Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth believes closing the gap between the end of the PGA Tour season and the Ryder Cup would be beneficial to the United States team.
Most of Zach Johnson's defeated side in Rome did not play a competitive tournament after the conclusion of the Tour Championship on August 27 – a full month before the event in Rome which they lost 16.5-12.5.
Justin Thomas – who did not qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup play-offs so had even fewer playing opportunities – and Max Homa finished fifth and seventh respectively in the Fortinet Championship a fortnight ago.
By contrast all 12 members of Luke Donald’s victorious side not only played in the prestigious BMW Championship at Wentworth on the DP World Tour but were purposely all grouped together for the opening two rounds.
Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg and Sepp Straka all finished in the top 10.
Apart from a practice trip to Marco Simone earlier in September there was little opportunity for the American team to come together, never mind play competitively.
"If you asked us when we would like to play the Ryder Cup relative to our schedule, I think we would probably say, give us a week after the Tour Championship or two weeks after and then go, instead of five," said Spieth.
"It’s hard for me to speak for the rest of the team. For me personally, I’d like to feel pretty sharp going in and obviously individually, I did not have the opportunity to even play any of those events where I may have.
"But that’s just how I feel. Some guys come off a few weeks off, go through some prep and play great after more time off.
"I can only answer that question individually, and this year, it wasn’t going to happen.
"If it were tighter to our Tour Championship and/or even if it were later and we had more of an opportunity to get a little rest and play more of an event or something then it helps a bit.
"If you look at how that played at the BMW, which is one of the bigger events of the year, and 10 of the 12 finish in the top 15 or something they were in great form.
"It has nothing to do with them having to play that event. They just were playing really good golf and then they carried it right into here."
Spieth’s good friend Thomas, who was one of Johnson’s contentious selections after a terrible run of form, said their preparation was no different to two years ago when they recorded an historic 19-9 win at Whistling Straits.
However, that was on home soil and their attempt to end a 30-year winless streak in Europe possibly required more attention to detail rather that one get-together last month.
"I thought it was really great of Zach and the PGA to be accommodating to have us come over here and take a little scouting trip – it obviously didn’t show but I felt it was very helpful," he said.
"It’s a very busy, long week with very different routines and schedules that you would have in a normal week.
"The loss that we had this week has absolutely nothing to do with team camaraderie because this is probably the closest team I’ve ever been a part of.
"We unfortunately just didn’t play well enough. I didn’t feel the preparation was necessarily the issue."
Johnson dismissed the suggestion rustiness cost his side the early initiative as Europe won the opening foursomes 4-0 and never looked back.
"My first reaction would be no. There’s also something to be said about rest and recovering and getting your game in a position where you can go compete," he said.
"These guys have won a lot of golf tournaments with weeks off, I have, so I don’t think so. We had prep time here two and a half weeks ago.
"The schedule is the schedule. You can’t control that. We try to control what we can control.
"I thought I had a fairly appropriate plan in place. There may be some changes in there that I maybe could have done or nuanced or altered.
"But I am not going to slight the preparation of these guys. Whether it was at home or here or wherever, I know they were working their tails off to retain and bring the cup back home."
