Woods said he did this time, though the argument still can be made that the best player in the world doesn’t focus on this team event anywhere near like he does for the major championships that he tends to dominate.

Mickelson did interrupt his vacation for this, though he might have been better off on holiday at the beach for all the good he did the U.S. team. Mickelson studies golf courses religiously for the majors, but you got the feeling he had to be told where the first tee was at this club.

Mickelson did say his dismal showing — winning just a half point in five matches — would make him work harder on his putting in the offseason. Which had some wondering why he didn’t do that in the nearly month off he had before leaving for Ireland.

The team rookies, meanwhile, had to be so shellshocked that they might end up at the Texas Open instead of in Louisville two years from now watching the thing on TV. That’s what Chris Riley, one of the scapegoats from the 2004 team, was doing Saturday when he was asked if he had any motivation to make another team.

“You know what? There really isn’t,” Riley said. “I know that’s sad to say, too.”

Almost to a man, the U.S. team insisted afterward they were proud to play for their country. They also insisted Lehman did everything right as captain, and everyone was more than ready to play.

The problem, they said, was Europe always seemed to have the momentum.

That, of course, happens when one team’s players keep beating up on the other team’s players. The Europeans weren’t even afraid of Woods and Mickelson, because they seem to have figured out you can be a team even in an individual sport.

The United States is still trying to figure that out, something that used to be a lot easier when it trotted out guys with names such as Hogan, Snead, Palmer and Nicklaus to beat a hapless group of Brits every few years.

Once this became a real competition, though, things got dicey.

“Everyone out there wants answers. What happened, and why,” Jim Furyk said. “I don’t think there’s a guy up here who can give you an answer.”

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Outside of finding some camaraderie and chemistry in bottles and having them delivered to the locker room at Valhalla, there may not be any.

It’s pretty simple, though. The Europeans are better at this because they care more about it and care more about each other.

That won’t change in two years. It may never change.

Until it does, expect more routs.