We'll Always Have Paris

The Eagle has landed.... We'll be in full cliche mode for the next few days, so you've been forewarned.

These Guys Don't Fly Coach - This photo of the Yanks arriving in Paris answers quite a few questions:

How could you do that to poor Tabitha?  But I was glad to see that Jordan made it to Atlanta to catch the flight, and apparently Rose and the other Euros weren't offered a ride.  Hey, let 'em grab an Uber, this is war!

The Captains - Upon arrival, the American players were given a juice box and their blankies, and sent off to bed....  The only event of note was a captains presser, which tended towards the insignificant, though Captain Furyk couldn't help but note the big win Sunday:

With the Ryder Cup displayed in front of the two captains, Furyk looked only mildly weary following the overnight flight. He said the buzz of a particular Sunday victory had

everyone in good spirits. 

“We were waiting yesterday, we had a major victory for the team and we had a whole group of guys waiting in the team room, and then a giant roar when Steve Stricker walked in the room after his victory last night,” Furyk said of his vice captain. “It was fun to see Strick play well on the Champions Tour in South Dakota and obviously Tiger played so well at the Tour Championship, and to grab ahold of the golf tournament early and fend everyone off, I think was a good buzz in the team room.”

Yeah, that win by Strick electrified the golf world.... I'm just hoping it doesn't over-shadow the events of the coming week.

As for the bigger concerns, nothing to see here:

As for Furyk’s most pressing concern – the lackluster Tour Championship play of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson – the captain was ready with a response. 

“You know, the way I look at it is in my career, I’ve played very well in practice and had rough tournaments,” Furyk said. “I’ve had bad practice in some events and went on to win those same events. So last week is kind of behind us.”

And that list fails to include our Jordan, who at least had the presence of mind to ensure himself an additional week of rest.  

We've precious little to occupy ourselves with,  so let the lineup speculation begin:

The captains received several questions about gauging match pairings by practice-round play, with Bjorn sounding less interested than Furyk given the European team’s track record at Le Golf National. 

“In your mind, you’re very set on where you want to go with it, and something uncharacteristic has to happen if you’re going to change it, but you’re pretty much set in your mind where it’s all going to go,” Bjorn said.

This Alistair Tait profile of The Bjorn Enigma is surprising.... No, really:

Thomas Bjorn has a chance in Paris to change the way he’s remembered within the

game. Holding the Ryder Cup as victorious European captain could replace the other scene for which he might be remembered: taking three shots in a bunker on Royal St. George’s 16th hole that cost him a chance at major glory in the 2003 British Open. 

It’s a tribute to the Dane’s strength of character that he rebounded from his St. George’s letdown. But then we’re talking about one of the strongest characters the European Tour has ever seen. 

Eight of his 15 wins came post 2003. Fifteen wins – not bad for a guy who at 18 hoped “to win a tournament on the European Tour.”

Yeah, that was his one chance, and he spit the bit.  We always credit Europe with their "system" of choosing captains, yet they veer between their historical stalwarts and their role players, and Bjorn is very much in the latter category.

But this is the surprising part, at least to me:

“He’s very strong willed and will do things his way,” said Paul McGinley, the 2014 European Ryder Cup captain. “He’s used to dealing with players from his years as chairman. He’ll have no problem managing different personalities in the team room.” 

Age has tempered what was once a fiery disposition that earned Bjorn the nickname “Semtex,” after an explosive. His nostrils seemed permanently to breath fire in his early days on tour. 

“I’ve had my moments with people,” Bjorn said. “With me it’s five to 10 minutes in the heat of the moment and then I’m over it. I’m also good at getting back to people and getting it ironed out.”

Semtex?  Wow, who knew a Dane could run that hot?  

But this Ewan Murray interview with Bjorn from last week goes in a strange direction....  Though, to be fair, it's one prompted by the interviewer:

“I think sometimes what is forgotten, in the political discussion, is how great this continent is,” Bjørn says. “From all the way down in Greece, to Iceland, there are so many great countries and so much natural common ground. It is such a small continent compared to the others but together we have so much history and so many great things going for us. I think that is forgotten a little bit in the political picture.

