Thursday was not a good day for the United States Ryder Cup team.

Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world riding an incredible hot streak, lost to Shaun Micheel in the first round of the HSBC Match Play Championship. I would have given Sean Connery a better shot, but it happened.

Then Jim Furyk, ranked second in the world, gets the ever-loving crap kicked out him by Robert Karlsson, who will be a rookie on the European team next week.

Factor in that Monty beat teammate David Howell in a close match, Paul Casey ate Retief Goosen for lunch and Luke Donald won, and Europe looks strong. Darren Clarke, Jose Maria Olazabal and Padraig Harrington are all under par in Spain and Americans are almost all over par at the 84 Lumber.

This is not good at all. Momentum is a huge thing when it comes to the Ryder Cup and I can't imagine Woods and Furyk will lose all of their mojo heading into next week, but this is not ideal for Tom Lehman.