One of the most interesting aspects of the aftermath of every Ryder Cup is the postmortem that takes place among the losing team in given year.
We were given a prime example of that two years ago after Europe's heavy defeat at Whistling Straits. At that time you had suggestions that the USA were going to win every edition of the event for the next decade, with Paul McGinley suggesting wholesale changes to the way the team was chosen.
Now, it is the USA's turn to overreact to a disappointing loss. There is no doubt that they were outplayed by the opposition in Rome, although that is not an unusual thing for a team playing away from home.
In saying that, there was a sense that they didn't help themselves with some aspects of their preparation.
Jordan Spieth calls for change to help USA in 2025 Ryder Cup
The USA team have come under some heavy criticism for the way they prepared for this year's Ryder Cup, with some feeling they felt they simply needed to show and would be good enough to win after their easy victory a couple of years ago.
One aspect of that was the gap between the final PGA Tour event of the season and the event in Italy, with the Tour Championship having been held five weeks previous to that. Only two of the 12 players on the USA team played any sort of competitive golf since then.
Speaking after yesterday's singles, Jordan Spieth said this is something he would be in favour of changing moving forward.
If you asked us when we would like to play the Ryder Cup relative to our schedule, I think we would probably say, give us a week after the Tour Championship or two weeks after and then go, instead of five.
It’s hard for me to speak for the rest of the team. For me personally, I’d like to feel pretty sharp going in and obviously individually, I did not have the opportunity to even play any of those events where I may have.
But that’s just how I feel. Some guys come off a few weeks off, go through some prep and play great after more time off.
I can only answer that question individually, and this year, it wasn’t going to happen.
If it were tighter to our Tour Championship and/or even if it were later and we had more of an opportunity to get a little rest and play more of an event or something then it helps a bit.
If you look at how that played at the BMW, which is one of the bigger events of the year, and 10 of the 12 finish in the top 15 or something they were in great form.
It has nothing to do with them having to play that event. They just were playing really good golf and then they carried it right into here.
In contrast to the Americans, every single member of the European team played in the BMW Championship at Wentworth two weeks before the Ryder Cup.
You get the sense that the PGA Tour could look to change that moving forward.
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