Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball in a brid egg
Speaker 1: Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, Frida egg egg,
Speaker 1: fridagg bride egg Lie.
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the Hulp course.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host,
Speaker 2: Andy Johnson, and today's episode is presented by Optum. Optim
Speaker 2: is the leading information and technology enabled health services business
Speaker 2: dedicated to helping make health system work better for everyone.
Speaker 2: With more than two hundred and ten thousand people worldwide,
Speaker 2: optim delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help modernize the health
Speaker 2: system and improve our overall population health. Optim is part
Speaker 2: of United Healthcare Group and Optim is a proud partner
Speaker 2: of the Players Championship and Rory McElroy is an Optim
Speaker 2: Health Ambassador. Visit optim dot com to learn more. All right,
Speaker 2: we've got our Ryder Cup preview today, so we're doing
Speaker 2: five things about the Ryder Cup and we are joined
Speaker 2: by new Friday Golf staff member Kevin van Valkenberg. Kevin,
Speaker 2: I'm excited to have on full time. He will be
Speaker 2: contributing a ton after a long career in sports journalism.
Speaker 2: He'll be contributing a ton to our written, video and
Speaker 2: podcast forms of content. So it's awesome to have Kevin
Speaker 2: on for this Ryder Cup preview. We will be doing
Speaker 2: our five things and excited to kind of break down
Speaker 2: the Ryder Cup. We've got it. It kicks off on
Speaker 2: Friday of next week. Beth Page Black, big sturdy golf course.
Speaker 2: I think we know what beth Page entails. It is
Speaker 2: a course where distances is really rewarded. I think the
Speaker 2: setup will be an interesting conversation early in the week
Speaker 2: and we'll see what it entails. But I'm guessing that
Speaker 2: they're going to opt. If I was the US team,
Speaker 2: I'd opt for a little bit shorter rough just because
Speaker 2: the distance, I think advantage goes to Europe a little bit,
Speaker 2: and the shorter the rough you have, I think the
Speaker 2: better chance for shorter hitters who have to hit longer
Speaker 2: approaches out of said rough is So I would look
Speaker 2: at that as kind of the setup key. It's pretty
Speaker 2: benign around the greens, so you know, I think that's
Speaker 2: one thing if you can get it up around the
Speaker 2: greens and you have a half decent short game. You're
Speaker 2: not going to get tested a ton around the greens.
Speaker 2: The test really comes around the length, the size and
Speaker 2: hitting shots up to elevated greens from long distances. So
Speaker 2: I'll be very curious how they set this golf course up.
Speaker 2: And before we get to Kevin, one big thing that
Speaker 2: we had go on this week besides bringing Kevin on
Speaker 2: full time, as we had the release the pre order
Speaker 2: release of our new book. Our first ever golf book
Speaker 2: is Volume one. It is centered around golf courses. It
Speaker 2: combines our writing, our photography and graphics that Cameron hurd
Speaker 2: Us makes of holes and different things into a book
Speaker 2: and the theme of a volume one of our coffee
Speaker 2: table book is golf courses that shaped Friday Golf. So
Speaker 2: we're turning ten in December this year. It's kind of crazy,
Speaker 2: but this is a collection of golf courses that personally
Speaker 2: shaped some of our key contributors with me and Garrett
Speaker 2: and as well as golf courses that were you know
Speaker 2: huge in the you know growth and you know evolution
Speaker 2: of Friday golf. So you've got golf courses such as
Speaker 2: short Akers, Uh, the probably the first great golf course
Speaker 2: that I ever played in my life. And then you
Speaker 2: have golf courses like Lassnia and Sweetens Cove that had
Speaker 2: huge impacts early on in in Friday Golf Past Tempo
Speaker 2: Garrett rode up and Post Tiempo is one of the
Speaker 2: you know, first great golf courses he saw in his life.
Speaker 2: So it is is I'm really excited to release this book,
Speaker 2: and you can go online and uh, you know, I
Speaker 2: would urge you to do the pre order. It's going
Speaker 2: to deliver around Christmas time probably, I think early December
Speaker 2: is when we have it slated to deliver. The pre
Speaker 2: order helps us out a ton because it just, you know,
Speaker 2: with books, you don't know how many to buy. So
Speaker 2: if you're if you're interested in this book, it's going
Speaker 2: to be a beautiful book. I'm really pleased with how
Speaker 2: the design turned out. Go on to proshop dot the
Speaker 2: fried egg dot com and pre order yours there. I
Speaker 2: can't wait for this to be out in the world.
Speaker 2: And thank you to everybody for all the support over
Speaker 2: the ten years. It's it's wild that we're we're at
Speaker 2: the ten year mark. You know, I've been doing this
Speaker 2: now longer than any other thing in my life, So
Speaker 2: it's pretty cool and a lot of great courses visited
Speaker 2: and I really can't wait to do more volumes of this.
Speaker 2: We'll have volume two out next year as well. So
Speaker 2: collect these and you know, we'll we'll we'll keep making them.
Speaker 2: And thank you to everybody that's pre ordered it already
Speaker 2: this week. So thanks, and let's get to Kevin van
Speaker 2: Valkenberg and the Ryder Cup. All right, we're here the
Speaker 2: forty fifth playing of the Ryder Cup. Uh. You know,
Speaker 2: it's been a it's been a home team game for
Speaker 2: the last few years, and I think I think this
Speaker 2: year there's some optimism as it's probably the best European
Speaker 2: team that we've seen playing away Ryder Cup in a
Speaker 2: long time. Uh. And for this five things A welcome
Speaker 2: on Frida Egg member Frida Egg Golf team member Kevin
Speaker 2: van Valkenberg. Kevin, welcome on.
Speaker 1: Andy, what a pleasure to be here. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the kind and generous introduction.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be on site next week at the UH
Speaker 2: at the Ryder Cup in beth Page. We'll be uh,
Speaker 2: we'll be hammering, hammering the ground out there, uh, trying
Speaker 2: to pick up on all the scuttle but but let's
Speaker 2: get to our five things preview. Obviously, this is kind
Speaker 2: of the last big event of the year if you
Speaker 2: don't include the hero World Challenge. But this is uh,
Speaker 2: this is kind of the last windfall. So obviously everything
Speaker 2: gets magnified when it's in New York because New Yorkers
Speaker 2: love to talk about how it's the biggest and best
Speaker 2: no matter what it is when it's there. Uh, this
Speaker 2: is uh, this is I. You know, I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be a long week of prep. But what's
Speaker 2: your first thing that you're looking forward to or your
Speaker 2: storyline to watch for this year's Ryder Cup.
Speaker 1: Any do you think we are doing these in importance
Speaker 1: of least important to most important or just like random.
Speaker 2: You get to go wherever you want, and usually I
Speaker 2: will weave mine into whatever you say. Okay, well, sometimes,
Speaker 2: as as astute guest point out, I usually will get
Speaker 2: more than five things in. But it's my podcast, and
Speaker 2: I get I get to play by my own rule.
Speaker 1: This is true. This is true. Well, since it is
Speaker 1: your podcast, I wanted to start with something close to
Speaker 1: your heart. Chicago's face favorite golfer, Matt Fitzpatrick. I matter.
Speaker 1: Patrick's been a horrendous Ryder Cup player. I can vividly
Speaker 1: remember North watching Western alums favorite you know, excuse me,
Speaker 1: not Chicago's not fully claiming him because I heard, you know,
Speaker 1: like big parade in Chicago for him, like.
Speaker 2: You know, it's all the spin off. Northwestern had this
Speaker 2: ad slogan years ago that they called Chicago's Big ten team,
Speaker 2: which obviously, you know, as as a graduate of the
Speaker 2: state school, that really chapped a lot of people's asses.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like the university, this small, little private
Speaker 2: school is Chicago's Big ten team, not the giant state university.
