Friday, September 17, 2021

Late Week Lamentations

OK, we've got our kitty blogging out of the way, so shall we get back to this golf thing?  

No Respect - They played actual PGA Tour golf yesterday in the Napa Valley, though you'd not know it from a quick scan of the three major golf sites home pages.... Hmmm, methinks the editors of Golf.com. Golf Digest and Golfweek might want to let any calls from the 904 area code go straight to voicemail.  

It's only at GolfChannel.com that we find an actual game story, though not even their own, just a posting of the AP's account:

Jon Rahm well back, Chez Reavie leads after Round 1 of Fortinet Championship

There's our first WTF of the new season, because no doubt you're mumbling to yourself, WTF is Jon Rahm doing in Napa?  Doesn't he have an event the following week?

 It's a bit more of story than intended:

Nine days before Ryder Cup, Jon Rahm withdraws from Fortinet Championship pro-am with stomach issues

There have always been guys that like to play the week before a big event, but Rahm is the one guy that I figured to go all five sessions at Whistling Straits.  But I have one minor question:

“I was having a hard time focusing given the fact that I haven’t had a solid meal since Tuesday morning,” Rahm said. “My best guess is just a little run down from the season. Maybe having a little bit too much good rich food Monday and Tuesday just did it for my stomach.”

Rahm began feeling ill earlier this week and pulled out of the pro-am Wednesday to rest. He said he felt worse than when he tested positive for COVID-19 in June and was forced to withdraw from the Memorial after leading by six strokes through three rounds.

“Way, way worse,” Rahm said. “That Saturday I couldn’t have given you any more diagnosis than maybe a light cold based on what I was feeling that day. I would have never guessed it was COVID. So yeah, I feel way worse right now than I did.”

So why are you playing?   So why am I pretending to care about this event?  I'm just happy to have the PGA Tour back after the extended off-season.... I don't know about you, but several of those eleven days really dragged for me.

Care for a little Ryder Cup blogging?  I thought you might...

One Week Out - Lots of yakking to little effect, none more so than over these comments from Brooksie in a Golf Digest interview:

For virtually all of your career, you get to set the schedule and make the rules and be responsible for your own performance. How does that mesh with the Ryder Cup experience? Is it strange being on a team?

It’s different. It’s hectic. It’s a bit odd, if I’m honest. I don’t want to say it’s a bad week. We’re
just so individualized, and everybody has their routine and a different way of doing things, and now, it’s like, OK, we have to have a meeting at this time or go do this or go do that. It’s the opposite of what happens during a major week. If I break down a major week, it’s so chill. You wouldn’t even believe me. I go to the course. I play nine holes. I go work out. Other than that, I’m sitting and watching TV, taking my mind off golf with relaxing stuff. The physical part, I can handle. The mental side, you have to be able to turn it off. Sometimes, the power comes from being able to turn it on. But for me, I get power from turning it off. That’s been a huge, huge thing for me that I really haven’t understood until the past five or six years of my career.

The choice of accompanying photo is quite odd.  He goes on at some length about the disruption to his routine, and it's genuinely hard to know how to take it..

But, as you said, at a major, you’re only concerned about yourself. At the Ryder Cup, that dynamic is different.

It’s tough. There are times where I’m like, I won my match. I did my job. What do you want from me? I know how to take responsibility for the shots I hit every week. Now, somebody else hit a bad shot and left me in a bad spot, and I know this hole is a loss. That’s new, and you have to change the way you think about things. You go from an individual sport all the time to a team sport one week a year. It’s so far from my normal routine. I can barely see my [personal] team. It’s hard to even go to the gym. At the Presidents Cup in New York, we had to go to the gym at 5 a.m. to get it in. We went to the Equinox, and it was me, Dustin and Tiger, and we come back and go to a team meeting. Under regular conditions, I take naps a lot. I might take an hour, hour-and-a-half nap, or just chill on the couch and watch “SportsCenter,” before rounds, after rounds, whatever. There’s no time to do that at the Ryder Cup. There’s no time to decompress.

