Friday, September 8, 2023

Your Friday Frisson - Dead Season Edition

Not much going on in our little fishbowl, so we'll just amuse ourselves with a handful of bits, then I'll allow you to get your weekend started.

Ryder Cup Jaw-Jaw - Three weeks from today you'll awaken to balls in the air at Marco Simone, so still one more cup before the biggie.  Padraig Harrington is one of those guys born without a filter, so what's he got to say?

European Ryder Cup team is ‘back,’ Padraig Harrington proclaims. He didn’t stop there

Why, Paddy, where had it gone?  Not to Whistling Straits, obviously.... This was a thing, though not really much of one:

The Ryder Cup is always about that, too — looking forward by looking back. It’s why Harrington has been such an interesting figure in 2023. He was concurrently the most recent European captain, offering advice to this year’s man in charge, Luke Donald, but also a legitimate contender for a captain’s pick at the ripe old age of 52.

It was fun to speculate upon, but was never going to actually happen, as it would have been quite the capitulation.

For starters, he thinks Team Europe is back. Back from wherever they were two years ago. “I think we’re back,” Harrington said at this week’s Irish Open. “I believe we’re back to the ’80s, the ’70s
where our top players are actually the best players in the world. So I think the team is very strong. I think they’re very much in form.”

He’s not wrong about that. It doesn’t matter which ranking system you fancy — five of the 10 or 12 best players on the planet will wear the blue and yellow for Europe later this month. Then there’s Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose, who would be just on the outskirts of the world top 10. Looking back, Harrington would go on to say, it seemed like Europe was on a “turndown” and Team USA, in that moment, was on the upswing. There’s ebb and flow to these RC teams, Harrington thinks. And he really likes where Europe is at.

I get the renewed optimism, as their team certainly looks far stronger than we could have imagined just a few months ago.  However, Sean Zak's citation of five is a bit suspect, especially since he seems to excluded Matt Fitzpatrick who is somehow still the 8th ranked player in the world despite having done virtually nothing since The Country Club (or is it that he's done exactly nothing except AT The Country Club).

What Europe does have is three studs currently sitting at Nos. 2-4 in the OWGR, though one of those is as soft as a marshmallow.   Then you get the next tier, Matt, Tommy Lad and Tyrell Hatton, and certainly there's reason to take those guys seriously in this event, resulting in a prototypically top-heavy team.  

What's missing are the depth pieces, the grizzled veterans of middling capability that don capes and play out of their gourds.  I'm thinking here of Westwood, Poulter and Garcia, guys that struggle with their putters on a week-to-week basis, yet show up every other year and putt like Bobby Locke in this event.

I guess we could put Shane Lowry and Justin Rose in that category, but we'll have the pleasure of seeing how guys like Robert McIntyre, Sepp Straka and (most intriguingly) Ludvig Aberg respond to this unique pressure (and how Luke uses them).

Playing the role of Fred Couple, Paddy defends a pick that could determine Luke Donald's legacy:

He also thinks any consternation around Shane Lowry’s involvement is misplaced.

“It’s strange seeing some of the part-time people who aren’t in the know saying maybe somebody else should have gotten picked, and they might have been named Shane,” Harrington said. “I’m going, ‘It’s not even close.’ If we were playing a small tournament in the middle of nowhere, maybe Shane wouldn’t be the right pick, but when it comes to the Ryder Cup, I definitely can trust in him.

“He is very good with the rest of the team. There’s no doubt about it. He can partner up. He can play foursomes and four-ball. In order to play foursomes and four-ball, you need to be a good ball striker, and that’s what Shane is.”

Is or was?  Portrush was four years ago and he's not done much since then (currently 37th in the OWGR), but they seem to make these picks work, especially in their home games.

Of course, there's the risk of Paddy over-interpreting the fact that Shane was one of the few guys that showed for his Captain:

Lowry was one of the few bright lights that shined during that fateful captaincy for Harrington at Whistling Straits. His record that week reads 1-2-0, but it was his putt on the 18th hole that flipped a match late Saturday afternoon and gave the Euros some sense of optimism. That is, of course, to say nothing of the wicked animated reaction he gave when his match-winning putt dropped.

Shane, Come Back! 

This guy had a Tweet up wishing the European team well, though his reactions are easy enough to understand:

The surprise is in that he admits to being angry, as the Euro team is good at the message discipline side of things....

Dylan Dethier doesn't go into the details of how frustrating this was for Meronk, because up until last weekend's Euro event he was poised to automatically qualify on the European Points List.  With a high finish, Mathew Fitzpatrick moved past him for the last spot, freeing Donald to take Ludvig Aberg and one of the twins:

The final three picks likely earned their stripes via recent form.

