Team Europe had their final practice today, with captain Nick Faldo using the lead pairings that he unwittingly flashed to the entire world yesterday.  It was either the greatest bluff in all of history or another in a series of blunders (I am speaking of Darren Clarkes ommission here) from the record breaking Englishman-only time will tell, but something tells me it shall be the later.  With the teams due to be announced in a few hours we shall not have long to wait to find out and as soon as they are we shall post them here.  In the meantime why not have a look at the stats of the players involved over the weekend, they make interesting reading..

[world rankings in brackets]

USA: (Won-Lost-Halved)
[2] P.Mickelson Overall:(9-8-3) , Fourballs(4-4-1), Foursomes(2-2-2), Singles (3-2-0).
[9] J.Furyk Overall: (4-10-2) , Fourballs(0-5-1), Foursomes (1-4-0), Singles(3-1-1).
[10] S.Cink Overall: (3-5-4), Fourballs(1-0-3), Foursomes (1-3-1), Singles(1-2-0).
[23] J.Leonard Overall: (0-3-5), Fourballs(0-1-2), Foursomes(0-2-1), Singles (0-0-2).
[57] C.Campbell Overall: (1-3-2), Fourballs(0-2-0), Foursomes(0-0-2), Singles (1-1-0).
[17] K.Perry Overall: (0-2-0), Fourballs (0-0-0), Foursomes(0-1-0), Singles (0-1-0).
6xRookies: Weekley [35], Holmes [56], Stricker [8], Mahan [36], Kim [11] and Curtis [32].

USA total: 22-31-16

Europe:
[12] L.Westwood Overall: (14-8-3) , Fourballs(6-3-1), Foursomes (6-2-2), Singles (2-3-0)
[5] S.Garcia Overall: (14-4-2) , Fourballs (5-1-2), Foursomes (8-0-0), Singles (1-3-0).
[4] P.Harrington Overall: (7-8-2), Fourballs (2-4-0), Foursomes (2-3-2), Singles (3-1-0).
[19] M.A.Jimenez Overall: (2-5-2), Fourballs(2-0-1), Foursomes (0-3-1), Singles (0-2-0).
[38] P.Casey Overall: (3-1-2), Fourballs (1-0-2), Foursomes (1-0-0), Singles(1-1-0).
[22] R.Karlsson Overall: (0-1-2), Fourballs (0-0-2), Foursomes (0-0-0), Singles (0-1-0).
[6] H.Stenson Overall: (1-1-1), Fourballs (0-1-0), Foursomes (0-0-1), Singles (1-0-0).
[28] I.Poulter Overall: (1-1-0), Fourballs (0-1-0), Foursomes (0-0-0), Singles (1-0-0).
4xRookies: Hansen [43], McDowell [30], Rose [14] and Wilson [48].

Europe total:  42-29-14

These win-lose-draw stats show us that not only do Europe have more experience in the event, but also a much better record.  Home advantage will obviously be a factor to consider before placing your bets but it really is hard to look past a European victory.  I know that I have a history of getting things wrong on here and with so many pundits tipping up a US victory, history will probably repeat itself but I am predicting a European victory, with Graeme McDowell sinking the winning putt from 40 feet (you never know) .  With 6 rookies on the US team the above stats could be slightly misleading but if you look at each teams combined world rankings you will see that the US grand total is 296, compared to Europe’s total of 269,  making Europe 27 times better at golf by my calculations.  Whatever happens it promises to be a great weekend for golf fans everywhere and even if golf is not your thing, it’s always good to see the US getting beat at something they consider themselves to be the best at.

The fixtures are in and sticking to my great world ranking theory the results should be as follows:

Friday’s foursomes: (BST times)
1305 Phil Mickelson & Anthony Kim v Padraig Harrington & Robert Karlsson - USA
1320 Justin Leonard & Hunter Mahan v Henrik Stenson & Paul Casey - Europe
1335 Stewart Cink & Chad Campbell v Justin Rose & Ian Poulter - Europe
1350 Kenny Perry & Jim Furyk v Lee Westwood & Sergio Garcia - Europe

So it’s a 3-1 victory to team Europe. I’ll definately take that.

The Ryder Cup is merely days away and after all of the talk over the past week about both captain’s picks (especially Faldo’s), it will be nice to actually sit down and see some balls being hit.  As current holders, a tie will suffice for Europe to keep the trophy, and to celebrate this fact Hacketts will refund all losing single outright bets* on the Ryder Cup if the match ends in a tie.  This offer applies to all pre-tournament bets and is just our way of showing support for our golfing heroes.  We also have a host of other markets available for the tournament, which promises to be one of the closest battles in years, so what are you waiting for, get stuck in!

Remember, Eur always onto a winner with Hacketts!

*Max Refund €300

Andy Murray produced the game of his life last night as he beat Rafael Nadal in 4 sets to progress into the final of the US Open, where he will face defending champion Roger Federer.  Murray enters his first Grand Slam final as a big underdog and with all of the added Media attention that his victory over the World Number 1 has attracted, it will be a big test of the 21 year olds character but if he manages to hold it together I think he can beat Federer, and beat him well. 

Remember, Murray is 2-1 to the good head-to-head against Federer and will be fully aware of this fact himself (and vice versa).  If the wind keeps blowing, we should see plenty of oppertunities for breaking and this will definately favour Murray, who has been returning the ball brilliantly all week.  With the confidence gained from beating Nadal and the support of the crowd, the 7/4 available for him here is far too good to pass up.  Whatever happens it promises to be a cracking final, and we can only hope that it lives up to the epic battle we witnessed at Wimbledon earlier this year.  I am going to go all out and say 3-0 Murray, I know it sounds crazy but sure if your gonna be wrong you may as well be very wrong.