ST-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — While roars erupted around him, Phil Mickelson wordlessly pounded ball after ball with his driver, like a player possessed. It was midway through Saturday’s morning session at the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, and Mickelson was the only United States player on the practice range.
He was hard at work on a problem that none of the Americans have been able to solve this week: how to straighten their drives so they can find the course’s corsetlike fairways. The United States team’s most accurate player off the tee is the guy driving the cart, the captain Jim Furyk, who was 10th in the PGA Tour’s statistical rankings this season.