Sepp Straka won the John Deere Classic, flew to England and finished T2 at the Open.

Ludvig Aberg’s talent is undeniable but given he was playing college golf just a few months ago his prospects of making the team were uncertain — at least until a few weeks ago. He finished T14 at the Wyndham Championship, T4 at the Czech Masters and then, if anyone else needed convincing, won the Omega European Masters.

Finally there was Nicolai Højgaard, the Danish 22-year-old with a stellar DP World Tour resume and enough success on the PGA Tour to turn heads. His spot was hardly secure, either. But then he followed Aberg’s path with a T14 at the Wyndham, a third-place finish at the Czech Masters and a T5 result in Switzerland.

That left Meronk on the outside looking in.

Despite a win and second in the last two Italian Opens played at Marco Simone.....  When you leave yourself needing that last Captain's pick, you can't really whine when it doesn't come through.  Just ask Keegan....

But there's a laugh to be found:

Meronk added that from what he can tell, Polish fans “didn’t take it well.” Some had already bought tickets to watch their countryman represent them in Rome.

“They probably are going to go regardless, but, yeah, they were not happy,” he added. There was a resignation in those final words; it must be tough knowing that despite his omission, the Ryder Cup will go on.

Polish golf fans?  I assume he's speaking of both of them....

There's some interesting background on the young man here, but the header is quite silly:

This pro could play for either Ryder Cup team. Here’s why he chose Europe

Yeah, that's quite the mystery, isn't it?

And not particularly fair to him, because he's been consistent in his affiliation.  But first, the background on how this came about:

Straka wasn’t born in Aiken or Auburn or Atlanta but roughly 5,000 miles away in Austria, in the capital city of Vienna. His mother, Mary, who hails from Valdosta, Ga., had moved to the land of
Mozart several years earlier to be close to her boyfriend, according to a first-person account Straka provided Golf Digest. When that relationship ended, Mary, who loved golf, stayed in Vienna and landed a job at a golf-course pro shop. One day, in walked a golf-course architect named Peter Straka, looking for a new golf glove. As the story goes, he also found the woman who would become his wife and, on May 1, 1993, the mother of their fraternal twin boys, Josef and Sam.

Josef, who went by Sepp, and Sam took to golf and quickly shot up the Austrian junior ranks, earning a place on the Austrian national junior team. Sam showed more promise but both boys could play. Over time, though, Mary longed for home and her American family. When Sepp and Sam were 14, she and her sons moved back to Valdosta, a town of 50,000 about 20 miles north of the Florida border. Sepp and Sam became stars on the Lowndes High School golf team, and, in 2010, signed letters of intent to play at the University of Georgia. Sam was the real prize for the Bulldogs but Sepp was a nice bonus.

So, glove at first sight?

But let's not be lumping him in with this bad boy:

The allegiance banter was all in good fun, but it does raise an interesting question: Could Straka, if he felt so inclined, shift his loyalty to the U.S. with the hopes of playing on the U.S. Ryder Cup team? The short answer is yes — because his mother is American, he carries a U.S. passport and has U.S. citizenship, which means he would be eligible for the U.S. team — but if he had wanted to make a run at Zach Johnson’s squad, Straka would have needed to start the process long before this year.

Under the International Golf Federation’s nationality policy, if a player represents a county in an international competition, he or she must wait a minimum of four years to play in another international event under a different flag, a DP World Tour spokesperson confirmed to GOLF.com. The spokesperson added: “The best example of that was Rory Sabbatini who represented South Africa in team competition (World Cup/Presidents Cup) in years gone by, but then, because he hadn’t played in them for so long, was able to represent Slovakia in the 2020 Olympics.” (Sabbatini won silver for the Slovaks.)

Greatest Slovakian golfer ever.....

My quibble wit header I assume to be obvious to all.  While Straka could change his affiliation and qualify for the U.S. team in the future, there's no way he could have played for the U.S. team, still being Sepp Straka.  He's currently the 23rd ranked player in the OWGR, so he's not that far off and could still be a factor in Rome, but the U.S. is simply too deep fr him to have garnered any consideration.

LIV/PIF Jaw-Jaw -  Very quite on that front, which one expects to continue through the Ryder Cup.  This I don't take very seriously:

The United States Senate will host another public hearing regarding the PGA Tour’s proposed deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The meeting, announced Wednesday and scheduled for Sept. 13, comes after PIF governor Yasir
Al-Rumayyan’s repeated evasions to testify before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The hearing is expected to focus on PIF’s investments in the United States.

