A tough day to get started at the keyboard. Sure, there's too much to cover and a challenge to logically organize, but the bigger issue is two hyper-kinetic kitties to whom attention must be paid...
Mad Max - I was modestly intrigued to see if Maverick McNelly, often better known as Mr. Danielle Kang, could get it done (though his father is also somewhat prominent). The answer, alas, was "no":
Who won: Max Homa (seven-under 65, 19 under overall)
How it happened: McNealy was three under on the front on Sunday and turned in 17 under overall, enough for a two-shot lead over Marc Leishman, who shot 65, and a group of others stuck at 14under. Max Homa took a big bite into the lead with a hole-out eagle on 12 to get within a stroke, and his birdie on 13 — he drained a 21-footer — tied him at the top. As McNealy couldn’t do any better than pars to start his back nine, Homa took the lead on the par-5 16th, two-putting for birdie and getting to 18 under. McNealy tied Homa with his own birdie on 16, but it didn’t last long. On the 17th, Homa rolled in a big breaking right-to-left putt to regain the solo lead at 19 under. Minutes later, a wayward drive on 17 led to a disastrous double bogey for McNealy. His approach from 189 yards missed the green, and he two-chipped and two-putted for a 6. That gave Homa a three-shot lead, and his par on the 18th was plenty good enough to shut the door. Homa finished the weekend with back-to-back 65s, and his Sunday 65 was tied with Leishman for the low round of the day. McNealy drained a long eagle putt on the 72nd hole to shoot 68 and finish solo second, one behind Homa, but the double bogey came back to haunt him.
Homa's a fave of the blog, given that he has an actual sense of humor and seems mostly without affectation. Though I give the porn 'stache a seven out of ten, and that's grading on a curve.
This is your basic twofer, wherein I can pretend to cover the season-opening event while actually previewing the event about which you might actually care:
An illness. A missed cut. Is there concern with Jon Rahm heading into Ryder Cup?
We should only be so lucky...
Or, maybe more accurately, better. On Tuesday, despite a body of work that perhaps spokeotherwise, he learned that he had not been voted PGA Tour player of the year by his peers. On Wednesday, a day before the start of the Fortinet, he was forced to withdraw from the pro-am with a stomach illness that he said made him feel “way worse” than his bout with Covid over the summer. On Thursday, he shot a 72, on Friday, he shot a 71, and he was done, his first missed cut since May.The only golfer of the 24 heading to next week’s Ryder Cup to play this week, Rahm will now rest and recalibrate too. Which, he says, might not be the worst thing.
If you say so...
“Well, I’ve got two more days off. I think it’s primarily rest,” Rahm said. “I just, you know, I feel like with having those stomach issues early, I wasn’t nearly as rested as I could have been, my body got a little bit tight, but I’m feeling good today. It was a tough course out there.
“If anything, I get to rest a couple extra days and be able to figure out what’s going on with my swing, which technically is not really anything bad. It’s just I think a lot of those swings were made to look worse because of how tough it is out there. It’s firm, it’s fast, the fairways are hard to hit. I just maybe didn’t hit the shot sometimes. I just feel I could have been rewarded a little bit more, that’s about it.”
Team Europe’s greatest villain is back at the Ryder Cup … because of course he is
I can't even fathom a guess as to whom they're referring....
What is it about this guy?Other players in plaid—Arnold Palmer in his day, Darren Clarke in his, Rodney Dangerfield for 100 minutes—it works. It’s cool. Ian Poulter in plaid is annoying.Ian Poulter in anything is annoying. It’s a backdoor compliment.Here’s the starting point: He’s been a constant in our golf-watching lives for about 20 years now, at all our sparkly events, most especially the Ryder Cup. If he weren’t good, would we care so much about him? We would not.He’s spectacularly English. The working Englishman who made it. He’s as Jaguar C-Type as Pat Reed is Ford F-150. We don’t do Jaguars, here in these United States. Ian Poulter don’t care.Poulter earned his PGA Tour playing privileges by making the 2004 European Ryder Cup team. (He’s been playing both the European Tour and the PGA Tour ever since.) Poulter sunk the winning point for his club at the ’04 Ryder Cup. In Detroit—how galling. Hal Sutton, our captain, was so impressed he almost doffed his 10-gallon lid. Poults is more of a visor guy. It’s a British thing. Poults. Tiger put it in circulation. From the Yiddish, for the guy you’d least like to see over a meaningful 10-footer to beat you.
