We'll be flooding the zone this week, at least to the extent that golf and life permit. Of course, life hasn't been permitting any golf recently, so we'll make it up as we go along.
Big-Picture Bams - Don't think I agree with his premise:
The biennial meeting doesn’t have the same feel, and you can thank LIV Golf for that
I was always taught that Ryder Cup's are like snowflakes, with no two being identical..... More to the point, your humble blogger had come to the opposite viewpoint, to wit, that despite the dramatic run-up to the event and the unprecedented uncertainties in golf's current moment, that this was shaping up to be a shockingly ordinary Ryder Cup.
Specifically, that a numerically-superior and far deeper U.S. team will take on a top-heavy, yet clearly dangerous European team that one assumes will be scrappy and putt like Bobby Locke.... Are we not entertained?
So, how does Mike Bamberger see this?
The 44th Ryder Cup is upon us and we’re treating it like it resembles the 43 that have preceded it. It doesn’t.Henrik Stenson was on board to be the European captain, but he got fired from this nonpaying job for going LIV. Phil Mickelson was surely going to be the U.S. captain, or at least a captain-in-training. That didn’t happen, either. Both had run afoul of the WGE. That is, the World Golf Establishment.Stenson’s removal seems quaint now, given that the backers of LIV Golf, a wee group of super-rich, golf-mad Saudis, are now (allegedly) on a path to becoming partners with the WGE. I’ll believe a deal is in place when the world golf schedule—the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf—is announced for 2025.
Even the precise September dates for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black are not yet known. Maybe there will be a new normal by then. Maybe the Saudi billions will pave over all the feelings of betrayal and the greed that cost Stenson and Mickelson their jobs. Maybe the trio of European Ryder Cup stalwarts—Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood—will find their way back into management roles. In the meantime, this 2023 Ryder Cup has been turned upside-down by LIV Golf and the billions behind it.
Sure, that's in the background, though I'm not sweating the date for that 2025 installment. But then he says something like this:
Rome would have been such a natural fit for Mickelson. His mother grew up in San Diego’s Little Italy, down by the commercial fishing docks, and her mother’s sugo al pomodoro was the real deal.
Well, that's quite the hot take, though do you know who had Phil being the captain in Rome? Yeah, exactly no one, nor was there ever a thought that his captaincy would be anywhere but Bethpage. Mike, being an astute observer should know that Phil would never have taken a road game, cause those are hard...
Here's another of Mike's unsupported hot takes:
Tiger Woods joined the PGA Tour board not to protect his millions but to protect his legacy. He made his name on a golf tour that turned Ben Hogan into Mr. Hogan, Arnie in Arnold and Jackie-boy into Big Jack. That’s the tour Justin Thomas (son of a golf pro) and Patrick Reed grew up on. They aspired to play for the U.S. Ryder Cup team like they aspired to winning the U.S. Open. Thomas got a big prize for not going LIV. He’s on the U.S. team as a captain’s pick. Reed is not. Two strikes against him: He went LIV, and he had only one top-10 finish in the majors this year. He had no chance.
Mike's throwing a lot against the wall.... I guess eventually something might stick.
In inverse order, his trenchant insight about Patrick Reed might play better if he remembered that Patrick wasn't at Whistling Straits, which was before we learned about those Roman numerals. As for Tiger, the starting point should be that he couldn't be bothered getting his sorry ass to Rome, so that tells us what kind of team player he is. You might have a clearer understanding of why he's on the Tour Board when you realize who suggested him.... It's more accurate to say he's there to protect Patrick Cantlay's cash flow than to burnish his own legacy.
And again here he misses the point:, more than just a little outside:
Brooks Koepka did. When I asked Zach Johnson, the U.S. captain, if he had any hesitancy about picking Koepka for the team, because of Koepka’s LIV contract, it was clear there was none. He made the team because of his second-place finish at the Masters, his win at the PGA Championship—and his appearance on Full Swing, the Netflix doc, talking about his internal desperation with the cameras rolling.So the U.S. team is treating Koepka’s place on the team as a normal thing. It’s not. This is not a normal Ryder Cup.
It might be more accurate to say that Brooksie is there because of June 6th, the other bits being background music. But, Mike, this is the new normal, to which you seem to be struggling to adapt.