In a letter made public last month, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal of the PSI pushed back on Al-Rumayyan’s claim that he qualifies as an “inappropriate witness.” According to Blumenthal, Al-Rumayyan and his counsel have argued he is a “minister bound by the Kingdom’s laws regarding the confidentiality of certain information” and that the subcommittee’s request for documents from PIF raises significant legal considerations due to diplomatic immunity. However, as Blumenthal notes, this is the same argument that Al-Rumayyan unsuccessfully made in the PGA Tour’s countersuit against LIV Golf. In February, federal magistrate judge Susan van Keulen rejected LIV’s arguments that the PIF and Al-Rumayyan were protected by sovereign immunity laws because Al-Rumayan’s conduct “falls within the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.”

Al-Rumayyan is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s inner circle and considered the mastermind of the Golf Saudi and LIV Golf projects. It was Al-Rumayyan who brokered a framework agreement with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy, a deal that paused a contentious year-long battle in the professional game and ended litigation between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. He also appeared with Monahan on CNBC in a televised interview to announce the proposed deal.

The Senate can't do much more than hold hearings, and I doubt they can compel Al-Rumayyan's appearance.  Though it is interesting to see this being pushed by a Democrat, as the politics of it all have certainly been scrambled.

Any governmental action would, i think, have to come from the Justice Department, which fortunately hasn't been politicized in the last few years....  Take a moment to mop up that spit take.  I tend towards the cynical, so I assume that any need for relief on oil prices heading into the 2024 election will result in an extremely conciliatory Justice Department, but time will tell.

If there's one guy who might want to stay away from this subject, it's the world's foremost useful idiot, yet here he goes blathering on again:

Rory McIlroy sees a clear difference between Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its golf investment, LIV Golf. He is no fan of the latter, but acknowledges the former’s foray into major sports around the world—and its desire to be further involved in pro golf via a framework deal with the PGA Tour.

That was the takeaway from a chat the Northern Irish star had with Golf Weekly’s Off The Ball podcast this week at the Irish Open at the K Club. 

I'm old enough to remember when Rory was uncomfortable with the source of the money, which is, checking notes, is and has always been that PIF.

Here he makes a fine argument, one I expected to hear back in 2022:

The four-time major winner said he felt the PIF had been collaborative with sports it has backed, notably in soccer. The PIF also has invested in the famed English Premier League club Newcastle United, as well as starting the Saudi Pro League that has signed megastars Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema. PIF also has ties with Formula 1 and mixed martial arts.

“The only thing I would say about the PIF investments in other sports is that they went in and played with the ecosystems of those other sports,” McIlroy said. “They didn’t try to buy F1, they didn’t try to buy the [English] Premier League. Yes, they bought a Premier League football club in Newcastle, and it’s worked out really well for them.”


McIlroy said the hoped a similar structure would be part of the framework agreement being negotiated between the PGA Tour and the PIF. The framework agreement proposes the PIF be a minority investment in a new, for-profit entity that the PGA Tour would control operationally. The two sides have under Dec. 31 to work out a more permanent arrangement

“The way I’ve looked at it is if the PIF are really interested in golf and they want to get in the system, at least if we provide them with a pathway to play within the system where they are not taking over the sport,” McIlroy said.

Except that that isn't the deal being structured.... The actual deal (notwithstanding that term sheet bereft of terms) is one that gives them a pathway to "taking over the sport", and your leadership is being completely disingenuous as to the inevitable consequences of such a deal.

More importantly, you speak of the golf ecosystem, but ignore that the problem is that your peeps and you won't play for the paltry sums said ecosystem can support.... So, thanks for nothing.

One last sound bite:

“It neutralizes any threat of LIV becoming something that it hopefully shouldn’t become. And they play within the boundaries that are set within our sport, and we all go from there.”

Have you spoken to Jay Monahan lately?  Because Rory and I seem to be the last two people on the planet who don't the Saudis to take over our, but only one of us seems to understand what's happening.

Rory's thoughts are no longer of much interest.  But, when the PIF funds a massive endowment for those terrific peni that stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, will Rory cash his check?   

This isn't a perfect fit, but this Q&A from Monday's Tour Confidential panel abuts this subject, as you'll see:

6. This weekend marked the first time we haven’t had a PGA Tour event in, well, a long time. Now that we’ve had some time to digest the 2022-23 season, what was your most memorable moment? And what specific moment didn’t receive as much credit as it should have at the time?

