I’ll try to elevate myself to President Trump’s sportsman-like standards. He congratulated the Euros unequivocally – despite their taunts and American connections.
Some patriotic sports fans may be trying to divert attention from Ryder Cup fans’ shameful shenanigans by questioning the depth of homegrown talent in the winning Euros. They speculate whether the European team would have been successful if a few of their players had not attended college in the U.S.
Tommy Fleetwood (photo courtesy Ryder Cup)
That’s unknowable because the golf Gods can be quite mischievous. What we can know is that these are the top five point earners for the Euros at the 2025 Ryder Cup:
Tommy Fleetwood: 4 points (4-1-0)
Rory McIlroy: 3.5 points (3-1-1)
Tyrrell Hatton: 3.5 points (3-0-1)
Jon Rahm: 3 points (3-2-0)
Shane Lowry: 2 points (1-0-2)
Justin Rose: 2 points (2-1-0)
Of those, only Jon Rahm attended college in the U.S. Starting at the age of six, he developed his skills at Club Deportivo Martiartu and Larrabea Golf Club. Both are Spanish, in case that’s not obvious. He, along with Tyrrell Hatton, plays on the LIV Tour, not the PGA Tour.
Perhaps with some sanctimonious satisfaction, some U.S. officials wonder whether the Euros would have performed as well if they had chosen players who didn’t attend U.S. universities. Again, it’s speculative, dependent partly on the course setup and winds wrought by the whimsical golf Gods — and the squeaky rubber duckies wielded by distracting American fans.
Nevertheless, I’ll take the bait: Englishman Aaron Rai is ranked 28th in the world rankings, which is only a few spots below U.S. member Bryson DeChambeau. Rai is brilliant, and moving up the rankings that disfavor European competitions. He attended Wolverhampton Grammar School in old blighty, but not a U.S. college.
Admittedly, several of the European and British golfers reside in Florida, but that shouldn’t be a surprise, nor detract from their essential Europeanism. After all, most players on the PGA Tour are more lucrative than those on the European Tour; similarly, in a sense, to talented U.S. players who ply their trade in top leagues in England and continental Europe. The U.S. colleges are probably thrilled that a few of the Euros chose them, helping lead them to golf glory in collegiate tournaments. Perhaps they should have paid them more than a scholarship.
Some fans have also observed Austrian Sepp Straka’s Americanization, including his accent, or lack thereof. For the record, he received the lowest grades from Golf Digest for his Ryder Cup performance – “C minus. “ Interestingly, the same respected ranking methodology has the Euros who didn’t – did not — attend US colleges with the highest grades.
Photo courtesy Irish Star
Whether we can be as gracious as the U.S. team captain or as classy as President Trump’s congratulations to the Euros, the record books show that the Euros have dominated the Ryder Cup over the last couple of decades. But let’s continue this sporting digression and anticipate an even greater event: the 2026 World Cup. It will induce intense patriotic pride that will reverberate across our majestic land of plenty, and vibrate in just about every city, suburb, village, hamlet, and shanty on Earth.
President Trump is thrilled to be hosting the soccer extravaganza. As hosts, the U.S. does not have to go through the qualifying matches that all other hopeful nations must endure. It is interesting to note that a number of U.S. Men’s National Team-eligible players are playing in Europe. And several bunches were born outside the US.
Sociolinguists have observed that soccer players sometimes adopt fake accents when playing overseas. The U.S. players have adopted some of the local dialect and diction in Great Britain, for example, that are no different from many Gen Z Americans who are sporting British accents. Nevertheless, they are no less proud to be American than Sepp Straka is pleased that his Austrian roots have enabled him to succeed in a challenging profession in the United States.
If the U.S. succeeds in the World Cup (at least making the knockout stages, or better yet, advancing further), it will likely be thanks to their overseas players.
I’ll be cheering them on wholeheartedly, no matter who and how they play. It wouldn’t even occur to me that their skills are being sharpened overseas by foreign teammates, trainers, and coaches — that type of second-guessing is childishly churlish.
Instead,
GO USA!