Though a single 'graph later he seems to be adapting:
The Americans who went LIV did short-term damage to the PGA Tour, but all those players have to do, to remain on good terms with the lodge brothers they left behind, is to say these words: “I only left for the money, I only left for the money, I only left for the money.” And with that, Patrick Cantlay, PGA Tour board member, will wave his Tour-issued, trademark-protected magic wand over you and all will be forgiven. Forgiven and forgotten. Candor about craving money is some new kind of god-truth. It sets you free, if you’re Brooks Koepka or Dustin Johnson. But Phil Mickelson or Patrick Reed won’t say out loud what is obvious to the rest of us.
Oh, the damage they've inflicted is forever, it's why I'm so angry with Useful Idiots like Rory. But Mike is correct that Patrick will waive those infidels back into the fold but, and this is the important point, only after Patrick gets his. Of course, Mike is still settling scores:
Now that’s part of the fun of sport, of course. The players debate, and we do, too. My six picks would have been Jordan Spieth, Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa, Lucas Glover, Rickie Fowler and Steve Stricker. By not taking Koepka, I would have been saying, “This team is about loyalty to the tour you came up on, and to the rulebook.” Yes, I can see a couple of glaring problems here: Nobody cares about my picks (for good reason), and nobody cares about the old-school loyalty tests.
Can you believe he's still milking Brooks' caddie giving another player his club selection at Augusta? I mean, he's right, but that's a system-wide failure he'd need to rally the troops to, because they all do it.
Mike's conclusion is interesting, although still a bit problematic:
Rory is as bright as anyone in the game, but we are all swayed by our attachments, sometimes in ways we cannot see. McIlroy is a founder of the new-for-’24 Monday night, made-for-TV golf exhibition thing called TGL. Thomas is one of the 12 announced players. A star turn by Thomas at this year’s Ryder Cup will be good for TGL business, and therefore good for Rory.The charm of the Ryder Cup in the Seve era was that it wasn’t about money. The ratings and the excitement and everything else came out of us versus them. It was way overboard at times, but it was real.Well, it was a good run.
Mike is ruing changes that have been decades in the making, pining for these good old days:
Have you got another Seve, Mike? How about another 'Zinger?
It was a different era, one in which the Euro Tour didn't often intermingle with the Yanks. But mostly the era was about captivating personalities that dazzled with their creativity and nerve. These days we'll need Patrick Cantlay to provide that thrill, so Good Luck with that.
The Venue - Hard to get a firm sense of how this golf course will play, but here's the biographical background:
Marco’s SoloBy Roman standards, Marco Simone Golf and Country Club is still sparkling new. The golf course — opened for public play in 1989 and renovated by Tom Fazio in 2018 — has a history shorter than even the Eternal City’s newest landmarks.By pro-golf standards, though, it might be even newer. Heading into the Ryder Cup, the club will have hosted just three professional golf tournaments: the 1994, 2021 and 2023 Italian Opens of the DP World Tour. Otherwise, Marco Simone is a secret not only to the average golf fan but to those at the top of the game, which explains, in part, why both the American and European teams had scouting trips in the last few weeks.When they arrived, they found a course with an ageless charm befitting the host city. And if the rolling countryside wasn’t enough to convince them of that fact, the thousand-plus-year-old castle that serves as the course’s namesake, logo and primary landmark should have done the trick.
Ageless charm on a Fazio? If nothing else, that's be a first..... Joel Beall does a far better job or actually attempting to convey information, so let's see how he reacts to the joint. Although, first an important pro tip:
There is a pasta truck, which is next to a cocktail truck, which is next to a pizza truck, all parked 50 yards from the eighth fairway. If you’re looking for our primary takeaway from our initial walk around this week’s Ryder Cup venue, Marco Simone, that is what comes to mind. Which, frankly, is exactly what you want from a golf event just outside of Rome. Traveling this far for a dog and a beer doesn’t seem right.
But, Joel, if you want to sound cosmopolitan, stop with the pizza references. Pizza is only the national dish of Italy in the minds of people whose understanding of Italian culture was forged in, checking notes, Brooklyn.
But James Colgan's "Ageless Charm" comment won't survive contact with Joel's touchstones:
Familiar feelings
Marco Simone is not short on scenery, the property offering beautiful vistas of the Italian countryside, olive groves, rustic villages and the Roman skyline. But decouple the views from the course and two comparisons come to mind. The front nine at Marco Simone has the shape and styling of Liberty National, a maximalist and artificial design that puts a premium on ball-striking. The green contours are severe, and if the surfaces are not slow and wet they’ll reject any approach less than right. The routing is compact; there’s a sense the club tried to fit nine holes into an area that has room for just seven. The back nine, however, is far more expansive in scale. Its topography is dramatic, yet the greens are less punishing. While the back nine still can present its difficulties, it seemed fairly gettable; in that vein, it has an air of Valhalla to it.
