Team USA with Captain Paul Azinger (far right) at the 2008 Ryder Cup. Photos by Getty Images

The real Ryder Cup was held in Kentucky this past week, and being on their home turf couldn't come at a better time for the Americans. They haven't won since their miracle victory at Brookline in 1999 (detailed, ahem, in my book "The Ryder Cup: Golf's Greatest Event").

Paul Azinger, the U.S. captain, has done everything except hide the clubs of the European players to put his team in a position to win. The Valhalla Golf Club has been tweaked to give the long hitters on the U.S. team more of an advantage. Azinger was given four captain's picks by the PGA of America instead of the traditional two. There probably isn't anyone better on the planet who can counter the mind games of the European captain, Azinger's former ABC broadcast booth partner Nick Faldo.

In no particular order, here is why the Yanks - the golf kind, certainly not the baseball kind - will win the coveted cup:

 • No Tiger Woods. Yes, you read it right. I'm not even thinking about Tiger's disappointing record in the Ryder Cup. American players are too accustomed to screwing up when Tiger is around, even when he's a teammate, because he is such an intimidating presence. This time, they have to fend for themselves.

Phil Mickelson

 • No Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke. Faldo made a huge mistake by not picking these two, who have been emotional leaders in past Ryder Cups. And he managed to anger Scotland and Ireland with the omissions.

 • Home-field advantage. Especially with Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes on the team, the U.S. squad will be cheered every step of the way.

 • Six rookies. A wise move by Azinger was to stock his team with players who have not experienced the failures that have become routine for the Americans.

We're overdue. Okay, not too scientific, but this is sports, not rocket science.

Now I can catch up and tell "Links Life" readers about a match that took place in July: The golfers battled over who would own the cup. It was England versus the United States, the Yanks and Brits having at it again. There were vigorous matches that included best ball and foursomes and singles on the final day. When a day's competition was done, the players bought each other pints and spoke longingly of golf glory.

Okay, it really wasn't "The Ryder Cup: Prequel," but it was as close as 12 members of the Southampton Golf Club will get. On July 16, they returned from England with a new but immediately coveted cup. Unlike the true Ryder Cup Matches of recent years when Europe has had its way with the Yanks, the local lads of the South Fork defeated the host Southampton Municipal Club 15-13, with the contest coming down to the final match.

According to Paul Ramunno, who captained the American team, it was Steve Myers, the captain of the Southampton Municipal Club squad, who first had the idea of challenging their counterparts across the pond in July.

"He sent us a letter about eight months ago suggesting a Southampton versus Southampton version of the Ryder Cup," Ramunno said. "It was an awesome idea, but we were also apprehensive because given the occupations many of us have and the exchange rate of dollars and Euros, we knew this would be a big undertaking at that time of year. But it was too interesting an offer to pass up and could be the trip of a lifetime. We figured we'd make it work somehow."

Once the Southampton Golf Club accepted, a Ryder Cup Committee was formed, headed by Ramunno, who owns a construction company in Southampton and is one of the 12 directors of the club. The host club went ahead and had a trophy made that resembled the Claret Jug, which Padraig Harrington won for the second time this past Sunday at the British Open. The format of the premiere event - officially titled Southampton Golf Club Challenge - would parallel that of the Ryder Cup.

By the way, the first Ryder Cup Match was played in Worcester, Massachusetts in June 1927. Walter Hagen was named captain by the PGA of America. He had by then won a total of eight majors in the U.S. and Europe, and he and Bobby Jones were the most famous golfers in the world. The wealthy British seed merchant Samuel Ryder paid for the cup itself and an event was born.

Oliver Wilson of Team Europe

It could be said that there are East End roots in how the Ryder Cup came about. In 1920, the Glasgow Herald in Scotland sponsored a tournament at the Gleneagles King's Course with the total purse equivalent to $1,250. When the same tournament was held for the second time, in 1921, there was a sudden influx of golfers from the United States because the British Open that year was being held at nearby St. Andrews. The Gleneagles tourney was viewed by the visitors as an opportunity to tune up and perhaps collect a few pounds.

After the British Open was held and before the U.S. contingent boarded the boat for the trip home, an exhibition match was organized there between British and American players. This informal joust ended with the local lads defeating their guests 10 1/2 to 4 1/2.

In 1922, the Walker Cup was founded, and here is the local connection. This event pitted the best amateurs of Great Britain and the U.S. against each other in match-play formats. The cup was provided by George Herbert Walker, great-grandfather of President Bush. The first Match was played at National Golf Links in Southampton, which will finally host the event again, in 2013. It seemed inevitable after that initial Walker Cup that there would be a contest on a golf course that involved the better professional players in the United States and Great Britain.

