Furyk playing well Europe and the United States are pretty evenly matched on the odds, but Captain Tom Lehman says the Americans are Ryder Cup underdogs. This is a fair statement considering the Americans limp into the event following bad play.
Recent good play and a lot of experience will help lift Europe's play. Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson are the only two rookies on Europe's team. Last year their rookies went 6-6-1.
The Americans will counter with with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk. There's much less experience competing for the red, white and blue which have four rookies on their team, two of whom never have competed in match play.
Currently, the course is soggy and bad weather is expected throughout most of the play. Lehman brought his team to Ireland at the end of August for two days of practice, determined to end nearly two decades of frustration in the Ryder Cup. The dismal weather generated this week should not have been surprising, because it also rained most of those two days.
Having lost four of the last five times, the Americans will try to beat Europe on their turf for the first time since 1993 when the Ryder Cup gets under way on Friday. European captain Ian Woosnam said his players still feel as though they have something to prove, but he sure didn't make them sound like anything but the favorites on home soil.
