Golf's balance of power remains with Europe ahead of the US Open

Nothing counts for much before Thursday at golf's major championships, although those in search of a little meaning on a mild Tuesday morning near Washington DC might have found it around the 7th tee at the Congressional Country Club, site of this week's US Open. There stood Phil Mickelson, the undoubted star of American golf in the absence of his old sparring partner Tiger Woods, and there beside him stood Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Jeff Overton, three of America's best young golfers and the backbone of future Ryder Cup teams. And there around the tee gathered a crowd of less than a couple of hundred fans, a desultory audience for a much trailed "money game" ($1000-a-man, reportedly) guaranteeing a decent level of competitive golf – at least by practice-round standards – and a fair amount of needle. No doubt the galleries will be thicker when the real event begins on Thursday but the diminishing lustre of American golf is unlikely to be restored. Indeed, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that the most watched group on Thursday, and the one featured most on American television, will be the 8.06am three-ball of Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer. Three Europeans taking centre stage at America's national Open. This was a once unthinkable prospect – America's sporting culture is famously insular – but now it seems perfectly reasonable, with the three Europeans ranked one, two and three in the world. The Stars and Stripes is well represented in the top 10 by Steve Stricker, at No4, Mickelson at No5 and Matt Kuchar at No6. But dig a little deeper and the problems facing American professional golf become more apparent. Currently there are only 37 US players inside the top 100 – the lowest number at this stage of the year since the world rankings were first published in 1987 (when there were 59 US players in the top 100). The most recent major championships, too, paint a portrait of a superpower in decline. Right now, all four major titles are held by non-American players – the first time that has happened since 1994. Indeed, if a non-American leaves Congressional with the trophy on Sunday it will be the first time in the history of the modern professional grand slam that the US has gone five majors without producing a winner. Golf's balance of power has always ebbed and flowed between the traditional powers of Europe and the US, as Ernie Els points out. "I remember back in the early 90s, Europe was dominating like they are dominating now on the world rankings. You had Nick Faldo, you had Bernhard Langer, Woosie [Ian Woosnam], Seve [Ballesteros], those kind of guys. Now you've got the same; you've got Luke Donald and Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell and so forth. They've definitely got the upper hand at the moment and it'll probably change again in the future," the South African says. Maybe so, but there is a growing weight of evidence to suggest something more permanent is taking place; that the pendulum may not swing back as it usually has in the past. Pete Cowen, one of the world's leading coaches, who counts Westwood and McDowell among his stable of players, is among those who believes the problems facing American golf are more than cyclical. "The Americans say the world rankings are biased towards the Europeans, but they are only biased towards Europe because we have the better players," he says. "The difference is our coaching culture. Obviously I would say this but we have got some brilliant coaches in Europe. The coaching and the college system in America has this obsession with scores and scoring in the present and not about improvement. It is like saying 'we have got to climb Everest but we are only halfway up'. What's the good in that? They get their young players halfway up, but they don't teach them how to climb the other half." In Europe, there is an emphasis on what Cowen describes as a "pyramid of learning". "You give the young players a really good base, and then you help them work all the way up to the top," he says. "I'm not saying that America doesn't have great players – of course it does – and if you look at a normal PGA Tour event the scoring is phenomenal but in the long term how are they going to do at the highest level, at major championships?" Cowen is one of the more forthright voices in the professional game, willing and able to say what many others will not especially in these days where the transatlantic enmities of the past no longer exist. It would be a bold player indeed who would publicly assert supremacy for his particular continent, although the young American golfer Charles Howell was happy to accept that Europe holds the upper hand right now, albeit with some American help. "A lot of European guys went to college in the US. Paul Casey went to Arizona State, Luke Donald went to Northwestern, Graeme McDowell went to [Alabama Birmingham]. I find it all funny the commentary on the Europeans doing so well when they're coming here for college," he says. McDowell gratefully acknowledges the effect his time at college in the States had on his game, saying it was a "turning point" in his career; that the college system had produced, and will continue to produce, great players of all nationalities, American included. "I think American golf is probably as healthy as I've ever seen it in my career. We have got great young players who are actually doing it, but I don't doubt how much young talent [the US] have spread through all age groups, the likes of Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan – that's a lot of talent," the Northern Irishman says. "There is no doubt they are playing catch up right now but I think they're sort of on the verge of being very strong again, winning major championships and winning globally."