Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: every Wednesday. It is not Wednesday, but it is Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup week, and I wanted to make sure that we
Speaker 1: got through all of the practice rounds of the Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup here in Rome and got the pairings for the
Speaker 1: first rounds, which we got a lot to talk about
Speaker 1: because this is one of the premiere weeks of the
Speaker 1: golf calendar every two years. It's special week.
Speaker 2: I'm here in Rome and lots to get to.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, let's talk about our
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Speaker 1: And now let's get to the Ryder Cup. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a very very interesting week. I'm excited. I've
Speaker 1: been going to Ryder Cups. Really. The first Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: I ever went to was the last time the US
Speaker 1: one on foreign soil. That was at the Belfry in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, and I've been to the majority of
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup since then. They are they're very special weeks.
Speaker 1: They're different. It's team competition. You're playing for your country
Speaker 1: and so as a golfer, you're rare doing that. You're
Speaker 1: playing for yourself, and I think that's what makes these
Speaker 1: weeks so unique. I'm over here with brooks Kepcho. We
Speaker 1: flew in Sunday night from the live event in Chicago.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the golf course before. It's a big
Speaker 1: golf course. I think the majority of the shots, second
Speaker 1: shots you were going to see, are going to be
Speaker 1: from over one hundred and fifty yards. It's a long
Speaker 1: golf course. It's a very very hilly up and down
Speaker 1: golf course. Ricky Ellittt and Brooks came over here a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago on the US team scouting mission
Speaker 1: and they mentioned that they thought the walk was one
Speaker 1: of the more difficult walks that they have in professional golf,
Speaker 1: and after being here since Monday, I can agree. It's uphill,
Speaker 1: then it's downhill, then it's uphill, then it's downhill. I
Speaker 1: think stamina is going to be a big, big part
Speaker 1: of this week. It is very hot here in Rome.
Speaker 1: It's in the nineties pretty much every day.
Speaker 2: They haven't had a lot of rain.
Speaker 1: It's hot in the mornings, it's hot in the afternoons.
Speaker 1: So I think, are we going to see players play
Speaker 1: all five rounds? I'm not sure we're going to see it.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see some guys play four
Speaker 1: for sure, But I just don't know if from a
Speaker 1: fatigue factor, if you're going to be able to go
Speaker 1: all five, everybody is going to want to go all five.
Speaker 1: I mean, you come here wanting to play, you come
Speaker 1: here wanting to play. Basically every match, everybody feels.
Speaker 2: The same way.
Speaker 1: But I do think the way the golf course is
Speaker 1: designed and the conditions right now, it might be hard
Speaker 1: to play all five matches. From a US team perspective,
Speaker 1: They've got a hell of a side, right. They've got
Speaker 1: three of the major champions this year Brooks Koepka, Wyndham
Speaker 1: Clark and Brian Harmon.
Speaker 2: The Euros have one of the.
Speaker 1: Major champions in John Raman won the Masters. They have
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy arguably one of, if not the best player
Speaker 1: in the game. They have Victor Hovlin FedEx Cup champion.
Speaker 1: They've got major champions in Matt Fitzpatrick. They've got some rookies.
Speaker 1: They've got some very very row rookies, not just rookies
Speaker 1: to the Ryder Cup. Luda Alberg He's never even played
Speaker 1: a major. He was playing college golf earlier this year,
Speaker 1: so he's come out of the PGA Tour. You one
Speaker 1: of the Hoguard twins, they're both here this week. But
Speaker 1: how are they How's he going to perform?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: What is being on a Ryder Cup team going to
Speaker 1: mean to you as a rookie? The US has rookies,
Speaker 1: Max Homer, Brian Harmony, They've They've they've got their fair
Speaker 1: share of rookies as well. But the captain, Zack Johnson,
Speaker 1: Luke Donald captain selections I mean, how are those going
Speaker 1: to turn out. The obvious one that is under a
Speaker 1: lot of scrutiny is going to be Justin Thomas. If
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas plays well, Zach Johnson's going to be vindicated
Speaker 1: for picking him. If Justin Thomas does not play well
Speaker 1: and the US were to get beat, z X and
Speaker 1: Justin Thomas are going to get scrutiny. There are going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of questions asked every year the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup rolls around every two year cycle. The captains
Speaker 1: have choices to make right and I think there were
Speaker 1: some really balls he choices on both sides. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're Luke Donald, you're picking a kid that was
Speaker 1: playing college golf earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Yes, he has.
