Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
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Speaker 1: Today's episode is with the one and only Lawrence Donogan.
Speaker 1: Lawrence is a longtime golf journalist. He wrote for The
Speaker 1: Guardian and The Scotsman back in the day. Now he
Speaker 1: is one of the publishers of McKellar magazine, my favorite
Speaker 1: written magazine that exists on golf. It's wonderful, wonderful writing,
Speaker 1: and Lawrence has a ton of experience covering major championships,
Speaker 1: European Tour golf. A lot of the guys that are
Speaker 1: playing on this European team he covered over the year,
Speaker 1: and he's covered a fair share of Ryder Cups. So
Speaker 1: I thought he'd be a great perspective, a European perspective,
Speaker 1: to come on and do our traditional five Things podcast
Speaker 1: before a big event. So Lawrence uh is on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram. Follow him there, but also subscribe to his magazine.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. So, without further ado, here is Lawrence
Speaker 1: down again.
Speaker 2: I miss the green for example, I'm already upset when
Speaker 2: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 2: And when I find my ball in a egg Friday egg,
Speaker 2: the dreaded Frida egg fridagg Frida egg bride egg Lie,
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the course.
Speaker 1: Lawrence, welcome on.
Speaker 2: How you didn't hand it?
Speaker 1: Great to be on long overdue. You should have been
Speaker 1: on years ago. Wealth of you know, music knowledge, wealth
Speaker 1: of golf knowledge. You know, written about Ryder Cups for
Speaker 1: years and obviously major championships for years, and it really
Speaker 1: covered the sport of golf over this era that is
Speaker 1: still going on. I didn't think that we were still
Speaker 1: going to be talking about Lee Westwood and Ryder Cups
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one, But here we are.
Speaker 2: Isn't that amazing? Actually, I've got a very quickly. Lee
Speaker 2: Westwood was picked for the two thousand and one Ryder
Speaker 2: Cup and he was in great form and he went.
Speaker 2: He had absolutely well, being the mister Lee Westwood mega fan,
Speaker 2: you'll know, he had the worst slump of all time. Yes,
Speaker 2: And I remember, so it was delayed a year and
Speaker 2: I had to go up to Sahale for something. I
Speaker 2: was interviewing Monty or something, and I bumped into Lee
Speaker 2: Westwood on the first tea or whatever, and I said,
Speaker 2: how's it going? I said, oh, fuck, just terrible. And
Speaker 2: then he proceeded to hit this two iron straight into
Speaker 2: the trees and you're thinking, oh my god. And then
Speaker 2: lo and behold he gets to that ride a cup
Speaker 2: A year later or a couple months later after that,
Speaker 2: completely a form and Sam turns nurses him through and
Speaker 2: he's reborn, and here we are twenty years later, he's
Speaker 2: still flaming the Ryder Cup. What career? What player?
Speaker 1: I think like the slump. I'm drawn to the slump
Speaker 1: players like I find Jordan Speith extraordinarily more interesting now
Speaker 1: than he was when he was twenty two and on
Speaker 1: top of the world, Like now that he's gone through
Speaker 1: what was the doldrums. I mean, the guy almost fell
Speaker 1: out of the top one hundred in the world rankings,
Speaker 1: and I think now coming back from that, he's so
Speaker 1: much more compelling because he's somebody that has faced adversity
Speaker 1: and at times, I'm sure wondered if it was ever
Speaker 1: coming back. And Westwood, I think that's probably where a
Speaker 1: lot of my fandom from was the fact that he
Speaker 1: was this kind of a Starcross Superstar and all the
Speaker 1: near misses gout, you you know, and it makes you
Speaker 1: really feel for a guy because as golfers were all
Speaker 1: used to failing ninety nine percent of the time. And
Speaker 1: and that's the relatability that the professionals could gain is
Speaker 1: when they struggle the uh.
Speaker 2: And he's so kind of stoic the ship nook after
Speaker 2: the two thousand and nine open at Termany shipnuk as
Speaker 2: he does snuck into the locker room and got that pat.
Speaker 2: I don't you should go back and look at it,
Speaker 2: that great little vignette of Westwood staring intensely at the
Speaker 2: water cooler. You know, I can't believe because that was
Speaker 2: the one he should have won. I mean, he should
Speaker 2: have won that, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean there are a bunch that he should have won.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think if you talk to him,
Speaker 2: I think he feels that that that's the one. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he is actually I foresaw him. I was carrying on
Speaker 2: European tour in ninety six. I remember, this is how
Speaker 2: far back I go with Westwood. I remember when he
Speaker 2: was a fantastic putter. I think when he first came
Speaker 2: out on tour, he was a phenomenal putter, and I
Speaker 2: was caddying for a guy. We played with him in
Speaker 2: good catin terrible golf course in near Hamburg. His dad
Speaker 2: was pulling a trolley for him, and I swear to
Speaker 2: god West would shot sixty five one day, and I'd
Speaker 2: never seen anything better. And I just thought, this guy
Speaker 2: is going to win seventy three majors. He looked so good.
Speaker 2: But so here we are, got almost thirty years later.
Speaker 2: It's not amazing he's still going strong anyway.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, like, I don't think I think that's
Speaker 1: the thing, is like, longevity is such an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: I don't think like, I don't think longevity should necessarily
Speaker 1: be used for the greatest players of all time because
Speaker 1: I think like what you do in like say your
Speaker 1: ten year prime heyday is what should be trump all things.
Speaker 1: Is that that was like when you're in your at
Speaker 1: your best versus when other guys were at their best,
Speaker 1: like their peaks of their career. But at the same token,
Speaker 1: I think longevity longevity as speaks to just pure overall
Speaker 1: talent because they you know, the just the sheer ability
Speaker 1: to have it and still compete when you're forty seven,
Speaker 1: forty eight years old and make a Ryder Cup team.
Speaker 1: And I think this speaks to Phil. Phil talent wise
Speaker 1: is off the charts, and I think that's, you know something,
Speaker 1: This is the first year we don't have Phil in
Speaker 1: a Ryder Cup in you know, since the nineties.
Speaker 2: The I've got a theory. I mean, one of my
Speaker 2: great passions is development. Westwood was a very much a
Speaker 2: multi sport athlete. When he was a teenager, he was
Speaker 2: a great you called soccer football player, really good runner,
Speaker 2: he played all sorts of stuff and he wasn't There
Speaker 2: was a guy around when when Westwood was a junior
Speaker 2: in England there was another guy called Michael Welsh who
Speaker 2: was a superstar and they were very much contemporaries and
Speaker 2: if they were ever in tournaments, wels would always beat Westwood.
Speaker 2: So Westwood was never the best then. And I just
Speaker 2: think those kind of guys, they tend the guys who
Speaker 2: didn't really do like full on golf airly, those are
Speaker 2: the guys that can attend to last. I mean, I know,
Speaker 2: field it, but Phil's got this kind of he just
Speaker 2: loves golf more than anybody in the entire universe. I
Speaker 2: mean so, but Westwood still going strong, because I don't
Speaker 2: think he's not still not burnut it's not amazing that
Speaker 2: the he's a forty eight or forty nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the other thing with that when
Speaker 1: you play other sports, I think what also happens is
Speaker 1: you develop a really fierce competitiveness, which can which you
Speaker 1: have to be super competitive when you've made, you know,
Speaker 1: in Phil's case, tons of money you're older, like, there
Speaker 1: has to be some sort of competitive drive that in
Speaker 1: fire that burns, you know, because I think that's where
Speaker 1: we see some guys. They make a bunch of money,
Speaker 1: especially now with the PGA Tour the way it is,
Speaker 1: they make a ton of money, and it's easy to
Speaker 1: take your foot off the pedal a little bit. You're
Speaker 1: not working as hard, you know, maybe you have kids
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden it's like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I can hang out with my kids versus I could
Speaker 1: go practice is from nine to four.
Speaker 2: The Yeah. I listened to uhc donald on Knowling a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago. It was really I did I
Speaker 2: thought he was older. He said, I'm forty three and
Speaker 2: I still think I can do this, and that maybe
Speaker 2: I went and looked, I went and looked at his
Speaker 2: PG two. He'd made thirty six point five million on
Speaker 2: a PGA tour and he's forty three, and he said,
Speaker 2: I still think, you know, I still think he could
Speaker 2: do it. I still think I could win tournaments. I
Speaker 2: can win majors. It's so you've got to have someone
Speaker 2: else on top of just the talent. And Westwood's got it.
Speaker 2: Phil's got it.
Speaker 1: Well, I think obviously, ball striking is a big thing.
Speaker 1: Iron play, iron play endurers. You know you're never gonna
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be able to be the longest player
Speaker 1: once you hit thirty, like you you know, like speed
Speaker 1: is always going to favor the youth. So distance sure
Speaker 1: is a dominant force and becoming more and more dominant
Speaker 1: in the PGA tour. In distance the big thing this
Speaker 1: week at the Ryder Cup. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: the enduring talent is the ability. I always think the
Speaker 1: very best ball strikers. You know, when you're playing with
Speaker 1: a really great ball striker, is they never ever miss
Speaker 1: yardages on approach, plays pin high all day long.
Speaker 2: Well, when Donald was he kind of bit. Donald was short.
Speaker 2: When he was working World up Woman for fifty six weeks,
Speaker 2: he was short but he's talking about basically from one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five yards and end, it was up
Speaker 2: and down. That was it, guarantee sensely guaranteed number one
Speaker 2: putter on the PG two or three years in a row,
Speaker 2: I think top three for the next two five years
Speaker 2: as basically the best or one of the very best
Speaker 2: parts in the world.
Speaker 1: His approach play numbers for those years two they were
Speaker 1: I think his worst in five years was sixteenth, his
Speaker 1: worst rank of any of those three. So he'd always be,
Speaker 1: you know, one hundred and fiftieth in the world or
Speaker 1: worse in driving off the tee, but every other statistic
Speaker 1: he was top effectively top fifteen, and that's insane, is
Speaker 1: the all around skill. And it also it's so compelling.
Speaker 1: When I had him on our podcast and he talked
Speaker 1: about how playing with Rose at Marion was like a
Speaker 1: defining moment of his career, and you know, he walked
Speaker 1: off the course and thought, if I could just hit
Speaker 1: it like justin Rose, I would win some majors. And
Speaker 1: that's when he went down a path that kind of
Speaker 1: led to what we saw. He's tried to change his swing, and.