Speaker 1: Sure certainly the snottiest journalism program in the country. Andy,
Speaker 1: you know this narrowly edging out Syracuse as the snottiest
Speaker 1: program in the country.
Speaker 2: Syracuse alum producer PJ. You can't talk on this podcast
Speaker 2: is is cheering in the background as Syracuse was not
Speaker 2: labeled this is not viest.
Speaker 1: Number two. All right, So Matpis Patrick. I can vividly
Speaker 1: remember the twenty sixteen Ryder Cup, my first Ryder Cup.
Speaker 1: I was walking around kind of late Thursday afternoon and
Speaker 1: Matthews Patrick had found a hole all by himself where
Speaker 1: he was just like pounding drivers, like over and over
Speaker 1: because he was trying to get away from the watchful
Speaker 1: eye of the hateful media. He was struggling big time.
Speaker 1: He was nervously, you know, trying to figure out driver.
Speaker 1: His brother had written that letter basically calling out the
Speaker 1: ugly Americans, and all the pressure was on him, and
Speaker 1: he did not play well. He did not play well
Speaker 1: in Whistling. I think you can argue that he played
Speaker 1: just kind of okay, except for one match in Italy.
Speaker 1: I's one in seven in three Ryder Cups played. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it was probably the last guy on the
Speaker 1: team basically to be one of Luke Donald's guys. I
Speaker 1: think you'd probably rather have Alex Norrin if you're Luke Donald.
Speaker 1: And so I want to see, like, what does FITZI do.
Speaker 1: He's not exactly like the player that he was a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Is the results have kind of
Speaker 1: been not there. And I love it when somebody gets,
Speaker 1: you know, to be the sort of, you know, the
Speaker 1: guy that the American crowd really rags on, really feels
Speaker 1: like they can rattle. And I'm afraid that FITZI might
Speaker 1: be that dude.
Speaker 2: I have not dove into all time Ryder Cup records,
Speaker 2: but he is one and seven on his career. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean it was like a landmark event in Rome
Speaker 2: that he won a point because he had not won,
Speaker 2: he had not contributed to anything even a half point
Speaker 2: to that date. I don't think he's going to play
Speaker 2: a lot, okay, but I will say I think he
Speaker 2: played quite well to earn a spot on the team.
Speaker 2: If you look through really the back really since the PGA,
Speaker 2: he's been one of the most consistent players in the world. Now,
Speaker 2: pre PGA, he was very bad. He was in a
Speaker 2: bad place, And I do think like I think like
Speaker 2: we talk about traits a lot with Ryder Cup players.
Speaker 2: We talk about the Ryder Cup a ton, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's one week and it's
Speaker 2: three days of golf, and golf's like one of the
Speaker 2: most variable sports in the world. Some weeks you have it,
Speaker 2: some weeks you don't have it. And as I've thought
Speaker 2: about this more, I think, like you obviously have like
Speaker 2: skills that you can take advantage, especially especially in like
Speaker 2: alternate shot with pairing players to amplify them. But at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, like what you kind of
Speaker 2: want is a team of guys that have like a
Speaker 2: high floor in the sense of this guy's really can
Speaker 2: assistant and I generally know what I get weekend week out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I think like Fitzy the back half of this
Speaker 2: year has been a very high floor guy. Now, did
Speaker 2: he win anything, did he have any landmark finishes? No,
Speaker 2: But if you go look at his results from from
Speaker 2: the PGA, it is just jam chalk full of top
Speaker 2: ten finishes. And I think, like, I didn't expect to
Speaker 2: be making a case for mass Fitzpatrick, but I think
Speaker 2: that's what you want out of your your team, is
Speaker 2: you want guys that you generally know what you're going
Speaker 2: to get from him. And I'm curious. I'm curious to
Speaker 2: see how much he plays. But if he has a
Speaker 2: bad if he has a bad ryder Cup, say he
Speaker 2: goes oh and three or oh and two, then that
Speaker 2: record it just becomes, you know, a music anecdote of
Speaker 2: Fitzy two is I was walking around at Whistlake Straits
Speaker 2: and it was the afternoon that JT chugged the beer beer.
Speaker 1: Okay, was half chugged a beer. I mean, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: he didn't really chug it.
Speaker 2: FITZI was like very pissed off about that sick. He
Speaker 2: was not playing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he was very.
Speaker 2: Upset, so just you know, an anecdote, like he does
Speaker 2: get fired up, but he was. He was kind of
Speaker 2: talking just out loud to whoever wanted to hear it,
Speaker 2: about about the absurdity of them chugging beer on the tee.
Speaker 1: Nice. What a featherweight pillow fight that would be between
Speaker 1: the two of them. You know, I'm not sure we're
Speaker 1: topping out at three hundred pounds between the two of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Data Golf had Fitz. He fell to one hundred and
Speaker 1: fourth in their rankings in the world this year now
Speaker 1: all the way back up to eight. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's really trending in the right direct.
Speaker 2: You know. I guess I'll go there with with my
Speaker 2: next one. I think the last I like to think
Speaker 2: about this as the last time the US hosted the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup. You were there, right, I was.
Speaker 1: Not there the last time I was. I was getting
Speaker 1: married that day. In fact. Yeah, so my wedding anniversary
Speaker 1: coming up again during this Ryder Cup. I was foolish
Speaker 1: enough to always have my wedding anniversary be on Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup weekend.
Speaker 2: Valid excuse. I went with the Labor Day so it's
Speaker 2: a good you know, nothing really happens on Labor Day.
Speaker 2: The I think I always like to think about him
Speaker 2: in that kind of four year window, and I think
Speaker 2: one of the things is, like we left twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: like is Europe dead? Is there any way this competition
Speaker 2: could go on? The US team was so stacked, and
Speaker 2: if you think about, like what the difference between this
Speaker 2: US team and twenty twenty one US team was. You
Speaker 2: had like DJ and Brooks at their peak of powers.
Speaker 2: More Cow was like a standout player. Scotti Scheffler was
Speaker 2: the last guy on the team. But then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden in the Ryder Cup, you were like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, look at this guy. And really like you
Speaker 2: looked at the roster and you're like, Harris English is
Speaker 2: going to be gone, but like nobody else is going
Speaker 2: to be gone for a long time now, Harris English
Speaker 2: might be might be like the third best player on
Speaker 2: the US team.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to hear that you thought Speith would be
Speaker 1: there as a generational guy that you're you know, you're
Speaker 1: confident that he'd just be a stalwart on Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: teams for years ago.
Speaker 2: But you looked at the European team and you're like,
Speaker 2: who is going to be on this team? And old, Yeah,
Speaker 2: there were a lot of old guys. But then in
Speaker 2: particular Lowry, Fleetwood and Hatton were not necessarily lighting the
Speaker 2: world on fire. Hatton was kind of at the early
Speaker 2: stages of becoming a you know, world class player. Tommy
Speaker 2: fleet Will would was not the same self that he
Speaker 2: was at in France at a Golf National, he had
Speaker 2: taken a step back. Ye, Shane Lowry was a good
Speaker 2: but very inconsistent player. Big shot Bob had not come
Speaker 2: on the scene. And at Rome you're kind of like, well,
Speaker 2: this guy he was, I think he was ranked like
Speaker 2: fiftieth in the world, fifty fifth in the world, one
Speaker 2: hundred and fortieth, and the Data Golf rankings at Rome
Speaker 2: and you're like, this guy's not a Ryder Cup player.