A genius-level captain would say, “We’re not changing anything from your regular routine.”

For sure. If I was ever to be named a captain, one of the things I’d do is get the caddies more involved. I thought it was weird in France that there was a sign on the door that said, “No caddies allowed.” As a captain, it might be tough to get into a player’s brain, but it’s easier to get into a caddie’s brain, and that’s the next guy in line. Like, if you want to understand how it went, go talk to Ricky [Elliott] because sometimes I can’t even articulate what I’m doing or how things are going. He’s the best guy to talk to about how I’m feeling. There are times when I respond to people asking me if I’m OK by saying, “Yeah, I’m good,” but I’m not good! I’m not feeling right. And he’ll tell you.

Fair enough, though you've likely taken care of any risk of ever being named a captain...

But is he aware that this is only one week?  In case you missed that bit of cleverness, that was Brooksie's own response when queried about the Bryson manspat affecting the Ryder Cup team.  Also amusing is the fact that I think he just called caddies simpletons, so I'm guessing Paul Azinger might be the least of his worries right now.... 

But Zinger did push back predictably:

“I personally think they can put this team on their shoulders and they will do it and put their
differences aside. Brooks, when I just read that article, I’m not sure he loves the Ryder Cup that much. If he doesn’t love it, he should relinquish his spot and get people there who do love the Ryder Cup. Not everybody embraces it, but if you don’t love it and you’re not sold out, then I think Brooks should — especially being hurt, should consider whether or not he really wants to be there.”

“Then if you add the Bryson dynamic to that, that would be an easier decision for him. Brooks is one of the most candid, most honest guys there is, and if he’s blatantly honest with himself and doesn’t want to be there, he should come out and say it. I don’t know, I’m a fan of both players. I just feel like it’s going to be one or the other. They’re going to put the weight of the team on their shoulders, or they’re going to be a pain in the neck.”

It's all clearly much ado about nothing, and yet the perception lags that these guys are gonna blow it again.  Zinger's not wrong in his reaction, because what's obviously missing in Brook's comments is the commitment to deal with and thrive under these unusual demands.  All we get from him is a recitation of what everyone else is doing wrong....

Of course these guys are competitive with each other, so Bryson has to make clear that his attention is focused elsewhere:

I've got blisters on my fingers....

DeChambeau takes ferocious cuts with a Cobra King RadSpeed driver — “to amp himself up,” he says — as his name is announced over a loudspeaker. It’s his turn to approach a section of
artificial turf where he’ll take part in a “tournament simulation” against several bashers he’ll likely see when he participates in the upcoming Professional Long Drivers Association World Championship in Mesquite, Nev.

DeChambeau isn’t giving up his day job for a life on the long drive circuit; his Tour goals are still his top priority. But there’s something about going head-to-head against other golfers, driver in hand, that brings DeChambeau immense satisfaction.

“It’s more of an arena environment with massive speakers pumping music and energy drinks to get you amped up,” DeChambeau told GOLF.com at the Tour Championship, two weeks after his session in North Carolina. “We’re going up against the next guy. It’s not necessarily playing against the golf course; I’m trying to be faster than that guy. It’s a head-to-head competition, which I personally like and enjoy.

 Hmmmm, yanno what's also more of an arena environment?

None of us know how each individual should prepare for a Ryder Cup, though each of our protagonists seems to be sending the wrong signals.  Brooksie seems to want us to know that he'll be out of his comfort zone, whereas the other guy is myopically focused on his carry numbers.  What could go wrong?

 And lest we harbor any lingering doubt that Koepka will show, he said this to Eamon Lynch:

“I’m feeling good. Been doing my rehab, doing everything I need to do to be ready for the Cup. I’ll be there ready to play.”

Is that a good thing?  I do love this tough love approach, though it's the moral equivalent of hiring Tom Watson as your captain... seems like a good idea at the time, as long as you're not considering the reality of the modern pampered golf professional:

Conceptually, I love it... But I'm guessing that Stricker will have no interest in channeling his inner Hal Sutton.