Speaker 2: I think then you go to Chuck Cook. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: looking for a mix of fifteen twenty yards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but it's super it's super interesting because then
Speaker 1: I've did some research. It might have been from one
Speaker 1: of your articles. After it was from one of your
Speaker 1: articles after Luke Donald won Wentworth in twenty eleven over
Speaker 1: Westwood and took number one, wrote there were a lot
Speaker 1: of Rose quotes talking about how impressive Luke Donald's consistency
Speaker 1: was and how he needed to be more consistent. And
Speaker 1: Rose then became this world class player, you know, shortly after,
Speaker 1: one of the most consistent players, you know, outside of Rory,
Speaker 1: the most consistent player from twenty in the twenty tens.
Speaker 1: And you know, then Donald plays with Rose at Marion
Speaker 1: and and he walks off the course thinking if I
Speaker 1: could just be like Justin Rose and and you know,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't work out for him, Which is it?
Speaker 1: Just golfers are the most They're the most envious people.
Speaker 2: You know they could be.
Speaker 1: They've been a final group of a major championship, you know,
Speaker 1: two of the best players in the world, and they
Speaker 1: look at the other guy across the across the t
Speaker 1: box and think about how they wish they could do
Speaker 1: things like the other guy could. When they're playing in
Speaker 1: the final group of the Major and they and that's
Speaker 1: I think the hard thing with the game is like,
Speaker 1: how do you get better? And you've got a kid
Speaker 1: that you know, one of the best juniors in the
Speaker 1: in the country obviously, yeah, but anyway, you know he's
Speaker 1: gonna play high division one golf and you've got but like,
Speaker 1: one of the things I always find interesting is, like
Speaker 1: you think about junior offers. It once you get to
Speaker 1: a certain level, golf gets so difficult to get better,
Speaker 1: and it really becomes who can figure out how to
Speaker 1: get better when you're already an elite and keep moving
Speaker 1: up as you get older.
Speaker 2: It's the great conundrum. I feel sorry for college coaches
Speaker 2: because they're essentially looking at a sixteen or sixteen and
Speaker 2: a seventeen year old kid and trying to project where
Speaker 2: they're going to be in two or three years time.
Speaker 2: It's you know, you look at some kids you can
Speaker 2: tell straight away. Look, for instance, you can look at
Speaker 2: Tommy Morrison, who's a seventeen year old kid. He's got
Speaker 2: six nine guy, right, Yeah, Actually I saw him at
Speaker 2: a Monday qualifier last week. You looked very impressive. It's huge, huge, actually,
Speaker 2: and I went to Olympia Fields and I was in
Speaker 2: Chicago on Saturday and went to Olympia Fields and it
Speaker 2: was really, I mean, god, a mighty look at the
Speaker 2: Oklahoma State team. Andy, my goodness. These guys are all giants.
Speaker 2: All of them are giants. So but to that extent,
Speaker 2: the college coaches just looking at size of kids.
Speaker 1: Speed, But well, it's like becoming like high school baseball
Speaker 1: when like college scholarships drafts, not necessarily the best pitcher
Speaker 1: in the area is going to get the best scholarship.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest one. It's the one that they see
Speaker 1: the most speed, the most you know, the most that
Speaker 1: they see the potential for the most electric stuff. It's
Speaker 1: like drafting. You know, these these high school kids that
Speaker 1: get drafted, they get drafted on projections rather than results.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll never forget I had a buddy
Speaker 1: that was one of the best pitchers in the area
Speaker 1: and he got passed over for scholarships to Division one.
Speaker 1: And I was always like, he's like, I'm just he
Speaker 1: was five to ten. You know, what's going to five
Speaker 1: to ten? How's he going to get better? And that's
Speaker 1: the thing I think with golf is they're looking as like,
Speaker 1: oh does this can this kid swing it one twenty five?
Speaker 1: And that's the big tie breaker between two kids that
Speaker 1: are similar in results.
Speaker 2: Well, the big I mean getting back to your point, though,
Speaker 2: the big thing is, you know, see and still the intangibles.
Speaker 2: I mean you can look at ten you go to
Speaker 2: the Junior Players Championship for instance, you know, see the
Speaker 2: top twenty kids in the States, and they're all great,
Speaker 2: great players. But I mean, how do you pick out,
Speaker 2: you know, apart from size, how do you pick out
Speaker 2: the one, you know who has the intangibles? You look
Speaker 2: at a sixteen year old Jordan Speed and you knew
Speaker 2: straight away, you know, I mean, this is a kid
Speaker 2: who couldn't really swing it, didn't really have much in
Speaker 2: the way of fundamentals because just had that inate ability
Speaker 2: to get the ball in the hole. But that's that's
Speaker 2: it's not always so clear when you're looking at it.
Speaker 2: It's so getting back to your point is it's so
Speaker 2: you know what what separates the great players? I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's all I mean.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean like a perfect example too, like is
Speaker 1: abe answers twelfth in the world and nobody, nobody would
Speaker 1: go and say I'm I'm taken a answer, But then
Speaker 1: you you look at it and I think it's I
Speaker 1: think he's two or three years running where he's made
Speaker 1: the least amount of bogies on tour, and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: like he's just very tidy, you know, like he's the
Speaker 1: tidiest player on tour. Like it makes the least amount
Speaker 1: of mistakes, you know, makes putts when he needs to.
Speaker 1: It's it's just, Yeah, that's the thing with golf is
Speaker 1: like everybody's got there. I think almost the idea I
Speaker 1: would take is finding the players that are most authentically them, right,
Speaker 1: because I think that's what golf so much is is
Speaker 1: like the players that play to their their own way
Speaker 1: are the ones that end up being the really the
Speaker 1: greatest players. Right is that Like you know, everybody's oh
Speaker 1: he's the next Sevvy, but like John Ram's John Ram,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and you could say, oh, we
Speaker 1: want to build a swing, a short swing with little
Speaker 1: moving parts, like, but guess what, that's John Rom's swing
Speaker 1: And that's because you know he we found out with
Speaker 1: the what I forgot, what ailment he has with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like his foot is the reason that his swing is
Speaker 1: the way it is, and it's like, well, that's just
Speaker 1: authentically his golf swing. You think about Bubba Watson never
Speaker 1: taking a golf lesson, like nobody's going to be the
Speaker 1: next Bubba Watson. Bubba Watston's one to one, and you
Speaker 1: think about the great players, they're almost all one of one's.
Speaker 2: Well, the pressures though, you know the pressures on kids
Speaker 2: now though, and there's so much information. I mean, there
Speaker 2: was a phase about eighteen months ago where you coat
Speaker 2: a junior golf tour and every kid in the rains
Speaker 2: was giving it the old George ginks knees.
Speaker 1: Separating that phase might fly, Hi maut real real quick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, getting back to your original party or
Speaker 2: your point and my point, you'll going back to Westwood
Speaker 2: and Michael Welsh. I mean, how did that happen? Michael
Speaker 2: Welsh was the can't miss kid. He really was. He
Speaker 2: could not miss and lo behold, Michael Welsh is now
Speaker 2: working for the Lee Westwood Foundation. I think I think
Speaker 2: he's a coach. He coaches kids in the Westwood Foundation.
Speaker 2: Really interesting guy and it's a real I always say
Speaker 2: Stacy Lewis keeping back to Stacy Lewis coach. I love
Speaker 2: Stacy Lewis. She said that nobody needs to be the
Speaker 2: best when you're fifteen, you don't, you know, and everybody's
Speaker 2: in such a you know, such a hurry these days.
Speaker 2: So you're right, everybody's in such a hurry. So what
Speaker 2: do you start when you start chasing a swing? You
Speaker 2: start chasing this coach, you start chasing that coach, this technique,
Speaker 2: you know, instead of just sticking with what you've got.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking at you over the medium in the
Speaker 2: long term. And again, the problem with college a lot
Speaker 2: of coaches are there. They're all about the moment. I
Speaker 2: spoke to Pete Counting about this once and he's seen.
Speaker 2: The problem with college golf in the station is it's
Speaker 2: about winning. I mean, if I'm a college coach, I'm
Speaker 2: desperate to it. If I don't win, I'm losing my job.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can understand it, but it's probably not
Speaker 2: the best, probably not the best for the kids in
Speaker 2: the program, because you know that coach is just coaching
Speaker 2: you win in the moment. If I'm a kid at
Speaker 2: college and thinking, well, I want to be I want
Speaker 2: to be ready for when I'm twenty three years old
Speaker 2: and trying to get on the PGA tour. So I
Speaker 2: want my development to be time for that moment. But
Speaker 2: the coach. The coach has different priorities. Anyway, it's a
Speaker 2: I think the long and Shore and Andy. It's a
Speaker 2: it's a complicated world out there, and now that of
Speaker 2: us have to we're not making it so we don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about it.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, now we're fifteen vic in. We haven't
Speaker 1: really talked about that. You know, there's so much Ryder
Speaker 1: Cup content out there. This might be a good departure
Speaker 1: for people, but we're doing our traditional five things. We
Speaker 1: do this before every major championship. We're extending it to
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup. Lawrence has provided five things. I've provided
Speaker 1: I've I've got five things ready to go. Well, this
Speaker 1: is now a sixth. I'm going to boot one out,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to Pigeon Tale. I'm gonna tie it
Speaker 1: together with what we were just talking about, youth. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the thing we've got. This US team is
Speaker 1: I think I saw a chart. It's the youngest team.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Europe is very a very old team. And obviously this
Speaker 1: is all based off of averages. So outliers like West
Speaker 1: Eve pull that average up. But y'all, you know, the
Speaker 1: US team is one of the is the youngest team
Speaker 1: I think that they've ever had. And what I find
Speaker 1: kind of most interesting about this in our discussion, what
Speaker 1: we talked about before, is like, there are these guys
Speaker 1: that are on these on this team that we are
Speaker 1: going to pencil in and we're gonna say these these
Speaker 1: are the next, you know, the next ten Ryder Cups
Speaker 1: or the next five Ryder Cups. These are gonna be
Speaker 1: the studs. But the reality and what we've learned with
Speaker 1: players like brooks Kopka is the guys that are the
Speaker 1: best at age twenty two, twenty three, twenty four aren't
Speaker 1: always the best at age twenty eight. Brooks Kopka was
Speaker 1: on nobody's Ryder Cup radar when he was twenty four,
Speaker 1: and now you know he is a four time major
Speaker 1: winner and seemingly will be a stalwart all the time.