Speaker 2: And if you look at it now, you know, Tommy
Speaker 2: Fleetwood in the Data Golf rankings is third in the world,
Speaker 2: six in the official World Golf rankings. He's been outside
Speaker 2: of probably Scotty, the most consistent player in the world
Speaker 2: this year. You look at Bob McIntyre and it's been
Speaker 2: astounding to see his progression. He's ninth in the world
Speaker 2: rankings twentieth and Data Golf, Like, you think about the
Speaker 2: market improvement of them over the years. They've added Ludwig
Speaker 2: Obert to this group, who's a world class player, you know,
Speaker 2: Victor Hoveland and obviously More and Rory are constant. Shane Lowry,
Speaker 2: I think, has just become a more consistent world class
Speaker 2: player over this time. And Terrell Hatton has been you know,
Speaker 2: obviously he's obscured by live but he's been one of
Speaker 2: the best players in the world in twenty twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: So you start to look at it and it's like
Speaker 2: there's a huge improvement from guys that you did not
Speaker 2: know what they were going to be and don't like
Speaker 2: necessarily jump off the page because of other worldly traits
Speaker 2: as studs, the addition of a few young players, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, this team when you look at
Speaker 2: it on paper and we've never really I don't I
Speaker 2: can't remember any time in my life that we said
Speaker 2: this is pretty much a dead equal to the US team, yep,
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's an amazing thing. Like we've
Speaker 2: never had one of these contested where you look at
Speaker 2: it on paper and you're like, these teams are equal,
Speaker 2: and that's where we're at that for this year.
Speaker 1: I would argue two thousand and six, like Europeans, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe two thousand and four that time, that the
Speaker 1: Europeans probably should have been favored, even if they weren't,
Speaker 1: those are probably better teams when you got like Chris
Speaker 1: Riley and you know, Steve Pate and Brett Watric and
Speaker 1: things of that nature on the US team, I think,
Speaker 1: but you're right like it. It's truly I think that
Speaker 1: that would bring us andy to if I'm allowed. My
Speaker 1: next one that I had this item on the list
Speaker 1: is I think Rory continues to be the needle in
Speaker 1: this stuff and slapping the table in Italy a few
Speaker 1: years ago and saying we're gonna win in beth Page.
Speaker 1: Rory has been the Ryder Cup story of my golfing
Speaker 1: media lifetime. He was the story in sixteen, even though
Speaker 1: they didn't win. He you know, shushing the crowd back
Speaker 1: and he's saying I can't hear you and then bowing
Speaker 1: after that eagle, and you know, he was the story
Speaker 1: two years later, you know, and he didn't play amazing
Speaker 1: in Paris, but he was sort of still the emotional
Speaker 1: lightning rod for that team, and you know he was
Speaker 1: bad and whistling. He would be the first sell. He
Speaker 1: didn't make a birdie an entire match in you know,
Speaker 1: four ball, which is crazy. You know, he was crying afterwards,
Speaker 1: like of how much it meant to him to sort
Speaker 1: of go off first and be restore some pride. And
Speaker 1: I think he beat Xander that day. I just think
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for him to like the opportunity to
Speaker 1: essentially flip the script in this like if you called
Speaker 1: your shot two years ago that you were going to
Speaker 1: win a Ryder Cup on foreign soil, and then you
Speaker 1: went out and did it because you played great, that
Speaker 1: would be an unbelievable like, you know, sort of Mark
Speaker 1: Messier being like, I guarantee we're gonna win the series.
Speaker 1: And I know Pj's nodding at this as a Rangers guy,
Speaker 1: but that would mean, like I think, a lot to
Speaker 1: golf history. If that clip got played over and over
Speaker 1: and over again, we're gonna win a beth Page and
Speaker 1: then they did win in beth Page, like that would
Speaker 1: kind of cement Rory's Ryder Cup legacy for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been I would say a pretty good if
Speaker 2: you especially if you take whistling straights out of it,
Speaker 2: which I think he was just in a bad spot
Speaker 2: in his career. I mean that was he was basically
Speaker 2: like the fifteenth rank player in the world that week,
Speaker 2: which is like, that's about as low as he's been
Speaker 2: in sixteen seventeen years playing pro golf. If you take
Speaker 2: that out of it, he's been just such a good
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup player. Obviously he won the way one within Madina.
Speaker 2: I think like the greater aspect of this is like
Speaker 2: when you zoom out and if they go on to
Speaker 2: win this Ryder Cup away, and you zoom out and
Speaker 2: you look at his year and you know, it's hard.
Speaker 2: Scotty Scheffler's been the best player in the world, but
Speaker 2: it's hard to say it's a better year than somebody
Speaker 2: who goes and wins, you know, Pebble Beach. Of course,
Speaker 2: he hadn't won it at It's like you add your
Speaker 2: name to the list of people that have won a
Speaker 2: Pebble Beach in a signature event, he wins another player's,
Speaker 2: he wins the Masters and completes the Grand Slam, he
Speaker 2: wins the Irish Open, and then if he wins an
Speaker 2: away Ryder Cup. It's just it's a sensational year. And
Speaker 2: I know Scotty has won two majors, and I would
Speaker 2: probably still say that Scotty's year is better from the
Speaker 2: sense of just pure golf. But in terms of of wins, stories.
Speaker 1: Narra emotional wins, yeah, like emotional impact on the like
Speaker 1: the history of your career, like in the history of
Speaker 1: the game. I think I might take Rory, yes, like
Speaker 1: either of those. A Ryder Cup, I mean, just was
Speaker 1: the players even as like more impactful than Scotty's PGA win,
Speaker 1: like in some ways, you know, I mean I could
Speaker 1: make the argument that it was like certainly like a
Speaker 1: stronger field the players, right, Like I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's uh yeah, it's so. I think Rory is just
Speaker 2: an interesting and the last time we saw him on
Speaker 2: American soil, he was bad, and that adds a you know,
Speaker 2: in his journey just through this year where he was
Speaker 2: kind of he was great at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 2: the Masters hits, he wins, he then hits this little complacency.
Speaker 2: I think, like I'm always amazed at how just normal
Speaker 2: Rory is. Like that's kind of like the way any
Speaker 2: normal behaves, like if a salesperson got to close it
Speaker 2: a big deal, you know what they do for the
Speaker 2: next two months as they kind of just hang out.
Speaker 2: Rory goes into this lull. He doesn't play well and
Speaker 2: then it's like the Ryder Cups coming back around. He
Speaker 2: has a bad FedEx Cup playoffs, but all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: then it's just the game's coming back and he's playing
Speaker 2: as good as golf as anybody in the world now
Speaker 2: heading in outside of Scottie.
Speaker 1: He's just fun right. He makes every Ryder Cup interesting
Speaker 1: with you know how emotional he gets into it. How
Speaker 1: you know, he gives great quotes. He's he just lives
Speaker 1: and breathes for it, which is funny after you know,
Speaker 1: he would be the first to sort of call himself
Speaker 1: an idiot for saying it. But like way back in
Speaker 1: the day, it was like it's an exhibition. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean much to me. And then when he finally played
Speaker 1: in one, like it just overwhelmed his senses in every way.
Speaker 2: Let's go to somebody that I don't know if either
Speaker 2: of them are on each other's Christmas cards list. Let's
Speaker 2: go to Bryson to Shambo. He's He's on.
Speaker 1: My list, tell me more.
Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by this, and I guess I'm going to
Speaker 2: put to two of these together, two of mine together.
Speaker 2: Will the best Americans play the most is a big question,
Speaker 2: and one of the players the figures of this that
Speaker 2: center on is Bryson to Shambo, the the American team
Speaker 2: has has rightly been criticized as a boy's club. I
Speaker 2: think that is that is a fair criticism critique. Zach
Speaker 2: Johnson's captaincy did not help that. But you know, Bryson is,
Speaker 2: without a doubt not in the boys club. He's not.
Speaker 2: I don't think he ever will be in the boys club.