Bob Harig hints at the underlying story arc of this installment of the Ryder Cup with his item:

The U.S. Ryder Cup team has a new look in hopes of eliminating the losing that was getting old

Meanwhile, the U.S. has lost nine of the past 12 Ryder Cups. What appeared to be a strong team in 2018 got smoked in France.

So what did Stricker do?

He passed on the longtime mandate of experience and went with youth.

Six members of his team, which will face Europe starting Sept. 24 in Wisconsin, are Ryder Cup rookies -- Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Harris English, Daniel Berger and Scottie Scheffler.

With a chance to take experience with Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson, Stricker instead opted for four rookies among his six picks: Schauffele, English, Berger and Scheffler. Neither English nor Scheffler has played in either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

We've long been amused at the reverence paid to Ryder Cup experience, at least when said experience is of the losing kind.  But it also needs to be noted that when your rookies are guys like Morikawa and Cantlay, they're rookies only in a technical sense...

But herein lies a line of demarcation, because Captain Harrington went the other direction, ensuring that his roster would feature those that have tormented the Yanks for so long, Westwood, Garcia and, most especially, this guy:

Ryder Cup 2021: Love or loathe him, Ian Poulter is always Europe's man to beat

The best part of this predictable piece is the ground zero moment of Poults' Ryder Cup intensity:

Picture the scene. It is September 1999 and the 33rd Ryder Cup is taking place at The Country

Club in Brookline, Mass. Along with some friends, a 23-year-old by the name of Ian Poulter is
3,300-miles east inside a hostelry in Leicester Square, London, one of a large crowd sitting in front of a big-screen television.

All is well until a premature parade of American players, caddies and wives stampede across the 17th green in the wake of Justin Leonard holing his (in)famous 40-foot putt to all but clinch the biennial contest for the home side. All of which occurred before Jose Maria Olazabal was belatedly afforded a legitimate opportunity to halve the hole and extend the proceedings.

Outraged by what he saw as the injustice of it all and screaming at the top of his voice, Poulter leaps up onto a table. An exact transcript is unavailable at this time, but the gist of the ensuing tirade was that revenge would soon enough be his. He would sort out the Yanks when he got the chance. One day he would be wearing Europe’s colors. There was no doubt in his mind, despite the fact that, at the time, Poulter was a relatively impecunious member of the European Challenge Tour. Only a couple of years before, he was selling confectionery in the pro shop at Leighton Buzzard Golf Club.

Impecunious?   Someone seems to be showing off their vocabulary.... The definition is "having little or no money", which seems a bit forced in that context.  But you can read the rest on your own, as your humble blogger has no need to relive Medinah ever again.

Let me segue to this bit from the latest  Alan Shipnuck mailbag, which is all Ryder Cup-related:

Is this Ryder Cup the moment when Europe goes to the well one too many times with this core of players? #AskAlan @TheSecretDuffer

Well, if Capt. Harrington had taken Justin Rose over Shane Lowry, we could say that more definitively. Even so, Europe is now missing two of its 21st Century cornerstones in Rose and Henrik Stenson. Part of the drama of this Ryder Cup is that it could very well be the last stand for the core group of Lee Westwood (age 48), Ian Poulter (45) and Sergio Garcia (41). Given the youth on Team Europe, Harrington pretty much had to take Westwood, who has been playing great for a long time, and Poulter, who has been sneaky-good this year. Garcia was more debatable, but at the Ryder Cup, Sergio is Sergio: still dangerous and sure to gin up the Yanks.

It's a curious response from the man that famously predicted the coming era of U.S. Ryder Cup dominance, based largely upon the aging Euro core.

But what I remember is that Seve was Seve right up until the moment he wasn't....  And methinks that's exactly what will happen at Whistling Straits.  It has to happen, because the alternative, that the U.S. could be pushed to the edge and even lose this home game, is simply un fathomable....

Shall we take a stroll through that mailbag?  