So it has the ageless charm of Liberty National? I'm sometimes accused of being a harsh critic, but that tops anything I could throw out there....
Here's a first answer on a question I've been posing, one that should encourage our bombers:
A bit of breathing roomNo, it’s not Whistling Straits with fairways wide enough to land 747s with ease. But the testAmericans will encounter at Marco Simone is nowhere near as suffocating as Le Golf National was off the tee (more on this in a moment). The landing areas are generous, and though there are a handful of par 4s with narrow confines—which include bunkers coming into play—those spaces are usually stifling only for long drives. However …The rough is very grabby … and patchy
It appears the long stuff has been dialed back from the scouting trips each team made a few weeks back. That said, it still looks to be a nuisance in a way most U.S. Ryder Cup setups are not, and the ball could have the chance to burrow in the high stuff. As inviting as most of the fairways are, Marco Simone will make a player pay for his miss. That includes around the green. However, unlike rough that is thick and plentiful—which can subtract creativity and vision from the short game—this grass is uneven (and arguably, unintentionally so). That could lead to more variety, and variance, in terms of the types of shots played and their outcome. Combined with the shaping of the greens, a deft short-game touch will go ways this weekend.
But the key word for the week might just be half-par:
The tweener par 4sReally cool! There are three drivable par 4s on the course, and though the wind can have a say in how they are played, most can be had with less than driver. However, most are also guarded by water, bunkers, rough or fescue, and because they can be reached with a 3-wood, arguably even an iron, this configuration should prevent players from just banging the big stick without thought. Eagles to doubles (or worse) will be very much in play.
This will be interesting... Normally I don't necessarily expect the Americans to play smart golf, though this is an aspect where the Captain could have a big impact, given how he played his golf.
This sounds....well, ageless:
First 6-7 holes are volatile
“Volatile” is probably a generous interpretation, as critics could argue this stretch borders on gimmicky. Understanding the 24 individuals competing are the world’s best—and thus capable of playing a game unfamiliar to the rest of us—each of the first seven holes have penal aspects to them … sometimes to the shots that the hole seemingly requires. It’s easy to see a few blow-up scores, which could lead to players building a big league early over a struggling opponent.
Gimmicky? On a Fazio? What's this world coming to?
But the back nine will be interesting, including the finish:
Last 3 holes should facilitate drama
This stretch is not for the meek. The last three holes are a drivable par 4 over water, a 200-yard par 3 with an undulating green and a 600-yard par 5 with a greenside lake. (Like we said, a little Valhalla-y.) Assuming matches reach this point, the risk/reward spectrum is vast, which—hopefully!—creates a thrilling ending to each match and session.
No word yet on whether a clown face has been painted on any of those greens, but I may never stop laughing at James Colgan calling this place "ageless".....
Tiger In Absentia - In case you haven't noticed, I take all things related to Tiger Woods with a high saline content. Like Rory, the best case scenario for his actions in the last year are that he was a useful idiot, and we don't have the time for the worst case.
But Tiger wants to be perceived as a moral arbiter in our game, though he wants to do that without breaking a sweat. Because, as you might have noticed, he's been caddying for Charlie as opposed to getting his ass to Rome. That's fine, who doesn't like a father caddying for his kid, but life is about showing up....
For months we've been treated to an assault of comments to the effect that Tiger is some sort of secret weapon behind the curtain, that he's micro-managing captain's picks and pairings and, please spare me the rest.... So, at yesterday's presser, Zach kind of gave up the ghost on that meme:
"He's got a lot on his plate"Johnson also confirmed Woods will not be making the trip to the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.Woods, 47, is back walking again and recently caddied for his 14-year-old son Charlie Woods as he ticked off another victory in his junior career.Johnson said: "No, Tiger will not be joining us in Italy. He's got a lot on his plate."As far as conferring with him, communicating with him, I mean, we have up to this point, and he is one of -- he understands that now that our feet are on the ground, it's probably kind of best that we navigate this ourselves."But he's always on inner corner, and at this point it's more encouragement on his side, whether he's texting the guys or texting the vice captains and captains, he's there to encourage because he's very invested in what we do year-in and year-out with Team USA, and that has never ceased and I'm grateful for that."
Gee, Zach, that's a target rich environment.... Just curious as to the sense in which you think he's invested, because to the rest of us it looks like he doesn't want to be associated with your team. Otherwise, yanno, he might actually be there sampling the pizza....
But can anyone tell me what being on "inner corner" is supposed to mean? Unless it's a synonym for Jupiter, FL.