Speaker 1: And obviously with the European guys, you got Victor Hovlin,
Speaker 1: who's probably, you know, the brightest young player in the
Speaker 1: euro corral. So youth is definitely a story this year,
Speaker 1: and I guess that ties together with Ryder Cup rookies,
Speaker 1: a term that I hate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I wonder if this kind of stuff martyrs anymore.
Speaker 2: I guess it's you know, see, if I'm a if
Speaker 2: I'm a twenty two year old American genius and I'm
Speaker 2: going to play in Europe, I think this youth doesn't matter,
Speaker 2: and advice for youth doesn't. I don't think of mars.
Speaker 2: I think what matters is you know what experienced you have.
Speaker 2: So Victor, I'm sure Victor Hoveland has played. I mean
Speaker 2: he went to Oklahoma State. I don't is that Oklahoma
Speaker 2: State near Yeah? Is it near Whistland Straits. I'm not
Speaker 2: a bit a right, okay, but you know, but it's
Speaker 2: close enough. But you again, I don't think age really marks.
Speaker 2: I think the difference is five years between the two.
Speaker 2: But I mean that's an average if you look at
Speaker 2: the record records. Again, I think European rookies tend to
Speaker 2: play a little bit better than American rookies. But again
Speaker 2: that's more of a function of the results of the
Speaker 2: of the of the Ryder Cups. I think it's it's
Speaker 2: one of these subjects that again, it's a long four
Speaker 2: days before the Ryder Cup starts. I mean, we all
Speaker 2: get there on a Monday, You've got Mondays. You'll get
Speaker 2: four or five days before you get a golf ball
Speaker 2: hitting anger. So it's just stuff to talk about. Rookies
Speaker 2: is one of the things everybody talks about. But you
Speaker 2: know what, I'm not sure it marters Andy, you know,
Speaker 2: does it?
Speaker 1: I go back to Harrington's quote, my favorite quote in
Speaker 1: all sports this year that I've heard where he said it,
Speaker 1: I believe was that the US Open, or maybe I
Speaker 1: think it was the US Open.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, experiences and all it's cracked up to be. With experience,
Speaker 1: you lose innocence. I think there's something big with the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup because I think the rookies are the most
Speaker 1: excited to be there of all the players. We saw
Speaker 1: it with Brooks Kopka's quotes that were very apathetic, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think we've seen it over the history. We
Speaker 1: saw Tiger and Phil spoke out vehemently about you know,
Speaker 1: there's some angst about the Ryder Cup. Sometimes with these
Speaker 1: players that play a lot of times, they see how
Speaker 1: much money is being made and not a lot of
Speaker 1: money being made for them. So I think that a
Speaker 1: rookie is so excited to be there that there's almost
Speaker 1: a youthful exuberance. That's an advantage. And then you go
Speaker 1: down and you look at the rookies, there's like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many rookies this year, but are we is
Speaker 1: calin Markawa who's won two majors rookies.
Speaker 2: That was my point. I was trying to very and
Speaker 2: articulately me the only thing about the hunting is, well,
Speaker 2: guess what, it's hardly. I mean, he's got I think
Speaker 2: he's got a cut. He's got Bert, and he's got Hofland.
Speaker 1: And he's got Shane Lowry Shane, that's a joke.
Speaker 2: The other thing about but you know, I guarantee you this,
Speaker 2: and he you know, he had three picks right, and
Speaker 2: Garcia and Porler were told long ago that they were
Speaker 2: going to play. And there's no way that burnt Wisberger
Speaker 2: would have got a pick, no chance, no chance that
Speaker 2: pick would have gone to If Lowry had snuck in
Speaker 2: in the ninth spot, that pick would have gone to
Speaker 2: Justin Rose. So Harrington might be saying one thing. He talking,
Speaker 2: he's talking about both sides of his mouth, because there's
Speaker 2: again he's I think, I sue it's quite interesting that
Speaker 2: might say something you know about what the Europeans think
Speaker 2: of experience and how important experiences and how a little
Speaker 2: story they put in this puppy dog enthusiasm that you
Speaker 2: seem to be so enamored with.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's the thing, is that you had
Speaker 1: some choices, Like he could have taken restless Hoguard Who've
Speaker 1: been you know, that would have been your youth pick
Speaker 1: if they wanted to make a youth pick. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I think like they're in a situation
Speaker 1: that Euros have the advantage of, like if they lose
Speaker 1: this one, it's not a big deal. If the Americans
Speaker 1: lose this one, it is it is a crisis. I mean,
Speaker 1: they have at one on your they have one on
Speaker 1: European soil. By the time Italy's played in thirty years,
Speaker 1: and it's I mean, the the Euros have been picking
Speaker 1: off ones in America every so often, so it's I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a this is a must win, and the
Speaker 1: heroes get to like they could kind of nobody's critiquing
Speaker 1: the euro way of doing building a team like they
Speaker 1: could do it however they want, because they the proof's
Speaker 1: been in the pudding recently. Now for a quick word
Speaker 1: about our pro shop. Hey, you know this week we
Speaker 1: are doing a big print sale. We've got photos of
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Speaker 1: we're doing twenty percent off. Use the promo code RC
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Speaker 1: and you can shop our print selection.
Speaker 2: We've got a ton of golf courses.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the total amount is, but we're
Speaker 1: getting more and a more up there every day. So
Speaker 1: visit proshop dot Thefridagg dot com and use the promo
Speaker 1: code RC twenty twenty for twenty percent off all print
Speaker 1: purchases this Ryder Cup week. Now back to Lawrence don again.
Speaker 2: Did you see the strict Prince. I guess that's one
Speaker 2: of my talking points, but I would.
Speaker 1: Going do it. This is where we're on from rookies.
Speaker 2: Well, I was really struck by the opening press conference yesterday,
Speaker 2: like a guy who did not want to be there,
Speaker 2: and he was he was talking about this about this
Speaker 2: h you know, I think that he said, I think
Speaker 2: the captain SyES a thankless job. Do you believe that?
Speaker 2: What was the other one? Uh? Yeah, talking about being
Speaker 2: a captain. We get blamed if you lose and the
Speaker 2: players got all the credit if we win. Does that
Speaker 2: seem like a guy who's kind of motivated to be
Speaker 2: there and ready to motivate other people in a way.
Speaker 1: You got to appreciate the authenticity because it's so true.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's gonna be his fault. There are
Speaker 1: people are already throwing shots at Stricker. I saw Ben
Speaker 1: Coley was tweeting that, like this seems like a guy
Speaker 1: that has no plan, you know, and obviously that the
Speaker 1: Tom Watson uh situation years ago where Paul McGinley just,
Speaker 1: you know, they everybody talked about how Paul McGinley just
Speaker 1: ran circles around Watson and everything was gut feel and
Speaker 1: there was no plan. I mean, I think this this
Speaker 1: kind of like is the overarching thing with Americans is
Speaker 1: in general, is like it becomes a buddy system. This
Speaker 1: was one of my things, is a buddy system versus
Speaker 1: a like, hey, let's put the best team together. The
Speaker 1: captain of the American team is not in a position
Speaker 1: of power. The players are the ones on the American
Speaker 1: team that run the team, and j T and Speith
Speaker 1: are playing together. That's that's that was known before, but
Speaker 1: you know, when you think about it. And we did
Speaker 1: a podcast with Joe Joseph Lamanna, who's he does really
Speaker 1: good data work. He talked about how like you want
Speaker 1: to put different players together, and it'd be really interesting
Speaker 1: with Spieth and Morico. You got two of the best
Speaker 1: approach players in the world, the two best approach players
Speaker 1: on either side. You know, I think you could put
Speaker 1: rom in there as well. But wouldn't it be fun
Speaker 1: to watch those guys hit teach, hit hit approach shots
Speaker 1: from Dustin Johnson or Brooks or Bryson Deshamba's drives, like
Speaker 1: the two best drivers on the roster, Like that might
Speaker 1: be a really good pairing. But instead you're gonna put
Speaker 1: them with Justin Thomas, who's who can be a very
Speaker 1: good driver the golf ball, but is a little erratic
Speaker 1: because their buddies. It would be like the war's starting.
Speaker 1: Who do they have Quinn Cook over Klay Thompson because
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's buddies with him.
Speaker 2: Our structures falling apart and a year now you've jumped
Speaker 2: onto point seventeen somewhere else. I mean, we're this is
Speaker 2: this is the point.
Speaker 1: There's a point of the five things and they bleed
Speaker 1: into each other.
Speaker 2: Just going back to the Striker things, right, you know,
Speaker 2: having coverardies from a Euro's per perspective over the years,
Speaker 2: it's I can't give a head rounded. Steve Striker was
Speaker 2: playing and contending in a Champions Tour event on Sunday.
Speaker 2: It's like the week of the Ryder Cup, the week
Speaker 2: the whole thing starts. See if the European captain had
Speaker 2: been involved in such a way, chaos would have ensued.
Speaker 2: There would have been there would have been a national
Speaker 2: inquiry into this stuff. It's absolutely extraordinary that he was
Speaker 2: playing and contended on a tour but on Sunday, and
Speaker 2: then he rolls into town on Monday, gives a press conference.
Speaker 2: The main issues around an American team, obviously, the big
Speaker 2: feud is what one but is kept pulled out the
Speaker 2: Tour Championship three weeks ago. Is he injured? So he
Speaker 2: gets asked and Stricker says, well, I haven't. I haven't
Speaker 2: seen them. I haven't seen them yet, but I believe
Speaker 2: he's he's here. So what does that say about the
Speaker 2: level of engagement and the level of you know, planning.
Speaker 2: Does he have a contingency plan? You know Brooks, you know,
Speaker 2: there's another three days to go. Brooks might injure himself again.
Speaker 2: But I was really struck for that pre I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, you know this looks a bit You're right,
Speaker 2: you brought it up Tom Tom Watson. I think there's
Speaker 2: a touch of the Tom Watson's about this.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the he's the captain because the Ryder
Speaker 1: cups in Wisconsin. He's from Wisconsin. That's like that.
Speaker 2: He's not the captain. Well, he has done a bunch
Speaker 2: of vice captaincies, I guess, but he's you know, the
Speaker 2: kind of whole succession thing European team is really I
Speaker 2: mean it was chaotic back in the day. I mean
Speaker 2: I remember when it was chaotic, but it really has
Speaker 2: been honed into a fine tuned machine at this stage.
Speaker 2: You know, he is he asked about. Yeah, he started
Speaker 2: talking about cheeseheads and whatever. I was. I was surprised.