I don't actually know if Mike Bamberger, who wrote the pice, is Jewish, though I suspect as much since he wrote this 2015 article on Jewish Golfers ( which predates yesterday's winner, Max Homa, who is of the Tribe). But I'm pretty sure he was bluffing on that Yiddish bit:
Seems to me Poults is more of a carrier, in that he leaves us grousing...
A slight into this ultimately unsatisfying John Feinstein offering:
Ultimately, the best John can do is anecdotal evidence of players coming around:
More often than not, comments like Koepka’s come from players who haven’t yet experiencedthe intensity and the exhilaration of a Ryder Cup week. When Rory McIlroy first qualified for Montgomerie’s 2010 European team in Wales, he was asked about how he felt knowing he’d be on the team.“It’s nice,” he said. “I look forward to it. But being honest, it’s an exhibition. My No. 1 goal is to win major championships.”Montgomerie, who is a lot smarter than most people think, smiled when he was asked about McIlroy’s comments. “He’ll learn,” he said. “He won’t feel that way once he gets there.”Monty was right. “I knew about 15 minutes after I got there that I’d been wrong,” McIlroy said, able to laugh at himself years later. “I realized this was really a big deal.”
His basic premise, the coda of the piece, is that Koepka, notwithstanding his comments last week, will ultimately come around. Fair enough, but John elides to 600-lbs. elephant in the corner, to wit, that "coming around" means something completely different for each of the two teams: Back to that young chicken from a SiriusXM podcast:
Poulter was laughing on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio Wednesday as he faced down the Ryder Cup question everyone has been asking. The host, Michael Breed, put it well: “It’s easy to look at the[European] team and say you are underdogs and yet what you have is you have history. And history says we’ve won four out of the last five, seven of the last nine, and nine of the last 12.“You know, that’s our advantage, I guess, in a way, right? That we have delivered when perhaps we shouldn’t have delivered,” Poulter mused to Breed with a chuckle. “And that is the magical question that gets asked all the time. That’s what has the American press scratching their head. That’s what has the American team scratching their heads at times, right? On paper, on paper, on paper, the U.S. team should have delivered. It’s for us to enjoy and for the American team to figure out, right?”To hear Poulter tell it, the Europeans have been able to channel something. He might not know exactly what that something is. But he has no interest in breaking down the recipe for the flummoxed Americans, either.
One of life's enduring mysteries... While I might have found Feinstein's piece a bit lacking, he does cite that which the Americans need to keep in mind as regards their most prominent talent:
Koepka was 3-1 for the winning U.S. team at Hazeltine National in 2016 and 1-2-1 in Europe’s win in Paris in 2018. That’s 4-3-1, certainly respectable, especially given that very few Americans who have played in this century have winning records. Tiger Woods, who never really embraced the Ryder Cup emotionally, is 13-21-3 and the eight teams he played on went 1-7. Phil Mickelson, who still hasn’t completely gotten over not being picked for Tom Watson’s team in 1993, has played in 12 Ryder Cups and is 18-22-7 individually. The teams he played on went 3-9.
So naturally we've handed those two the keys to the U.S. Ryder Cup efforts....