Speaker 2: But I would say that quantitatively, he is one of
Speaker 2: the Americans' best players, particularly at Bethpage Black, a golf
Speaker 2: course that really rewards power and has enough space where
Speaker 2: he can really just kind of blast it around. And
Speaker 2: this is like if we were playing a major championship
Speaker 2: at beth Page tomorrow. I think you can make the
Speaker 2: case that that Bryson would be like Favorite one A
Speaker 2: or B. You know, you put Scotty there and then
Speaker 2: Bryson would be right there because of the way the
Speaker 2: course fits his game. YEP, I think Bryson will play
Speaker 2: best ball. I am really curious to see if he
Speaker 2: will play alternate shot. And furthermore, like, if you go
Speaker 2: down the list of American players and their forms, I
Speaker 2: think that you're looking at a situation where like almost
Speaker 2: you take Scotty and then the best players on the
Speaker 2: American team in terms of their form and how they're
Speaker 2: playing are like Ben Griffin, A J. Spawn Harris, English,
Speaker 2: Russell Henley. It's not JT. It's not more COWI And like,
Speaker 2: my question is are the best players going to play
Speaker 2: the most or are we going to fall into this
Speaker 2: trap of names and experience when what matters most is
Speaker 2: who's playing well to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: I think, and this is maybe it's a slightly related point,
Speaker 1: but that over time us Ryder cup captains as someone
Speaker 1: who's like looked at a lot of this stuff and
Speaker 1: lived through some of it, have made the mistake of
Speaker 1: trying to like spread out the good players, be like oh,
Speaker 1: Tiger has to play with like an aging Paul Aisinger,
Speaker 1: or like Mark Calkovekia, or like oh we got to
Speaker 1: sit fill with like David Toms, or let's put you know,
Speaker 1: David Devall with you know, Chad Campbell or something absurded,
Speaker 1: like I think, honestly, I would seriously consider saying to Scotty,
Speaker 1: how would you like to do like three sessions with Bryson.
Speaker 1: Let's just go out there and like the two of you,
Speaker 1: I think can get me three points because you can
Speaker 1: get three points out of that the two of them,
Speaker 1: Like that's I wouldn't worry as much about like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's I would be like, I got two horses right here,
Speaker 1: Let's play them a lot. Scotty's good, like this personality
Speaker 1: is fine enough to get along with Bryson, this idea
Speaker 1: that like they couldn't play alternate shot together because they're
Speaker 1: not best buddies, Like the heck with that? Why ry did?
Speaker 1: And I'd rather have Bryson playing with Scotty than Sam
Speaker 1: Burns and Scotty like I'm I'm had a huge advantage
Speaker 1: hitting you know, Scotty hitting wedges into like some of
Speaker 1: these holes at beth Page like because Bryson's just drove
Speaker 1: it three eighty. I would absolutely like lean on Bryson
Speaker 1: as much as I could basically be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think you're the one of the four best players
Speaker 1: in the world like it's it's basically Rory, you, Rom
Speaker 1: and Scotty let's go out and then just put the
Speaker 1: pedal down and ride you like a horse man, because
Speaker 1: this is the kind of course where you could absolutely
Speaker 1: like dominate and I wouldn't worry about like the fussiness
Speaker 1: of the personality stuff.
Speaker 2: I could see the Scottie Bryson best ball pairing work
Speaker 2: really well. I might look at a different pairing for
Speaker 2: Scott for Bryson as a as an alt shot pairing,
Speaker 2: like I'd be looking, you know, like the russ Henley
Speaker 2: Scotti allt shot pairings work really well because Russell Henley
Speaker 2: hits a lot of fairways, and it's like, you give
Speaker 2: Scotty Scheffler the opportunity to hit from the fairway. His
Speaker 2: four iron is better than most guys seven irons. With Bryson,
Speaker 2: I think like you have the opportunity to give somebody
Speaker 2: wedges into elevated targets that's probably used to hitting like
Speaker 2: mid irons into these targets. And the alternate shot pairing
Speaker 2: like Bryson opens up, it unlocks a all and I
Speaker 2: just I'm really I don't know if they're going to
Speaker 2: play him alternate shot. I could see a world where
Speaker 2: they just don't play them alternate shot, and I think
Speaker 2: it's a mistake. I think like, if you look at
Speaker 2: that US team, Harris English is one of your probably
Speaker 2: best weapons just because of the consistency what you you know,
Speaker 2: what you're getting from him. He had one of the
Speaker 2: best seasons on tour. You know, JJ Spond's not going
Speaker 2: to be a sexy name. It's not going to get
Speaker 2: the New York fans riled up like Justin Thomas. But
Speaker 2: guess what. JJ Spond's been like an unequivocally better golfer
Speaker 2: the last six months than Justin Thomas has been, and
Speaker 2: especially at a golf course that rewards some sort of
Speaker 2: driving acumen, you know j T has been he just
Speaker 2: hits balls that you know, are he hits one or
Speaker 2: two drives around that seemingly just derails his tournaments. And
Speaker 2: in a matchplay format, like if you hit some t
Speaker 2: shots that just automatically lose holes, that's kind of a
Speaker 2: disaster and that's what you're trying to avoid when you're
Speaker 2: playing these matches.
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. I would say, uh, I,
Speaker 1: you know, I just think like with the alternate shot thing.
Speaker 1: Bryson wants to be liked by people who he's around.
Speaker 1: Like this idea that Bryson is kind of an annoying
Speaker 1: or pisses everyone, if that might be true, but he's
Speaker 1: going to try really hard for whomever he is paired
Speaker 1: with to sort of make it work. And so, like
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas and Bryson don't particularly like each other, from
Speaker 1: my understanding, I still think Bryson would try so fricking
Speaker 1: hard to be like Justin Thomas's like Ryder cup buddy,
Speaker 1: Like you know, he would absolutely love giving JT. Wedges
Speaker 1: into a bunch of holes, and I just I would
Speaker 1: play him an alternate shot too, for sure.
Speaker 2: I honestly like that Whistling Straits was kind of a
Speaker 2: landslide mm hmm. But I have to say, like Bryson,
Speaker 2: Bryson injected so much energy into the American team with
Speaker 2: his t shots.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be even more so. He's gonna treat every
Speaker 1: hole like an amphitheater. I think he's gonna get people
Speaker 1: like He's gonna be waving his arms and pumping his
Speaker 1: fist and all the the Bryson hard o's are going
Speaker 1: to be there, like doing push ups in the behind
Speaker 1: the ropes and you know, jumping on each other's shoulders
Speaker 1: and backs and down in beers.
Speaker 2: You know who's whose far fourball pairing was at Whistling Straits.
Speaker 1: Was it Scottie?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So he only played four ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know what the reluctance is to play him.
Speaker 1: I mean he I guess he played alternate shot with
Speaker 1: Phil in uh in Italy. But yes, France.
Speaker 2: Honestly, I can't wait to read your your whole Ryder
Speaker 2: Cup Captains that's going to come out Tuesday. You ranked
Speaker 2: all the last fourteen Ryder Cup captains.
Speaker 1: I have, yes, bring you. David loved twice.
Speaker 2: Davis loved twice the idea of pairing Bryson and Phil
Speaker 2: who Phil like unequivocally didn't have it that week and
Speaker 2: everybody new pairing them an alternate shot at a water
Speaker 2: heavy golf course, So a golf course where there's water everywhere.
Speaker 2: It was one of the worst captive's decisions of all time.
Speaker 1: Correct. I I think Furich's bad captaincy is sort of
Speaker 1: underrated in its badness because most people like Furick and like,
Speaker 1: we don't want to admit like how disastrous like three
Speaker 1: of his captain's picks didn't win a single match. Tony
Speaker 1: Finow was his best captain's pick. It's truly like that's
Speaker 1: kind of like Tom Watson territory, you know, And I
Speaker 1: mean that I you know, I won't spoil what it is,
Speaker 1: but like, you know, Zach's Ryder Cup captaincy, I think
Speaker 1: is even though it's really close to us, it's almost
Speaker 1: underrated in its badness in terms of how terrible it was.
