Includes index

Prologue: The weight of history: Kevin, Stewart, and the Big Problem -- December 2019, Melbourne, Australia: Fires down under... the great escape...the end of legend Patrick Reed -- 1977-1983, the United Kingdom: The four meetings... Jack's vision... the great Jacklin... the birth of a new Ryder Cup -- Winter 2020, Edgerton, Wisconsin: Sticker -- 1983, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida: The mysteries of Seve... part one of the Jacklin trilogy ... the scare at PGA National -- Spring 2020, Kohler, Wisconsin: Whistling Straits, the links course that wasn't... Herb and Pete... Stricker's dilemma -- 1985, Sutton Coldfield, England: The Belfry... part two of the Jacklin trilogy... the twilight of the American gods -- Spring and Summer 2020, Jacksonville, Florida and Kohler, Wisconsin: The end of the world -- 1987, Dublin, Ohio: Jack's nightmare... the Death Star goes down... part three of the Jacklin trilogy -- 2020-2021, America: The wild postpandemic... an American team forms -- 2004-2006, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Straffan, Ireland: The disaster years... Hal and Phil... Rock bottom -- August 2021, Memphis, Tennessee: Brooks and Bryson... the long comeback of Harris English -- 2008, Louisville, Kentucky: Azinger, the American guru... rebirth in Valhalla... the blessed pods -- August 2021, Jersey City, New Jersey: Bryson's nightmare continues... hurricanes in Jersey... Tony Finau's brilliant Monday... one month to go -- Interlude: Why does Europe win? Diagnosing a forty-year disease -- 2014, Auchterarder, Scotland: The European guru at Gleneagles ... the ultimate humiliation... Mickelson's revolt -- 2016-2021, Various battlefields: The number wars -- September 2021, Atlanta, Georgia: Last stop before Wisconsin... Patty Ice... Reed's near-death experience -- September 2021, Whistling Straits: The Ryder Cup -- Epilogue: Visions of Rome

"The task facing Steve Stricker at the 2021 Ryder Cup was enormous. It was his job, as the American captain, to stare down almost 40 years of Ryder Cup history, break a pattern of home losses that had persisted almost as long, and reverse the tide of European dominance in one of golf's most tense and emotional events. This was the epitome of a must-win, but it was also something more--in the entire 93-year history of the event, no American side had ever faced this kind of pressure. Starting on the morning of September 24, those 12 players competed not just for a Cup, or for pride, but to save the reputation of the U.S. team itself. The great mystery of the Ryder Cup is that America loses despite having superior individual talent. The European renaissance began in the 1980s, led by the brilliant Tony Jacklin and Seve Ballesteros, and since then, the U.S. has suffered a slew of embarrassing defeats abroad and at home. The signs in 2021 weren't good: Tiger Woods was out after his horrific car crash, Patrick Reed ("Captain America," to his supporters) was hospitalized with double pneumonia weeks before the event, and America had to rely on its rising stars--including Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, who spent most of the year immersed in an escalating feud--to prove their mettle. Meanwhile, the European team had a few major stars of its own, like Jon Rahm, the world no. 1 and the first Spanish player ever to win the U.S. Open, and Rory McIlroy, the four-time major winner. Throw in the complications of a global pandemic, and the stage was set for one of the strangest Ryder Cups ever."--