Weekend Wrap - Ryder Cup Detritus Edition

If you think we're slow to move on, consider the options.  There's no actual golf news to cover and we certainly won't be discussing baseball right now....

Leftovers - It so happens I'm not the only one slow to let go, as the Tour Confidential panel seems fixated as well:

In the days after Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Bethpage Black, much of the conversation has focused on the fans, the heckling and the reaction to it, by players, golf legends, organizers and more. Is the Ryder Cup experience out of control? Or is some of this overblown?

Yes, next question. 

Jessica Marksbury: Loud and partisan crowds are what makes the Ryder Cup fun, but it sounds like this year things went over the top. The kind of vitriol that was reported is against the spirit of

the event — and the sport itself — and that’s a shame, because rowdy atmospheres can and should still be respectful. It’s what makes tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open so beloved. But there’s obviously a fine line there.

Sean Zak: Wouldn’t call it “out of control,” but rather “un-controlled.” Event organizers clearly did not have the proper protocols in place to manage for unrelenting verbal abuse. I think you saw that in their removing certain hecklers from certain pairings. I.e. it’s okay to take your absurd show to another part of the property, rather than expelling them period. I’m not going to act like it’s simple — but I think there wasn’t enough control, and we’d benefit to see more of it four years from now at Hazeltine.

Jack Hirsh: I think Rory McIlroy’s comments on Sunday night hit the nail on the head. Golf can hold itself to higher standard. The Ryder Cup and the Phoenix Open are the only tournaments of the year where you even hear boos on the course. How it could devolve so far for people to be calling McIlroy slurs and throwing things at his wife, not to mention people screaming while Euro players were over shots? There’s a clear and obvious line and it was crossed and fans who took part in that should be ashamed of themselves.

That uncontrolled bit is spot on, I think, though Sean goes easy.  My sense is that the PGA of America was quite content to play a dangerous game.  They of course knew what they were signing on for, and I can't help but feel that they were winking and nodding at the worst of them.

I also had a couple of opportunities to ask about planning at Met. Golf Writer outings to the Black.  I can tell you that, not only did the assembled State Park and PGA Of America officials demonstrated no intention to aggressively police the crowds, but they didn't even seem to understand why a fellow might be worried about it.

Schadenfreude is a bitch, but you'd have to be a better man than your humble blogger not to take pleasure in their comeuppance.  Not only did they take another massive reputational hit, but their strategy appeared to backfire on the home team.  Well played, PGA of America.

I'll copy-and-paste this, but more because it's easy than because it adds anything:

If something does need to be changed, what’s the move?

Zak: Better communication — including from the captain — better messaging by the emcee, better precedents set early in the week, etc. Oh, and when it seems to be brewing, get out ahead of it. On Saturday morning rather than Monday morning. Talking to fans waiting half-a-hole ahead of the groups receiving the worst of it. That wasn’t happening.

Marksbury: Blatantly disruptive behavior should not be tolerated, full stop. There needs to be enough staff members in place to identify instigators and remove them — not to a new spot on the course, but off the property.

Hirsh: These are both good, but I saw a tweet on Monday I agree with. Because the pricing of tickets at this Ryder Cup was so absurd, the only people who could afford had no fear of retribution of what they did. I think the PGA priced out the very people who would have appreciated the chance to watch the Ryder Cup.

Are you familiar with Occam's Razor?  It's a slightly more complicated philosophical construct, but it can be boiled down to avoid attributing to malice what can more logically be explained by incompetence.  So, were the crowds abusive by design or just from stupidity?  Well, in this case they're hardly mutually exclusive...

That last point by Jack Hirsh is, though, a bit of a howler.  In the run-up to the event, folks were concerned that the ticket prices might create a Super Bowl like crowd, one devoid of passion.   Yeah, I know, if only!

The next Ryder Cup is two years away at Adare Manor in Ireland, and now the conversation turns to who leads the two squads. Does Luke Donald come back for three in a row? And who leads the U.S.?

Zak: I’m guessing Luke will want to know who he’s up against, since captains are often remembered in respect to their competition. He won’t rush into that decision, and will have six months or so to settle into it. That said, I bet he does it again. He seems to enjoy it a lot.

