SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau was so excited about making the last Ryder Cup team that he went out and bought a new pingpong paddle to bring with him to France. Patrick Reed celebrated the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup win in Minnesota by playing table tennis with actor Bill Murray.
And when Phil Mickelson is running off about dominating and hitting bombs, he could be talking about his pingpong game and not his golf.
Yes, the U.S. team has struggled mightily on the golf course against the Europeans in recent years, losing nine of the last 12 Ryder Cups and four of the last five.
Give them paddles and a proper pingpong table, though, and they turn into world beaters.
"There's something about the hand-eye coordination and the competitive drive," Stewart Cink said a few years ago. "I don't know, golfers and pingpong, they just go together."