Speaker 1: Just vibes were horrendous, motivation, horrendous, boys club stuff, horrendous.
Speaker 1: The Americans have really like they had some amazing captains
Speaker 1: doing how Sutton, Tom Watson, Zach Johnson, Jim Furick. It's
Speaker 1: even like you know, Curtis Strange and Corey Paven made
Speaker 1: some like really dumb ass decisions. It's it's incredible.
Speaker 2: The I also like, I think that the Americans, and
Speaker 2: I don't I don't want this to come across necessarily
Speaker 2: the wrong way, But there's just like more narcissistic assholes
Speaker 2: that tend to tend to be on the American Ryder
Speaker 2: Cup team, which lends themselves to bore drama. Yes, like
Speaker 2: the idea, Like I'm actually like amazed when you interview
Speaker 2: or talk to these players about like athletics growing up,
Speaker 2: how many how many golfers say like I picked golf
Speaker 2: because I didn't have to rely on teammates. Like that's
Speaker 2: like a.
Speaker 1: Anther one the draft pick. In terms of reasons why
Speaker 1: they decided to do it.
Speaker 2: Often it's so you hear that so often, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't play well with others, so I decided to go golf.
Speaker 2: So then you have this event where they don't ever
Speaker 2: play with others, and then you bring them together and
Speaker 2: they have to play as a team, and the captain
Speaker 2: gets blamed no matter what, which which is amazing.
Speaker 1: If you look back at the last twenty five years
Speaker 1: or so and you try to think of like European
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup controversies, like they got destroyed in Whistling and
Speaker 1: in Hazeltine, and they didn't like knife their captains at all.
Speaker 1: Like the only captain that they ever truly shout on
Speaker 1: was Faldo, and that was because in part because Faldo
Speaker 1: was like went on the broadcast and said, oh, Sergio
Speaker 1: got dumped by Greg Norman's daughter that week, so he
Speaker 1: was worthless and there was just no point in having
Speaker 1: him out there and Sergio was rightfully like pissed, like
Speaker 1: Faldo is the only guy that they ever hated.
Speaker 2: Should they have brought Sergio in as an ass captain.
Speaker 1: You know, I would have sort of listened to like
Speaker 1: Justin and Rory on that and basically said, if you
Speaker 1: think that he will be helpful to us, like you've
Speaker 1: played on a lot of Ryder Cup teams with him,
Speaker 1: then we'll I'll go ahead and do it. But otherwise,
Speaker 1: like I'm not interested in And I think the good
Speaker 1: thing too, is that it's not like Luke isn't you know,
Speaker 1: he played on a lot of teams of Sergio, so
Speaker 1: he knows like whether he would add anything or if
Speaker 1: it just be you know, a nuisance or a whiner.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could make a case I think that Sergio,
Speaker 1: you know, would be that that someday Sergio when wounds
Speaker 1: sort of heal a little bit, that Sergio definitely should
Speaker 1: be a Ryder Cup captain, And so you'd want him
Speaker 1: to kind of be involved in a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 1: But it's almost like by not bringing him around, they're
Speaker 1: saying like, yeah, we don't think this is ever really
Speaker 1: gonna these riffs are ever really gonna heal like.
Speaker 2: You know, he uh. I could see him as an
Speaker 2: assistant captain, just getting getting into kerfuffles on the sidelines. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it would be kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: Him and Kevin Kissner are like sticking a finger in
Speaker 1: each other's face.
Speaker 2: Will go bro probably just arguing about Texas Georgia football.
Speaker 1: Probably not much of an argument there these days. Man,
Speaker 1: all right, My next one would be what version of
Speaker 1: Victor Holind are we going to see Victor Hobblin? Well,
Speaker 1: the last time we had a Ryder Cup was probably
Speaker 1: the best player in the world for that like brief
Speaker 1: you know, two or three month period came off just
Speaker 1: a dominant performance in the FedEx Cup. Was all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, had a really really good, really credible short
Speaker 1: game very first hole of his Ryder Cup comes out
Speaker 1: and has that amazing chip in that basically just like
Speaker 1: gets the crowd going bonkers, sets the tone for that
Speaker 1: entire Ryder Cup. You know, he's part of that just
Speaker 1: historical ass kicking of Scottie and Brooks with Ludwig. Will
Speaker 1: that Victor Hovelin be you know, or I don't think that.
Speaker 1: We don't think we'll see that Victor Hoblin because it's
Speaker 1: just that was kind of like the peak of his powers.
Speaker 1: Everything about his swing was kind of in that moment
Speaker 1: and he had to kind of break it down and
Speaker 1: rebuild it because he's Victor Hobland. But I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, he's trending, he's trending upwards. He's not one
Speaker 1: of the sort of I would say, certainly not one
Speaker 1: of the five best players in the world, probably not
Speaker 1: one of the ten best players in the world. But
Speaker 1: he's played a lot better in the last four months
Speaker 1: than he did the previous you know, six to eight months,
Speaker 1: and so I'm you know, he's someone who cares about
Speaker 1: this stuff, who who has lived in the cauldron. Anythink
Speaker 1: he went three and one in Italy, and but he
Speaker 1: was bad and Whistling. So like what happens if we
Speaker 1: get the version that we saw, you know at Whistling
Speaker 1: where he just wasn't really worth much. He was completely
Speaker 1: didn't have it that week, And I think that's a
Speaker 1: be a big key the Europeans are going to pull
Speaker 1: off an upset, they need Hobland to be good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think at Whistley Straits he was such
Speaker 2: a young pop at that point, right, you could see, okay,
Speaker 2: this this kid's going to be here for a long time.
Speaker 2: But he's also this getting just thrown into the ring
Speaker 2: of fire, and he was like one of it felt
Speaker 2: like one of the few Europeans that week that could
Speaker 2: really like keep up with some of these guys, the Americans.
Speaker 2: He had that modern style of play versus you know,
Speaker 2: watching Westy out there.
Speaker 1: I know that must have been tough for you.
Speaker 2: It was I brought I went out and watched like
Speaker 2: the last few holes of his his singles match, after
Speaker 2: the after the tournament of the competition was over, brought
Speaker 2: him in. I think he have that match. I think
Speaker 2: he ended his Ryder Cup career with the half. He
Speaker 2: was getting questions about being a captain.
Speaker 1: Do you think you should be a captain?
Speaker 2: Well, the one thing you know about Westy is that
Speaker 2: he won't be reading any like books on war strategy
Speaker 2: since he's he's always proud of the fact that he's
Speaker 2: never read never read a book.
Speaker 1: One of my all time favorite anecdotes.
Speaker 2: So he's not gonna your captain, that's you know. I
Speaker 2: honestly think he could. He has the potential to be
Speaker 2: like analytics. No, don't get out of here.
Speaker 1: Another Faldo captaincy would be sweet.
Speaker 2: I could see it though, you know, as as Wound's heel,
Speaker 2: you know that. I mean, it's like a fascinating aspect
Speaker 2: of the European team, is what happened to this captaincy
Speaker 2: because like the surefire captains were Sergio Poulter Westwood. Obviously
Speaker 2: Stenson was selected and then left like where what Who's
Speaker 2: next for them? Rory has been vocally opposed to being
Speaker 2: a playing captain, but if he continues to be a
Speaker 2: high level player for the Europeans into his late forties,
Speaker 2: which is totally feasible, maybe he eventually becomes one. But
Speaker 2: I think with Hoveland, you know, the vibes were so
Speaker 2: good last year. He was coming in off of a
Speaker 2: a you know, the FedEx Cup win. He paired up
Speaker 2: with fellow young Scandinavian player Ludwig who also was playing
Speaker 2: great golf, you know, saying the world on fire early
Speaker 2: in his career to get selected for the team, and
Speaker 2: you kind of look at it and it's like, well
Speaker 2: like they were nails, and I think like that's something
Speaker 2: that I think, like they're going to be paired together again.
