Weekend Wrap

Hard to talk about much besides my Yankees, but we'll give it a go...

Scenes from Silverado - Josh Berhow with one of his 30-second summaries, which is slightly more time than I'm willing to devote:

Who won: Kevin Tway (14 under, third playoff hole) 

Why it matters: The 30-year-old Tway picked up his first career PGA Tour victory, and it came in his 91st career start. His best finish until this was third at the 2017 Zurich 

Admittedly, I do like the trophy.

Classic, a team event. He’s also half of the latest father/son duo to win on Tour. His dad, Bob, had eight PGA Tour wins, including the 1986 PGA Championship. 

How it happened: Brandt Snedeker opened the final round with a three-shot lead over Tway, but it didn’t last. After a one-under front nine on Sunday Snedeker made the turn four clear but made bogeys on 10, 11 and 12. Ryan Moore birdied three of the last four and signed for a 67 to take the clubhouse lead at 14 under. After a bogey on 17, Snedeker only managed par on 18 to tie Moore. Tway two-putted for birdie on the 18th to get in at 14 under and join the playoff. Snedeker failed to birdie the first playoff hole and was eliminated. Moore and Tway both birdied the 18th again and then, on the third playoff hole, the par-4 10th, Tway rolled in his birdie putt for a victory after Moore’s putt from off the green came up short.

We'll just have to take Josh's word for it that it does matter, because it's not intuitively obvious.   Tway hits it a mile, and I'll look forward to his first pairing with Cameron Champ.

It's a shame Sneds didn't make the Ryder Cup team, because his play down the stretch looked like he would have fit right in....

Phil, Still Phull of Phil - I hope Patrick reed is taking notes, but this is how you absolve yourself for responsibility in the aftermath of a train wreck:

It’s a unique situation in that the way the Europeans did a great thing, they did the

opposite of what we do when we have the Ryder Cup here. The fairways were 14 to 16 yards wide. Ben Hogan, who is the greatest ball-striker of all time, had a five percent margin of error. So if you hit the ball 300 yards, which we all hit it more than that, you need to have a 30-yard fairway to be able to hit it. 

The fact is they had brutal rough, almost unplayable, and it’s not the way I play. I don’t play like that. And here (at Safeway) I can miss the fairways, I can get shots out of the rough up on the green and it’s playable. 

And I’m 48. I’m not going to play tournaments with rough like that anymore. It’s a waste of my time. I’m going to play courses that are playable and that I can play aggressive, attacking, make a lot of birdies, (the) style of golf I like to play.

You see the artistry?  I agree that those are some narrow fairways, except that Phil is maintaining his transactional relationship with the truth.   Shack with the rebuttal:

Let’s put the breaks on here for a minute. I don’t recall many 14 to 16 yard wide areas in the main landing areas, or anything under 20 yards. I paced off about 10 landing areas and the Europeans generally gave one are of width, though they also engaged in chintzy (perfectly kosher) tactics of rolling an area like the left side of the first fairway to reduce a swatch of 30 yards to effectively playing 25.

Shack surprisingly ignores the transparently BS appeal to authority.  If Hogan had a 5% margin of error, it would be 1% with today's lower-spinning golf ball....  

Though my first reaction to those reports was that it seemed that Phil was giving up on his dream of the career slam, as U.S. Opens tend the entail some deep rough.  

But the takeaway is that the course set-up was a known factor at a minimum since the French Open, and if it's that bad a fit for his game, Phil should have taken himself out of consideration for a captain's pick.  Because, as he keeps telling us, he's all about the team.

“I’m going to have to start limiting the number of tournaments that I play,” Mickelson added, “so that I can play those at a higher level, because I’m getting a little bit more mental fatigue and not able to focus and see the shot as clearly as I’d like for so many

weeks in a row.”

“I’ve learned from this,” he said. “At 48, it’s not a smart thing to do. I won’t do it anymore. I won’t do it again, playing this much golf. I’ll pace myself much more. 

“I’m able to play at a high level,” he added, “but it’s so difficult without physical and mental sharpness, to play at a high level. It doesn’t come easy anymore. I need to recover. … As I looked at my schedule next year, and the way some of the tournaments are, yeah, there will be some that I miss that people will be upset about, but I’m not going to worry about it.”