Silly me, I didn't realize we were having a political discussion...My bad.  Iceland, for sure, but what did the Greeks ever contribute to Western civilization?  What?  OK, but that was just a bunch of dead white men..... Perhaps the more amazing bit is how he rambles on:

“It means a lot more to us as golfers because we grow up with the European Tour. The backbone of that tour is still our European events. It is part of the life we live. It has a meaning. 

“I think a lot of people in their everyday life have a hard time relating to what Europe is. Something that gets a little bit into people’s minds, in my opinion, is ‘What is Europe?’ and ‘What is the European Union?’ So you have Norway and Switzerland and soon to be the UK as part of Europe but not the EU. For some people that leads to ‘Who is what?’ and ‘What is what?’ 

“The identity of Europe in the Ryder Cup comes from the team; how they see themselves, through different countries, as Europe coming together. That, for me, is a thing the Ryder Cup does so well. It brings us together. You adapt an approach towards Europe, which you know is an essential part of what you do. When you get in that team room; you are in it for yourself, your country and your continent.”

 Curiously defensive, methinks....

Those who buy the party line about European comity should read this if only for the background of his rift with Ian Woosnam, which remains intact.  It's of some comfort to know that they can maintain their petty grievances as well as our guys can.  He's also a tad defensive about his picks:

“I think you’d have found if it was old pals there would be one or two others playing,” Bjørn says. “Some of the guys left out are very close to me and I was never scared of making tough decisions. Now, if people think I made these decisions on the back of them being pals then they don’t know me very well and that’s OK. That mostly comes from people who have no idea who I am, what I think and what I believe in.”

One might argue that there's no other lens through which to filter the Sergio pick, but that's for another day.  

Oh, and as relates to the kids and their damn phones:

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – As social media has grown, so has the

propensity for athletes to post something regrettable. Even as Patrick Reed recently took to Twitter to gripe about free Red Sox tickets in the “line-drive section” of Fenway Park, U.S. captain Jim Furyk has no plans to order his players off of their phones. 

“During these events, I don’t see a lot of our players on their phones and on social media — they are such busy weeks,” Furyk said. “I don’t really have any policies, per se, other than you obviously want to keep everything straight and narrow, and I think social media is great when it’s fun. But past that, you know, I don’t really see any issues or concerns.” 

European captain Thomas Bjorn has no plans for a blackout, either. He sees social media now as part of an athlete’s life and image, especially the younger players.

Pretty cool dateline, no?

 The Course - Road games are tough, not least because the home team has full control of the venue:

There was no déjà vu for Justin Thomas and caddie Jimmy Johnson when they played Le Golf National’s Albatross Course for the first time during this year’s HNA French Open. 

The pair couldn’t think of an American course comparable to this year’s Ryder Cup venue. Thomas is only 25 and could perhaps be forgiven for not playing enough American courses. The same can’t be said for Johnson. The former Tour pro counts Nick Price, Charles Howell III, Adam Scott and Steve Stricker among players for whom he’s caddied over the past 21 years. He’s seen a few courses in his time. 

“We were trying to think of a golf course that this reminds us of in the States, and we had a hard time,” Thomas said. “There’s so many different variables this golf course has that make it so unique to a lot of the golf courses I’ve ever played. It’s very difficult to compare it to a course we’ve played in the States.”

Of course, JT was the only American to play in the event, at least of the twelve on the roster.  He also had this:

“It’s just a hard golf course,” he said. “It’s very narrow. You have to hit the fairways to have birdie chances into the greens.

“I knew right when I got here it was a very difficult golf course. I knew that you had to hit it in play. You can get it snowballing pretty quickly out here if you’re not careful.”

Thomas found that out in the opening round when he missed the fairway of the par-4 fifth with a 4-iron. His ball landed 2 yards from the edge of the fairway and kicked left into a horrible lie in deep rough. He made a double-bogey six. 