Speaker 2: I like Stricker. He's seems like a really nice guy
Speaker 2: and my dealings with them he has always been so
Speaker 2: helpful and polite and you know, not terribly interesting, but
Speaker 2: I was, I was like, wow, because his game is
Speaker 2: you look at as a golfer, a very meticulous player,
Speaker 2: you know, very tidy, and you would think, well, there's
Speaker 2: a guy who you know, knows what he's at and
Speaker 2: knows knows what he's doing and it's all kind of
Speaker 2: planned out. Actually going back to he's another guy for
Speaker 2: your slump. You should like him. He went through that
Speaker 2: terrible slum.
Speaker 1: Yes, well I went to University of Illinois. He's a
Speaker 1: LIONI great, so, you know, but I think like one
Speaker 1: of the things that personality wise, right, you think about
Speaker 1: like the captains that have like the right personality, and
Speaker 1: it's somebody that's thoughtful and planning but not afraid to
Speaker 1: like speak up and say this is the way things
Speaker 1: are going to be and to me and this goes
Speaker 1: without ever, you know, no personal connection. I don't know this,
Speaker 1: but Stricter just seems like a guy that kind of
Speaker 1: is more of a goat, Like he's a guy that
Speaker 1: can hang out with anybody, get along with everybody, but
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be the guy that's gonna be like, no,
Speaker 1: this is the way it is. And in a way,
Speaker 1: I think that's what you kind of need, especially for
Speaker 1: the American team, is somebody that can listen, that can relate,
Speaker 1: that can communicate with these guys, which is where Watson
Speaker 1: really fell short. He didn't really communicate, well, he didn't listen,
Speaker 1: but then also be like, but we're gonna do it
Speaker 1: this way because this is how it makes sense, you know,
Speaker 1: versus the you know, oh, we're just gonna let the
Speaker 1: inmates run the asylum, and you might not get the
Speaker 1: most out of these teams. Like on paper, these players
Speaker 1: are are far superior to Europe. Yeah, and every year
Speaker 1: for recent times that's been the case. But that advantage
Speaker 1: can get quickly because it's not a huge advantage. We're
Speaker 1: talking about golf advantage, like we see it every year
Speaker 1: in the world match play, like number fifty he beats
Speaker 1: number ten, you know, and people are, oh, fifty over ten,
Speaker 1: like that's that's not a big deal because the margins
Speaker 1: are so small. If you just work your team and
Speaker 1: your pairing smart, you can your analytics can make up
Speaker 1: the disadvantage and talent really quickly.
Speaker 2: In team golf, yeah, the Europeans have understood that for
Speaker 2: a long time. But it is all about the Famously
Speaker 2: in the you you know, the great Britain cycling team
Speaker 2: had a guy called David Belts. Further think the guy's
Speaker 2: name was, and he was a legendary and turned British
Speaker 2: cycling into the greatest Olympic force ever. And his whole
Speaker 2: thing was about marginal gains. And it is. The captaincy
Speaker 2: is a small thing, but it is a is another
Speaker 2: marginal gain. Do you know you ever heard them McGinley
Speaker 2: talking about Bernard Langer's captaincy in two thousand and four.
Speaker 2: I mean, I thought if Stricker would be a he
Speaker 2: would be like a Bernard Langer captaincy. But what he
Speaker 2: lacks that Langer had was just a kind of presence
Speaker 2: and a real respect. I mean those European guys actually
Speaker 2: the race McGinley, Montgomery, all those guys back that they
Speaker 2: all kind of they so respected Langer and he was
Speaker 2: a kind of quiet, not a guy who had a
Speaker 2: lot of kind of stage presence. But but you know
Speaker 2: mcginnley was talking about I heard him on a podcast
Speaker 2: usually talking about like the way Langer captain and it
Speaker 2: was very, very clever. He gave a particular anecdote I
Speaker 2: won't I won't repeat, but he basically he was telling
Speaker 2: guys what club they were hitting on the par threes.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine Steve Stricker standing there, Tom Brooks, Keeka
Speaker 2: or whoever you know, they don't hit that nine, arn
Speaker 2: hit a wedge because I mean, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: So he is the kind of Bernard Langer type captain
Speaker 2: without the kind of you know, extru not I'm sure
Speaker 2: he has the respect of the of the of his players,
Speaker 2: but you know, in the sense that Langer is revered
Speaker 2: by European golfers, absolutely revered, and I don't. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure Steve Stricker is. And that might be a problem
Speaker 2: for him, and he certainly isn't in the initial skirmishings.
Speaker 2: He certainly hasn't impressed me.
Speaker 1: I think he got so much clout and Ryder Cups
Speaker 1: because he was the guy that that had so success
Speaker 1: with Tiger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he was the only guy that Yeah, he
Speaker 2: was the only guy that the Tiger liked to play with,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's like where he doesn't. He didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, it's rare. He didn't win a major championship.
Speaker 1: He was a very good player, but I think that
Speaker 1: was like his biggest noteworthy Ryder Cup thing was that
Speaker 1: he he played well with Tiger. And playing well with
Speaker 1: Tiger's a lot different than putting together like pairings based
Speaker 1: off of like who you know, like just because you
Speaker 1: got like that's that's the merit of his captaincy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the uh and yeah, right about the buddies. You know,
Speaker 2: I saw Scott Scheffler was on did the press conference
Speaker 2: this morning. He was talking about, oh yeah, well analytics
Speaker 2: and starts have being used, you know, to to determine pairings.
Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, yeah, maybe in your case, Scotty, but
Speaker 2: you know, I'll believe it when JT and Spieth don't
Speaker 2: play together. Yeah, so yeah, that'll be the tell whether
Speaker 2: or not maybe it will surprise at all.
Speaker 1: And I think like analytically those two problems match up
Speaker 1: pretty well. But you know, Speth is a guy that
Speaker 1: I think that you should be. That's that's a that's
Speaker 1: a guy that's so good at everything except for driving
Speaker 1: the golf ball. Yeah, that he should be one that
Speaker 1: should be explored and used in a variety of different ways.
Speaker 1: Like that's that's a guy that's a malleable piece that
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily need you don't need to lock these pairings in.
Speaker 1: You know, we've seen success with people that lock pairings in.
Speaker 1: But you can play with somebody different and forceomes than
Speaker 1: four ball. That's where I think Speed's so valuable is
Speaker 1: in foursomes. That's where he's a valuable chess piece. And JT,
Speaker 1: you know, he played really well at the Players, but
Speaker 1: he hasn't had that good of year and and I
Speaker 1: think that's that's something that like he's not in the
Speaker 1: best form. I don't know, if you're making the US
Speaker 1: team and you've got you know, four or five guys
Speaker 1: that are going to play four to five sessions, if
Speaker 1: JT's one of those guys.
Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, you're right about Speed. But I you know,
Speaker 2: great film. By the way, watched the film last night
Speaker 2: on Wistley Straits. I can't remember the par threes are
Speaker 2: are the odd numbers or even numbers or the mixed up.
Speaker 1: So they got they've got whole three, seven, twelve, and seventeen,
Speaker 1: so three of the four par threes.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, speak in the foursums is awesome, isn't he? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean he plays the odd holes. You know, he
Speaker 2: tees off on the odd holes, so he gets three
Speaker 2: of the par threes and then he's hitting he's sitting
Speaker 2: the approaches into nine other holes, so he's basically hitting
Speaker 2: approach shots into twelve holes. You know what advantage that is.
Speaker 1: Well, and then also think about having him hit approach
Speaker 1: shots on to the par five after Bryson hits a
Speaker 1: T shot or DJ Yeah exactly, you know, having him
Speaker 1: hit approach shot. They're eights of five hundred yard par four,
Speaker 1: so he's on the evens. They're hitting approaches. You know
Speaker 1: five is a part part five, but you'd want to
Speaker 1: get that, but you know, you just there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things. Like the other thing is like the driveable
Speaker 1: par fours. There's drivable par fours out there, six, ten,
Speaker 1: and fourteen or conceivably driveable. So you could pair Speith
Speaker 1: with Bryson, who could conceivably drive three of the par
Speaker 1: fours and even holes, and then you get Speith hitting
Speaker 1: approach shots on all of them and is that like
Speaker 1: Bryson is a slouch when it comes to iron play either.
Speaker 2: The The other thing is, you know Speith hits a
Speaker 2: crooked drive. You know, somebody moves up into around the
Speaker 2: green and will maybe come on. And as talking about
Speaker 2: the golf course, you know you get in the fringes
Speaker 2: and the approaches and you know there's not many box
Speaker 2: standard chips on that golf course. So who do you
Speaker 2: want hitting the third shot? You know you want speed
Speaker 2: hitting the third shot because he's got a great imagination
Speaker 2: and that kind of stuff. I mean, he is a perfect,
Speaker 2: absolutely perfect Force's partner. You'd play them in both four
Speaker 2: balls and obviously singles. I mean he he would be
Speaker 2: the one American guy would play five times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I mean I just that's where I
Speaker 1: think it's shortsighted to just lock him in. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of Patrick Reid's legacy as a Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: partner came from George playing with George Spain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Glenn Eagles, the actually just talking I was looking
Speaker 2: at some starts this morning, just talking about my McKellar partner.
Speaker 2: Tom Dunmans tell me he knows that it wasn't straits
Speaker 2: really well and he was talking about these little pitch
Speaker 2: shots in and around the green. You know, because of
Speaker 2: the shaping, it's very curious. There's not many flat eyes
Speaker 2: sharp yeah, so read. I mean, who's a great scrambler.
Speaker 2: Who's one of the best scramblers in the game, Patrick Reid?
Speaker 2: You know. So the obviously they just didn't want to
Speaker 2: take him because he wasn't a buddy. But you know, statistically,
Speaker 2: you might think, well.
Speaker 1: I think it was I think it was time for
Speaker 1: the Captain America era and just base as an American
Speaker 1: after going through Paris and what he did in Australia,
Speaker 1: it was time for it to be over time.