What became the Ryder Cup Matches really took root in 1926. Before the British Open at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, Hagen took on one of England's most well-known players at the time, Abe Mitchell, who was also the personal coach of Sam Ryder. The marathon match covered 72 holes, requiring two days of play and concluding at the St. George's Hill course in Weybridge. Hagen won 2 and 1.

A consequence of this rather irritating loss to a Yank was that the players from both sides of the ocean talked among themselves that an interesting and diverting way to practice for the Open would be to form teams and have a series of match-play contests, and the following year the official Ryder Cup was held.

That outlook is similar to the one that led to the inaugural "Southampton Cup" that began on July 11, and there is a full-circle feeling about it. In the case of the Southampton Golf Club, a letter was sent out announcing the event in England and club members were invited to sign on. Qualifying rounds of play were anticipated because the expectation was that more than 12 would want to earn a spot on the team.

Boo Weakley of Team USA

"It turned out we didn't need to qualify because in July in the Hamptons people don't have much free time, and the members of the Southampton Golf Club are no exception," explained Lee Minetree, one of those who represented the club in England and who is a broker with the Corcoran Group. "You could say we didn't have the top 12 player members, but we went into this looking forward to the challenge."

Ramunno was, in a sense, the Walter Hagen of Southampton, and it wasn't necessarily easy being captain. "I expected a lot of nervous moments, and I got them," he said. "On the other hand, everyone on the team got along fine, new friendships were formed, and I was very proud to be captain."

The Americans arrived in the Hampshire section of England on the morning of Thursday, July 10, and they went to the Southampton Municipal Club for a practice round that day. This was also not only an opportunity to meet their hosts but in some cases to get to know each other better.

According to Minetree, "I had played with only two of the guys on the team before at the Southampton Golf Club, and the rest I knew only to say the occasional hello. The host club in England had years of experience playing in competitions against teams from other clubs. And they had home-field advantage, so our odds sure weren't great."

The Yanks stayed at Jury's Inn in the center of Hampshire. One of the Southampton Golf Club members had never been outside the U.S. before, so some orientation was required. Surprising to all, the American team dominated on the first day, 6 ½ to 1 1/2. In the Ryder Cup format, during the first two days there are a total of best ball and alternate shot 16 matches. Each match is contested by a two-man from each side. One point is awarded for a win, and a half point when a match is halved (ends in a tie). On the third day are 12 singles matches. There are 28 points total up for grabs, and winning the cup requires 14 ½ points.

It turned out that the Southampton Municipal Club members are clever as well as resilient - if they couldn't use a home-field advantage, perhaps a hometown advantage would do. That night, they took the Yanks out on the town and numerous pints were purchased.

Nick Flado of Team Europe (in white) congratulates Paul Azinger.

The strategy helped. A wobbly Southampton Golf Club squad managed to hold their own during the Saturday morning matches, but were swept 4 to 0 in the afternoon contests.

Saturday morning saw Minetree's personal highlight. Playing with Bob Moulton, he lined up an iron shot on the 17th with the alternate shot match being all square. "I hit it close, he made the putt and we birdied, then we birdied 18 too to win the match," he reported. "It's nice to dream a bit that it was the real Ryder Cup."

Heading into Sunday, the Yanks were ahead, but not comfortably. It was time to wear the blue shirts. The American team had brought red, white, and blue shirts and saved blue for last. Their hosts also wore uniforms featuring their home colors. There was no Saturday night pep talk by President George Herbert Walker Bush or Michael Jordan as in the Ryder Cup, but the mayor of Southampton and other dignitaries attended the grand finale.

On Sunday, the Brits rallied. Going into the final match, the score stood at 14-13. The 12th American player closed out his singles match on the 16th hole and the Southampton Golf Club prevailed. According to Ramunno, afterward the players were relaxing and chatting up on the terrace of the Southampton Municipal Club. One of his players suddenly pulled off his shirt and gave it to one of the hosts. Within minutes, there had been a complete exchange of shirts between the two teams.

"I'm sure that a tradition was established that day," Ramunno said. "We were treated like brothers - probably better than some of us treat our brothers."

Indeed, the competition for the Southampton Cup will become, like the Ryder Cup, a series of events. It has been decided that the Brits will invade and try to wrest the cup from its perch at the Southampton Golf Club in September 2009. The locals intend to reciprocate for all the courtesies they received over there.

"We had a great time," said Minetree. "They were really wonderful people, really hospitable. I had a 'ploughman's lunch' one day and there was this pickle stuff in the middle. I commented to a guy I had played against that morning how good it was. When I got back from my afternoon match, he had a big jar of it waiting for me from the farm. We definitely made some new friends on the other side of the world."

"We can't wait to do this again," Ramunno said. "The only worry I have is we can't do for them what they did for us, that's how nice they were. But we're working on it already."

The Yanks had better be ready. According to Myers, the British captain, "We are going over to get our cup back."

Captain Nick Faldo (center without hat) with the rest of Team Europe on Day One.