Why do we all care so much? And we do all care a ton! It’s just three days and our boys don’t care as much as we do. @KYECHSPORTS

Yeah, they’re probably healthier and better adjusted than the rest of us! We care because of Seve and Payne, Ollie and Zinger. Justin Leonard’s putt. Christy O’Connor’s 2-iron. Calc’s shank. Big Jack’s concession. Rose’s 50-footer. Ballesteros’s 3-wood out of the bunker. Lanny Wadkins’s wedge. The tears streaming down Darren Clarke’s face whilst being serenaded by the crowd. Poults embracing his son after beating the world number one. Mickelson detonating Watson in front of the world. Moliwood. The Battle at Brookline. The Miracle at Medinah. Choke Hill. The War by the Shore. “I can’t hear you!” “I have a good feeling about this.” “Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the finest golfers in the world.” FORK OFF. I mean, I’m getting pumped just typing this!

Yeah, for sure, but am I the only one that finds his 2014 call-out jarringly inappropriate for his list?  Though he could perhaps have ignored everything after Seve on the list, because that's when this event morphed from a sleepy exhibition into Armageddon.

Does Tiger arrive Saturday night for a pep talk in the locker room? @Jminis13

Gawd, I hope so. That would be utterly epic. No offense to George W. Bush riffing on the Alamo, but can you imagine how hyped the boys in red, white and blue would be? It has to happen.

Have you guys been watching golf the last twenty-odd years?  By the way, this was Steve Stricker's comment on Tiger's non-appearance:

“He won’t be able to be a captain’s assistant this time around because of his on-going rehabilitation to try and get better. To try to play golf again. And that is going well,” Stricker said. “He’s progressing. He’s doing well, things are moving in the right direction.”

In case you failed to notice, he's just not that into us and can't be bothered showing up.  We should acknowledge that and react accordingly, but we won't.

If Brooksy can’t go, who gets the nod? Or do you sit him and take the Steve Pate half on Sunday? @JedDeMuesy

It has to be Billy Horschel, doesn’t it? He won the bloody WGC-Match Play this year! He has a gritty, Poulter-like personality that will drive the Euros batty. And at this exact moment, with a limited sample size, he’s the hottest golfer in the world. Otherwise, I’d go with Kevin Na.

You'd think that bridge was burned with his whining about not getting a call.  But, while Billy Ho might well be as annoying a pest as Poulter, are we sure he can play like Poulter has at previous Ryder Cups?  

Alan gets that very question:

Did Horschel spoil his chances by expressing his disappointment at not getting a phone call from Stricker the first time around? #AskAlan @pkeen52

If that’s the case, Steve Stricker is softer than Wisconsin brie. I was a little surprised Horschel aired his grievances publicly, but that’s who he is: passionate, fiery, politically incorrect. I like that he brought the spice. Isn’t that the kind of guy you want on your team?

All righty, but Stricker responded by telling us that he called 25-30 guys.  If Billy Ho wasn't in his initial top 25-30, wouldn't this be quite the admission of error?

Here's the  obligatory metphysical musing:

#AskAlan Do you see the Americans ever forming a “team feeling” the way the Euros have? Also, with so many Euros moving to America, do you think that connection they develop by traveling the continent may be lost eventually? @wadster13

For sure, the Euro Tour is a more collegial place, and that plays a part in the fabled chemistry of the team that is sent to the Ryder Cup. But the players are bound together by much deeper factors: language, culture and the shared national teams that groomed them. Paul Azinger’s celebrated pod system sought to replicate the small, tightly knit groups the Europeans naturally have because of their various nationalities.

Shane Lowry and Rory Mcllroy come from the same small, tribal island and have been competing alongside each other most of their lives. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia can talk smack about their opponents in Spanish. Two generations of English blokes on the team were groomed for this. America is a huge place that celebrates rugged individualism, so the Americans will never have the same chemistry as their opponents. But they can still build a common cause and a team chemistry that has been sorely lacking.

I think it's less a cultural thing than it is the benefit of being perennial underdogs.... The U.S. is always supposed to win, and that results in having to play to not lose...