Zak: Most memorable moment will be the morning of Tuesday at the Canadian Open, when CNBC reported a merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Rarely have we ever seen breaking news that was so shocking and kept so well under wraps. And thanks to investigations and senate hearings and still pending lawsuits, we continue to learn more and more about it.

The specific moment that will never be appreciated as much as it should have was the half of an hour late in the afternoon Sunday at the Masters where we had to seriously consider Phil Mickelson as the clubhouse leader who might have to get ready for a playoff. That final round 65 he shot this year at Augusta was one of the most underrated rounds of the entire golf year. How many shots do you remember from it?

Sens: That merger announcement, no doubt. An about-face so stunning, a lot of people mistook it at first for a spoof. If it weren’t for the congressional inquiries it has triggered, I might still think it was an Onion headline.

Phil’s Augusta round is a great call. I might also add the revival of Brooks Koepka. For all the press it got, it’s still hard to overstate what a dramatic turnabout that was. His competitive obituary had essentially been written. Conventional wisdom was that he was done. He’d cashed in with Saudis and given up his claim to alpha bad-boy status. Those themes were all further underscored by the Full Swing documentary, which presented Koepka as something of a sad-sack, nursing his injuries and regrets, resigned to the fact that he could no longer compete at the highest level. Then came the Masters and the PGA.

Marksbury: Wow, those are some great calls. Tough to top. I’ll throw my hat in the ring with a storyline: Rickie’s resurgence. After he ended his slump with a win at the Rocket Mortgage and then co-led the U.S. Open through three rounds, I truly thought it was his time. I think every golf fan wants to see Rickie win a major. And when he didn’t, he displayed the same amount of graciousness that he always does, answering questions and signing autographs, despite what must have been a searing disappointment. That stuck with me.

Yeah!  If I were Jay, I'd have avoided D-Day for that bombshell....

Shall we lighten the mood a bit?

Don't Know Much About History -  Years ago I predicted that this event would flounder once its namesake passed:

There are complications, as the event has been played at some iffy venues and competes with Colonial in a market, Fort Worth, that doesn't require two events.  Glad to see them keep Lord Byron in the event name for now, but how long do we think that will last?

World's Weirdest Bad Luck - Imagine you're grinding away on the Ladies European Tour and you get yourself into a playoff.  A huge opportunity, then this happens:

Yowzer!  In some ways it was even worse than just that: 

Anne Van Dam is maybe the longest hitter amongst the women, and gave herself a good eagle look on that Par-5 playoff hole, so at least this didn't actually cost her the playoff.

As a rules issue, a playoff is considered a separate round, so she could change anything and everything in her bag.  But maybe the bigger issue is that a professional golfer that ships her bad with the airline without removing her driver head might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Say It Ain't So, Viktor - Your humble blogger was a little shocked by this revelation:

Viktor is on Tinder?  Egads, that seems profoundly unwise.....

That the profile is cute should come as little surprise, after all Viktor oozes cuteness:

Another sees Hovland hoisting the BMW International trophy aloft, following his 2021 history-making victory which saw him become the first Norwegian player to win on the European Tour.

Hovland also includes a brief, notably understated description - in Norwegian - calling himself 'a simple boy from Ekeberg', and the verified blue tick that suggests the profile isn't an imposter chancing their arm.

I'm not the right tour guide for social media and dating apps, but isn't Tinder just for, yanno, hook-ups?

Tinder users were mainly singles looking to find more casual. And while that's definitely still the case, Tinder isn't just for hooking up anymore. You can also find plenty of people looking for serious relationships.

I stand corrected.  Tinder isn't exclusively for hook-ups, just mainly for hook-ups.   Viktor seems very likeable, I just hope he's being careful out there.

I'll wish you a great weekend and we'll probably catch up on Monday, assuming there's something to muse upon. 

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Tuesday, September 5, 2023

(Long) Weekend Wrap - "W" As In "Walker" Edition

 Two big stories, so we'll not allow a late start to deter us....

The Walker Cup - It was so grand, yet will have drawn only the tiniest of audiences.

To Golf Channel's credit, they gave us a generous TV window of six hours (6 1/2 on Sunday).  The downside was that, due to those pesky time zones, they showed no live foursomes play, only taped highlights.  A pity given how fascinating that format can be.