On the one hand, the schedule changes he's suggesting are his right and entirely appropriate given his age.  However, isn't he a little slow on the uptake?  After the grueling FedEx Cup events and Ryder Cup, what was he thinking in heading straight to Silverado?  

The Match match - I don't know who's at risk, but their play in Paris has to be costing someone money, no?  Here's an item on the first promo of they're November date:

Tiger says he and Phil will 'beat each other's brains in' in first ad for 'THE MATCH'

Wait...  I just heard that Phil is going to play fewer events, and this seems as good a place as any to start.

More importantly, who's setting up the course?   I'm thinking 14-16 yard wide fairways would be perfect, along with the really deep, wedge-out rough.

Here's another guy who feels the same way:

I'm on record that PPV was a bad call, and that this will lay an egg, all before their desultory play in Paris.  Let's see if they can hold the line on that $24.99 price point.

Ryder Ramifications - We have reflections from Alan Shipnuck, in his weekly mailbag feature, and the Tour Confidential panel (sans Shipnuck this week) on the fallout from the Americans' collective hissy fit, and we'll compare and contrast those, along with some reflections from Captain Furyk.  It might get a little choppy, but hang with us:

First the TC gang on Mr. Reed's constructive criticism:

1. The Ryder Cup ended last week, but the fireworks were launched in the days following the Americans’ 17.5 to 10.5 loss to the Europeans. Patrick Reed ignited it, telling The New York Times that Jordan Spieth didn’t want to play with him and that “it wasn’t smart” for Captain Jim Furyk to sit Reed twice. Spieth was paired with Justin Thomas and went 3-1, while Reed went 0-2 paired with Tiger Woods. What do you think Reed was trying to accomplish by speaking so candidly to reporter Karen Crouse, and what will be the ramifications?

Joe Passov: I’m mystified why Reed said anything at all. Even with his legendary lone-wolf persona (his nickname on Tour is “Table for 1″), he has to know that he still has to be paired with these guys, both in regular events and in team competitions. Why take those gripes public? There are plenty of player vs. player issues out there that are kept very quiet — which is where this one should have stayed. 

Michael Bamberger: Not smart. Then again, complaining about your seats at Fenway is not smart, either. I think Jeff nailed it: Karen Crouse in The Timescaught a bit of raw emotion there, and there was nothing calculated about it. It won’t serve him well one week a year, and will serve him well every other time he plays.

An athlete using a perceived grievance as motivation is a dog-bites-man story, look no further than Brooks Koepka and his running count of press room invites.  Of course, most times they either keep it to themselves or pick a more appropriate target, such as the media.  Mike nails it, as that amusing nickname will gain currency, but create headaches for future team captains, with Mr. Tiger first up.

Here's Alan's take on a slightly related question:

Is Patrick Reed the first true villain in golf? Tiger was equally loved and hated in his prime. Vijay had legal troubles. Has there ever been a more polarizing figure in the game? Sorry for the two-parter! #AskAlan -Josh (@J_Decker84) 

The thing about most good villains is there is something likable and/or charismatic about 

them. I’m not sure that applies to Reed. For many fans his primary redeeming quality was Ryder Cup heroics and now that goodwill has been blown up in spectacular fashion. I did a big feature on Reed for SI a few years ago and he told me, “I don’t want to be the bad guy. I just want people to realize how passionate and how determined I am and how much love I have for the game of golf.” 

It would be fascinating if he morphed into a true antihero who doesn’t care what people think but Reed still has that need to be liked and recognized, so I think that will always keep him from embracing true villainy and keep him in this strange place where golf fans still aren’t sure what to make of him. As for being the most polarizing player in golf, Tiger will always wear that crown, only more so now that his stirring win was followed immediately by such a pathetic Ryder Cup performance.

I'm having trouble thinking of any that I'd characterize as golf villains...  I can think of many whose boorish, unpleasant nature fits, such as Sabbatini and Allenby, but these have mostly been inconsequential players.

But Reed seems to want the adulation and to have embraced the Captain America persona, which he's now squandered.  

And his captain has granted his first post-Cup interview, in which he indicates a refusal to be Patrick's b***h:

A week after Patrick Reed threw Jim Furyk under the bus following the United States' loss at the Ryder Cup, Captain Furyk has responded. And if Furyk is to be believed,

Reed's post-match comments were not just in bad taste, but false.

