Strength of European Ryder Cup team questioned by former Open Champion Todd Hamilton

Well, no, he didn’t actually come right out and say it. But 2004 Open Champion Todd Hamilton surmised as much. All one has to do is look at the success of his recent starts in the last 3 European Tour events. At the KLM Open in the Netherlands, Hamilton was in contention all week until a weak finish on Sunday’s back nine dropped him to 11th place. The following week brought a steady 15th place finish in the Austrian Open. And finally, the Vivendi Cup in France saw Hamilton in 22nd place going into the weekend, where bad play sank him to the bottom of the leaderboard.

What does this mean, you ask?

This is the same Todd Hamilton that has made just 2 cuts in his 16 starts on the PGA Tour so far in 2010. The first cut was in a February event in Mexico being played at the same time as the WGC Match Play. In other words, none of the top 64 players in the world were in Mexico. The second cut was in the John Deere in July the week before the Open Championship when most of the best players in the world are either already in Europe or have the week off to travel to Europe.

Hamilton, of course, did not even come close to being in the top 125 who were eligible for the first event of the FedEx Cup. So, relying on his European Tour status as former Open Champion, Hamilton entered the three events to keep from getting rusty before the Fall Series events on the PGA Tour. Is it likely that he found some magic in his swing or putting that saw this unusual run of good form? Or is it that the fields in those European events were weaker than a regular PGA Tour event? What does this say about many of the victories by European Ryder Cuppers in Europe?

Perhaps you’ve heard of Occam’s Razor. It is a principle that says the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. And “simplest” is really referring to the theory with the fewest new assumptions. You be the judge.