Speaker 2: In their matches together, they they went too and one
Speaker 2: they lost to Burns and more Kawa and four ball.
Speaker 2: But you have to think that I to me, like,
Speaker 2: and I like that you selected Holand like Hobland and Ludwig.
Speaker 2: If those guys play well, I think Europe can win.
Speaker 2: I don't think they can win if they don't play well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's correct. And and like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm always as a sort of lover of the Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup searching for like those guys who can just pair
Speaker 1: together forever, like well, find another like sevy And and
Speaker 1: jose Maria. And so it would be fun like if
Speaker 1: that was like the Scandinavian version of that, Like if
Speaker 1: we just saw Levig and Hoblin like play together for
Speaker 1: ten years, how fun would that be? That was supposed
Speaker 1: to be Speith and JT and Speth kind of you know,
Speaker 1: let us down in that sense. Uh So I want
Speaker 1: more of those kind of like classic pairings. We're like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, these guys are going to read it's
Speaker 1: true that JT.
Speaker 2: Swooped in and stole piece partner.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, it's a little sad to me that
Speaker 1: we're now this is the third Rider Cup cycle without
Speaker 1: Patrick Reed, Like you know, he made the event fun,
Speaker 1: even when he was like being a total uh, you know,
Speaker 1: clown in France.
Speaker 2: Just think of think about the President's Cup at Royal
Speaker 2: Melbourne without him. Yeah, he had done that. He had
Speaker 2: done the shovel incident the week before and then Kessler
Speaker 2: punched punched a fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, bring back, bring back Captain America. He should be
Speaker 1: an assistant captain. Andy. Let's Sergio and Reid sort of
Speaker 1: you know playing They should play in the celebrity match
Speaker 1: before that would be great.
Speaker 2: A way you could ensure that you get a playing
Speaker 2: captain would be to pick Patrick Reid as the captain.
Speaker 1: Sure, why not?
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Speaker 2: to Club Champion. Let's get back to the podcast. My
Speaker 2: next one is Colin Morikawa. Okay, I think throughout his
Speaker 2: career he's been a he's been an incredible Ryder Cup player.
Speaker 2: And why he's been an incredible Ryder Cup player is
Speaker 2: that the guy up until this year has been a
Speaker 2: generational iron player and in match play, I think just
Speaker 2: in match play in general. The thing that can rip
Speaker 2: another an opponent's heard out more than anything is just
Speaker 2: approaches that make you feel like you never have a chance.
Speaker 2: It's what Scotty can do to you. It's what Marikawa
Speaker 2: up until this year was doing with regularity. It's where God,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter where he is. And I think one
Speaker 2: of the things with Mari Kawa and his lack of
Speaker 2: distance that that is interesting with with match play is
Speaker 2: he's hitting first into greens and he's applying pressure with
Speaker 2: his other worldly, you know, generational talent of iron play.
Speaker 2: Calin Markawa is by his career and I think like
Speaker 2: it's important to just note he set an unbelievable standard
Speaker 2: of play since he's turned pro, where he's been one
Speaker 2: of the most consistent great players in the game of golf.
Speaker 2: But this year he's been bad. He has not been good.
Speaker 2: He's thirty one in the Data Golf rankings, and you know,
Speaker 2: he's seen a dip in his approach play and I
Speaker 2: think like he you know, he's been one. You know
Speaker 2: that that pairing of DJ and Morikawa was so stout
Speaker 2: at Whistling Straits the last time around, and he's just
Speaker 2: been kind of this this player that you know when
Speaker 2: you talk about high floor players, like we mentioned earlier
Speaker 2: in the year, he's been like effectively like you're just
Speaker 2: put him out and you know what you're getting. And
Speaker 2: this is the first year going into this where you
Speaker 2: don't really know what you're getting from him. And I think,
Speaker 2: like the US team, I'm just curious how much he
Speaker 2: plays and if he's got it, I think they're going
Speaker 2: to be really hard to beat. But if he because
Speaker 2: like you're talking about a player that could be a
Speaker 2: Scotti tier player, maybe not all the way to Scotti,
Speaker 2: but he can have that type of impact you could
Speaker 2: put about in any format and you know he's going
Speaker 2: to fit in like a glove with anybody because he
Speaker 2: drives the ball in the fairway and he hits approaches
Speaker 2: close right Like that is That's what you're a dream
Speaker 2: alternate shot pairing player is. And I just think that
Speaker 2: if it goes south, like if he's not playing well,
Speaker 2: that US team is not as it just as a
Speaker 2: big hole in that US team because they don't have
Speaker 2: many guys that hit irons the way he does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could see like with the course set up
Speaker 1: at Whistling that they were basically like we're better long
Speaker 1: iron players than you, and like DJ and Brooks and
Speaker 1: you know, Colin are gonna be like flagging six irons
Speaker 1: on some of these like two hundred yard par threes.
Speaker 1: And if you think you can beat us, great, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna be just better. And you know, I specifically remember,
Speaker 1: like that's Saturday, like how good he and DJ were
Speaker 1: like just you know, going at some of those pins
Speaker 1: from long ways away, and the Euros just didn't have
Speaker 1: that same kind of firepower. And so you're right, like
Speaker 1: that's that's what Beth Page is right. It's you're gonna
Speaker 1: have yard approaches that are one hundred and ninety yards
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty five yards somewhere and there, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know to elevateds. Like if Colin is that dude again,
Speaker 1: then I think you're right, Like it's Americans really going
Speaker 1: to be tough to beat. My next one, I think,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a pretty important one, Andy, is
Speaker 1: how rowdy will the crowd be? We've been talking about
Speaker 1: this sort of Beth Paige Ryder Cup for I mean
Speaker 1: almost ten years. I mean I remember Brooks saying how
Speaker 1: badly he wanted to be a part of that when
Speaker 1: he wanted beth Page because he was basically like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're going to be out of control. It's going to
Speaker 1: be like a real true sporting event, like now was
Speaker 1: that before he found out the ticket prices were like
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred dollars a man, Like, you know, maybe, but
Speaker 1: I still think there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: I mean, look, home field advantage does really matter. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the course set up is part of it. But the
Speaker 1: energy that the crowd brings to match play and how
Speaker 1: hard it is to silence those people if the other
Speaker 1: team is playing well is a real thing. And so
Speaker 1: will we get like we'll you know, even at that
Speaker 1: PGA at beth Page, some of the behavior sort of
Speaker 1: spilled over where they had it We're kicking people out
Speaker 1: and people were acting like knuckleheads. I am very curious
Speaker 1: to see if it goes over the line because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of players on the European team who
Speaker 1: tend to have kind of rabbit ears, whether it's Justin Rose,
Speaker 1: whether it's Terrel Hatton, whether it's John Rahm, even Rory,
Speaker 1: Like they hear the things that the crowds have to say,
Speaker 1: and I think the crowds.
Speaker 2: Will be headsets, that's right.
Speaker 1: What we might have truly like being in a dark
Speaker 1: place and where people wearing VR headsets were having people
Speaker 1: scream obscenities in their ears and say horrible things about
Speaker 1: their family that they have to train for that in
Speaker 1: anticipation of a sporting event. So I am very curious
Speaker 1: because if the Euros get up, if they you know,
Speaker 1: if they have some success in you know, say, you know,
Speaker 1: the foursomes like they often do well they haven't so
Speaker 1: much in the US, will that start of mute the
Speaker 1: crowd a little bit? And if if the US takes
Speaker 1: in an early kind of swing man like it could
Speaker 1: be running downhill fast like that, it could snowball, and
Speaker 1: that any chance of an upset could be really tough
Speaker 1: for the Euros.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get those those roars. I I match play
Speaker 2: more than you know stroke play. I think it's just
Speaker 2: such a momentum thing, Like you know, everybody says like,
Speaker 2: oh play this just like you would play a normal
Speaker 2: stroke play event. It's just not possible. You're worried about
Speaker 2: what other people are doing.