For the Americans … hmph. The shortlist seems to be 5-deep. Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink, Brandt Snedeker, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods. The one I think will do the best job is … Furyk. But Bradley would do well, I think. Plenty of this year’s Cup was out of his control, as is often the case.

Marksbury: It sure sounded like Luke would strongly consider giving a three-peat a go. I’d actually like to see Keegan get one more shot, if he’d be up to it. It seemed like the U.S. players enjoyed his leadership and that’s saying something after a loss. Given the list of other names Sean floated, I’m not sure who the next pick would be.

Hirsh: Zak, I believe it was you who mentioned the next U.S. captain should have the captaincy until he loses. Donald hasn’t lost and seems to have everything covered. Even if he goes for three wins and loses, he will still go down as one of the best European Ryder Cup captains.

For the U.S., I don’t even know at this point. Tiger seems the obvious choice, but not sure if he could foster the team atmosphere that Europe has succeeded with. I say go back to Steve Stricker. Not even sure why he wasn’t the captain in Rome.

OK, I'm going to need a moment to stop laughing....  Jim "Alas, Poor" Furyk, Sean?  Did you not see Paris?  You want to talk about 2025 foursomes pairings?  I suggest you go back and see who Furyk through out in foursomes.... Anyone remember that Mickelson-Bubba Watson foursomes team?   

On the Yanks, I expected three responses that Tiger would lead them out of the wilderness, so color me surprised.  But none of the three followed that script, and Jack Hirsh's bit is more Tiger-skeptical than I ever expected to see in print.  I actually figured that every golf writer for a major publication, needing access, would assume Tiger to be the hero we need.

But that list from Sean Zak is plenty uninspiring, no?

But, to talk about the next U.S. Captain, I feel the conversation should start with the question of where Tiger was this week?  Not only should he quite obviously have been the U.S. captain, but his reasons for turning it down are (or, at least, should be) disqualifying, to wit, the involvement of J.P. McManus in the 2027 installment.  But I'd add his failure to even show up or be an Assistant Captain....  He's not a team player and he only does that which he perceives as being in his own interests, so doesn't he seem the perfect bespoke U.S. Captain?

As for Luke, I just can't think he'll do it again.  At the personal level, it seems to include no upside and quite a bit of downside, so can't see why he'd sign on.  More importantly, Europe has a backlog of guys that are in the wings, Bjorn and Noren, to name a couple.  Those guys have been loyal soldiers, and I can't imagine Luke wanting to stand in their way.

But we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again:

In the lead-up to Bethpage, Keegan Bradley had the opportunity to be a playing-captain, although he elected not to pick himself and, in hindsight, it could have hurt the Americans without having him as a player. Should the PGA of America avoid this situation in 2027 so Bradley has an opportunity to contribute as a player?

Zak: Eh, we shouldn’t count on a 41-year-old version of Keegan Bradley to be the best version of Keegan Bradley. Particularly with the many younger Americans who will certainly be better than 41-y.o. Keegs. It might make most sense to offer the job to Bradley tomorrow and say, “We’ll handle the playing-captain thing again if you happen to be crushing it in 18 months.”

Marksbury: Given the way Keegan has played these last two years, he may want to focus fully on getting on the team himself! I’m sure the stress of a captaincy is even more draining than it appears. So yes, if Keegan is the pick, I agree with Sean — they should lock him in ASAP.

Hirsh: I don’t think Keegan should be captain in 2027, so this isn’t an issue to me!

Hold your thoughts on Keegs until I get a chance to work in Geoff's reaction, but would he have made a difference this year as a player?  On Sunday morning I made the logical argument that, with the U.S. seven points down, that no one guy mattered.  Of course, that logic fell apart and it all felt different by mid-afternoon on Sunday.

The unfortunate thing is that it's easy to over-interpret, because Keegan could have been uniquely useful.  He's one of the best iron players out there which, combined with his fiery personality and unfinished Ryder Cup business, might have made him useful.  If I were the captain, he would have been one of my first captain's picks and he would have been in both foursomes sessions, but we can't know it would have changed anything.  The one thing we know is that it was a completely avoidable issue that the PGA of America walked into with it's eyes open.