This week's Tour Confidential panel is of course all over this event, including this back and forth on this specific topic:
3. In an interview on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio last week, European stalwart Ian Poulter was amused by one topic that often comes up during Ryder Cup week, which is how the Americans are usually the favorites but are often out-played. “On paper, on paper, on paper, the U.S. team should have delivered,” he said. “It’s for us to enjoy and for the American team to figure out, right?” How does Europe seemingly come together and play better during these weeks, and why has it been so hard for the U.S. to do the same?Piastowski: Brooks would like this answer: The underdog, me-against-the-world, chip-on-your shoulder mentality can do miracles. If the U.S. just looked at the recent ledger in this event, they might get a little of that, too.Colgan: Nick, you’re spot on. It also helps that the Europeans putt the living daylights out of the ball.Berhow: Could you imagine a European Ryder Cupper ever saying what Brooks Koepka did about the Ryder Cup? Never. That’s the difference.Bamberger: I do think the Europeans actually do come together because they seem to have the ability to park their egos at the jetway when leaving for the Ryder Cup and play for Continent. That’s harder for the American golfer to do, for whatever reason. But in the end, and we’ve seen many times, the Europeans just flat-out play the Americans, particularly with mid-length and short putting. Close matches always come down to that. That’s skill, stroke, confidence, nerves, sense-of-balance in your life, and a bunch of things you cannot measure.Sens: All of those points above are on the mark. They bring a team spirit and an underdog attitude into the event, which often allows them to play looser. But I also think the “better on paper” theme is oversold by a golf press that gets easily intoxicated by world rankings and length of the tee, neither of which are the real difference-makers in this event. Look at the European players and their Ryder Cup records. Should they really be the big underdogs that Vegas has them as this week? I don’t think so.
Josh Berhow is quite obviously wrong, as Rory's comments above are the mirror image of Brooksie's. I've always attributed this phenomenon to the milking of underdog status, whereby the excellence of the Americans in their day job is almost a negative... Interestingly to me, Rory is the most American-like of the Euros by virtue of his individual success, and he's been a bit of a Ryder Cup dud. It's their rank-and-file, guys like Poulter that don't actually win on their own very often, who show up at these things and play like they haven't a worry in the world.
As long as we've broken the ice on that TC panel:
1. After a one-year delay and three years since the last meeting, the 43rd Ryder Cup is officially, and finally, here, as the U.S. takes on Europe at Whistling Straits Friday to Sunday in Kohler, Wis. Europe has won seven of the past nine events, including the last one, a seven-point thumping in Paris. As usual, there are storylines aplenty, but what’s the one you can’t wait to see unfold this week?Nick Piastowski: The Ryder Cup-iness of the Ryder Cup. We’ll all, no doubt, be looking forwardto Bryson unsheathing driver on 1, Brooks saying something spicy and Ian Poulter thumping his chest. But the fans, the chants, the ebbs and the flows are what make this event so meaningful — and we’ve had to wait a while for it, too. The fact that not many Euro supporters will make the trip is a bit of a downer. But, Wisconsin born and raised, I know how much this event means to golf in the state. It’ll be a fun one.James Colgan: Given his match play record (0-5 across the Presidents and Ryder Cups) and headline magnetism (long-drive championships, anyone?), Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t quite given us reason for optimism. But that’s precisely why I’m excited to watch him. Bryson will face the music if he doesn’t answer the bell for the Americans, but no one stands more to gain from a brilliant week.Josh Berhow: I want to see if Jon Rahm, likely irked by not winning PGA Tour Player of the Year, takes out his fury on the U.S. side and has a big week. I’m super interested to see whom Bryson is paired with. I can’t wait to see how Brooks performs, especially since he was recently so outspoken about his views of the event (more on that below). I’m curious if the controversy that always swirls around the U.S. team will be a thorn in its side. There’s lots more, too. Can Westwood and Poulter still bring it? What kind of an assistant captain will Phil be? There are so many great stories to unpack. It’s gonna be a blast.Josh Sens: All good candidates above. Beyond those threads, it’s always interesting to watch how first-time Ryder Cuppers respond to the moment. The Europeans will be counting heavily on Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland, both first-timers. As one of the straightest hitters in the game, Hovland stands to be a match-play pest, as he proved in the U.S. Amateur. And Lowry just somehow seems custom-built for an event like this. On the U.S. side, Scheffler has been so good on big stages. Will that same success carry over? And then there’s the captain’s picks element, and all the praise and second-guessing that invariably comes with it.Michael Bamberger: Which team will win.