Speaker 2: No, no, but you know what I mean, they would
Speaker 2: just get back to the you know, the lack of
Speaker 2: attention to detail. That might be the case of the
Speaker 2: American team that you know, you could make a strong
Speaker 2: statistical case allying statistics on the golf course set up
Speaker 2: to make the case for Reed being included. But there
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 1: Well, I hate to just keep throwing mine out there,
Speaker 1: but we'll get we're talking about statistics course fit. Obviously,
Speaker 1: everybody's been talking about distance being a huge advantage. I
Speaker 1: don't necessarily I think it is a huge it's a
Speaker 1: huge advantage everywhere like distances. You know, obviously this comes
Speaker 1: from data. Golf has a course fit tool and it
Speaker 1: exkews to distance here. But that being said, if you
Speaker 1: go look at like PGA Championship leader boards, there is
Speaker 1: a very good mix of players on the board. You
Speaker 1: have long hitters. Jason Day obviously in the most recent one,
Speaker 1: really overpowered the golf course and shot twenty under. But
Speaker 1: then you have Jordan Speith and Brendan Grace and Justin Rose.
Speaker 1: And Rose was long, he wasn't that long. But Brenda
Speaker 1: Grace and Jordan Speed never been confused with being long.
Speaker 1: They're great approach players. And same with Justin Rose, He's
Speaker 1: a great approach player. So I think what you see,
Speaker 1: and this is the case with so many of Die's
Speaker 1: golf courses, and especially because of his green designs, and
Speaker 1: I think Whistling Straits has some of his most eccentric greens,
Speaker 1: Like they have a lot of slopes, little sections. Approach
Speaker 1: play is still going to be king and where the
Speaker 1: distance is a huge advantage. But if you miss the
Speaker 1: fairways because of the shaping that we were just talking
Speaker 1: about around the greens, the same goes for off the fairway,
Speaker 1: like a miss fairway at Whistling Straits carries a huge
Speaker 1: penalty if you miss the corridor, like obviously you have
Speaker 1: the short rough that the fairways are weighed more narrow
Speaker 1: than they should be. You know, it should all be
Speaker 1: fairway there. But once you get off that corridor, just
Speaker 1: like Kiowa Island, there's a huge associated penalty for missing that.
Speaker 1: And we saw bombers struggle at Kiowa. It was I
Speaker 1: think it's a similar of Aaron Hills where we saw
Speaker 1: like bombers played well, but the Bombers that hit the
Speaker 1: ball straight that week played well. It's not just a
Speaker 1: distance wins all thing. You still have to hit it
Speaker 1: into the corridor.
Speaker 2: See I think, I mean, I take all of those
Speaker 2: points onboard. You're dead right. Martin Kimer wasn't a long hitter,
Speaker 2: but now he wasn't a long hitter, not in fact
Speaker 2: he had he won the Darren Clark wasn't. Do you
Speaker 2: know what, though, I think that the golf course is
Speaker 2: a neutral venue. I think it's kind of neutral, and
Speaker 2: but most of that comes down to familiar familiarity because
Speaker 2: none of these guys have played this golf course now
Speaker 2: that you go with French. That's the genius of European venues, right,
Speaker 2: because all the guys have played all these golf courses. Yes,
Speaker 2: I mean been going to the Golf Nationale for twenty years.
Speaker 2: I mean I caddied at the Golf Nationale in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety six. So that's how far back it goes. The
Speaker 2: big looking ahead to twenty twenty three. That's a new
Speaker 2: golf course. The Americans might have a chance there because
Speaker 2: the European players will not have seen that golf course.
Speaker 2: Nobody will go, well, we'll go the year of the
Speaker 2: ride A Cup, I guess, but none of the European
Speaker 2: players will have seen that golf course. Similarly, here, nobody's
Speaker 2: seeing this golf course. You know, you can look back
Speaker 2: at what's the point in looking back at the PGA
Speaker 2: Championship in twenty fifteen, I mean, it doesn't happen. I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess it tells us what kind of player prevails here,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't really doesn't tell as much about these
Speaker 2: particular players and how they'll play there. Again, nobody knows
Speaker 2: the golf course. So once again, I mean it happened
Speaker 2: to twenty twelve, and my diner. The way that the
Speaker 2: course set up was a kind of neutral setup. I mean,
Speaker 2: by choosing this golf course, the PGA of America have
Speaker 2: given you Europe more of a chance of actually winning again.
Speaker 2: It's one of those little marginal games.
Speaker 1: I think. The other thing with that is it the
Speaker 1: world rankings are determined by who plays struck play the best,
Speaker 1: and match play is a different bast totally. And I
Speaker 1: think one of the things with match play is that
Speaker 1: the guy you don't want to face in match play
Speaker 1: isn't necessary, isn't necessarily like the guy that wins three
Speaker 1: times a year and then has a bunch of miscuts.
Speaker 1: It's the guy that finishes like T twenty T thirty
Speaker 1: every week is a really hard guy to play a
Speaker 1: match play because you know that they play about the
Speaker 1: same level every time they go out. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think this gets lost a little like
Speaker 1: you know, what you get rewarded for on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: even the European Tour or the uh definitely in the
Speaker 1: OWGR is you're really good finishes. There's no negative penalty
Speaker 1: for miscuts, and when you play poorly in match play,
Speaker 1: you get beat down. You just lose, right, and the
Speaker 1: guys that just shoot sixty eight, maybe they don't shoot
Speaker 1: sixty five like you, you might get beat. But like that,
Speaker 1: that steady golfer is one of the things that is
Speaker 1: really tough. And you look at like the guys who's
Speaker 1: played really well, like Molinari and Fleetwood are you know,
Speaker 1: Fleetwood's playing some of the worst golf that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the last five years. But you know, like those
Speaker 1: two guys are steady golfers. They're very consistent, reliable. Stenson
Speaker 1: Rose like those those are really really consistent golfers. Their
Speaker 1: best might not be as good as Dustin Dustin Johnson,
Speaker 1: who's a very steady I'd say he's one of the
Speaker 1: most steady golfers. Justin Thomas would be a good camp Like,
Speaker 1: their best isn't as good as Justin Thomas's best, but
Speaker 1: they might be a little bit steadier.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That again, I'm not gonna say anything original here,
Speaker 2: but having me and my kid went to the UK
Speaker 2: for the summer. He was playing at all these kind
Speaker 2: of big junior amateur events and it is amazing the
Speaker 2: amount of match player that's played over there. I don't care,
Speaker 2: you know, we all play obviously we play max play
Speaker 2: at home, but over there, every single elite junior amateur
Speaker 2: event is thirty six holes, stroke play top sixty four guys,
Speaker 2: and then you go at it and it's it's two
Speaker 2: rounds a day. You know, not now my kids are
Speaker 2: our kid Rather he played in this. It's men's amateur, right,
Speaker 2: So made the cutting a number number sixty seed. And
Speaker 2: then you get to the next day and it's thirty
Speaker 2: six holes. You get through that, and it's thirty six
Speaker 2: holes the next day, and it's just a it's just
Speaker 2: a different it's so interesting, it's such a different game,
Speaker 2: and it's amazing. It's amazing, and you're dead right, you
Speaker 2: know the whole thing. Obviously, I have no experience of
Speaker 2: elite amateur golf. Now he's only sixteen. So you speak
Speaker 2: to guys who've been through the system and the whole thing.
Speaker 2: They say, don't this speaks to your point. Don't give
Speaker 2: holes away. Don't give holes away. You know, great if
Speaker 2: you make a birdy, but do not just give a
Speaker 2: hole away. And this speaks to that. You know, the
Speaker 2: guy who has the narrow band of performance, you know,
Speaker 2: shoots bir days and never shoots worse than a bogey
Speaker 2: has got a distinct advantage over the guy who's hitting
Speaker 2: shooting eagles and double bowgies. I mean, it really is.
Speaker 2: And those guys who who operate within the narrow band
Speaker 2: of performance tend to do really I mean, look at
Speaker 2: Luke Donald's. Look at look Donald's ride a Cup record
Speaker 2: is phenomenal. Then there's a guy that's not going to
Speaker 2: stand in the first team blow you away. You know,
Speaker 2: just looking at him, you think, well, he's you know,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have much physical presence. Oh, he doesn't hurt
Speaker 2: it that far, but my goodness, I mean he's there's
Speaker 2: a guy who who are by the rule don't don't
Speaker 2: give holes away what I ride a cup player he's been.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I completely agree. It's like it's different. It's a
Speaker 1: different format. Yeah, and it's one that the US doesn't play.
Speaker 1: Like whether or not you say, oh it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: it does matter. It's so much different. You know, I played,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was playing amateur golf, I played
Speaker 1: a lot of stroke play. But then you know, some
Speaker 1: of our championships in the state were match play, and
Speaker 1: when you get into match play, it was so much different,
Speaker 1: Like you feel like a fish out of water.
Speaker 2: And but so much more fun. It's absolutely phenomenal. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't want to go on about this, but Scottish
Speaker 2: Men's Avateur was played at this golf course called Mrker
Speaker 2: I swear to God Andy you would look up. It's
Speaker 2: a magnificent golf course and it's it's one of these
Speaker 2: traditional links that you're good. You go down wind for
Speaker 2: the first few you know, first nine, and so now
Speaker 2: is playing this kid We play good plays at East Tennessee.
Speaker 2: This kid couldn't play in the wind. You can play
Speaker 2: heading into the wind and if that's four up at
Speaker 2: the turn and you're thinking, oh this okay, this is
Speaker 2: this is easy, and then down wind it's down and
Speaker 2: the guy because a phenomenal player and it goes to
Speaker 2: the last hole. So you know that whole kind of
Speaker 2: so you're never out of it. In match play it's
Speaker 2: such a you know, if you're four shots behind the
Speaker 2: guy at the turn and stroke play, you're done. You're
Speaker 2: not coming back. You know that elite level, you're not
Speaker 2: coming back. But in match play it's there's always that
Speaker 2: little chance and it's you know, that's it's so intriguing,
Speaker 2: especially you're in the middle of it. For these guys,
Speaker 2: it must be phenomenal.
Speaker 1: The thing that happens when you when you're uncomfortable. And
Speaker 1: this this is whether you know, golf courses make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Situations make you uncomfortable. And one of the things for
Speaker 1: match plays, a different format, it makes you uncomfortable if
Speaker 1: you're used to playing stroke play, because you're not used
Speaker 1: to factoring in what your opponent's doing, Like it makes
Speaker 1: you nervy, Like it's you're one hundred yards away and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you might be thinking about, like
Speaker 1: I just have to hit this on the green. That's
Speaker 1: not the way you think in stroke play. You're thinking
Speaker 1: about hitting it close, like yeah, you know. In whatever
Speaker 1: it does, it makes you uncomfortable. And that's the thing
Speaker 1: that I think people overlook. It's like, oh, the US
Speaker 1: has just played bad. Maybe they've just been uncomfortable, and
Speaker 1: that I don't think there's anything they've done anything in
Speaker 1: the last three years that would make them more comfortable
Speaker 1: than they were, like like Golf National And I think
Speaker 1: that's like the thing that I'm kind of looking at.