Speaker 1: Won two tournaments. Yes, he looks like he's legit. Everybody
Speaker 1: that plays with him, everybody's singing his praises. He looks
Speaker 1: like a superstar in the making. But he's never played
Speaker 1: in a major, which comes with a lot of pressure,
Speaker 1: and a Ryder Cup is a completely different animal, and
Speaker 1: a Ryder Cup on kind of home turf. For the Euros,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of expectations. I think after Whistling Straits,
Speaker 1: everybody thought Hey, this is the next generation. It's kind
Speaker 1: of the golden generation of US Ryder Cups, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is where we are going to see a US
Speaker 1: dominance the way the US dominated at Whistling Straits. I
Speaker 1: think these matches are going to be a lot closer
Speaker 1: than people think. I really really do. I think the
Speaker 1: pairings are going to be really interesting in what are
Speaker 1: the pairings?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: What do these captains? How do these captains make this choice?
Speaker 1: Having walked around with the US team for the last
Speaker 1: four days and walked around with captain Zach Johnson and
Speaker 1: all the vice captains, Steve Stricker, Stuart Sink, Davis Love,
Speaker 1: I think the US team, like the European team now
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three, are relying heavily on analytics and
Speaker 1: statistics to try and figure out their pairings.
Speaker 2: Now is that important? Absolutely? You want to know.
Speaker 1: How your players are playing. You want to know how
Speaker 1: they statistically step or stand out, and what their strengths
Speaker 1: are and their weaknesses are. Not only from a partnership standpoint,
Speaker 1: but for the golf course. I talked to Hendrik Stinton
Speaker 1: and his caddy, Gareth Lord. Hendrick Stinton was going to
Speaker 1: be the Ryder Cup captain. He went to Live and
Speaker 1: then that went to Luke Donald. But in looking and
Speaker 1: talking to those two, they were talking about a lot
Speaker 1: of the stats that they were looking at, and even
Speaker 1: before the captain's picks, they kind of had an idea
Speaker 1: of who was going to make the team, and so
Speaker 1: they were looking at all the static the statistics. The
Speaker 1: US team led in a lot of those, but one
Speaker 1: of the areas that I think the Euros felt like
Speaker 1: they could make some gains, we're kind of in that
Speaker 1: one eighty to two ten range. They seem to have
Speaker 1: better statistics there. I think you're going to see a
Speaker 1: lot of second shots. With the way this golf course
Speaker 1: is set up, I think you're going to see a
Speaker 1: lot of second shots in that one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: to two hundred range, and I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see some of the par threes kind of set up
Speaker 1: to match those yardages. So the Euros are trying to
Speaker 1: use analytics, trying to use data. They're trying to moneyball
Speaker 1: their way to a victory. The US team's going to
Speaker 1: try and do the same thing. However, I think if
Speaker 1: you're just looking at statistics and data in trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to win a Ryder Cup and how
Speaker 1: to figure out your pairings. I think you're missing things.
Speaker 1: I think you're missing the human element. And I think
Speaker 1: if you're just going on the human element and just
Speaker 1: going on your gut and just going on kind of
Speaker 1: what you feel and not looking at the data and
Speaker 1: not looking at the stats, I think you're missing something too.
Speaker 1: So I think there's an art to blending these together.
Speaker 1: I've had Paul mcginneley on the on the pod in
Speaker 1: the past. If you hadn't had a chance to check
Speaker 1: that one out, go back and take a listen to it.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: Right before Whistling Straits, and Paul talked a lot about
Speaker 1: kind of how he was a captain. And I think
Speaker 1: Paul was really the first one at Glenn Eagles to
Speaker 1: kind of moneyball this thing, to go ahead and take
Speaker 1: a look at the stats, to take a look at
Speaker 1: the data. I think a lot of what happened beforehand
Speaker 1: was just kind of gut instinc and kind of personal preference.
Speaker 1: Who wanted to play with who. I think Paul McGinley
Speaker 1: was one of the first Ryder Cup captains to say, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: my brain thinks like this let me get a data
Speaker 1: team in here, and let's crunch some numbers and let's
Speaker 1: take a look at what is going to happen. So
Speaker 1: I think if you haven't had a chance to go
Speaker 1: back and listen to that podcast, the one with Paul
Speaker 1: McGinley is a fascinating listen. But all of these captains
Speaker 1: are trying to figure out where they can have an edge, right.
