'Europe will win and they will win in a canter'

So writes Lawrence Donegan, golf writer for the U.K. newspaper the Guaridan, in this blog post.

Donegan offers a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Ryder Cup team and why it will lose in a rout, while offering a caveat: "Ridicule awaits those who claim they can unerringly predict the outcome of a golf tournament."

Still, he makes the case that predicting the outcome of a Ryder Cup is easier than doing so of a stroke-play tournament with a large field.

"In summary," Donegan writes, "the US team consists [of] three strong players (Johnson, Stricker and Mahan), one player who could be strong ( Woods), two players who could surprise people (Kuchar and Watson), two players who will almost certainly fail to live up to expectations (Mickelson and Furyk), two players who will be middling performers (Johnson and Cink) and two players who are likely to be out of their depth (Fowler and Overton)."

He concludes that the outcome is "foretold in the names of the 24 players who will take part. Europe will win, and they will win in a canter."

-- John Strege