Let's turn things over to Geoff at this juncture, with his typical Point Misser post.... although, such was his bounty, the Geoff couldn't fit it all into a single post.  Yup, it was that kind of bizarre week.  Let's dive into his first post, beginning with the captain:

Keegan Bradley. The stock post-USA loss disclaimer: the Captain does not hit the shots and has only so much power to save a sinking U.S.S. Club Car. The Captain has to deal with PGA of

America numskulls lurking around every corner, offering laceratingly dull stories and terrible lineup suggestions. But a Ryder Cup Captain also can put players in a position to succeed and is empowered to make lineup calls when someone is off their game. Early on, Bradley appeared to pull the right strings by getting his team to Napa so they’d remain sharp and get to know each other (a promised team trip to Bethpage did not happen). He appeared to create a positive spirit around the squad. There have been no stories of communication failures or unexplained pivots from the plan he publicly said was set long ago. (The catty comms gripes traditionally take a while to dribble out).

Bradley’s first massive blunder started wth not scheduling four-ball sessions to start, as is the home captain’s prerogative and traditionally is a better format for Americans. He then put together quite possibly the worst foursomes pairing since 2018 when Jim Furyk sent Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson out in Paris and minus a team of whitecoat-wearing, Freudian-trained observers armed with strait jackets. I’m referring to Friday’s opening foursomes duo of Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas (who anyone could make a four-ball case for). Then there was the even more heavily criticized duo of Collin Morikawa and Harris English because Data Golf said it was a bad idea. But the duo made sense from a temperament and style perspective—until they got walloped by McIlroy and Fleetwood and somehow were sent out again Saturday morning.

“You know, we’ve got a lot of faith in our players,” he said. “Collin Morikawa has won a couple majors.” Whoa. Those were in 2020 and 2021. But go on. “Harris has had a great year.I think in the past, sometimes we have panicked with the pairings and switched everything up, and it hasn’t worked out. We wanted to stick with the plan, and that’s what we did.” Oh, you did.

We speak a lot about captains putting their players in a position to succeed, but the PGA of America doesn't seem to have done that for Keegan.  Given the manner in which he got the gig, he was never going to be a strong captain.  And much of what he's being criticized for, course set-up and Shack's bit above, represent Task Force orthodoxy of limited value, but not to be changed by a weak captain.

The Captain may not hit the shots but he does control narratives and perception. In his role as frontman, arbiter of dignity, leader, and in Bradley’s case as the “younger-and-touch-with-todays-players” guy, he forgot the first rule of the Ryder Cup or any team event: good sportsmanship and leaving everyone feeling better about a contest conducted with dignity.

Saturday’s disastrous press conference came after a long, brutal day but that still does not excuse some of the idiotic assertions Bradley made. He revealed that he’s living in 1995 when Europeans were playing slow greens and shocked by American agronomic standards. Mark James and Howard Clark were not this year’s opposition. Bradley seemed oblivious to what was going on or was not informed of it by his Vice Captain’s. He’s yet to apologize publicly to the guests from Europe, yet former Captain Tom Watson did…from his couch.

“I thought the fans were passionate,” Bradley said. “I mean, their home team is getting beat bad. You know, they are passionate fans. I wasn’t at Rome, but I heard a lot of stories that Rome was pretty violent as well.” Oh it’s been violent a time or two in Rome, just not this century and certainly not at the 2023 Ryder Cup. “The fans of New York, from what I have seen, have been pretty good. You’re always going to have a few people that cross the line, and that’s unfortunate.” Guess he hasn’t read any Samuel Ryder lately.

“I was happy to see our players trying to quiet down some people that were like that. Part of it is our fault. We are not playing up to the standards that they want to see, and they are angry, and they should be.”

He’s right. Part of it is was his team’s fault and fans were angry so they took it out on the visiting team in a bid to make the matches closer.

This isn't a good look:

Q. You said the way your players have played is maybe partly to blame for some of the fans crossing the line --

KEEGAN BRADLEY: I did not say that. That’s not what I said. I said the fans are probably upset that their home team is losing. I did not say that.

