The Wednesday Game goes a little later than is typical, so we've time for just a little low-impact blogging...
Don't Know Much About History - This will serve as an adjunct to yesterday's blogging of the most significant/controversial Ryder Cup moments. Assuming away the space-time continuum...
Ryder Cup 2021: 8 all-time pairings we wish we could have seen
It's an eternity until Friday and the writers have used all their good stuff, so it's empty the notebook time:
Seve Ballesteros/Ian PoulterTheir competitiveness alone would be enough to kill a horse. Ballesteros, part of the European “Famous Five” that played a role in elevating the Ryder Cup to the massive institution it is today, endeared himself to his teammates and incensed his opponents with his hard-nosed, combative style and his sheer unwillingness to lose. Poulter hasn’t matched Ballesteros’ record in golf tournaments not named the Ryder Cup, but the Englishman has emerged as a spiritual offspring of sorts, serving as the emotional spark for the six teams he’s played on and compiling a 14-6-2 overall record with a 5-0-1 singles mark. There’d be fist pumps and guttural yells, belly laughs and probably an awkward moment of contention with the Americans. It’d be delicious.
OK, this one is pretty easy to dispense with. How would they have performed? Probably the mirror image of how Seve did teamed with that other Spaniard. The point being what, exactly?
There's little question that Poulter does play the Seve role to a great extent. What makes it all the more aggravating is that he's got only trace levels of gravitas on his own, he just somehow becomes Seve at this one event.
But be forewarned, it just gets sillier and sillier:
Paul Azinger/Justin Thomas
The American answer to the above pair. Azinger and Ballesteros clashed in the 1989 and 1991 Ryder Cup, with the Spaniard accusing the Floridian of lying after a particularly testy face-off atKiawah Island. Azinger refused to back down from Ballesteros, beating him 1 up on European soil in the first singles match in ’89 but losing both his matches alongside Chip Beck to the Ballesteros/Olazabal powerhouse in ’91. Azinger’s overall record is a pedestrian 5-7-3, but this is less about wanting to win and more about wanting to watch him and Seve go at it. Thomas, on the other hand, is off to a 4-1-0 start in his Ryder Cup career after he was a rare bright spot for the Americans in Paris. He relished the chance to face Rory McIlroy in the first singles match and beat him, too. There’s not a more competitive player on this year’s American side and his fiery tendencies should play well in the many Ryder Cups in his future.
Justin Thomas has played in exactly one Ryder Cup. But Zinger played a series of tightly-contested singles matches against the likes of Seve and Nick Faldo. Thomas prevailed against the artist that was formerly known as Rory and prevailed in one of the sloppiest matches I can recall.
But just when we think the author couldn't embarrass himself to any greater degree:
Tiger Woods/Jack Nicklaus
Who wouldn’t want to watch the consensus best and second-best players of all-time—we’ll let you decide the order—tee it up together? Nicklaus and Woods are two different men with two different styles of competing, but it’s what they share that makes this such a tantalizing what-if: prodigious length, flawless execution under pressure and a propensity for making huge putts in massive moments. Give prime Jack Nicklaus 2021 equipment and we’re willing to bet he could keep up with early 2000s Tiger Woods, who was the longest player on the planet. No U.S. captain could ever quite figure out a perfect partner for Woods—he’s an awful 9-19-1 in non-singles matches—but something tells us he and the Golden Bear would click just fine. Real recognize real, as the kids say.
Yeah, throw two guys that couldn't care less about the event together, and watch the sparks fly.
That's actually unfair to Jack, who played in an era of U.S. dominance that didn't require his competitive fire. He managed to exert a great influence over the event notwithstanding his play, with his 1969 concession achieving iconic status, and his recommendation about beefing up the competition leading to the golden age of the event. As for Tiger? We'll always have Paris.
I've got a new Ask Alan column that dropped late yesterday, which has bits of relevance to this subject, that I'll sprinkle in as appropriate, including this on Tiger:
Is anyone ever going to publicly say that Tiger Woods never cared about the Ryder Cup? He always said he only cared about majors and his Ryder Cup record was always mediocre even though he was the dominant No. 1 in the world. @JonathonJFelix
It’s more nuanced than that. Tiger never wants to get beat, in anything, and the U.S. futility on his watch certainly bugged him. But he spent the 103 weeks between Ryder Cups trying to intimidate every other top player, and even in the sanctum of the team room, Woods was disinclined to reveal anything from the well-guarded fortress of his inner-self. That made him a crappy teammate, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t care. For my Phil Mickelson biography I’ve been exploring the Ryder Cup dynamics around both Tiger and Phil. Stewart Cink (who played on five Ryder Cups in the Woods-Mickelson era) told me something that resonates: “Tiger’s was a much more mechanical and solitary approach. He was like, I’m going to go out there and try to win five points and that’s all I can do. He tried to break his job down into its simplest form and not get too wrapped up in the team thing.” This attitude works well enough for singles, in which Woods has a 4-2-2 record. Alas, the Ryder Cup is a team event and his record in partner play is a pathetic 9-19-1. Tiger simply didn’t know how to uplift his teammates or make them feel comfortable. Those are related to various personality defects but I don’t think apathy is one of them.