I'm most interested to see if Poulter's eyeballs remain in their sockets.... But, yeah, who wins as well.
And on Brooksiegate:
2. Brooks Koepka spoke candidly about his indifference for Ryder Cups in a recent interview with Golf Digest, saying things like: “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.” And: “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.” Former Ryder Cup captain and current NBC analyst Paul Azinger chimed in, saying, “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 it.” Do you have an issue with Koepka’s comments, and what’s your take on Azinger’s rebuttal?
It's an absolute nothing burger, at least up until he starts playing poorly....
Piastowski: If Brooksie wins, if he plays like Major Brooks, he can say whatever he wants. If he wins his points, that’s all you can ask of a teammate. Not even everyone has to be Poulter. Energy can be drawn on success. However … he has all the potential to be a longtime alpha for that room. If the outspoken, four-time major champ says let’s kick butt today — but in words only Brooks could concoct — then I’d sure as hell would want to kick butt today. But if Brooksie treats this like a Tour stop in mid-July, and plays like it, Azinger is right. His record be damned, get someone in there who will be a stone-cold killer.Colgan: Fortunately, it’s not like the U.S. side enters the Ryder Cup with massive concerns about its ability to form a cohesive unit, or else those comments could’ve come across the wrong way. Wait a second …Berhow: I don’t have a problem with Koepka’s comments, because we want our athletes to be honest and outspoken, but I’m also not Steve Stricker, who probably wasn’t thrilled to read it. As for Azinger, I get why he’s bothered by it, but I do think once the lights go on, Koepka will perform as best he can. (He’s 4-3-1 in it.) There’s pride on the line once golf balls go in the air.Bamberger: I think Brooks spoke truthfully, and for himself. Azinger did the same. Brooks is playing. Azinger is offering commentary. The system at work.Sens: Like Berhow, I appreciate Koepka’s honesty. But I also understand why Azinger is irked by a guy who isn’t all-in on everything the Ryder Cup is about, because Azinger lives and breathes the stuff. I have no doubt that Koepka will play his heart out on his own ball. But is he the ideal guy to have as your partner or in the team room? Doesn’t sound like it. If he hadn’t auto-qualified, I wouldn’t pick him.
I just add this to the list of evidence that Brooks isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. The comments to me just seem profoundly silly, reflecting a man completely absorbed with his own little bubble. To some extent that's a necessary thing for their careers, but missing from his comments was any sense that he would embrace the week of team competition. That's what drew the rebuke from Zinger, though Mike's assessment that the system is working seems odd. Zinger can't have helped the home team by fanning these flames, and they'll be further fanned if Koepka gets off to a rocky start.
Of course his bête noire Bryson has done a similar thing, though in a completely different manner. In announcing plans to compete in a Long Drive event the day after the Ryder Cup ends, he's pretty much announced that he's not overly invested in this little exhibition on the shores of Lake Michigan. For a guy struggling with the way fans are treating him, this pretty much ensures a continuation of that, unless he emerges as a Ryder Cup hero by Sunday. All I can add is that he better chip and putt well, because he's announced that he's destroyed his hands in pursuit of the long ball... If his objectives was to induce more fan abuse, what would he have done differently?
4. Three years ago, it was Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood who stole the show, leading Europe to an easy win. Which player will be the most crucial to each team’s success this time around?Piastowski: On the American side, I’m going with Patrick Cantlay. He gives off a match play-winning vibe to me. Go out, win 4 and 3, rinse and repeat. Patty Ice, for sure. For the Euros, let’s go with Viktor Hovland. Is he this event’s next big thing for the team across the pond? He has all the talent in the world to be.Colgan: For the Europeans, I think it has to be Jon Rahm. How does the best player in the world follow up a killer performance in ’18 as a Ryder Cup rookie? For the U.S., it’s the guy most likely to follow in Rahm’s footsteps: Collin Morikawa. He was gassed leading into the Tour Championship, but would seem to enter Whistling refreshed after a few weeks off.Berhow: Jordan Spieth is now a veteran, seasoned Ryder Cupper. He’s the heart and soul of that team and needs to play like it. I think he will. As for Europe, I’m expecting a big week from Jon Rahm. The big-time players have to show up.Bamberger: That steal-the-show thing comes on Friday and Saturday, when you’re playing with another player. On Sunday, you’re grinding out a point. I’m guessing Sergio and Rahm will be put together, they’ll produce some magic in a Spanish tradition we all know well, and that could steal the show. You can have only one star act, so I’m going to leave it at that.Sens: I’m thinking Shane Lowry for the Europeans. The guy just has the air of a Ryder Cup bulldog. Paired with Rory, I expect him to be especially dangerous. On the U.S. team, I look for Xander to eat this stuff up.