Speaker 1: It's why Tiger was not a great Ruyder Cup player,
Speaker 1: because he played it just like it was a stroke
Speaker 1: play event. He didn't make mistakes, but he didn't take
Speaker 1: a lot of chances, and you know, guys got up
Speaker 1: to play him, and it's just you know, Tiger was
Speaker 1: a was the greatest stroke player player of his generation,
Speaker 1: if not every generation, and that wasn't the right mentality
Speaker 1: to take to Ruyder Cups.
Speaker 2: I I would ask this question, It's one of my
Speaker 2: last thing here. Does this need to be a competitive
Speaker 2: Ryder Cup? Does the Ryder Cup need a competitive Ryder Cup?
Speaker 2: Because if you go back through kind of the archives,
Speaker 2: the last competitive like where on Sunday anything can happen,
Speaker 2: and it was a huge comeback Ryder Cup was Madina.
Speaker 2: The last one that was really tight, you know going
Speaker 2: into Sunday was twenty I think twenty ten at Celtic
Speaker 2: manor yeah.
Speaker 1: Eight to eight I believe, right, uh huh or no,
Speaker 1: something like the US was down three they were eight
Speaker 1: to eight in the Curtis Strange year. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it can make a good argument that if
Speaker 1: it's a blowout that in favor of the US, that
Speaker 1: we might need to talk about, like, you know, the
Speaker 1: home field advantage has just like gotten to be too
Speaker 1: much because we just saw, you know, these two teams
Speaker 1: get completely blown out in reverse two years ago. So
Speaker 1: if it, if it totally flips, like I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe should an independent you know, committee set up the course?
Speaker 1: Should you know, should there not be as many captains picks?
Speaker 1: I don't know what the answer would be. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just like, hey, keep going with it until
Speaker 1: somebody breaks the cycle and then it's like hold. It's
Speaker 1: like holding serve in tennis, right, Like if you broke
Speaker 1: Pete Sampras when he was at the height of his powers,
Speaker 1: you deserved to win those matches and if you couldn't,
Speaker 1: you know, that was part of the deal. It was
Speaker 1: why it made it so tough, because he was the
Speaker 1: greatest server of that time. And maybe that's the deal
Speaker 1: with like playing at home and Ryder Cups. You should
Speaker 1: win those Ryder Cups, so the pressure is on you
Speaker 1: to win them, you know.
Speaker 2: I think like if you get a close one, it
Speaker 2: becomes just such a spectacle on Sunday and it becomes
Speaker 2: one of the rare sports events. I'm not saying it's
Speaker 2: going to outright the NFL, but it's one of the
Speaker 2: rare sports events where you can put it up against
Speaker 2: the NFL and and have success. You know. I think
Speaker 2: the Ryder Cup makes it just so easy for fans
Speaker 2: to get into it because it's US versus Europe, right,
Speaker 2: and everybody knows what side they're on, and it's easy
Speaker 2: to understand. I think. I think another interesting subplot here
Speaker 2: is like what happens if the Euros win? What happens
Speaker 2: to the US team? Are we? Are we running towards
Speaker 2: another kind of reset of how we think about the
Speaker 2: Ryder Cups as an American side?
Speaker 1: Do they form a circular firing squad?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: And I think that brings me to what I think
Speaker 1: is probably the final point. Andy is Keegan Bradley, like,
Speaker 1: there is a lot of pressure. There would be more
Speaker 1: pressure if he was playing, you know, if he was
Speaker 1: a playing captain, but there is a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on him to essentially hold serve. Like I said before,
Speaker 1: he wanted so badly to be involved in the Ryder Cup,
Speaker 1: you know, is as important as anything in his career.
Speaker 1: We joke about the suitcase, you know, not unpacking it,
Speaker 1: but like the man truly cares.
Speaker 2: About can you just for people that don't know that story,
Speaker 2: can you can you just you know, on that story
Speaker 2: real quick as a.
Speaker 1: So they the US had like Ryder Cup team luggage
Speaker 1: and after Madona, Kegan brought home, you know, all of
Speaker 1: his stuff in his suitcase and he was like too
Speaker 1: miserable to unpack it because like, I just can't like
Speaker 1: think about like looking at all that team uniform stuff
Speaker 1: and everything that you know, went into all the feelings
Speaker 1: of that and just how close we were to winning
Speaker 1: and how embarrassing it is, and it kind of dragged on.
Speaker 1: He was like eventually like all right, well I'll unpack
Speaker 1: it like when I make next Ryder Cup team and
Speaker 1: when we win a Ryder Cup. And just like you know,
Speaker 1: didn't didn't win a Ryder Cup in fourteen, didn't make
Speaker 1: the team in sixteen, didn't make it in eighteen, you know,
Speaker 1: didn't make it in twenty. It was just like it
Speaker 1: became kind of like a little bit of a joke
Speaker 1: amongst us golf nerds like, oh, how bad does that
Speaker 1: suitcase smell? You know, not knowing that it really exists.
Speaker 1: Did And then Keegan, to his credit, was like he
Speaker 1: went into his garage and was like, yep, there's the suitcase,
Speaker 1: like's actually still never been unpacked, and so you know,
Speaker 1: and I think there might be a bottle of champagne
Speaker 1: in there. I can't remember what exactly.
Speaker 2: He doesn't even remember how they drink the champagne that's
Speaker 2: been just sitting in like a hot garage for years.
Speaker 1: I mean, Schotts Kegan for having the same house, I
Speaker 1: think all this year. I mean, imagine if you had
Speaker 1: the sad humiliation of you like moved your house and
Speaker 1: you had to pack up that suitcase and then find
Speaker 1: a new place for it at your new house and
Speaker 1: your new garage. Uh So, you know, I'm sure that
Speaker 1: they'll be if they win, there'll be some sort of
Speaker 1: joke where Keegan, you know, on Good Morning America or
Speaker 1: something like rips open that suitcase and you know, we
Speaker 1: get to see those musty media you know, uniforms from
Speaker 1: from Ralph Lauren. But I think if he wins, if
Speaker 1: the US does really well and they sort of embrace
Speaker 1: Keegan as a result, it'll kind of be like the
Speaker 1: defeat of the Boys Club in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: like the idea of like, you know, this person was
Speaker 1: an outsider, they flipped the script and basically like you
Speaker 1: powdy babies, you've been you know, you have your little
Speaker 1: cadre of people. It hasn't worked out, you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's nothing that long ago. They just won in Whistling.
Speaker 1: So the narrative isn't quite as tidy as we would
Speaker 1: like to make it. But it's almost like a movie
Speaker 1: script of like them rallying around Keegan and be like,
Speaker 1: you know what we should have We were wrong all
Speaker 1: this time. You should have been part of some of
Speaker 1: these squads. You cared about this thing like like never before,
Speaker 1: and you know, hopefully it'd be interesting, like what if
Speaker 1: Keegan uses this and then has another great two years
Speaker 1: as a player and then makes the team in a
Speaker 1: dare you know, like can we call him a playing
Speaker 1: captain then? Like obviously I don't think he's gonna be
Speaker 1: the captain two cycles in a row, but I don't.
Speaker 2: If he wins. Is do they have a choice but
Speaker 2: to make him a captain? Though? It was a good
Speaker 2: question because like I feel like the European side, it
Speaker 2: was like, well, we have to do Luke Donald, we
Speaker 2: have to give them the chance to go win abroad.