I agree that apathy isn't the answer, and that Tiger wouldn't have enjoyed the losing. Still, there was something almost defiant in his refusal to take the event seriously. Then again, there was this comment that always resurfaces when examining Tiger's relationship to the event:
And I might be able to give him the benefit of the doubt, if not for previous comments he madeabout the Ryder Cup.In 2002 when the event was held at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield , England , Tiger made the comment there were "a million reasons why" he would rather win a World Golf Championship with a million dollar winner?s share, than bring the Ryder Cup back home. He didn?t do himself any more favors by deciding to practice alone than instead of with his teammates.
Tiger's body language and facial gestures always made it clear that he simply didn't want to be there. There's also the fact that the team actually played better when he wasn't in the room, see 2008 for the most obvious example.
And, lest you think the beclowning has peaked, there's this scary thought:
Anthony Kim/Patrick ReedYou could put Anthony Kim with anyone and they’d probably make it on this list. That’s how much we miss AK, who was so perfectly in his element at the only Ryder Cup he played, in 2008, when he went 2-1-1 and crushed Sergio Garcia in singles. He was Captain America before Captain America, so to speak. And while Reed’s Ryder Cup reputation has taken a hit with a poor performance in Paris (and his blabbering afterwards), early career Patrick Reed was an absolutely all-time Ryder Cup character. Pairing a 23-year-old AK and a 23-year-old P-Reed would be a whole mess of chaotic brashness in the best way possible. If only.
The outcome of this pairing is completely predictable. Justine would take to Twitter to whine about Jordan not wanting to play with Patrick.... Just when we get our hopes up that the Patrick reed era is behind us.
More Alan - Time being scarce, let's have at it:
Of course it’s overrated and overhyped but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to a player’s legacy. Colin Montgomerie (zero major championship victories) isn’t in the Hall of Fame without his Ryder Cup heroics. The reputations of Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and sundry other Euros (Ignacio Garrido! Peter Baker!) have also been enhanced by their heroics. The comeback at Brookline added to Ben Crenshaw’s mystique and Paul Azinger is still dining out on his stellar captaincy. I agree individual Ryder Cup records are rarely cited, but the impression the players and captains have left in the sport’s ultimate crucible certainly lingers.
Depends which player, no? Alan gives a thoughtful answer to a question that seems to beg for derision.... The whole point of the Ryder Cup is that it presents a completely different test and challenge to the players, one that doesn't fit easily into the metrics of an individual sport. Even players Ryder Cup won-lost records are highly suspect, given the dependence of the results upon partners' and opponents' performance.
But to understand why the Ryder Cup matters all one has to do is watch it.... Which I wonder whether the questioner has?
What is it gonna take to bench Brooks Koepka and get Max Homa on the U.S. team? @GregorGealAlas, we’re stuck with the big galoot. I think this is an important week for Koepka and he’s shrewd enough to know it. A lot of public sentiment has metastasized around Brooks this year, as his bullying/trolling has become increasingly distasteful and obnoxious. And this is the one week all year when Americans are actually rooting for Bryson DeChambeau; if Koepka subverts the U.S. Ryder Cup team with his noxious behavior the backlash will be swift.
I like Max Homa as much as the next guy, but he was never in the mix, nor did he deserve to be. He's a nice little player that, with three wins now in the bag, could be headed into relevancy. As for now, he's more of a PIP contender than Ryder Cup calibre player.
But I think Alan is spot-on as relates to Koepka. I do think his frat-boy mien is getting old at speed, and Bethpage seems an eternity ago. He needs a good week, both in term sof results but also in perceived attitude.
Is it OK if I mix in a non-Ryder Cup Q&A as long as there's a clear segue? OK< that was actually rhetorical...
Which Cal golfer has a better career, Max Homa or Collin Morikawa? @JStew68129215Oh, c’mon. Winning two major championships is, almost always, a Hall of Fame career, and Morikawa is already there. For sure Homa has gone to a different level with two wins in his last 18 starts. He excels on firm, fast courses where par is at a premium, so expect him to start contending in majors soon. But he’s six years older than Morikawa! Credit to Homa that he’s even in this discussion.
Interestingly, the profound stupidity of the question has me respecting Homa all the more. But two majors at age 24 is Tiger-Jack territory. All credit to Max Homa who gets a lot out of his talents, but is there anyone that thinks Max Homa will win two majors? Kinda answers itself, no?
Does the Pope s**t in the woods?