"When I started looking at who (Tiger) would pair well with, I kept coming back to Patrick Reed," Furyk told the Golf Channel. "There was always the idea that we could go Tiger and JT (Justin Thomas), and Patrick and Jordan, but ultimately they knew going into the week, weeks in advance, they knew they would start the Ryder Cup with Patrick and Tiger being partners."

 Of course, that wasn't the only kerfuffle this week:

3. But Reedgate wasn’t the only issue that popped up after the Ryder Cup finished. Reports surfaced, and many of them were confirmed by other media outlets, that Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka were involved in a heated exchange in the European team room on Sunday night and had to be separated. (Koepka denied any of this took place.) So, if you are keeping track at home, that’s Phil Mickelson at Gleneagles in 2014 and then Reed and DJ/Koepka making headlines this year. Why is the U.S. so prone to outside-the-ropes drama?

Sens: They’re proud players who’ve been getting mostly whooped in a pressure-packed event that they’ve been told over and over they should be winning. That’ll cause some friction. But there’s also probably something to the generalization of the European team spirit being stronger than that of the Americans. It’s easy to talk big about team spirit but ours is a culture that celebrates individualism, and the modern Tour pro is as clear an emblem of that as any. The whole go-it-alone thing makes for some good Western movies and romanticized stump speeches, but there are consequences when everyone’s always looking out for number one. 

Passov: When you lose, and lose unexpectedly, and lose badly, things can often turn ugly, as they did here. 

Bamberger: Exactly. Happens in political races, in hyped movies that do no business, bad restaurant openings and a hundred other things. Losing leads to carping, and often to change, sometimes warranted, but sometimes not.

'Tis a pity that when Patrick write his tell-all, that this title has been taken... Though I suspect both would share a tentative relation to the truth.

Appropriately, Alan had this:

I just have one question: WTF happened? -David (@dmalament) 

When you figure it out, please let me know.

As it happens, Furyk also confirmed that something did indeed happen in that Euro Team Room:

Furyk likewise acknowledged reports regarding an altercation between Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka at a European team party following the Euro's win, but downplayed the severity of the incident. 

"Whatever altercation started, or what happened, it was very brief. It was very short. Neither one of them really took anything out of it," Furyk said. "They're like brothers. Brothers may argue, brothers get into it. But they're as close as they've ever been, and it really had no effect on either one of them."

I'm actually taking this one as a positive, in that it's good to know that the guys actually hate getting drubbed like that.  Necessary, though hardly sufficient, to ensure that future installments don't lead to a similar result.... The guys should be on edge after playing so poorly, so let 'em vent and let's not over-interpret this one....  Though, this was finny question of Alan:

Who gets Joey D. in the divorce? -@BeeWood 

Coming out of Shinnecock I wrote something about how the Dustin-Brooks relationship could get complicated, given how incestuous their lives are with a shared a trainer (Joey Diovisalvi), management company and hometown. I was thinking back to the Rory-Westy dynamic from years earlier, when they were both in Chubby Chandler’s stable. Westwood was the older, more established star but as McIlroy began winning majors he got tired of still being treated like a junior partner. The ensuing breakup was not pretty. We’ll see where Brooks and Dustin go from here, but it’s worth noting that Koepka still has a chip on his shoulder — walking into the U.S. team press conference on Sunday night he was audibly grousing that no reporters were going to ask him a question, which turned out to be prophetic.

If the relationship fractures, I agree that it's more likely the result of something along the lines of Alan's analogy... Although this timing is perfect for a Brooksie-DJ PPV match, no?