Speaker 1: I think they're sort of stalling. Maybe I think the
Speaker 1: Europeans are stalling until Justin Rose can be the captain.
Speaker 1: That that will feel like because West the.
Speaker 2: Content from him as the captain, Rose might be one
Speaker 2: of the all time fun captains of just overly serious,
Speaker 2: very intense, very English.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm ready for it already. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think Tiger's.
Speaker 2: Going to want to be a team.
Speaker 1: I think Tiger's going to want to be the captain
Speaker 1: in two years. And so it's you know, I think
Speaker 1: Hegan would happily stand down for Tiger. But if Tiger
Speaker 1: says no, I'm not not going to do it. If
Speaker 1: he you know, does something else like blows out a
Speaker 1: knee or gets to get his hip or placed or
Speaker 1: whateverides getting married, be getting married, very possible, he could
Speaker 1: be appointed in an ambassador somewhere. All we know, like
Speaker 1: these are all on the table. Uh he could be
Speaker 1: on the Supreme Court for anything as possible. Uh So
Speaker 1: I think that Tiger will if he doesn't want it,
Speaker 1: then Keegan could say, like what you know, I'd go
Speaker 1: another round, like I'll say I do this again. But
Speaker 1: I think this is Keegan's one shot it to sort
Speaker 1: of prove that everybody was wrong to keep him out
Speaker 1: of this event. For all those years, and man, it
Speaker 1: would be be kind of sweet. As someone who's like
Speaker 1: irrationally liked Keegan for a long time, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: excited for it if that happens for him.
Speaker 2: I if europe pins, do you just keep rolling Luke
Speaker 2: Donald out?
Speaker 1: You know what? I think I kind of find that
Speaker 1: to be cheating.
Speaker 2: I honestly like, I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I think that you should just have to flip the
Speaker 1: calendar every two years and pick a new captain because
Speaker 1: that's what gives us us fun content. Like how much
Speaker 1: fun would it be if Westy was the captain this year,
Speaker 1: you know, or if they had to go ready for that.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I like it that you
Speaker 1: get your one shot and then you put everything into it,
Speaker 1: and then once that's done, like yeah, we're moving on.
Speaker 1: I mean, Paul Aisinger probably should have be a captain
Speaker 1: for a couple cycles. I mean, he was basically the
Speaker 1: person who restored pride in the Americans. They'd won like
Speaker 1: three Ryder Cups in twenty five years when he you know,
Speaker 1: finally kind of like was like, you know what, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't be losing Ryder Cups at home and they should
Speaker 1: have won him a Dina. You know, that was kind
Speaker 1: of a fluke, once in a lifetime thing that they
Speaker 1: gave up that lead on Sunday. But you know, I
Speaker 1: just I don't want to see a Tony Jacquelin situation
Speaker 1: where it's like he gets to do it forever. I
Speaker 1: want them to have to keep bringing up new blood
Speaker 1: through the system.
Speaker 2: All right, well, what's your pick? Who's your pick? Will do?
Speaker 2: Pick the side in the MVP?
Speaker 1: And I was really like, I thought, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't want to waffle too much here because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stick with my original pick. I'm gonna pick Europe. I
Speaker 1: didn't think I thought that there was like a no brainer.
Speaker 1: Like four or five months ago, I was like, or
Speaker 1: even two years ago, it's like, I think Europe's gonna win.
Speaker 1: I remember saying that two years ago. It was like,
Speaker 1: I think this will be the first time that flips
Speaker 1: it a little less confident in that. I feel like
Speaker 1: Keegan has done a lot right. And I still think
Speaker 1: like they have two of the best players in the
Speaker 1: world in Scotty and Bryson, and they have a lot
Speaker 1: of guys with some pretty you know, some pretty high
Speaker 1: ceilings for talent. Wise, I if Brooks hadn't fallen off
Speaker 1: a cliff, I'd feel a little bit better. Like having
Speaker 1: Brooks Keopka at Beth Page would be kind of a neat,
Speaker 1: you know, weapon to have. You know, he's shown that
Speaker 1: this is straight up his kind of golf course. But
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna stick with Europe. I want to say
Speaker 1: that they're you know, whether it's fourteen and a half
Speaker 1: to thirteen and a half or fourteen fourteen, and they
Speaker 1: retain I think they're going to get it done.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm going with Europe. Also, I just think their
Speaker 2: players fit a golf course that presents a horse for
Speaker 2: the course type set up better than the Americans. And
Speaker 2: it's a pretty even talent, you know, kind of spread.
Speaker 2: And I think like if you look at just by
Speaker 2: nature of the guys that that qualified from the American side,
Speaker 2: you don't have a lot of prolific drivers of the
Speaker 2: golf ball. And then you look on the other side
Speaker 2: and you look at Ludwig and and rom and and
Speaker 2: the even you know, the weakest player on the European side,
Speaker 2: Restless Holy Guard is a great driver of the golf ball.
Speaker 2: Bob McIntyre, great drive, you know, like you just look
Speaker 2: at the the two sides and you just I think
Speaker 2: the the the course fit really leans towards the Europeans.
Speaker 2: I I will put Tommy Fleetwood as my m VP.
Speaker 2: I think he is. Uh, I think he's just you know,
Speaker 2: he's starting to develop a you know, a sensational Ryder
Speaker 2: Cup record. Obviously, you know the the the France is
Speaker 2: is well known, but he was really good in uh
Speaker 2: in Rome and uh I think I'm i he's coming
Speaker 2: in as good for him as anybody in the world.
Speaker 2: Uh So I'm gonna go with Europe also, which I'm
Speaker 2: I'm I've been kind of on and and I think,
Speaker 2: I you know, we're gonna get hammered in the lead
Speaker 2: up of this, and I think there's there's so much
Speaker 2: content that's going to come out. We'll have a ton
Speaker 2: on the Frida Egg. You can check out that. We
Speaker 2: have a Ryder Cup Hub, which we've put a lot
Speaker 2: of time and effort into. Go check that out. It
Speaker 2: has like little blurbs about every player it has. We'll
Speaker 2: be rolling out daily newsletters. Kevin, You'll be on site
Speaker 2: with with me and a bunch of us that and
Speaker 2: we'll be pumping out daily content. Thanks for joining. People
Speaker 2: can read and read your stuff in the newsletter on
Speaker 2: the website and it's great to have you be a
Speaker 2: part of the team.
Speaker 1: Thanks Bud. Looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: All right, big thanks to PJ. Clark for editing and
Speaker 2: producing this podcast. We can't wait for the Ryder Cup
Speaker 2: huge week ahead. As I mentioned at the back half
Speaker 2: of the pod, if you don't already subscribe to the newsletter,
Speaker 2: we're I think with Kevin coming on board, we're going
Speaker 2: to put a greater emphasis on that than ever before.
Speaker 2: I think the quality. We obviously have great writers and
Speaker 2: Brendan Poorath and Garrett Morrison and Joseph Lamannia already in there.
Speaker 2: I mean, Joseph does so much work in there, and
Speaker 2: it's great work. Like the idea of the newsletter is
Speaker 2: just let's make this is a must read. So I
Speaker 2: think you'll enjoy it. It's free. Sign up for that,
Speaker 2: and you know, pay attention to the socials and everything
Speaker 2: we got going out and visit the Ryder Cup Hub.
Speaker 2: That's a new kind of website feature. We're really excited
Speaker 2: about rolling out new features on the website, and we
Speaker 2: think that one's really neat and there's a ton of
Speaker 2: content that's loaded in there for you to kind of
Speaker 2: peruse and get in that Ryder Cup mood. All right,
Speaker 2: thank you again. We'll be back next week breaking down
Speaker 2: what happened at the Ryder Cup