Americans and the Ryder Cup ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - With a nod to Charles Dickens, the Ryder Cup is the best of tournaments. It is the worst of tournaments.

It's the best because it's one of the few that requires golfers to play on teams. And not just any teams, but the American team, or the European team. That sets the stakes pretty high right there.

The veterans always try to warn the first timers: you have no idea what pressure is until you're trying to make a five foot putt for your nation's honor, with all your teammates and countrymen watching. And every time, the rookies don't believe it. They've already won big international tournaments just to get there. But when they're facing that five foot putt, and look down to see their putter vibrating in their hands - then they get it.

Under that strain, the greatest players in the world start to crack. Bernhard Langer has won over 70 tournaments, including two Masters championships. But when he found himself standing over a five foot putt to keep the trophy for the Europeans in 1991 - he blew it as badly as any Sunday duffer. It remains the most famous shot of his career.

For all their emotional pain and suffering, the players on both teams get paid - nothing. Zip, zero, nada. They actually play all three days for free.

That's why the great Jim Brown, the NFL's former all time leading rusher, called the Ryder Cup the single greatest sporting event in the world.

So what's not to love? The American team, that's what.

The European players love the Ryder Cup, and they act like it, joking with the fans and each other and partying every night at their hotel bar as a team. These guys get along great - and they don't even speak the same language.

The Americans hate the Ryder Cup, and they don't even try to hide it. From the day it starts to the day it ends, the Americans whine about everything - their playing partners, their opponents, the course, and the crowd - even when they played at Oakland Hills two years ago. And the U.S. pros are outraged that they don't get paid to play for the very country that made their million dollar careers possible. Then they hop on their private jets, and head home to one of their gated estates.

But when they get on those jets, they're usually missing one thing: the trophy. Most years, the Americans have twice the talent of the Europeans, but half the heart - which is why they've won the Ryder Cup only once in the last six tries.

There may be no I in team, but there's one in Tiger Woods, and two in Phil Mickelson. They are the two best players in the world, but they barely spoke to each other when they played as a pair four years ago. They do share one thing: rotten records in the Ryder Cup. Tiger Woods isn't even on the team this year.

It's actually not that surprising. In baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer, our national teams almost always play far below their potential in international competitions. American athletes play much harder for a personal paycheck than for national glory.

The sad fact is, we simply have a lot more pluribus, than unum.

As for me, I'm betting on the Euros. © Copyright 2009, Michigan Radio