More from Alan:

Since the Ryder Cup obviously means less to the American players (especially overseas), wouldn’t it make sense for Tiger to choose fiery, but still accurate guys for his picks in Italy? Even if they’re 14th in points. -Chad (@KennyDaGambler) 

I like how you’ve already given the 2022 captaincy to Signore Woods. It could certainly happen, paving the way for Phil to be the captain two years later at Bethpage. But to the question at hand — @Tyler_Domino asked something very similar — what this Cup laid bare was the passion deficit. The Euros played with their heart on their sleeves but, with the exception of JT, Spieth and Webb, the Americans looked like they were on the way to a missed cut at the Greater Hartford Open. This problem isn’t going away anytime soon: DJ is always somnolent, Koepka and Rickie and Big Tony are low-key personalities who seem determined to stay in character no matter what. Who knows where Reed’s head is going to be in future Ryder Cups? So I think from this point forward the number one criteria for captain’s picks has to be the player’s mental and emotional makeup. Give me spicy personalities like Pat Perez, Billy Horschel, Brian Harman, Kevin Kisner, Daniel Berger and Keegan Bradley, or fun characters like Harold Varner, Charley Hoffman, and James Hahn. You know, guys who would actually be fun to play with, and who will bring some emotion. More upsetting than the U.S.’s shoddy play in Paris was how detached they seemed. That has to change.

Look, it's true that the event matters more to the Euros, but I've never thought that explains the American's play.  I think it's more likely that they put too much, as opposed to too little, pressure on themselves....

But the questioner wants more fiery golfers, but the obvious response to ask whether he means fiery like Patrick and Phil?  How's that working out for us?

And another:

Furyk: pass or fail? #AskAlan -@GregFlat9

Surely you jest, GregFlat?  What part of 17.5 - 10.5 did you miss? 

Poor Furyk. He devoted two years of his life for *this*? After the summer Tiger Woods had, any other captain would have picked him, too. How could Furyk have known Woods would be so exhausted/apathetic rolling into Paris straight from one of the most emotional victories of his career? (Of course, it was madness to send Tiger out for a second match on Saturday, guaranteeing another U.S. loss and that Tiger would have absolutely nothing left for singles.) Le National wasn’t a great fit for Phil Mickelson’s game but any other captain would have picked him, too; Lefty won a WGC this year and had a bunch of solid finishes throughout the summer. How could Furyk have known this Hall of Famer’s game would go in the toilet in the weeks before the Cup? (Of course, given how bad Phil was hitting it in the practice rounds it was insanity to send him out in alternate shot.) 

Tony Finau was the most second-guessable captain’s pick but he came through with two big points. Webb-Bubba was an awful choice in Friday foursomes, helping Europe to flip the momentum of this entire Cup, but they came back with a strong victory the next day, so who knows? Breaking up some very successful Ryder Cup pairings seemed like folly but, given what we now know about the poisonous team chemistry, Furyk was in a really tough spot. Still, his handling of Reed deserves scrutiny. The man formerly known as Captain America is, quite frankly, a weird dude. I don’t blame Jordan Spieth for wanting a new partner, especially an old friend like Justin Thomas. But Reed could also have been one of the U.S.’s biggest weapons. Given the dysfunctional relationships that define his college career and family life, Reed needed special care, and Furyk should have gone to Spieth and insisted that their partnership remain intact. Given no other option, Spieth would have embraced the challenge. Thomas has the game and personality to partner with anyone and he could have carried Woods deeper into some of those matches, perhaps awakening Tiger’s dormant competitive spirit. But the captain didn’t make the tough call when it came to Reed-Spieth and it had a cascading effect that fractured the team. Poor Furyk was dealt a bad hand, but in the pass-fail duality, he gets the latter.

He had Phil playing alternate shot.... what more do we need to know?

And just a few more short ones:

Doesn’t all this infighting in the US team suggest your take on the togetherness of the US team going forward is completely wrong? -Steve (@C_Sscott) 

Duh. 

Tell me what you saw. Was Tiger’s play as bad as it looked, or did he simply get no help from Reed & DeChambeau? #askalan -Steve (@simglass40) 

Yes. 

Who do you think will win the next four #RyderCups and why? #AskAlan –David (@dadbegg) 

The U.S. will have a stronger collection of players in 2020 and especially in 2022 and beyond, but as we just saw yet again, Europe has a special sauce that transcends everything else. So I’m getting out of the prediction game!

It turns out that Phil's 2014 BS and those smug, self-satisfied Task Force conference calls were just smoke....  The special sauce is just that their guys show up ready to play, and ours remain hothouse flowers needing to be treated delicately.

I'll let you in on a little secret, I fond myself pulling for the Euros....  I'm not proud of it, but I liked those guys so much more.