Speaker 1: What's your next thing, Let's let's get to some of
Speaker 1: yours here.
Speaker 2: Well, uh oh, This is really intriguing to me, actually
Speaker 2: is the uh is a succession? I mean, I know
Speaker 2: it's nothing to do with the golf, but this, you
Speaker 2: know this, you know who's the next year captains? Because
Speaker 2: this is always this has been an issue. We talk
Speaker 2: about the smooth process of European captaincy through the years,
Speaker 2: but this, this has always been looming that this generation.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you look at it mid forties to
Speaker 2: high forties, who have you got You've got or forty
Speaker 2: to forty eight or whatever. You've got Rose, You've got Pool,
Speaker 2: You've got Stenson, You've got donald You've got uh Westwood,
Speaker 2: You've got h There's a couple more McDowell, McDon great
Speaker 2: McDowell was another one.
Speaker 1: Donaldson, Jamie Donaldson.
Speaker 2: Hey don't knock Jamie Donalds in a fine performance at
Speaker 2: glen Egos.
Speaker 1: By the way, he played great at Wentworth last week.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, but but you know you can do the
Speaker 2: maths or math as you would say, there's there's four
Speaker 2: spots and there seven or eight guys, so that's going
Speaker 2: top you. Oh yeah, of course I forgot about Sergio.
Speaker 1: He's going to be a captain one here. That might
Speaker 1: be when the euro team turns into the American team.
Speaker 2: But you know, work it out, you know. But the
Speaker 2: gossip is, although I saw West would you know, it's
Speaker 2: long been believed that West Woo would step in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three in Italy. But you know he was talking
Speaker 2: the other day, well I might be a player in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. So there's I look at that Coats,
Speaker 2: I think, oh, there's he's working in angle. There's something
Speaker 2: because I speaking to quite a prominent agent in the
Speaker 2: European to the other day and he was this is
Speaker 2: the captains is worth a lot of money. I mean
Speaker 2: a lot of money. I seen what's worship and Paul
Speaker 2: McGinley a pears phase. Paul McGinley is now a court
Speaker 2: of quotes motivational speaker. I mean he has parlayed and
Speaker 2: good on him. He has parlayed his twenty fourteen captaincy
Speaker 2: and a career as a motivational speaker. Is a lecturer
Speaker 2: at some post university in London. He he's now the
Speaker 2: lead you were talking about I think before we came on,
Speaker 2: But who gets to who's the lead? Commentators that Paul
Speaker 2: McGinley is the lead analyst on Sky. Now you know
Speaker 2: and that you know, you can't tell me that he's
Speaker 2: not the lead anaalist on sky because it's all because
Speaker 2: he was a very very successful Ryder Cup captain. So
Speaker 2: I asked this agent and you know, what do you
Speaker 2: think is what you know to a guy like McGinley,
Speaker 2: And he said, you know, five million, you know, so
Speaker 2: the kind of low the kind of estimate low range
Speaker 2: is you know, around about a million somebody like beyond
Speaker 2: who's you know, not gone much of a personality, not
Speaker 2: very well liked, but you can go up to five
Speaker 2: six seven. I mean, it's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: So these guys, it essentially gives you a two year relevance, yes,
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't otherwise have you You you can sell
Speaker 1: sponsorships off of that, you can book like all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you're a hot commodity for public speaking. Like
Speaker 1: that's the thing I always think about, Like the best
Speaker 1: thing that the top ten players in the world have
Speaker 1: going for them is their ability to just generate capital
Speaker 1: Monday through Wednesday, you know, of weeks. Is that they
Speaker 1: get paid to go just show up for an hour somewhere.
Speaker 1: They get paid a lot of money to do that,
Speaker 1: and that's what happens when you're the Ryder Cup captain,
Speaker 1: you're a big draw.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so again getting back to the point, you know,
Speaker 2: so that's a there's quite a financial incentive to be
Speaker 2: to be a Ryder Cup captain, you know. So there's
Speaker 2: going to be lots and lots of jockey and all
Speaker 2: the coming candidates are all vice captains this week, so
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see. You know, you'd have to
Speaker 2: look very closely because these guys are cute enough not
Speaker 2: to you know, stick their neck above the parapet. But
Speaker 2: it'll be you know who's cute enough to you know,
Speaker 2: just get their nose in there and you know.
Speaker 1: You sometime a little bit of a like a we're
Speaker 1: gonna be watching for politics.
Speaker 2: A little bit. But yeah, it's got you know, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be like somebody said it to me, this one
Speaker 2: the next season of succession. This could be, this could
Speaker 2: be come early this right, the succession for the Ryder
Speaker 2: Cup captain.
Speaker 1: Say Stanton could be in that mix too.
Speaker 2: I've got well, of course, well absolutely twenty well the
Speaker 2: one well the alleged succession is is Westwood twenty three.
Speaker 2: Poulter at Bedpage in twenty can you imagine, okay, Polter Nicholson,
Speaker 2: that will be absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite stories is Ogilvy talking about six
Speaker 1: wing foot and he played with Poulter, and he's like
Speaker 1: the guy showed up in all pink in New York.
Speaker 1: We're all pink in New York for a five round
Speaker 1: of a US Open, Like you know, he just I
Speaker 1: just him in New York is just dynamite.
Speaker 2: It's going to be so yeah. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: it's interesting. You know, Polter's a guy who can basically
Speaker 2: name his date. I think he's a guy. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of the other guys, you know it's all
Speaker 2: about you know, jockeying and you know politics. But Polter
Speaker 2: is so synonymous with a ryder cup. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: such good marketing value. You know, when you when a
Speaker 2: European tour picks its cat, it's a very It makes
Speaker 2: the papacy look like you know, an open book. The
Speaker 2: how you the player's committee extensibly picks a captain, but
Speaker 2: goodness knows what goes into that mix. It's so interesting.
Speaker 2: But Polter is just you know, he's a because if
Speaker 2: I'm the European Tour marketing department and I'm looking at that.
Speaker 2: You've got to remember the Ryder Cup is massively important
Speaker 2: to the European tours finances. So if I'm looking at
Speaker 2: New York, you got a pick poter. You just got
Speaker 2: a pick poter because it's just pure box office, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But then after that it gets very murky. I can't
Speaker 2: remember where it is twenty seven, it's over here again.
Speaker 2: You'd have to somebody like Garcia, who, similar to Harrington,
Speaker 2: has a kind of profile in the United States, so
Speaker 2: that might work. But then the interesting one after that,
Speaker 2: you know, you get to Ireland. I think in twenty nine.
Speaker 2: You know, mcdull will be very much angling for that.
Speaker 1: What if we got a what if we got a
Speaker 1: Tiger Sergio Captaincy Oh.
Speaker 2: That be oh my goodness, that'd be right up there
Speaker 2: with Phil. Phil that would be too absolute.
Speaker 1: Just see if you can finally get his win against
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he could go out and tweeted bird yellow.
Speaker 2: That would be a very good that's good, that's good
Speaker 2: institutional knowledge and well done. Yeah. So yeah, so that's yeah,
Speaker 2: So that's that's something interesting for me. I'm always I'm
Speaker 2: kind of you said, you asked me to send a
Speaker 2: list I sent a listen. I looked at it after
Speaker 2: because this is all about politics and intrigue, all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Just you know, having covered multiple Ryder Cups, as I
Speaker 2: said before that that you know the run up, These
Speaker 2: are the longest four days in golf golf media. It
Speaker 2: is absolutely torture because there's nothing to write about and
Speaker 2: no access. You get absolutely no access.
Speaker 1: That's what I've been. I've gone up there this afternoon
Speaker 1: and I bet like brainstorming, really kind of like off
Speaker 1: the wall ideas, like you know, what can I do?
Speaker 1: That's a little different because everybody's everybody's doing the same stuff.
Speaker 2: That's simply because it's so tightly controlled. And the players
Speaker 2: love it. I mean I spoke to a couple of players.
Speaker 2: They just love it. This kind of laughing. They kind
Speaker 2: of laugh about it, you know, because everybody's got their
Speaker 2: nose pressed against the window and no idea what's happening,
Speaker 2: and they don't have to deal. I was looking at
Speaker 2: the media schedule this morning. It's fifteen minutes. It's hilarious,
Speaker 2: you know. So a player is a couple of players,
Speaker 2: are two or three players are wheel done at the
Speaker 2: same time, and it's fifteen minutes. It's basically two questions
Speaker 2: of absolute, you know, complete fluff. You've got to remember
Speaker 2: that the press officer will will pick a couple, you know,
Speaker 2: pick somebody who they'll know won't ask a kind of
Speaker 2: a troublesome question, so you basically have no chance of
Speaker 2: causing trouble. And this is one of the other things
Speaker 2: I sent it to you. One of my five points
Speaker 2: is the Ryder Cups. Keep an eye keep an eye
Speaker 2: out for it this week these days in the right
Speaker 2: because especially the European or the British press have have
Speaker 2: no access. They just get up to make and mischief,
Speaker 2: you know, they just try the hardest to concox some
Speaker 2: kind of scandal or some you go back through the
Speaker 2: years I wrote them down. Two thousand and four was
Speaker 2: the Paul Casey. Remember this one, Paul Casey, I properly
Speaker 2: hate Americans, which was a coat was totally taking out
Speaker 2: of context in another interview that happened six weeks before
Speaker 2: the Ryder Cup and it was wheeled out the week
Speaker 2: of the Ryder Cup and caused this great sensation. Paul
Speaker 2: I read and maybe with Casey the other day, and
Speaker 2: he said, I almost gave up golf. I almost gave
Speaker 2: up golf because of it, which is just crazy. Then
Speaker 2: you fast forward two thousand and six. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you people might forget it was a magazine called
Speaker 2: The Dublin or had It was really it was like,
Speaker 2: you know what's on in this week in Dublin type
Speaker 2: of magazine and they superimposed Elon Nordigrean's head on the
Speaker 2: photgra of a stripper or something. And that was at
Speaker 2: that cat I'd see that magazine went out of business.
Speaker 2: They ended up, they ended up paying Allen and Tiger
Speaker 2: an absolute fortune.