Q. But do you think maybe you bear some responsibility in terms of some of the words that you and your players used beforehand in terms of stoking up the fans to bring a hostile environment?

KEEGAN BRADLEY: What words were those?

Q. To bring chaos and just talking up the atmosphere here, Collin --

KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, Ryder Cups are wild. I don’t appreciate those words that you just said. I know what you’re trying to do. The Ryder Cup is full of passionate fans. They’re full of passionate players. And that wasn’t right.

In a low point not seen but witnessed by the reporters present, Bradley wanted to confront the reporter afterwards for asking questions based entirely on what he said. Again, it’s a long day and his team took a rough beating, and there is only so much a Captain can control. But maintaining dignity and handing off the privilege of Captaining the USA team in a good place could have been within his control had he voiced stronger disdain for the bad apples. Instead, he came off as an out-of-touch Point Misser.

We all know that generals fight the last war:

Plans. Bradley’s mantra sounded a lot like past losing Captains and speaks to a longtime American culture of not having a cohesive culture that bruises no egos by adjusting on the fly. After becoming Captain, Bradley sounded like someone who might use his passion and knowledge of sports to take the data and find that elusive sweet spot between overreliance on analytics versus adjusting on the fly. The Europeans stick to plans because they are usually more thoughtfully conceived, they are honest with themselves about their weaknesses, and have built a culture where players can handle bad news when the Captain calls an audible. Bradley admitted that his plan had been made a while ago as a defense for sticking with Morikawa and English, an odd confirmation that he did not account for the state of certain players’ games, the course setup “surprise,” or how best to exploit the strengths of his team.

Where do I get one of those hats?

To me, Keegan sounds quite reasonable on that score, at least until you saw his teams play.  To me, the bit that I still don't get, is Saturday.  The U.S. got crushed on Friday, yet there wasn't any urgency in the team on Saturday.  And, while Geoff makes a point worth considering above, the U.S. was almost as bad in fourballs this year as they were in foursomes.  How do we feel about that in the context of giving Keegan a mulligan?

Who else does Geoff have it in for?

Vice Captains. As the European buggy brigade actively monitored matches and took on some of

the fan policing duties mismanaged by the PGA of America, America’s walkie-talkie chatters perfected the art of grim-faced, arm-crossing uselessness. There were rumblings they discussed “we need to speed the greens up” over the airwaves in what was an admission they did not know how advanced planning or agronomy works. Future Captains, they are not. The VC’s also should have been more involved in policing the jackwagons so players like Justin Thomas did not have to. It was also shocking how unaware Bradley seemed about stuff that took place when answering press softballs. Were the VC’s not telling him about anything about, say, the Hovland injury and long-established rules? Or about the slurs hurled by fans who might have backed off if sports-fan Bradley said, “cut it out”? Bradley even suggested Sunday night that it did not rain when discussing the soft conditions. Okay, maybe that weirdness is not on the VCs. But either way, nice custom-made A-J’s. Now, every time you put on your red-white-and-blue Jordans, you’ll be reminded of the Buffoonery At Bethpage.

Data. You’re a dinosaur in 2025 if you don’t believe every question can be answered with quantifiable answers. The same ones that also feed sponsor activations, promote sports betting, and satisfy point-missers who think athletes are actually humanoids executing a “base reality” simulation for a pre-planned outcome. But another match play event has come and gone with a sizable number of folks in positions of responsibility point-missing the layers of match play. The mysteries, the vagaries, and the nuances of the format cannot be quantified. Both teams know this, so they attempt to blend stats with gut instincts. It turned out that in a biennial tradition unlike any other, one team’s braintrust managed art and science better than the other. Again.

Shack nailed it....None of those guys will rock our world as captains, will they?  Of course, the telling detail is the guy missing from the pic.  Yanno, the one playing Call of Duty down in Jupiter....