It's hard to imagine this being competitive without Jon Rahm playing like a stud... Hovland and Lowry are guys that have to pitch in, but you could say that about all twelve guys. One guy whose name I've yet to read is Paul Casey, who would seem to need to have a heck of a week, no?
Josh Berhow, however, isn't having much of a week, though. In addition to that call-out above, he's touting a man whose extensive cup experience includes an 0-6 record in singles. Maybe he'll come through, but I'm far more curious to see how Stricker will use him. For instance, that electric, first tee moment Friday morning should, methinks, not include our Jordan, who should sit in both foursomes sessions.
They do a get a litle silly asking the same question repeatedly:
5. There will be nine first-time Ryder Cup players this week. The U.S. has six in Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Harris English, Scottie Scheffler and Daniel Berger, while Europe has just half that many in Shane Lowry, Bernd Wiesberger and Viktor Hovland. Which one of these nine will be the most impactful?Piastowski: Whoops, I kind of answered this above. But I’ll toss in another: Shane Lowry. The 34-year-old is obviously a “rookie” in name alone. The Open Championship winner told his team three years ago he wanted to be at this event, and here he is. I think that’s the kind of spirit Azinger was talking about above. Lowry is great — but you get the feeling he’ll play above his head this week and be even greater.Colgan: Xander!! We’ve heard legends about his match play ability in money games against fellow pros, and we saw him win a gold medal representing the U.S. in July. There may be no rookie more prime to make himself a hero.Berhow: Patrick Cantlay has been on a tear the past two months and was 3-2 at the last Presidents Cup. He’s gonna have himself a week.Bamberger: Bernd Wiesberger. Isn’t it obvious? The most impactful player is often the one you expect the least impact from. In this nine-person subset of the 24 players, Bernd’s the leader in the house by a touchdown.Sens: At this point, they get talked about in tandem so often we should really have just one name for Brooks and Bryson, kinda like Brangelina. Combined, they are going to have a massive impact on the U.S. team. What kind of impact is the big question.
Thank God for Mike Bamberger keeping it at least a little interesting. Cantlay, X-Man and Lowry might technically be rookies, but we certainly don't expect them to spit the bit.
I'm not sure about the premise of this question
6. With Patrick Reed left off the U.S. team, it begs the question: Who on the U.S. will play the ever-important role of opponent irritator and crowd ignitor? And who will that be for Europe?Piastowski: It’s a tough question for the U.S. side — few on this team have done something like that before, and it may take them out of their comfort zone if they tried. Spieth would be an obvious answer, but man, I’d love to see Morikawa stuff iron after iron and work the crowd along the way. He can certainly do the former. For the Europeans, it’s more a question who won’t be this guy. But it’d be a blast to see Tyrrell Hatton go on a birdie binge and go nuclear on the crowd.Colgan: It’s Ian Poulter for Europe. It’s always Ian Poulter. For the Americans, how about Brooks Koepka? He certainly has the mentality for it.Berhow: Not everyone can play that role (sorry, Harris English), but Justin Thomas is a good fit, and I also think he wants to be that guy who can get a point, be a leader and put the team on his back. As for Europe, it’s Poulter, with Hatton waiting in the wings.Bamberger: Sorry, maybe I missed something: Is Bryson DeChambeau not playing in this Ryder Cup? Bryson DeChambeau. He’ll irritate and ignite American fans, any European fans who will be there, European players, his own teammates. It’s his special talent, or one of them. As for the Europeans, you have to go back to the well: Ian Poulter. It’s his eyeballs. They speak a language all their own.Sens: Poulter is a Hall of Fame irritant for sure. But let’s not forget Sergio, who has played that same role throughout the years (and who has been flashing some pretty tidy form of late). Michael’s right that Bryson will be the most polarizing on the U.S. side. But the guy best suited to fire up the crowd is Spieth. It’s all about those backbreaking putts in the Ryder Cup, and no one makes more big ones than he does.