This one is out of order, but the logical follow-up methinks:

If the U.S. somehow manages to lose this one, at home, on a very long golf course, with no European support, with the highest-ranked team in the modern era — will it be the worst #rydercup loss of all? @ProGolfAnalyst

Well, when you put it like that … The challenge of ranking the U.S. losses is that there have been so many embarrassments. But don’t sleep on this European team: Rahm is a certified killer; Rory is Rory and capable of overwhelming excellence; Poulter will go down as one of the handful of greatest Ryder Cuppers ever; Garcia, Westwood and Paul Casey are warriors who are almost never out of a hole; Tommy Fleetwood was a keynote player in Paris as a rookie; Viktor Hovland will be a load, especially in alternate shot; Lowry has a ton of game and brio. The U.S. is going to have to bring it to beat this team. But to your point, if the Americans can’t win this time around, you have to wonder if they ever will again.

I see it as a week fraught with peril for the Americans.  Not only is it a home game, but it seems to be an historically weak Euro roster and an equally ascendant core of American talent, all leading to the conclusion that the event shouldn't even be close.  Yanno, like Medina wasn't close.... Which has me wondering if that partially explains Tiger keeping his distance....

If this were an American football game, what would the point spread be? I’m thinking it would be USA -7.5. Do you think that sounds about right? Of course, we notoriously underachieve in these, so does the spread account for that? @harryarnett

That sounds about right, but I give the notorious underachievement more weight: USA -6.

I know who I would take with that kind of spread...

Who is one guy that is going to increase in value through a hot Ryder Cup performance?
(Think Leona Maguire from the Solheim…) @aspoiledwalk

Tyrrell Hatton! He is an absolute lunatic, and I say that with abiding affection. If Hatton (above) can get so mental on a Thursday morning at a hum-drum stroke-play event, can you imagine what a raging inferno he’s going to be at the f’ing Ryder Cup! For all of his antics, Hatton has a lot of game. Other than Rahm and Poulter, Team Europe has pretty mild personalities; if Hatton plays well I can see him becoming a guy the blue and yellow rallies around.

That's a good call on Alan's part, as their problem children have a history of channeling their emotions productively in this event (see, Seve, Sergio and Poults).  Personally, I'm more intrigued by Viktor Hovland and Matthew Fitzpatrick, guys that I think will prove to be match-play as assassins.

As the PGA Tour does not run the Ryder Cup, do you think ‘security’ will be summoned if we call Bryson ‘Brooksie’?? @MrRyderCup2012

Who needs security? The frothing American crowds will toss your ass in the lake. This is the one week the crowd will be on Bryson’s side, and I don’t think any mindless heckling will be well-received.

Yeah, though let's hope they patch things up before Bethpage 2025.

Is Padraig Harrington going to regret bypassing Ryder Cup stalwart Justin Rose as a captain’s pick? @KOnocomment

Unless all three of his picks go 5-0, yes. Because second-guessing the captains is part of the fun of the Ryder Cup. I think Harrington understands that, but he’s not immune to regret.

Not so much.  If Sergio and Poults cave, there will be second guessing for sure, though the name sin question will be Victor Perez and Robert McIntyre.  Rose simply has done nothing since forever....

Is Rory secretly overjoyed that he will not have to play Patrick Reed in singles? @tdshambaugh

Duh.

What do you mean by secretly?  But let's see if Rory can do anything useful, even in the absence of his personal bête noire.

Who should be the LPGA equivalent of Bubba to show some in-person support at Kohler? @robmillertime

Christina Kim, obviously.

She's far more likely than Tiger to make the effort.

This to me is an interesting question, one to which I alluded in the Napa coverage above:

How many U.S. and European players do you see playing all 5 matches in the Ryder Cup? And is it more important for Europe to perhaps ride a few (Rahm, Rory) for five matches as opposed to the U.S. squad? #AskAlan @jameswoldbdc

Yes, by almost any statistical metric the U.S. team has superior depth. I doubt Stricker is game-planning for any of his guys to play all five sessions, though if a JT or DJ or Jordan comes out on fire maybe the U.S. keeps riding them. But I fully expect Rahm and McIlroy to play all five for Team Europe. The visitors need their studs to come through in a big way.

