U! S! A!, U! S! A!

I've taken a lot of shots at American golfers lately -- mainly because they've been so terrible. Since Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters, U.S. male golfers have only won a single major tournament -- the 2011 PGA -- and they were beaten in last year's Ryder Cup. So I gave Our Lads very little chance in this year's President's Cup, a silly made-up competition in which the United States takes on a team from the World Other Than Europe and the United States ("WOTEUS"). In fact, I did not watch a single stroke of play, thus missing my chance to watch a tournament at Royal Melbourne in Australia, which is supposed to be one of the world's great courses.

But maybe I should have taken our chances more seriously. Here were the two teams (each player's name is proceeded by his official World Golf Ranking):

For WOTEUS:

Captain: Greg Norman (AUS)

7. Adam Scott (AUS)

8. Jason Day (AUS)

13. Charl Schwartzel (RSA)

15. K.J. Choi (KOR)

24. K-T Kim (KOR)

38. Geoff Ogilvy (AUS)

43. Y.E. Yang (KOR)

47. Aaron Baddeley (AUS)

49. Ryo Ishikawa (JPN)

51. Retief Goosen (RSA)

52. Ernie Els (RSA)

69. Robert Allenby (AUS)

For USA:

Captain: Fred Couples

5. Steve Stricker

6. Dustin Johnson

9. Webb Simpson

10. Matt Kuchar

11. Nick Watney

12. Phil Mickelson

17. Bubba Watson

19. Hunter Mahan

20. David Toms

22. Bill Haas

41. Jim Furyk

50. Tiger Woods

As you can see, while we had nine guys ranked in the world's top 20, the WOTEUS team had only four such guys. And while our only two guys ranked lower than 22 were old pros Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods, WOTEUS had no less than 8 guys in that category.

So the USA team was stronger than I would have thought from watching them choke in major after major over the last two years. And, as it turned out, Furyk -- who had a miserable 2011 up to this point -- was great, winning all five of the matches in which he participated. Woods also played better than expected, winning two of his five matches, including the clinching match on Sunday. By contrast, old pro Ernie Els went only 1-4 for WOTEUS. The Americans also got very solid play from Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson, who went 3-1 as a pairing. By contrast, young gun Jason Day went only 1-3-1 for WOTEUS.

In the end, the Americans never had too much trouble, and they ultimately prevailed by 19-15, running their record in this competition to an extraordinary 7-1-1. This leaves the current status of the Golf Cups as follows:

Ryder Cup: currently held by Europe, next match in 2012 at Medinah Country Club, near Chicago

Presidents' Cup: currently held by USA, next match in 2013 at Muirfield Village Golf Club, near Columbus, Ohio

Walker Cup: currently held by Great Britain and Ireland, next match in 2013 at National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y.

Solheim Cup: currently held by Europe, next match in 2013 at Colorado Golf Club near Denver

Curtis Cup: currently held by USA, next match in 2012 at Nairn Golf Club in Inverness, Scotland