Speaker 1: The wrong guy to do that.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was especially with given the friends that Tiger
Speaker 2: has when he's got JP McManus on his side and
Speaker 2: Island J. P. McManus is is not a boy you
Speaker 2: want to get on the wrong side of if you're
Speaker 2: the Dublin magazine. I could go on and on. There
Speaker 2: was so many of them. It was just absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2: Remember Danny Willets brother, I forget that, you know, the
Speaker 2: aspiring novelist. That was another one. Twenty sixteen. Oh, there
Speaker 2: was my favorite one because the weather at Celtic Manor
Speaker 2: in twenty ten was brutal, was and that was. It
Speaker 2: was a couple of scandals. There was the scandal of
Speaker 2: the US team's waterproofs. Remember the waterproofs, the leaking waterproofs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Corey Peven, Corey Paven's wife wanted it. They
Speaker 1: made changes to the one they wanted. She made them embroidered.
Speaker 1: They even said they warner. They said, hey, if you
Speaker 1: do this, the waterproof might not work, and she said, well,
Speaker 1: we're doing it.
Speaker 2: So that ended up with Corey Paige or whoever from
Speaker 2: the running into the pro shop at Celtic Manor buying
Speaker 2: up all the waterproofs, which is great. And the other
Speaker 2: one was the provenance of this scandal was very dubious.
Speaker 2: It was a Rory had said somewhere a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks before, a Tiger's been injured and he might not
Speaker 2: be ready for this Ryder Cup. And then it filtered
Speaker 2: through the pressure when a cold and wet and storyless
Speaker 2: Wednesday afternoon that a locker room attendant may or may
Speaker 2: not have overheard Tiger saying to Rory, be careful what
Speaker 2: you wish for Ie. You know you don't want to
Speaker 2: play me. You know, if you want to play me,
Speaker 2: be careful what you wish for anyway, this was blown
Speaker 2: into this incredible backpage. It was brilliant, It was such fun,
Speaker 2: but it really affected Rory. If you remember you go
Speaker 2: back the next day, the European team all appeared on
Speaker 2: the first tea at practice with Rory on and all
Speaker 2: had their arms around Rory. And it was again purely
Speaker 2: a function of no access for the media, no stories.
Speaker 2: Everything's so tightly controlled that everybody goes off the reservation.
Speaker 2: I guess, and it just starts. I'm not saying making
Speaker 2: stuff up, but you know, it was Whipping stuff up
Speaker 2: would be a better way to do it. I wonder
Speaker 2: where it'll be this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there'll be something.
Speaker 2: There will be something.
Speaker 1: It's Bryson's surely going to do something, you know. I
Speaker 1: saw that his comments this morning were along the lines
Speaker 1: of the only reason I'm talking to media is because
Speaker 1: I don't want to get fired.
Speaker 2: Really. There was also I saw a picture of this
Speaker 2: morning of Bryson and Brooks talking to each other on
Speaker 2: the range. But I thought, again, as one of the
Speaker 2: world's leading body language experts, I didn't think it looked
Speaker 2: particularly friendly. I mean, Brooks not to go to two deeply.
Speaker 2: Brooks looked slightly closed off arms, tightly folded, slightly turned
Speaker 2: away from See this is the kind of stuff we get.
Speaker 2: Do you have nothing to write about it?
Speaker 1: You don't get there's only there's only twenty four guys
Speaker 1: as opposed to one hundred and sixty or whatever at
Speaker 1: the US Open. Say and uh, yeah, there's nothing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: That's the thing I've I've We've got some eyeball ideas
Speaker 1: for some for some content just because there's you know,
Speaker 1: you're not you're not getting your usual tournament fix of
Speaker 1: that many people at a golf course. It's it's just
Speaker 1: so many, so fewer amount of bodies and storylines.
Speaker 2: I say, I wonder what U O guess? Oh this
Speaker 2: is Once the competition starts, it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 2: what happens with Harringon. You know, things are going well
Speaker 2: with Europe. I think it'll be fine. You know, it
Speaker 2: will be all be smooth sailing. But you know, things
Speaker 2: go a bit a bit south for Harrington early. You know,
Speaker 2: he's an interesting guy. I don't know if you had
Speaker 2: him on your podcast.
Speaker 1: If you had him on yours, he's a tinkerer. That's
Speaker 1: what I was saying. You're you're bagging on stricker playing
Speaker 1: in South DA. You can't tell me that Harrington's not
Speaker 1: working on stuff on the rage of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the only yeah, the only thing. I think there's
Speaker 2: enough people around Harringdon to tie him down. I mean,
Speaker 2: I think Harrington's peers. Harrington's an interesting cat. I'll tell
Speaker 2: you that he is. With the press guys, he's amazing.
Speaker 2: I swear to god, he is so well. You've heard
Speaker 2: him on podcasts and all. He's he's so he'll give
Speaker 2: so much of himself and he gives a lot. It
Speaker 2: gives a lot away. Actually, But with these peers, especially
Speaker 2: when he was at his peak, he wasn't very clubbable guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Irish guys all kind of stick together,
Speaker 2: they go for dinner, so he's part of that's it.
Speaker 2: But you know what, he was an elite player, and
Speaker 2: he was not a tall clubbable as an elite player.
Speaker 2: So I mean there's not a huge reserve of good
Speaker 2: will there is with the media, but not perhaps so
Speaker 2: much with with players. So it'll be interesting. I mean
Speaker 2: usually Team Europe, that European team is very nothing leaks out,
Speaker 2: but nothing, absolutely nothing. You go back to two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight, that foul Captaincy was an absolute shit show.
Speaker 2: I mean it was a disaster. But I mean I
Speaker 2: Satin press conference, Andy and these players who are subsequently
Speaker 2: found we all subsequently find out we're raging at Faldo
Speaker 2: and they were. They were going after journalists who were
Speaker 2: criticizing Faldo. You know, they stuck by Faldle so tightly,
Speaker 2: even though they hated him or hated what he was
Speaker 2: doing as a captain. I just don't wonder.
Speaker 1: Different than American players what they do, could you?
Speaker 2: Could you? Ah, well, let's not get into that too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but that the post defeat press conference with Faldo was
Speaker 2: was astonishing. Hosy Marea Arthwell, who was his vice captain,
Speaker 2: basically wanted to come down. It was a great one
Speaker 2: of the most established and well respected Brits storms. The
Speaker 2: guy called Paul Hayward asked a question and I swear
Speaker 2: to god, I thought a laughall was going to come
Speaker 2: off the podium and deck the guy. I mean, they
Speaker 2: really really stuck together. I just wonder, I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a different era and now, aren't I mean, everything is
Speaker 2: so there's so many sources of information and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and you know, player he might say to a friend
Speaker 2: who might say to a friend and then lo and
Speaker 2: behold the fore friend and the food chain tweets out something.
Speaker 2: So I would be interested to see what happens if
Speaker 2: if it goes south for Harrington early, as I say,
Speaker 2: you know, it was never the most corovable and the
Speaker 2: players like him, but they do think he's a bit
Speaker 2: of a nodball. I mean, that's let's face it.
Speaker 1: Let's uh, let's talk about European team. We're you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the US team a little bit. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the European team this year. I think my
Speaker 1: case for the European team is that they you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about it a little bit, with the match
Speaker 1: play and the margins and the pairings. I think one
Speaker 1: of the best cases is that they have Rory McElroy
Speaker 1: and John Rahm and John ram is by far the
Speaker 1: best player in the world.
Speaker 2: You know right now, mister c the Fortnite Championship last
Speaker 2: week Andy Fortnite Championship Night, is that what it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? He him and Rory led the PGA tour on
Speaker 1: Birdie average. Bertie average is a very good thing for
Speaker 1: match play, especially, you know, where you have partners and
Speaker 1: and different things you want guys that make Birdie's. John
Speaker 1: Ram could play five matches, he's the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. He could could seemably go four and one.
Speaker 1: You know, you know that if that's the case, if
Speaker 1: he goes four and one or five and oh or
Speaker 1: four oh oh and one, it all of a sudden
Speaker 1: becomes very hard for the United States to win the
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup. And that's I think the thing is, if
Speaker 1: John Rahm has a good week, John Rahm and Rory
Speaker 1: have good weeks, the US team is not going to
Speaker 1: win the Ryder Cup.
Speaker 2: Well that's true, but you can't necessary it is already
Speaker 2: going to have a good week. What's his Ryder Cup record?
Speaker 2: I think is eleven and nine. I don't I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's not a great I mean it's I mean it's
Speaker 2: it's obviously it's a wedding record, but it's not exactly
Speaker 2: mc donald's. For instance, Ram. Yeah, I think the story
Speaker 2: was it Ram wasn't feeling quite well last week at Silverado,
Speaker 2: so hopefully he's he seems to have made a miraculous
Speaker 2: recovery in the photographs this mornings. Yeah, yeah, right, but
Speaker 2: those two play well then that that kind of locks
Speaker 2: it off. Essentially, if Rory and Rams show up and
Speaker 2: play their absolute best, I mean he you know that lot,
Speaker 2: You're right, it locks it off. But similarly you could
Speaker 2: say the same for the United States if Bryson and Spath, yeah,
Speaker 2: come along and have have great weeks, which both are
Speaker 2: very capable of doing. From a European perspective, I would
Speaker 2: just be worried about. There's a lot of players who
Speaker 2: are not and not exactly the best kind of form
Speaker 2: they're coming in. I mean Turtle Hatton, mister cutt Wentworth last.
Speaker 1: Week, didn't Major.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he won at Wentworth last year, so I
Speaker 2: mean he's he's on the team and the basis of
Speaker 2: his form not this year are certainly not in the
Speaker 2: last half of this year. So he's playing bad Fitzpatrick
Speaker 2: again Ty twenty to Wentworth, mister cut the Italian Open,
Speaker 2: flamed out at the flamed out the FedEx Cup. I
Speaker 2: think he did. He make the cut of livery National.
Speaker 2: I don't know was there a cut, can you remember?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't make it to East like I.
Speaker 2: Know he didn't know. He only made it through one
Speaker 2: playoff he got he played the Northern Trust and that
Speaker 2: was him. Won and done. So he's not playing great.
Speaker 1: So there's three West he's not playing great. Well, yeah West.
Speaker 1: He made it based off of how he played at
Speaker 1: the Players in bay Hill.
Speaker 2: Really, so you've got so you've got Hatton Fleetwood. You know,
Speaker 2: only one top ten finish. I mean he didn't even
Speaker 2: make his card on you must have some kind of
Speaker 2: way of keeping his card. But he didn't make the
Speaker 2: top one twenty five. I don't think any PG two
Speaker 2: this year. He made seventy cuts, but only one top ten.
