The passion of the Ryder Cup brought out the best golf we've seen in a long time. I hope the members of Augusta National were watching all those birdies being made at Valhalla. Birdies bring cheers and roars and that has been missing lately at the Masters.

The excitement of this year’s Ryder Cup used to be on display every spring at the Masters as the best players in the world matched each other birdie for birdie. With Augusta National toughened up, the Masters has been more of a grind for the players and the fans. I hope this gripping Ryder Cup convinces Augusta National to not be so stingy with scoring holes next spring.

The game became younger this past weekend too. Anthony Kim is a star and made Sergio look "old." Hunter Mahan played like a veteran, and J.B. Holmes was awesome. These American kids outplayed and brought more passion to the event than the Europeans (although Oliver Wilson has a bright future).

Holmes and Mahan were captain’s picks and I don’t think you can give enough credit to U.S. captain Paul Azinger. He simply outcoached Faldo. Paul had a better plan for Singles than Nick; we only needed 5.5 points to win so Paul stacked his best players early with solid picks in the middle. This left the Euros with some of their most inexperienced players going up against a hot player in Boo Weekley and fan-favorite Holmes. Two of the hottest Europeans were Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter; they needed to be off early and get their points to stop any U.S. momentum. Nick was overly optimistic in the quality of his team and the U.S. Team just had too many good players playing well and feeding off the gallery. Zinger was great at resting players as well as going with the hot players and riding them, like he did with Justin Leonard

Two years seems a long way off to wait for more excitement but it looks evident that golfers like Kim, Weekley, Holmes and Mahan will be on many future teams.

Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher Brian Mogg is director of instruction at the Brian Mogg Performance Center at Golden Bear Golf Club at Keene's Point, Windermere, Fla.