Speaker 1: I think the way the golf course is set up
Speaker 1: every two years, the host team, the host captain sets
Speaker 1: up the golf course. They can set up the golf
Speaker 1: course any way they want. So if you look at
Speaker 1: the way the golf course was set up at Whistling Straits,
Speaker 1: if you look at the way the golf course was
Speaker 1: set up at Hazelteam not a lot of rough.
Speaker 2: The Americans have a bunch of.
Speaker 1: Bombers wide fairways, so they want to try and give
Speaker 1: the US wants their players to have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: stand up and pound driver Paris narrow fairways. The rough
Speaker 1: was brutal. It was set up for the Americans. This
Speaker 1: golf course, the rough is barutal. If you hit the
Speaker 1: golf ball offline, you're going to struggle to find it.
Speaker 1: I've watched players hit golf balls into the rough and
Speaker 1: over the last four days we've struggled to find them.
Speaker 1: And so I think the way the golf course is
Speaker 1: going to be set up. Luke Donald is going to
Speaker 1: try and set the golf club up, golf course up
Speaker 1: for him and his team. That's what he's going to
Speaker 1: try and do. But is that going to work?
Speaker 2: Right? Is that the way that they're going to win?
Speaker 2: I really don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the answers are to that. What
Speaker 1: I do know is that this isn't one on paper.
Speaker 1: If it was one on paper, then the US over
Speaker 1: the years would have a lot more of these than
Speaker 1: they do because on paper it's looked like, you know,
Speaker 1: they're the studs, right, But this isn't played on paper,
Speaker 1: And to a large extent, this is.
Speaker 2: A putting contest.
Speaker 1: I've talked to a lot of former captains. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter what happens from a team selection, from a
Speaker 1: partnership selection.
Speaker 2: None of that matters.
Speaker 1: The only thing that really matters is how the players Friday,
Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday, how they putt.
Speaker 2: That's the only thing that matters.
Speaker 1: This is a putting contest and Historically, over the last
Speaker 1: thirty years, the Euros have potted Us at times off
Speaker 1: the golf course. They have had players that weren't superstars
Speaker 1: that have just.
Speaker 2: Potted their ass off.
Speaker 1: I was at the last Ryder Cup that the US
Speaker 1: team won on foreign soil in nineteen ninety three at
Speaker 1: the Belfry. Peter Baker, who played the European Tour for
Speaker 1: a long time. He was a rookie and he made
Speaker 1: every putty. Looked at for three days it looked like
Speaker 1: the Euros are going to win. At the very end,
Speaker 1: the US snake to victory. Davis love Hold the winning pott,
Speaker 1: but Peter Baker made every putt, and if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: on Sunday he made another really really long pott and
Speaker 1: Jim Lampley, the former US sportscaster, did work it. NBC
Speaker 1: did a lot work in boxing. He made a long
Speaker 1: pot hooped it from twenty five thirty feet on live TV.
Speaker 1: Jim Lampley said, mark it down. Peter Baker will not
Speaker 1: only win one Masters Championship, He'll win two.
Speaker 2: That's how great of a pottery is.
Speaker 1: He didn't go on to do any of that, but
Speaker 1: that just goes to show you that the focus is
Speaker 1: going to be on putting. Who can make the putts,
Speaker 1: the right potts at the right time, Who makes that
Speaker 1: six footer to get back to all square, Who misses
Speaker 1: that six footer to go one up, Who hoops it
Speaker 1: from thirty feet, forty feet, fifty feet and changes the
Speaker 1: momentum and kind of changes these matches. We see that
Speaker 1: all the time. See these matches change and momentum over
Speaker 1: the three days is.
Speaker 2: Such a massive, massive part of this.
Speaker 1: And when you're at these Ryder Cups. But for those
Speaker 1: of you that are going to be watching at home
Speaker 1: on TV, you can feel it, right, you can say, Okay,
Speaker 1: the US great example, you know, the just finished Solheim Cup.
Speaker 1: Hats off to Suzanne Petterson and her team. The Euro's
Speaker 1: big comeback. They were zero to four in the first
Speaker 1: in the morning matches, they're down and they lose every
Speaker 1: match and they come back to win the tie the Solheim.
Speaker 2: Cup, but they retain the cup. That's a win. But
Speaker 2: on Sunday it looked like the US team was gonna win.
