StrokeAverage.com’s ANDREW GRIFFIN looks at the 90th USPGA Championship being held at Oakland Hills and considers whether the European Ryder Cup stars of four years ago have the edge over their American counterparts

NO European has won the USPGA Championship in 89 years, but there should be eight teeing it up at Oakland Hills Golf Club for who the memories of four years ago should help them stand at least a couple of inches taller on the first tee, and feeling a lot more confident about their chances than the stats suggest.

Those eight – Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Open Champion Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Henrik Stenson – were of course all members of the European Ryder Cup team who thrashed America in this corner of Michigan, four years ago.

Indeed, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia, the winner of this year’s Players Championship, were Europe’s leading points scorers winning 41/2 out of five points over the memorable three days.

The 18 ½ - 9 ½ defeat was the heaviest inflicted on the Yanks in some 80 years and tightened the European’s superiority over their so-called golfing superiors – certainly when it comes to the world’s biggest strokeplay events.

From the 2004 European Ryder Cup team, Darren Clarke, David Howell and Paul McGinley were using StrokeAverage.com’s consultancy services to analyse their golf.

Lee Westwood has joined that group since and is the pick of many experts and tipsters to finally win his first golf Major of his career, having gone so close in the US Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course, in June, and having finished just a shot behind Vijay Singh in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, last week.

Darren Clarke will be hoping to maintain the form over the weekend that lifted him up into a share of sixth place, having gone bogey free in the final round as he hit 16 out of 18 greens on his way to a 67, having fired a superb 65 on Saturday.

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