Guess who is in Geoff's crosshairs in Part 2:

PGA Of America. Ryder Cups run by the organization cannot be considered a safe place for parents to bring their kids. That’s how far the members-only, for-profit/non-profit has fallen. The purported game growers and nurturers running the org predictably oversold, overpriced, overserved, and under-etiquette policed the 45th matches at Bethpage. This set up a toxic brew that should stain the organization’s leadership for at least a decade. Or, until players force the PGA of America to sell the thing to the PGA Tour, whose private equity partners might be just as cravenly squeezing every penny out of the event (so be careful what you wish for Tour fanboys!). An organization that has been integral to the junior golf explosion through its role in the Drive, Chip and Putt, PGA Junior League, and its thousands of members who introduce people to the game, allowed the Ryder Cup to be sullied by a refusal to see what could happen. And worse, they did not shift course when it became clear things were not going well.

The inevitable debacle started with the $750 ticket price for each day of the three sessions. (Yes, you got boiled dogs and Grandma’s Cookies softer than the greens as long as you didn’t visit between sessions when they ran out of everything.), The PGA of America’s cynical Chief Commercial Officer and Long Island native, Jeff Price, defended the price and claimed a sell-out occurred within 48 hours. Yet for around $1250 each, a fan could buy a maximum of six venue-verified tickets on official partner SeatGeek’s site, even when the public sale max was only four. (Note to PGA: try to be more subtle next time.) So yes, it means these were batches of PGA of America tickets marked up to squeeze more money out of the people’s course. Governor Kathy Hochul refused to get involved in the price-gauging even though it’s a state-owned property. She was booed mercilessly at the opening ceremony. Things seemed even shadier when we found out her husband used to work for the consulting company that helped determine the obnoxious prices. Despite the PGA-Seatgeek partnership, prices dropped below face value for Saturday action and plummeted on Sunday. But the fees remained appallingly high.

The PGA of America then tried to place 55,000 people per day on a footprint that would have been straining at 35,000 because of the two-lane roads in and out of Bethpage. Throw in the Ryder Cup’s limited amount of action taking place at one time, and fans realized they’d been duped. Their team started losing. It was hot. As a result, horrible things were said, and spectators tried to interfere with the outcome.

Yeah, quite the mess they created.  More importantly, while their revenue maximizing efforts are obvious to us all, they seemed to miss some important details, no?  Those soft greens took them completely by surprise, no?  Something maybe they should have thought about ahead of time...

I guess Tim Waltz wasn't available?

Don Rea. The game has dealt with carnival barkers and military grade All-World shmendricks before. But Rea may be unlike anything golf has ever seen. The current volunteer leader of the PGA of America desperately wanted to be hired as the CEO (and still does, so wear that body armor to meetings, Derek!). Rea has been building toward an even more revealing week than his bizarro PGA Championship shenanigans in May. At the Ryder Cup and following the event, he exceeded all expectations, and as respectable publications have already written, he should resign.

On Sunday afternoon of the Ryder Cup, Rea spoke to BBC Northern Ireland’s Stephen Watson and was asked about the fan behavior. You can torture yourself watching it here. Each of these batty quotes deserves special attention.

• “Well, you’ve 50,000 people here that are really excited and, heck, you could go to a youth soccer game and get some people who say the wrong things.”

• “When there are American players who have to control the crowds that distracts them from playing.”

• “It happened when we were in Rome on the other side.”

• “Things like that are going to happen and I don’t know what was said. But all I know is golf the engine of good.”

Rea then played a silly part in the closing ceremony. PGA officers labor under the delusion that anyone wants to hear from them, and he had one job: to congratulate the winning team. While many were offended by his suggestion that Europe merely “retained” the cup, it is technically accurate and has been said many times before when a team wins the matches. (It was The Quad’s headline.) But Rea’s was laced with condescension:

“Me and Rosie [Justin Rose] looked at each other thinking the congratulations didn’t feel very heartfelt,” said Matthew Fitzpatrick, speaking at the Alfred Dunhill Links.

What a buffoon!  But, as is to be expected, one ready to play the victim card at the drop of a hat:

Hubris.  It really would be hard to think of an organization less focused on serving its members than the PGA of America.  Sure, the love to cite their 29,000 members.  But the organizations focus is never on them, not least with their massive Frisco, TX edifice complex.  Remind me what that does for those 29,000 members?

I will have to kiss you goodbye here.  Catch you late in the week.