Speaker 1: They need basically one more point, and the Euros in
Speaker 1: the matches that they needed to started making putts. Putting
Speaker 1: is key, is ball, striking important, absolutely, He's driving the
Speaker 1: golf ball important, absolutely. But if you can't putt, you
Speaker 1: can't make the at the right time. You are going
Speaker 1: to struggle. So I think it's going to be fascinating
Speaker 1: over the next three days. And I think these two captains,
Speaker 1: Luke Donald and Zach Johnson, they've got a big task
Speaker 1: ahead of them to try and get their sides ready.
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and look at the morning pairings. Okay,
Speaker 1: these just came out. Scotty Scheffler and Sam Burns go
Speaker 1: out first against John Rahm and Tyrol Hatton, Max Homa
Speaker 1: Brian Harmon go up against Victor Howlin and Ludwig Aberg,
Speaker 1: Ricky Fowler, Calla Morikawa against Sepstraca and Shane Lowry, Xander
Speaker 1: Patrick Cantley against Rory and Tommy. So the US sits
Speaker 1: Brooks Koepka, they sit justin Thomas, they sit Jordan Speith.
Speaker 2: Do you make something out of that? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Scotty Schffler, Sam Burns, that pairing makes sense. They're boys,
Speaker 1: they grew up together playing high school golf, junior golf.
Speaker 1: Xander and Patrick. I think Xanders building the house next
Speaker 1: to Patrick in Jupiter that's how close they are. Ricky
Speaker 1: Collin Morikawa, I think you can make an argument that
Speaker 1: they play a similar type game. So in the morning,
Speaker 1: the euro send out three players that have majors, Roy
Speaker 1: McElroy four, Shane Lowry one, and John Rahm two. The
Speaker 1: US sends out Scotti, Scheffler. He's got a major, Brian
Speaker 1: Harmon's got a major. Colin Morrikalas got a couple of majors.
Speaker 1: But you sit a five time major champion in Brooks Koepka,
Speaker 1: you sit Jordan Spieth, and you sit someone that you
Speaker 1: chose as a captain's pick, as a two time major champion.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you JT is going to play in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna he and Jordan go out. I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna see Brooks Kepka go out. And but
Speaker 1: the issue I think is going to be I think
Speaker 1: Zach is going to want to try and get everyone
Speaker 1: to play, and I think Luke's going to try and
Speaker 1: do the same thing. The last thing you want to
Speaker 1: do is what happened at Brookline, right, the big miracle.
Speaker 1: Ben Crenshaw, I got a great feeling about this. The
Speaker 1: US is down. It looks like they're gonna get beat
Speaker 1: and they come back. The Euros had a couple of
Speaker 1: players at Jean Vanderveld and I think Andrew Colhart, maybe
Speaker 1: Yarmo Sandalin. They had a couple of guys that never
Speaker 1: played until the singles. I don't think you want that.
Speaker 1: I think you want to get the guys out. I
Speaker 1: think you want to get them in the mix. I
Speaker 1: think it's important if you've got rookies on the team,
Speaker 1: you need to get them out. So Max Homa, Brian
Speaker 1: Harmon rookies, they go out, Sam Burns rookie. It's it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting. Ludwig Ayberg, that's a big, big
Speaker 1: I think it's smart pairing him with Victor Hoblin. They're
Speaker 1: both Scandinavians, they both hit it miles. I think there'll
Speaker 1: be a lot of comfort in that. I kind of
Speaker 1: like the Tyrrilhatt and John ram pairing, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got John Rahm, who's been number one in the world,
Speaker 1: current Master Champion, one of the top three best players
Speaker 1: in my opinion, four easily top five best players on
Speaker 1: the planet, and.
Speaker 2: He's a stud.
Speaker 1: The Euros have three guys that are their foundation. Rory
Speaker 1: John Ram Victor Hoblin. They are the foundation of that team.
Speaker 1: They are expecting a lot of points from those three.
Speaker 1: And then you've got Sepstraca, who's a rookie. You've got
Speaker 1: Shane Lowry who was captain's pick, and then you've got
Speaker 1: two of the best ball strikers around in Roy McElroy
Speaker 1: and Tommy Fleet. I think, based off of what those
Speaker 1: guys do in the morning, if Ludwig and Vic go
Speaker 1: out and play well, I think you could you could
Speaker 1: make an argument that they stick with them.
Speaker 2: And if Ludwig kind.
Speaker 1: Of plays really really well and is comfortable with Vic,
Speaker 1: I gotta think you ride them out, do Ricky and Moricau?
Speaker 1: I mean, if they go out and they get a
Speaker 1: big win, do you keep them together?