Even medium hitters don’t pull driver often around Le Golf National.

Also in France is Golfweek's Forecaddie, and he explains the set-up in more detail:

After a quick walk around Le Golf National, The Man Out Front can say the 2018 Ryder Cup venue is in sensational condition but is noticeably cruel to tee shots missing the

landing areas by more than 10 yards. The course features a lush cool season mix of grasses throughout, with a 3-yard wide transitional cut between fairway and 3-inch maintained rough in length, give or take a few strains of grass.

After the 10-yard wide transitional area of maintained rough — no picnic for even the strongest players– the rough turns downright nasty. Clearly cultivated to severely punish tee shots, expect to see some lost ball searches and hack-out shots at the many holes where water fronts the green complexes.

It's pretty clear that the American bombers will have to throttle it back and put a high premium on hitting fairways, though that will also apply to guys like Rory and Jon Rahm as well.  Phil, are you listening?

While the emphasis on tightness is appropriate, there's one further issue to watch in the three days of practice rounds:

“The old theory is tight and scruffy,” McDowell said. “They (U.S.) set it up wide with short semi-rough and middle-of-the-green pins. We always like to set it up a little tighter and a little tougher, and maybe not have the greens quite as fast.” 

Poulter endorses that theory. 

“The setup needs to be tight in our favor,” he said.

It's those slower greens to which I refer, and perhaps the guy to watch there is Tiger.  He's always struggled on slower greens, and I'd expect to see him struggle with the transition from East Lake.

You'll hear many comparisons of the course to Sawgrass, if only for the spectator-friendly mounding.  But you'll also hear much about the Loop of Doom, the closing four-hole stretch that will be where most matches are decided.  Captain Jim "Alas Poor" Furyk talks through the four holes with John Huggan, including this on the finisher:

18TH HOLE

471 yards / Par 4

4.51: Average in 2018 French Open

Most difficult 

I'm betting everyone in France is hoping a lot of matches make it to the 18th. It's a par 5

converted to a par 4, playing about 10 yards downhill. It's an uncomfortable tee shot, but you have to put the ball in the fairway. There's water all the way down the left, and there are bunkers on the right. You'd love to split those. I think guys standing on that tee are going to be as nervous as they've ever been in their entire careers. The key will be picking your spot/line and committing to it. Then hitting the ball to that spot without worrying about the periphery. That's all there is to it. [Laughs.] 

If you do get your ball in the fairway, you're left with a relatively large target. But the green is well-guarded and looks a lot smaller than it is. There's not a lot of room for a miss. But, as I said, it's a large green. So an aggressive swing and the smart shot will never be punished. That combination will win some matches. I can't imagine that par will ever be a bad score on this hole. But you never know. There's a lot going on, for sure. 

I've heard some say that the rough on this hole should not be too thick or deep, to encourage guys who have missed the fairway to still go for the green. But I can't imagine they'll set the course up as difficult as it was for the French Open, then cut away all the rough for the Ryder Cup.

Readers of a certain age might involuntarily shudder at the resemblance of this hole to the finisher at The Belfry, in which so many of our hopes met a watery grave.  

Don't Know Much About History.... - Ryan Herrington takes a stab at the most significant Ryder Cup moments beginning, strangely enough, at the beginning:

1927: Begin at the beginning

To get to where the Ryder Cup is today, the event had to get started. The inaugural match was played at Worcester (Mass.) Country Club in 1927 and was the culmination of six years of discussions regarding the viability of a competition pitting professionals from the United States against their peers from Great Britain. Twice before an unofficial version of the match was held, first in 1921 at Gleneagles in Scotland and then again in 1926 at Wentworth Golf Club in England. (Both times the Brits routed the Americans.) At Wentworth, Englishman Samuel Ryder and American Walter Hagen laid out the plans for a regular competition, the match moving back and forth across the Atlantic. Ryder commissioned a trophy for £250, and a tradition was born.