Speaker 2: That is he that's very surprising, you have to say,
Speaker 2: because you think him coming here and you think, well
Speaker 2: a bull striker, what that would do? Really well?
Speaker 1: So well you look at you look at like where
Speaker 1: Hatton started the year tenth in the owgr he's nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Now you know that's a significant drop. Fitzpatrick sixteenth to
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, and then you go to Fleetwood seventh teeth,
Speaker 1: the thirty seventh. You know this, that's not the type
Speaker 1: of trends you want to go. But now on the
Speaker 1: flip side, if you want to play Devil's Advocate there
Speaker 1: a little bit. Shane Lowry's playing very very good golf. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Sergio is playing exceptional golf, probably the best golf we've
Speaker 1: seen since he won the Masters.
Speaker 2: Out of him, Pol's playing well as well as he Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he's playing He's playing fine.
Speaker 2: It does.
Speaker 1: I think like Poulter's got enough clout at this point
Speaker 1: that we just you know, there's Ryder Cup Poulter and
Speaker 1: match play Poulter because he plays well at WGC every year,
Speaker 1: you know, the match play tournament. And so I think
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of bowl going both ways. And
Speaker 1: I think the same for the Europe or for the US,
Speaker 1: Like you've got more cows not playing great right now?
Speaker 1: Who else that isn't playing, you know, exceptional? Like DJ
Speaker 1: hasn't been great this whole year. Like what you know Brooks?
Speaker 1: Who knows what you're getting out of Brooks? Bryson is
Speaker 1: training to be a long drive guys, Just can.
Speaker 2: You again talking about this would be another scandal back
Speaker 2: home If this, if if Bryson was European and he
Speaker 2: spent the last two weeks training for an event next
Speaker 2: week before the right people would be People's heads would explode.
Speaker 2: It's just in you can't tell me that you stand
Speaker 2: on the you stand on the range swinging the club
Speaker 2: as hard as you can, and that is in any
Speaker 2: way preparation for a Rider Cup. That just isn't you know,
Speaker 2: You're you're you might be training your speed skills, but
Speaker 2: you're you're destroying every other skill.
Speaker 1: Well, it's just like gotta be hard to go back
Speaker 1: to playing real golf after doing that. Like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think he might make you better in six months, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a conceivable argument to be made that in the
Speaker 1: you know, in three months time, he's a better golfer
Speaker 1: because he's got speed and he's rained it back into
Speaker 1: like playing competitive golf. But this guy's training for long drive.
Speaker 1: I think he cares more about the long drive than
Speaker 1: he cares about about the Ryder Cup, you know, And
Speaker 1: I think that's honestly, he might care more at this point.
Speaker 1: He might care more about being one of the best
Speaker 1: long drive players than being one of the best PGA
Speaker 1: Tour players. That's the wild thing about what's going on
Speaker 1: with Bryson right now. It's not after what he did
Speaker 1: at Wingfoot and the way he dismantled that golf course,
Speaker 1: it seems like he's kind of taken a step back
Speaker 1: because he's continued to try. Like at that point, it
Speaker 1: seemed like with what he did at Detroit, what he
Speaker 1: did at Wingfoot, he had proven that he was right.
Speaker 1: But he's continued to push himself and that was that's
Speaker 1: always been the concern, is that he's not content and
Speaker 1: Tiger fell, you know, victim to the same thing. Isn't
Speaker 1: that just Yes, they keep searching for that extra And
Speaker 1: this is why golf is so hard, like, right, is
Speaker 1: you keep searching for that magic bullet, whereas Bryson might
Speaker 1: just be more interested in long drive and I you know,
Speaker 1: like to a certain extent, you can't really fall like
Speaker 1: he just might like that more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, by the way, while we're on the subject, will
Speaker 2: you know what really bugs me? Something to this morning
Speaker 2: posted a picture of it, and Bryson obviously posed for it,
Speaker 2: a picture of Bryson's callousies. And I was looking at
Speaker 2: him and thinking, yeah, okay, go take a look at
Speaker 2: Alex Norren's callousies. Yeah, just google Alex out of context,
Speaker 2: like I mean, I mean, I swear to god, I
Speaker 2: mean Alex Norn's hands do not look like hands. But anyway, that's.
Speaker 1: Been a good pick, I think for the writer he's
Speaker 1: been playing so well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great what again one of these guys.
Speaker 2: What a career he's had. You know, just the longevity
Speaker 2: is actually more and more Andy amant to guys like guy.
Speaker 2: Longevity is a brilliant talent. I've commonly call it a
Speaker 2: talent and go look at Rod Pampling. Rod Pampling won
Speaker 2: on the PG two at the age of forty eight,
Speaker 2: and then he won in the Champions.
Speaker 1: And then he wasn't They weren't letting him into the
Speaker 1: bay Hill. That's the thing. Past champion, only past champion
Speaker 1: not getting into bay Hill. He was really expected.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Pamps, I see my buddy coaches Pamps, so
Speaker 2: Obvio slightly biased towards Paps, but you know, Norn's another
Speaker 2: one of these guys. Westy. We start, maybe should end
Speaker 2: with Westy. You're just talking about longeviy and what what
Speaker 2: an admirable thing is and how do guys attain it.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting.
Speaker 1: As a Westy fan, I'm very very nervous about this
Speaker 1: Ryder Cup after what we saw at Hazel Teine. You
Speaker 1: know that that was you know, there's the low early
Speaker 1: and Westy's career, and I think Hazel teen might have
Speaker 1: been the low of his late career, those putts coming
Speaker 1: down the stretch. I mean he gave that match away
Speaker 1: at Hazel teen. He did he couldn't hit the hole
Speaker 1: from three feet the last you know, coming down those matches.
Speaker 2: I haven't I haven't looked up his recent form.
Speaker 1: So he's been just he's been Westy, which is like
Speaker 1: you know, late Lake career Westy when he's not you know,
Speaker 1: playing great, But he's a guy that can flip the
Speaker 1: switch in Like when you talk about who you'd love
Speaker 1: to play alter and shot with. I think like outside
Speaker 1: of short putts, like Westy, you know what you're getting
Speaker 1: from him.
Speaker 2: He's going to hit good.
Speaker 1: He's not the best scrambler, but like that, being reliable
Speaker 1: t to Green is really a valuable for for.
Speaker 2: The I've just looked. He's got terrible record and singles
Speaker 2: off one three. Yeah, I wonder what's that all about.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's the short putting. It's
Speaker 1: hard to win matches when you don't make four footers.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah right, but it's Foursome's a great forces player.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. Do you know what it comes down? Andy?
Speaker 2: This is you top myself into Europe just about Nick
Speaker 2: and this I don't know if a given.
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, give us your prediction. Yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: going to be close.
Speaker 2: I think it is going to be close, but I
Speaker 2: think it I'm not again, not nothing original, but us
Speaker 2: are superior talent, there's no question. I think, what's the average,
Speaker 2: just the great Justin Ray? What was the average world ranking?
Speaker 2: Nine eight point nine? And Europe has one player in
Speaker 2: the top twenty in the world rankings? Is it one
Speaker 2: in the top twenty? I think it's one, and it's
Speaker 2: John Ramer maybe the top ten, maybe the top.
Speaker 1: They got They got Rory, Rory and Ram in the
Speaker 1: top fifteen, right, okay, and Havelan and have onin they
Speaker 1: got three.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, one European in the top ten. Let's leave
Speaker 2: it out that, right, See the Justin race starts right,
Speaker 2: My stat's wrong, So that's typical. So there is that.
Speaker 2: That's I think that's America. Are the United States only chance?
Speaker 2: Really is just superior talent. I mean it's a pretty
Speaker 2: good chance. But see everything else, all the intangibles not
Speaker 2: intangibles anymore, it is you know, stats analysis. I'm sure
Speaker 2: the Yanks are doing it, but I'm sure they're not
Speaker 2: doing it and will not stick to it. We've talked
Speaker 2: about this to the extent of the Europeans. Will that
Speaker 2: is sacrasant. The most important guy in the European team
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen is Robert Carlson. He was a stats guy.
Speaker 2: He was a guy in charge of all the stats
Speaker 2: and so all that stuff the captains say, the preparation,
Speaker 2: the commitment. I mean, europe are already. Have you seen
Speaker 2: the latest for European video make it Count? Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it's phenomenal. There was a video yesterday kicking around
Speaker 2: with Brian Huggett was the kind of main star of
Speaker 2: it and it was about you know, you only of one.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I can't remember what the tagline was, but
Speaker 2: you know it's already miles ahead and all that stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, And what it does is brings the team together,
Speaker 2: brings the fans together, brings the media together. Frankly, I mean,
Speaker 2: I mean I found myself getting goosebumps watching it. So
Speaker 2: there's all that stuff, you know, and Will these will,
Speaker 2: these elements, these marginal elements add up to enough to
Speaker 2: overcome the American talent. That's where it comes down to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be fun to watch. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be close. I've got I think the US is gonna
Speaker 1: just barely narrowly get this one. We'll see. I that's
Speaker 1: my my prognostication at this point. But that's it. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get you out of here.
Speaker 2: On that.
Speaker 1: People can find your mckller at mckeller dot.
Speaker 2: Com, nom mckeller magazine, don't Keller.
Speaker 1: I order it every every do you know what?
Speaker 2: And that is really greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1: Everybody should read it. It's uh Lawrence writes there, Tom Dunn,
Speaker 1: Mike Clayton. You know, it's a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: I would pay to write and read read their writing,
Speaker 1: and uh and it it deserves to be supported. All
Speaker 1: their back issues are relevant today. So if you go there,
Speaker 1: dip your toe in by getting one of the one
Speaker 1: of the first five editions. Do you have a favorite?
Speaker 1: Is that like picking a favorite kid?
Speaker 2: I do? I like the I like the latest one
Speaker 2: with the image of royals and Georgie's on it. Clayton's
Speaker 2: done a thing in the latest one. You know, it's
Speaker 2: a the Mike Clayton anthology. Remember at Motown used to
Speaker 2: do the Smoky Robinson anthologies. You know, this is Mike
Speaker 2: Everything that Clayton's ever thought and said about about golf
Speaker 2: course architecture. It's absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great. All right, thanks Lawrence, and uh well
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: All best end continue.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for listening to another edition of
Speaker 1: the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode was edited by Meg
Speaker 1: Atkins and Garrett Morrison. And as a quick reminder, this
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