Speaker 2: So this is what this whole event is all about.
Speaker 1: It's trying to figure out who's got the hot hand
Speaker 1: coming in, who's not playing well, and then you're hoping
Speaker 1: your pairings in the morning.
Speaker 2: Produce.
Speaker 1: But if they don't, then We've seen this before on
Speaker 1: both sides. But I think we've seen this a little
Speaker 1: bit more from the Americans, have they as they've been
Speaker 1: on I mean in the last thirty years they've been
Speaker 1: on a losing streak. They they won last time, you know,
Speaker 1: resounding fashion. They won at Hazel Team, but they got
Speaker 1: smoked in Paris. Right, I don't think they figured out.
Speaker 1: I don't think they had the right team for the
Speaker 1: golf course. I think the euro set the golf course
Speaker 1: up for the team that they had, and I don't
Speaker 1: think the US maybe sent over their best team for
Speaker 1: that golf course. But that's what you're trying to do
Speaker 1: as a captain, right, You're trying to I mean, you
Speaker 1: don't know, right, you don't know if I mean, although
Speaker 1: Xander and Patrick Cantley are best of friends, right, you
Speaker 1: don't know if that's gonna work. You don't know if
Speaker 1: that partnership is going to work. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the fascinating thing about this. What I will say is
Speaker 1: is I've spent a lot of time around Zach over
Speaker 1: the last four days. He seems really, really calm. He's
Speaker 1: got guys on his team that you know. Zach's two
Speaker 1: time major champion, Davis Love's major champion, Jim Furick's major champion,
Speaker 1: Stuart Sinks a major champion, Freddy Couples is a major champion,
Speaker 1: and then Steve Stricker was the captain of the last
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup that the US dominated. So there's a fantastic
Speaker 1: backroom staff and I think a lot of this is
Speaker 1: going to come. But as I said earlier, none of
Speaker 1: this really.
Speaker 2: Makes a difference.
Speaker 1: The only thing that makes difference is how the players play, right,
Speaker 1: the players. I think the captains have a big role
Speaker 1: in this, but the biggest role is down to the players.
Speaker 1: And I'll give you the best example of that, right. So,
Speaker 1: the miracle at Medina Jose Mario o Thabo one of
Speaker 1: and I've seen him this week. If there's a nicer
Speaker 1: person in the game of golf, I don't know who
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: I really don't.
Speaker 1: He is a gentleman, he's multiple major champion, He's one
Speaker 1: of the nicest people I've ever met. And he was
Speaker 1: the captain at Medina. The US had a big lead
Speaker 1: going into Sunday, and very similar to what the US
Speaker 1: did at Brookline, the Euros had a massive, massive comeback
Speaker 1: and you know.
Speaker 2: You've got Ali. He's in tears.
Speaker 1: He's saying that the win for the Euros, the miracle,
Speaker 1: the comeback was for seb You could almost feel the
Speaker 1: energy of Jose trying to channel his great friend and
Speaker 1: his partner in the Ryder Cup, I mean seb and
Speaker 1: jose Mauriel Thobel. To me, they are the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: partnership benchmark. They're the partnership that every other partnership is
Speaker 1: based off of the success that they had, the camaraderie,
Speaker 1: the love, the writer or die spirit that they had
Speaker 1: for each other. To me, that's what a partnership in
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup is all about. So at Madina, you've
Speaker 1: got this massive comeback on Sunday. But that comeback started
Speaker 1: Saturday night, and how did that come back start? That
Speaker 1: comeback started with Ian Poulter doing what Ian Poulter does,
Speaker 1: make putts when he needs to, and that carried on into.
Speaker 2: Sunday and.
Speaker 1: Jose Mariel Thobel can chant his great friend and let's
Speaker 1: do it for Sevy. That's an unbelievable sentiment. That's a
Speaker 1: great feel good story. But if you don't make any putts,
Speaker 1: and if the Euros don't putt put their asses off
Speaker 1: on Sunday doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: They lose and they didn't.
Speaker 1: So this is a putting contest, that's.
Speaker 2: What this is.
Speaker 1: I could see, I mean, I could see two to
Speaker 1: two coming out of that in the morning, and I think,
Speaker 1: I think everybody'd be happy with that. But if this
Speaker 1: is three to one or four to zhero, regardless of whether
Speaker 1: it's to the Americans or to the Euros, then some scrambling,
Speaker 1: some panic sets in, and then you start saying, okay,
Speaker 1: now what do I do? So then I think what
Speaker 1: ends up sometimes happening is you start trying to invent partnerships, right,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if that'll I don't know if
Speaker 1: that works. I think these are kind of one and
Speaker 1: lost by finding a hot pair and writing it.
