Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have combined for 123 PGA Tour victories and 19 major championships. They are regulars in Forbes’s list of highest-grossing athletes, with followings that could rival those of a boy band. But for all their acclaim and accomplishments, their careers contain an Atlantic Ocean-sized gap: Neither has been part of a winning Ryder Cup team on foreign soil.
It’s a conspicuously crazy void for such a talented pair, right up there with the Utah Jazz’s John Stockton and Karl Malone retiring without an N.B.A. title after a few too many run-ins with players like the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan.
“That’s insane to think about,” Bryson DeChambeau, 25, said.
DeChambeau, one of three rookies on the United States team, which is anchored by Woods and Mickelson, was 10 days old when the Americans clinched the 1993 event in England’s West Midlands. They have not won in Europe since then.
This week marks the eighth time that Woods, 42, and Mickelson, 48, have competed together for the United States in the biennial competition against Europe, and even though each snapped long winless droughts on the PGA Tour in 2018, their future participation in this tournament is no guarantee. Both were captain’s picks this year after failing to secure one of the eight automatic qualifying spots.
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