So, how many of these players could you identify?

The first victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team from 1927 (left to right): Al Waltrous, Bill Melhorn, Diegel Leo, F. Golden, Walter Hagen, Joe Pennoza, Gene Sarazen, Johnny Farrell, and Joe Turnesa.

 The first four matches were surprisingly competitive, but starting in 1935 the U.S. went on a tear.  

And this is a story most will not know:

Henry Cotton in that '47 installment.

1947: Surviving the war

With the matches postponed four times during World War II (1939, 1941, 1943 and 1945), that they would resume at all was not a foregone conclusion. And much of the credit for the fact that they did belongs Robert Hudson, an Oregon fruit grower and a member of the PGA Advisory Committee. Hudson helped secure Portland Golf Club as a venue and then paid for the British team, led by Sir Henry Cotton, to travel by boat (the Queen Mary) to the U.S. and then by train across country to Oregon. The hospitality ended there, as the Americans claimed a 11-1 victory.

 And this curious photo from Royal Birkdale in 1965:

That's a fleet of mini-mokes (don't ask me, I prefer my mokes to be full-sized) with scoreboards to be driven around the golf course be female amateur players.

Most folks remember Birkdale for the famous Nicklaus-Jacklin concession, but there are a couple of interesting notes about that.  First, notwithstanding that he had been dominating golf since 1962, that was Jack's first Ryder Cup appearance.  Why the delay?  Because he hadn't yet passed the PGA's course work, which he derided as being about learning to fold sweaters.  My point being that our dominance of the Ryder Cup in that era was accomplished with one hand tied behind our back.

Amusingly, while that is often cited as a great moment in sportsmanship, Jack took some heat:

But it wasn’t necessarily regarded so highly among everyone, demonstrating the competitiveness that was beginning to emanate from the match. “When it happened, all the boys thought it was ridiculous to give him that putt. We went over there to win, not to be good ol’ boys,” said American captain Sam Snead.

Tony would not have missed that putt, so no reason not to be gracious.... In fact, Tony can be credited along with Seve as later saving the event, so it all seems to have worked out.

I Saw It On TV - If you're surprised that David Duval has been brought back into the fold, and I was, you'll be even more surprised as to how it happened:

Two years ago at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minn., Davis Love III found himself already losing a grip on his spirited U.S. Ryder Cup team. And it was only Wednesday. The American captain had issued explicit instructions to ignore news coverage of the

41st Ryder Cup, but there were his players crowded around the television watching a replay of Golf Channel’s studio program from the previous night. 

“I said, ‘Whoa, I told you guys not to pay attention to all the noise,’ ” Love recalls lecturing his players. “We were not going to watch the Golf Channel. But they were like, ‘Oh no, we’ve got to watch this.’ ” 

Word had filtered to team members about a fiery debate between analysts Brandel Chamblee and David Duval, and they wanted to see it for themselves. Chamblee had questioned the effectiveness of the putative leaders of the American side in recent years, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and how their play had fallen short relative to great players from previous eras. Duval, who played in the 1999 and 2002 matches, countered with a perspective that separated him from his colleague by more than just opinion. “Having actually been out there and done it, there’s more to it than what these stats say. 

… The dynamic of the Ryder Cup comes into play in that regardless of who you are, there sometimes are forces more powerful going on, and it’s a very tangible thing.”

Love could sense that his players were eating it up. “The feeling was that David was defending us as a team,” he explained. And recognizing the impact Duval was having on them, Love sought an encore, asking the former World No. 1 to address the squad. 

“He comes in, tie untied, hanging around his neck, carrying his briefcase from the set,” Love said. “He launched into this very passionate speech, how playing in the Ryder Cup was one of the biggest accomplishments of his career. But it was more [about the fact that] the David Duval that they just saw defending them on TV had walked into the room and was still fired up. We asked him to come back and hang out with us every night.”

I guess he's the George Stephanopoulos of the golf media?  Yeah, he was defending them, but his argument seems to be, "Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?"  