Speaker 2: So I think that's going.
Speaker 1: To be really really interesting. From a brook standpoint, I
Speaker 1: think you'll see Brooks play at some point with Scotty Scheffler.
Speaker 1: I think I would really like to see Brooks play
Speaker 1: with Brian Harmon. They went out today on Thursday. They
Speaker 1: went out into a practice round. They were playing each
Speaker 1: other's ball. They played different balls. Brooks plays sticks on,
Speaker 1: Brian Harmon plays a titleist.
Speaker 2: They were trying.
Speaker 1: Each other's ball out. I know in one of the
Speaker 1: practice rounds other than to other than Thursday, Brooks played
Speaker 1: every practice round in his group and Scotty Scheffler was
Speaker 1: in his group, and man, I just I can't say
Speaker 1: enough about that guy, right that guy is just such
Speaker 1: and impressive golfer the way he drives the golf ball. Listen,
Speaker 1: everybody talks about the great drivers of the golf ball,
Speaker 1: DJ Brooks, Rory, John Rahm, these bombers. I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: if there's a better driver in the golf in the
Speaker 1: game of golf right now, that isn't Scotti Scheffler.
Speaker 2: I don't know who it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, he just has so much power, hits the
Speaker 1: golf ball high, can carry the golf ball miles in
Speaker 1: the air. I just can't say enough about him, and
Speaker 1: watching him play this week up close, I mean, he
Speaker 1: is a dominant, dominant, complete player. I think I think
Speaker 1: you could see maybe Brooks play with a guy like
Speaker 1: Wyndham Clark. Very similar type characters, tremendous confidence, tremendous self
Speaker 1: belief that to a lot of people borderline borders on
Speaker 1: arrogance at time, which I gotta be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I mean Wyndom Clark came out last week and was
Speaker 1: talking about he thinks he's as good as Rory and
Speaker 1: all that. Do I think Wyndam Clark is as good
Speaker 1: as Rory McElroy. No, I don't, But the fact that
Speaker 1: Wyndham Clark thinks that way. You want someone like that,
Speaker 1: who's got a who just won his first major in
Speaker 1: a pretty dominant fashion, in a pretty gritty fashion out
Speaker 1: at LACC in the US Open. You sure as hell
Speaker 1: don't want guys coming in here that don't think they're
Speaker 1: as good as Rory McElroy, right. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people think, Okay, you're arrogant and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but you need that self belief.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Does Wyndam need to express that and put that out
Speaker 1: in the media and then have Rory see it and
Speaker 1: all that. I don't know, But I think Brooks and
Speaker 1: Wyndham are very similar type characters and they're not scared, right,
Speaker 1: They're not scared of each other or are not scared
Speaker 1: of anybody, And I think they could play. But I
Speaker 1: like Brooks with a guy like Brian Harmon. I really
Speaker 1: think that could be a very good pair for the
Speaker 1: both of them. To me, it reminds me a lot
Speaker 1: of Brooks's first Ryder Cup in twenty eighteen at Hazelteine.
Speaker 1: He played with brand Snedeker. When they were asked by
Speaker 1: the captain, who do you want to play with? Who
Speaker 1: do you want as your partner? They both put each
Speaker 1: other down as people they didn't want to play with.
Speaker 1: They ended up playing with each other and they played
Speaker 1: great together. So I think that could be a good partnership.
Speaker 1: I really like the Ludwig Aberg. I'm probably butchering that name,
Speaker 1: but and Victor Hovlin the All Viking team, I think
Speaker 1: that's going to be a very good partnership. And listen,
Speaker 1: I think Rory McElroy partnered with Tommy Fleetwood. If they
Speaker 1: go out and get a win, do you keep them
Speaker 1: together and try and, you know, recreate the Frankie Mullinari
Speaker 1: and Tommy Fleetwood where they just crushed everybody. So I
Speaker 1: think the golf course is going to have a big
Speaker 1: say in I think the conditions are going to have
Speaker 1: a big say in this. I think the captains are
Speaker 1: going to have a big say in this. But the
Speaker 1: people that will have the biggest say in this Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup will be the twelve players on each side. The captains,
Speaker 1: they've got the job at trying to figure out the pairings.