That's quite the Rorschach test of answers, so let's take them one by one? Do the Americans need an irritant? I would argue the negative, they just need twelve guys to play like they do week in and week out. Trust me, that'll annoy the Euros sufficiently...
For the Euros, in their capacity as perennial underdogs, they need to see that they can stay with the superior team (on paper, as per IJP). But the original Poulter was Seve, who was the ultimate irritant up until the moment when the magic died. That's the risk for the Euros, that they've by necessity gone back to that Poulter-Sergio well, but will those guys still bring it? You know both those guys will be in Padraig's Friday morning lineup, which is why I'll be watching from the opening tee shot.
Shack has a longish bit on course set-ups that begins with some fun history on that subject:
A not-so-pleasant surprise awaited the Americans competing in the 1957 Ryder Cup. Lindrick Golf Club was the rare non-links to host and Playing Captain Dai Rees wanted the course as fastas possible for his mostly links-proficient team. The place was dried out for weeks except in one spot: behind the greens. Thick rough was harvested to swallow up Americans unfamiliar with landing approaches short of the green.The desperation ploy worked. Team GB&I won 7.5 to 4.5 for their only winning effort between 1935 and 1983. Ouch. That required some serious stiff upper lippage.The Americans returned the setup favor in 1963 at East Lake. Henry Longhurst explained:
The course plays at 6,898 yards with a par of 70, which only a few were able to match on the first day. No fewer than seventy-three extra bunkers have been put in specifically for the match, and for the past year fertilizer has been put on the rough. With the flags often very close to bunkers or at the very back of the green, East Lake presents a most exacting test.
The Americans cruised to a 23-9 win for Playing Captain Arnold Palmer. (They played two singles sessions that year, because I know you’ll ask.)
The most famous set-up controversy was Seve simply ending the fairway on the Par-5 17th at Valderrama as a means of mitigating the American's length advantage. To me, the Americans way over-estimated the affect of tucked-pins in their Medinah meltdown (those Euros got at 'em just fine, thank you), and created what Justin Rose called a "pro-Am" set-up at Hazeltine:
“We’ve agreed to try to avoid doing so much course manipulation [during the event], because we were getting some really sneaky stuff on hole locations” says Davis Love III, who played on six Ryder Cup teams, captained the 2012 and 2016 side and will be an assistant at Whistling Straits. Even if there was no sneaky stuff, Love made his preferences known.“In 2016 at Hazeltine, I told Kerry that you’ve set this up before and to stick with it. I didn’t want rough if at all possible. We wanted to take luck out of it and have a whole bunch of birdies, because birdies get the crowd into it. Even if we tie holes with birdies, that’ll get the crowd fired up.”
But Geoff doesn't have any specifics here, only repeating a thought that's been made by many, that Whistling Straits is enemy friendly:
What about Whistling Straits as a course regardless of course setup tactics employed? As Rapaport notes, “if you turn off Location Services and squint your eyes, you’d swear it’s an Irish links.”While I’m not sure Team USA will resort to dropping broken tees around certain boxes to mess with the Euros during the practice rounds—as they supposedly did in 2008 at Valhalla—there has to be some American concern about Whistling Straits’ friendliness to the enemy. A treeless and edgy test with a distinct Irish vibe may not deliver a home field advantage, especially with the possibility of winds that we rarely see at Ryder Cups:
Ok. It might look like an Irish links (one of the Kohler courses uses "Irish" in its name), but they most certainly don't play like a links. Though this weather forecast could make things very difficult:
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