The rest of the piece talks him up as a potential future captain, though the next few installments eem to be already spoken for.

In Search of a Viewing Strategy - It's a conundrum how to balance viewing and golf, as per this schedule:

Ryder Cup 2018: TV schedule

Broadcast schedule (all times Eastern) 

Thursday, September 27

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Opening Ceremony | Golf Channel

Friday, September 28

2 a.m. - 1 p.m. | Golf Channel

8 p.m. - 12 a.m. (re-air) | Golf Channel 

Saturday, September 29

2 a.m. - 3 a.m. | Golf Channel

3 a.m. - 1 p.m. | NBC

1 p.m. - 6 p.m. (re-air) | NBC

8 p.m. - 12 a.m. (re-air) | Golf Channel 

Sunday, September 30

6 a.m. - 1 p.m. | NBC

8 p.m. - 12 a.m. (re-air) | Golf Channel

I have a game Sunday morning, so will likely walk directly from the 18th green to my car.  Note to self, go spikeless that day.

Friday and Saturday are more challenging, featuring an awkward combination of bad time slots and more golf than any one human can watch.  Interestingly, the Ryder Cup is the last holdout against the networks, as the obvious way to increase viewership would be to play one session on each of Thursday and Friday.  I suspect it's the Americans, with their deeper teams, that have resisted such an obvious change.

The question is, when I'm awakened by screaming cats at 5:30 Friday morning, do I turn on live TV to watch the conclusion of the morning session, or do I start at the beginning via my DVR?  

Did Someone Mention History? - We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to revisit Tiger's 80th Tour win on Sunday, positioning him within two of Sam Snead's record total of 82 wins.  But, for those that haven't been paying attention, any golf record that predates the modern tour should be treated with skepticism.

As a digression, every time Phil or Rory has the opportunity to complete the career grand slam, we're treated to the list of players that have achieved that distinction, beginning with Gene Sarazen's win at the 1935 Masters.  Except, well, everything....  The event was then known as The Augusta National Invitational and featured only 65 players, including the long-retired Bobby Jones.  The concept of a major did not then exist, and was applied retroactively to the event.

Unsurprisingly, Snead's record is subject to dispute:

The problem stems from a 1980s study by Deane Beman, then commissioner of the tour. 

Beman deputized a host of golf historians to create an official statistical catalog for the tour, but by most accounts, it was a flawed process. Part of the problem resided in lost records when the tour and PGA of America split in 1968, leaving the group to decide what to count or discard. Though players at the time felt the panel was too strict, history has proven otherwise. 

For example, three of Snead's wins were events contested over 36 holes, with another tournament only 18 holes. Per PGA Tour policy, for a tournament to be official it must be at least 54 holes. 

Then there are the fields. Snead won the Palm Beach Round Robin five times. He faced only 15 competitors in four of those instances, and 14 in the other. While we're here, one of the 36-hole tournaments, the 1946 World Championship of Golf, had all of four players in it. Might as well credit Tiger for his "Monday Night Golf" showdowns or his seven PGA Grand Slam of Golf titles. 

We'd be remiss in forgetting to add the 1950 Bing Crosby Pro-Am. The Clambake was canceled because of darkness, with Snead tied with three others when play was suspended. Instead of coming back for a playoff, a tie was declared, all four players given the win. 

To Snead's credit, he lost recognition for the 1949 North and South Open, one of the premier tournaments of the era, because the event's purse was too small. Still, even with that added—and giving Snead the benefit of the doubt at the '50 Crosby—that brings his total down to 74 wins. Meaning Tiger Woods should not just be the official PGA Tour record holder. He should have been for quite some time, earning win No. 74 at the 2012 AT&T National.

So, according to Joel Beall, we have a new leader in the clubhouse:

So congrats, Tiger, on breaking the record. Six years ago.

Maybe that's why Sam was so cranky at Birkdale?  Just something to keep in mind whenever golf history stretches that far back for records, and majors can be even more confusing.