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American golf team in need of young blood

The United States performance in international sports competitions has not been a successful one in recent years. This summer both men and women basketball teams, fully loaded with the leagues` top players, failed to win the world championships as they were expected. But the most recent loss might be the worst blow yet. For the third straight year, and the fifth time in six years, the U.S. team lost to the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.

Confusing matters further for the Americans who are trying to figure things out before the next Ryder Cup, or even before then, is that the Americans boast the world`s top three players in Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson, and have won 20 of the past 28 major championships since their last Ryder Cup victory in 1999, while the Europeans have not won once in the same period of time.

Blame cannot be directed at the captain`s decisions as in the past, with Tom Lehman making all the right calls. Nor can it be laid on disinterest by American players or even bad U.S. team chemistry. So how come this team was beaten by the same record margin absorbed by the U.S. two years ago. Woods said after the defeat that he believes future American hopes will depend greatly on an infusion of good young players - which the U.S. suddenly seems to be without. "When our youngest player is 30 years old, that`s not a positive thing," he said.