Speaker 1: They've got the job at trying to pick the right
Speaker 1: people for the team. But the players that play each
Speaker 1: of these Ryder Cups every two year cycle, it's the players.
Speaker 1: And are we going to see the US do what
Speaker 1: they did at Whistling Straits. They made a lot of potts,
Speaker 1: they found some good partnerships, and the big players stepped up.
Speaker 1: Historically on this run over the last thirty years, where
Speaker 1: the US hasn't won nearly the amount of Ryder Cups
Speaker 1: they should have, the Euros have gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: points from their horses, from their stuts Clarkey, Westwood, Sergio Rory,
Speaker 1: John Rahm, and par Us. They have gotten points from
Speaker 1: their superstars, And when the US hasn't been winning, they
Speaker 1: haven't gotten the production. They didn't get a lot of
Speaker 1: points from Phil, they didn't get a lot of points
Speaker 1: from Tiger when they weren't arguably the two best players
Speaker 1: in the game and the two biggest players in the game,
Speaker 1: they were the biggest players in the game.
Speaker 2: Tiger is the biggest player in golf, right.
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that t dubs out here this week.
Speaker 1: I thought he would be here. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the other Ryder Cups that he hasn't been
Speaker 1: a part of he's been a captain. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you make of that. I'm sure he's been on
Speaker 1: the phone to Zach and a lot of guys on
Speaker 1: the team. I think it would have been cool to
Speaker 1: see him here. I think everybody here in Italy would
Speaker 1: have It would have been.
Speaker 2: Great to see Tiger.
Speaker 1: But this is to me about how the players play,
Speaker 1: how they handle the amphitheater. Now that is the first
Speaker 1: tee there's probably about I was down there this morning
Speaker 1: for the for the photos with the team and got
Speaker 1: to watch the team get their photos and then one
Speaker 1: of the cool things that they started doing last year
Speaker 1: for US coaches, we get to get a picture with
Speaker 1: the player and the caddy that we're working with, which
Speaker 1: I got to do it with DJ and Austin Johnson
Speaker 1: at Whistling Straits, Ricky Elliott and Brooks cept Ga got
Speaker 1: to do it today.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 1: If you're a player, a benchmark of your career is
Speaker 1: playing on a Ryder Cup. If you are a caddie,
Speaker 1: one of the benchmarks of your career is caddying in
Speaker 1: Ryder Cups. For a player, and for those of us
Speaker 1: that are here this week, the coaching fraternity. It's a
Speaker 1: huge honor to be here at the Ryder Cup working
Speaker 1: with a player on one of these teams, and you
Speaker 1: kind of feel like you're part of it. This year,
Speaker 1: for the first time ever, the PGA of America gave
Speaker 1: all of US coaches some of the uniform pieces, So
Speaker 1: we've been wearing some of the same clothing that the
Speaker 1: players have and the rest of the team, and it
Speaker 1: makes you feel like you're part of the team. It's
Speaker 1: a very very interesting, it's a very unique week. It's
Speaker 1: a very long week. We were all saying today Thursday, hey,
Speaker 1: can we get these damn matches started. It's a long,
Speaker 1: long week. Early in the week and the American team,
Speaker 1: the majority of them, only played nine holes each day.
Speaker 1: And on the first day, Brooks was paired in a
Speaker 1: group with Wyndam Clark and Wyndham said, you played nine
Speaker 1: or eighteen? And brook said, I'm only going to play nine,
Speaker 1: And Wyndham was trying to figure out if he was
Speaker 1: going to play eighteen or not. And Brooks said, listen,
Speaker 1: all I'm going to tell you is, having been on
Speaker 1: three of these, these are very very long weeks. Try
Speaker 1: and conserve your energy. Try and stay fresh because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. There was the gala last night,
Speaker 1: there's the opening ceremonies, there are team dinners, there are
Speaker 1: team meetings and the matches you know, Friday Saturday. There's
Speaker 1: morning sessions and afternoon sessions. So the guys that are
Speaker 1: teeing off in the morning tomorrow, they are going to
Speaker 1: be up incredibly early to get to the golf course.
Speaker 1: The traffic in Rome, let's just say, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of traffic, so the players are making sure that they
Speaker 1: a lot enough time. It took us the first day,
Speaker 1: our bus driver got lost. It took us almost two
Speaker 1: hours to get to the golf course. It's the golf
Speaker 1: course is about no traffic, about thirty to forty five
Speaker 1: minutes from the city center where everyone's staying. But with traffic,
Speaker 1: if there's an accident, it could be an hour and thirty.
