are particularly relevant to matchplay golf: the man (or two-man team) who gets the ball into the hole in the fewest strokes wins the hole, and the fellow who wins the most holes wins the match. But with the 2010 matches set to unfold at Celtic Manor tomorrow, we have been besieged with an avalanche of numbers few of which are apt to be of much assistance when you get your bet down with the friendly neighbourhood bookie.
We note, by the way, that the European Tour, hardly to its credit, has joined its American counterpart in maintaining lists of leaders in various categories, but it’s probably worth noting that the US leaders in driving distance (Robert Garrigus), driving accuracy (Omar Uresti), greens in regulation (Troy Matteson) and putts (Brian Snedeker) have one thing in common: they’re not playing this week.
Similarly, none of the European Tour leaders in these categories is to be found among the top-10 spots in the Order of Merit; only one member of this year’s European team led in any statistical category (Luke Donald, putts per round).
Of all the PGA-issued statistics, the only ones that bear much relation to success on the course are top-10 finishes and scoring average. Matt Kuchar led both on the US tour; he is unsurprisingly the leader on the 2010 money list.
Very little of this data can be translated into a measure of relevance at matchplay golf. You might suppose, for instance, that a player highly rated in sand saves might be a handy fellow to have around the Twenty Ten course with all its pot bunkers, but think about this: to score well in sand saves, the escape artist requires not merely a deft touch for escaping this trouble, but also an unfortunate facility for landing in said bunkers to begin with. In foursomes, the player faced with the challenge of escaping a bunker won’t be the guy who put it in there in the first place.
Ian Woosnam, for instance, had a winning record in Ryder Cup play despite never winning a singles match. The vast disparity between Woosie’s 0-6-2 log in head-to-head competition, which stands in stark contrast to his 10-3-1 mark in fourball events, suggests the Welshman played better golf on Fridays and Saturdays than he did on Sundays. But any meaningful analysis of his Ryder Cup fortunes would better note that in the 1987, ’89 and ’91 matches Woosnam was regularly partnered with Nick Faldo, at the time the world’s best golfer.
You wouldn’t get much argument on either side of the pond that Faldo was the most successful player in Cup history, and the numbers bear that out. Not only does Sir Nick head up the lists for most appearances, most matches played, most matches won and most points won, but his tenure as a player also marked (some might say inspired) the European resurgence that saw the balance of power tip after decades of American dominance.
Faldo’s 25 points are the most earned by any Ryder Cup player, but his American counterpart, with 23½ points, is by no means as obvious. The holder of that distinguished record isn’t Nicklaus, it isn’t Palmer and it certainly isn’t Tiger Woods.
The most successful American Ryder Cupper of all time? Billy Casper.
Casper, by the way, represented the US eight times, as did Raymond Floyd and Lanny Wadkins. That trio will be joined at the top when Phil Mickelson strikes his first ball tomorrow.
When they start throwing the record book at you, Christy O’Connor Snr heads up the list with 21 overall matches lost, a record for futility he shares with Neil Coles. Longevity obviously plays a big part in these things; O’Connor’s 14 singles matches played is the second-highest total for Europe/Britain and Ireland.
Who’s first? Coles.
Long a mainstay in the Britain and Ireland era, Christy the Elder’s singles record was an unenviable 2-10-2, meaning Himself won exactly one singles match more than his nephew did.
Certainly any highlight film marking the European resurgence over the past two decades would include Christy Jnr’s two-iron to the final hole at The Belfry to defeat Fred Couples in 1989 and Philip Walton’s putt to beat Jay Haas at Oak Hill in 1995.
Would it surprise you to learn that those were the only Ryder Cup matches either of them won? All of this makes for some cracking bar-room (and, indeed, press-room) trivia. But the most important thing to remember about all of it is that the moment the first ball is struck tomorrow it won’t mean much at all.