The man simply can't be bothere4d to show up, and we're being told that that's because he just cares so damn much. Next thing you know they'll try to convince us that Saudis will pump billions of dollars into golf without actually wanting anything....What? Well, that's very nice of them....
Who Ya Got? - Heck, I don't even know who I might be rooting for, as my loyalty to that 2018 team didn't survive Justine's initial tweet. That said, Eamon Lynch has a note of caution for those Damn Yanks:
I know he's not betting on football, but any word on who Phil has put his shekels o this time?
First, some history:
The original Great Britain & Ireland team had just three wins in the first 57 years of the Cup, but the subsequent European team has authored a reversal. The last 18 contests have seen 11 wins for Europe versus six for the U.S., with one tie that saw Europe retain the hardware. Seven of the last 10 have gone to the Old World, whose last loss on home soil was in 1993. Still, every two years America is declared a prohibitive favorite.It’s a proclamation often based on the strength of individuals, not on the collective utility of a team. But this Ryder Cup promised to be different. The U.S. team that easily won the ’22 Presidents Cup gelled seamlessly, thanks in part to LIV Golf relieving them of toxic personalities (Patrick Reed) and childish distractions (Bryson v Brooks). But we’ve heard feverish anticipation of a new era of American dominance before, and it hasn’t materialized. Like in the aftermath of the ’08 win under Paul Azinger, or when Davis Love III skippered the team to its first post-task force victory in 2016. Both “streaks” ended at one.
But, as Phil explained, those 2010, 2012 and 2014 losses were entirely attributable to the absence of pods, so fortunately we've cleared that up.
While I agree with this take, it doesn't address the structural changes that have diminished the Euro Tour or the remaining talent pool: traditional
The narrative ahead of the ’23 Cup is that Europe has been weakened by not only LIV but the aging out of dependable veterans. Except those players are one in the same. LIV took from Europe a slate of future captains (at least for now, future deals pending), not current players. It hastened a generational change that was inevitable, but the traditional components of team Europe are unchanged.
As I've noted previously, I agree that this is teed up in that traditional fashion:
There’s always been a core group of anchor stars of whom much is asked. In the ’80s and ’90s, that meant Ballesteros, Faldo, Woosnam, Montgomerie, Langer. Later it was Garcia, Westwood, Poulter, Rose, McIlroy. Then there’s a solid “B” tier of players capable of holding their own — the Sam Torrances and Paul Caseys. Finally, the rookies and vagabond journeymen who unexpectedly qualify. From that unheralded contingent, career-defining moments have emerged: Eamonn Darcy beating Ben Crenshaw in singles back in 1987; Paul McGinley holing the winning putt in ’02, the same year Phillip Price took down Philip Mickelson in singles; Jamie Donaldson stuffing the decisive approach shot in ’14 at Gleneagles.The team Luke Donald will lead into the coliseum in September is no different to those of 15 or 30 years ago.The core is strong: McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland, Fitzpatrick, Lowry. In support, Rose, Hatton and Fleetwood. The less-seasoned members of the team — Bob MacIntyre, Nicolai Hojgaard, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg — are all winners. There is no dead weight in that lineup, no legacy picks justified on past accomplishments rather than current form.
Except....
That original core group was five deep, all of whom were nails in this event. Monty might have been soft in a U.S. Open, but boy did he kill us in this event. In 2023, that core of elite players is three-deep at best (Rory, Rahmbo and Viktor), and at least the first of those is highly suspect. If I add that Rahm got himself dusted by a rookie in singles at Whistling Straits and that Viktor is untested in this event, you'll see the issues. As Mark Twain famously said, “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” Often, but not always....
Which is not to say that the U.S. team is underwhelming. It never is, even as one third of the team that performed so impressively at the Presidents Cup will not make the flight to Italy. There’s so much depth on the American side that any 12 players on that plane will be a daunting lineup, but the caliber of competition and burden of pressure are so much greater at a Ryder Cup than at a Presidents Cup. Otherwise the U.S. might have notched a few away victories in the last 30 years. The idea that Europe is weaker or in crisis is entirely fanciful.The U.S. always fields an exceptional team that does not always deliver exceptional results. That reality will not be lost on captain Zach Johnson.
Underwhelming? Of course, not.... But I'd have thought Eamon might spend a moment detailing all the caution signs:
- The best player on the team can't putt;
- Their two major champions are untested and have gone cold;
- Former stalwarts such as JT and Spieth have struggled all year, and you can add Morikawa and Sam Burns to that list;
No comments:
Post a Comment