Does the PGA of America have a feud with the USGA? Hale Irwin and Lee Janzen have five U.S. Opens between them but never a Ryder Cup captaincy. Sutton, Azinger, Stricker, Lehman combined have three majors but all got the nod. #AskAlan @BradleySmith328Yeah, there’s always been a low-key feud between these powerful institutions, but Pete Bevacqua and now Seth Waugh have helped to mellow out things. Janzen’s snub reflects the hard truth that he wasn’t popular with his peers. Irwin not getting the nod is more baffling. He’s a badass, an intellect and would have been a stirring leader of men. I’ll never understand that one.
There's folks that are still manning the barricades for a Larry Nelson captaincy... This has always been the case though, as Alan Gently notes, Lee Jantzen is not the bridge to die on.
#AskAlan I saw some people complaining that Captain Stricker actually played in a Senior Tour event this week instead of working and reworking his lineup. I say get away and then work your tail off this week. What say you? @wadster13
Yeah, he’s had three years to grind on this stuff! The demands of the captaincy are so overblown. Stricker has had an army of vice captains and statisticians at his disposal for months—if he needed all of last week to figure this stuff out, the U.S. is in trouble.
Yeah, not much of an issue back here on Planet Earth.
Fifty years from now, when I’m in hospice, I’m still going to be thinking of how Poulter dusted Dustin Johnson in singles in Paris. There is literally not a single thing Poults does better than DJ on a golf course, and there’s lots of stuff at which Johnson is superior. But you can’t measure heart and guts and balls on a Trackman. At the same time, Morikawa is a killer and his precision will be such a weapon, especially in alternate shot. I’ll take the Champion Golfer of the Year by half a point.
Morikawa is a killer, though a seemingly inconsistent killer. Not sure what to expect the first time, but I'm on record as suggesting that the Euro old guard will end up looking, well, old.
Could anyone, like Anthony Kim, play in the Ryder Cup if used as a Captain’s Pick? @robmillertimeYep. There used to be all kinds of red tape, like you had to be a Class A member of the PGA of America; this prevented Hal Sutton from playing on the ’83 team even though he was one of the two or three best players in the world right then. But all the unnecessary criteria has been stripped away. I think the sun has set on AK, but it would be cool if someday a U.S. captain plucked a red-hot player off the Korn Ferry Tour.
The Anthony Kim fetish just gets weirder and weirder. But how bat-guano crazy is that suggestion from Alan? First of all, the "hot golfer" is like the great white whale.... Not only do they cool off in a hurry, but you'd actually pick from the demonstrably inferior talent pool? A captain would be crucified for doing so, and would deserve it. At the end of the day you pick the best players and hope they show up... And, taking that logic to it's obvious extreme, why not Nelly Korda?
Has there ever been a player with a stranger career as of today than Rory? To win four majors so early and now not have added to that total for a decent spell but still playing great golf; has there been another player like him career-wise? #AskAlan @TheGhostofhoganErnie Els, a little bit. He won a U.S. Open at 24, and had a second one by 27. Then he suffered a five-year drought during which he was a very productive player but couldn’t win another big one. Maybe Els offers hope for McIlroy, in that he capped his career by winning the Open Championship when he was 42; the 18-year span between first and last major is one of the longest ever. Most players, even all-time greats, tend to win their majors in bunches: Palmer won his seven in six years; Watson eight in eight; Faldo six in nine; Seve five in nine. By next year’s Masters McIlroy will be going on 11 years since his first. Clearly he is a transcendent talent who can find “it” at any moment, but golf history is beginning to work against him.
Five years is the new eleven? The bigger issue with Rory is that he now doesn't so much as compete in the biggest events. Maybe I overinterpret Portrush and Augusta, but the more it matter it seems the worst the guy plays. Which makes this week kind of an interesting test, no
You’re Captain Stricker…and it’s all tied after Saturday. Who’s the name in the last group for Sunday? @HofSpillaneJustin Thomas. I love Spieth’s grit but this is a lot of golf course for him. (I’d put him out first.) Dustin Johnson has the game for Whistling Straits but I don’t think he wants that smoke. Koepka is too much of a wild card with his injuries; if he plays well over the first two days he would merit consideration, but you gotta wonder how he’ll hold up physically (and if he’d be honest if he’s hurting). Thomas has the talent but, more importantly, he has the spice.
Obviously there's a bunch of golf writers that think JT will be a breakout star this week and in future cups, which is certainly among the range of possibilities. Not only am I not sure that JT is the guy, I'm also unclear that, given a tie heading into Sunday, you want your best horse going out last. Most of my concern about the guy is that he just hasn't played very well lately, with that Players Championship seeming more and more of an outlier as we get deeper into the tear.
That's all for today. I know, a little short, but we'll make it up in the next couple of days. I plan on blogging tomorrow, but due to an early morning commitment it likely won't get posted until mid to late morning.
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