I expect, as I've noted recently, fewer and fewer players will go all five sessions.  I've supported that premise by citing the singles failures of players from Jordan Spieth to Sergio, so I certainly expect that Stricker will limit his guys to a max of four sessions.

But the one guy I'd expect to be out there every session is Jon Rahm, because he's head and shoulders above the rest of that team.  I simply can't see Padraig putting out a roster missing that name unless, of course, they go out and grab a big lead.  

If you’re the Euros, you’re sending Rahm out in that first match, aren’t you? @Dropkick3points

Yep, pretty much every time. I think this Ryder Cup is when he becomes Europe’s team leader. McIlroy has the longer résumé, but Rahm has the duende.

Of course.  Though that's great, but only if he wins... Ask Hal Sutton what happens when your super team loses.

Over/Under on how many sentences Padraig Harrington begins with “ehhh”?@MichaelSmyth

That is one of my favorite sounds in golf. I’ll set the O/U at a million, and I hope Padraig exceeds it.
The easy answer is, "All of them."

Alan, I am attending the Ryder Cup as an American but like half a dozen European players more than I like my favorite American player. How am I to balance this fandom? #AskAlan @Sam_Beishuizen

This is the classic Ryder Cup dilemma. The Europeans are simply a jauntier, more likable, easier-to-root-for crew. But think of it like this: For the competitive integrity of the Ryder Cup, the U.S. has to win this one. So hopefully 51 percent of your heart can pull for the red, white and blue.

Alan is absolutely correct about the stakes.  Though, perhaps if we lost this one, the Euros would allow us to add the rest of North America to our team?

But I can tell you, from personal experience, that what the questioner describes was exactly my experience from Paris.  I found myself  rooting for the Euros to crush the Americans because the latter were such whiny a*****es.

This would certainly be the optimistic take on our Captain:

Why was Stricker picked to captain this? He’s only been in three Ryder Cups, and the only thing I remember about him during any of them is him and Tiger costing the U.S. the Cup in 2012. Is it because it’s in Wisconsin? #AskAlan @War_Eagle1991

Local Boy Makes Good is certainly a factor. But maybe, just maybe, Stricker will turn out to be the American McGinley: a guy with relatively light playing credentials who morphs into a spectacular captain. I’ve been impressed with everything he has done: staring down Phil and guiding him to a vice captaincy; getting Brooks Koepka to stand down in his embarrassing squabble with Bryson DeChambeau; giving Patrick Reed the unofficial suspension he deserves; and the learned approach Stricker brought to his picks. Obviously the toughest tests are still coming. But given all the bad juju around this U.S. team, maybe Stricker’s Wisconsin nice is exactly what this crew needs.

Lots to mull here, but I do agree that our fetish over playing credentials is misplaced, especially since most of our captains experienced far more Ryder Cup failure than success (Furyk, Love, Pavin, Kite, Lehman...shall I go on?).

Like Alan, I do think the potential Phil issue was managed with surprising deft, though I'm unclear as to whether that's Stricker's doing, or word came from elsewhere.  But it would be hard to identify a captaincy more disastrous than Jim "Alas, Poor" Furyk's 2018 turn, yet there he is as a Vice Captain In-Good-Standing at Whistling Straits.  So, it seems the cool kids remain firmly in charge...

One last bit revisiting Alan's famous prediction:

How tempted are you to double down this week? @BCRafferty

There is no doubling down. If you read my original column back in 2017, it’s a long-range prediction that will take a decade or more to play out. Paris wasn’t a great start, obviously, but if/when the U.S. wins this one that will be two out of three, with a roster boasting tons of young talent, just as Poulter and Westwood and maybe Garcia are being put out to pasture alongside Stenson and Rose. I still think I’m gonna be right, but unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until at least 2029 to know for sure. Gawd help us all.

The funniest part of this all were the declarations of success after 2016....  But for those that get ahead of themselves, we'll always have Paris.

OK Kids, have a great weekend.  I'm off to play with some kitties, but I'll see you on Monday. 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)