Speaker 1: So that is a big part of the preparation. So listen,
Speaker 1: these are some of the coolest weeks of golf. And
Speaker 1: I have overloaded already on pizza and pasta. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 1: In you when you are at a Ryder Cup and
Speaker 1: you're lucky enough to be working with a player that
Speaker 1: is playing in a Ryder club like I am. It's
Speaker 1: very very special. I can't even imagine what it's like
Speaker 1: for the players. It's just got to be the coolest
Speaker 1: thing ever to put on a shirt, you know. Brooks
Speaker 1: got asked in his press conference earlier in the week,
Speaker 1: you feel like you're flying the flag for live and
Speaker 1: he said, no, I feel like I'm flying the flag
Speaker 1: for the American team and the USA is on my hat,
Speaker 1: and I think everybody here feels that way. I haven't
Speaker 1: noticed any you know, with Brooks being the only live
Speaker 1: guy on this team. You know, was there some animal
Speaker 1: that I haven't seen any of that I've seen Brooks,
Speaker 1: you know, hang out and do the same things that
Speaker 1: he always does with all of these guys. So Zach Johnson,
Speaker 1: Luke Donalds, how are they going to get the team ready?
Speaker 1: And how are the US team and the European side
Speaker 1: going to respond? It is going to be a very
Speaker 1: very interesting week. I for one, am so excited that
Speaker 1: this damn thing is starting. And like I said, golf
Speaker 1: course will play a role and who wins this. The
Speaker 1: captains will play a role and who wins this. But
Speaker 1: ultimately this will come down to the twelve players on
Speaker 1: the American side and the twelve players playing for Europe.
Speaker 1: How do they play, how do they handle the pressure,
Speaker 1: how do they respond to what is constantly happening on
Speaker 1: the golf course. That, to me is what makes these
Speaker 1: weeks so fascinating. And I've been at a lot of
Speaker 1: Ryder Cups, but my favorite part of the Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: are those late matches, right those matches that whether it's Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: even Sunday, where there's only really a couple of matches
Speaker 1: out on the golf course, they tend to be the
Speaker 1: pivotal matches and you basically have the entire American team, players, caddies, captains,
Speaker 1: vice captains, support, why, girlfriends, everybody associated with those teams.
Speaker 1: With the American team will be on one side of
Speaker 1: the fairway going down, and on the other side of
Speaker 1: the fairway the Euros will be there. When they get
Speaker 1: to the greens, everybody's sitting and you'll get to see
Speaker 1: a lot of this. And to me, I've been lucky
Speaker 1: enough to be a part and be around some of
Speaker 1: that atmosphere and it's just the coolest thing. It really
Speaker 1: really is, and these are very very special weeks and
Speaker 1: for the players that have been lucky enough to be
Speaker 1: involved in Ryder Cups, they are I think there are
Speaker 1: memories of a lifetime. I think you see players form
Speaker 1: bonds and friendships that last really.
Speaker 2: Their entire career.
Speaker 1: And just a cool, cool story from Hazeltine. It was
Speaker 1: Brooks's first Ryder Cup twenty eighteen and I told him
Speaker 1: when he turned pro, you don't ever want to miss
Speaker 1: one of these, and you'll understand once you get on
Speaker 1: one of these. And when he made the team in eighteen,
Speaker 1: it was really a life changing experience for him. But
Speaker 1: he played with Branson Edeker. They played very well together.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't think that they'd be friends, you wouldn't think
Speaker 1: that they'd get along, but they were just a great partnership.
Speaker 1: And I think Brent did a great job at kind
Speaker 1: of shepherding Brooks. It was a rookie, but a cool moment.
Speaker 1: At the end of Brooks's singles match, there was a
Speaker 1: cart there with one of the vice captains of someone
Speaker 1: from the US team and said, all right, where do
Speaker 1: you want to go? And he said, I want to
Speaker 1: go see Brent finish his match. I want to go
Speaker 1: see my partner and I think that is just so cool,
Speaker 1: and I think that speaks a lot to what these
Speaker 1: weeks are about. So if you're watching in the US,
Speaker 1: get your asses up early and watch. And I am
Speaker 1: very very excited for the twenty twenty three Ryder Cup.
Speaker 1: As I know everyone listening thanks for listening to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure that I could get through
Speaker 1: these practice rounds and get you all as much information
Speaker 1: as possible. Son of it which comes to you every Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We will see you next week. I sect the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three Ryder cop