The star of the show was the Old Course, which was seen under bluebird skies both days.  The Old Girl is an awkward fit for its Opens these days, featuring six-hour rounds and serious concerns about scores beginning with "5's" should the wind be down.  But the series of short Par-4's, risk-reward shots and those massive yet subtle greens make this perhaps the most interesting match-play course I could conceive.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It all turned out all right in the end. For the USA that is. But only just. Although armed with what appeared to be a vastly superior side (if the World Amateur Golf
Rankings are to be believed) it wasn’t until Georgian David Ford won the 26th of the 26 games (one was still to be decided) and took his side over the 13½-point winning threshold that the American side eventually clinched victory on Sunday in the 49th Walker Cup match on the Old Course at St Andrews.

Until then, doubt of varying degrees permeated what turned into the visitor’s 39th victory (against nine losses and one halved match) in golf’s long-running biennial contest, one that stretches back exactly a century. At the conclusion of each of the first three series of matches over the last two days, it was the Great Britain & Ireland side who led. But by the close, that had changed, the final score 14½ -11½ to the visitors, who have now won the trophy four times in succession.

While it is forever invidious to single out individuals within a team contest, much credit for his side’s success must go to the world’s No. 1 amateur, Gordon Sargent.

Although only two of his teammates failed to score even one point, the Vanderbilt junior was the only player on either side to emerge from this hard-fought contest with an unbeaten record, winning all four of his matches. Every one of the other 19 participants lost at least once.

Competitive, yet inevitable, is how I would characterize it. An Under-manned GB&I team put up quite the fight on Day One, and most of the Sunday matches went deep into the golf course, great for us since those last three holes are about as strategic as golf gets.  That said, the U.S. took seven of ten points in Sunday singles ten of fourteen from both sessions that day, and that's a clear beatdown.

Two items of note to this observer, the first being a wacky "good-good" from that top-ranked amateur:

Gordon Sargent, a Vanderbilt University junior and the No. 1-ranker player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking was locked in a Sunday singles duel with John Gough from the Great Britain and Ireland team. The U.S. team started the final day down three points but closed the gap to just one after winning the morning foursomes session 3-1.

But by the time the pair arrived at the 16th green, the match was tied.

With Sargent about four feet away for par, Gough gave his mid-range birdie putt an aggressive rap, but missed it low and watched as it rolled just outside of Sargent’s mark. That’s when things started to get interesting.

From the vantage point of the TV camera, it looked like Gough was still away, but Sargent walked in behind him anyway, presumably to make an estimate as to whether he was away or not.

Gough had marked his ball and was stepping back to get a read on his par putt when Sargent looked at him and pointed at their two putts. The NBC/Sky Sports mics did not pick up who said what, but both players immediately picked up their marks and headed to the 17th tee in an apparent “good, good” agreement.

It was a pretty stunning moment, and the commentary crew was all over it.... Of course, that crew included Brad Faxon, whose next missed 4-footer will be his first.

Gordon Sargent's explanation doesn't exactly ring true:

“We were just having a friendly match,” Sargent said. “And there was no point in — we felt like we both were gonna make it so we were kinda like let’s just take it to 17 and hopefully put on a show for the fans.”

Just a friendly, eh?  Especially when the other guy has the more accurate description:

“He was a little closer than me,” Gough said later. “We both had disgusting left-to-righters and said, ‘On to the next tee,’ and he agreed, so we went.”

The breaks in those Old Course greens are so subtle and hard to read, that it no doubt leads the world in missed short putts, but whatev....

So, how did it work out?  

That decision didn’t pan out well for Gough. The 24-year-old Englishman blocked his tee shot at the famous “Road Hole” into the Old Course Hotel and out of bounds. Sargent made an easy bogey from in front of the green and then drove the 18th with a 3-wood for an easy birdie to secure a 1-up victory.

This was the only aspect of the Walker Cup that the Tour Confidential gang considered:

7. There was a bit of controversy during the Sunday singles session at the Walker Cup at St. Andrews when American Gordon Sargent and Great Britain & Ireland’s John Gough went “good, good” on the 16th green to concede each other’s par putt from about four feet. The match, the fourth of 10, was tied at the time, and Sargent won the next hole and eventually the match, 1 up. “We felt like we both were gonna make it so we were kinda like let’s just take it to 17 and hopefully put on a show for the fans,” Sargent said. Gough later added: “We both had disgusting left-to-righters and said, ‘On to the next tee,’ and he agreed, so we went.” The broadcast team was stunned at this move. Do you have an issue with it?

Marksbury: It was definitely a surprising move. Four-footers aren’t ever gimmes in my world! I’ll gladly accept any concession, but I’m not sure I would have given one at that point. It doesn’t sound like there’s any regret on either player’s end, though, so perhaps we’re making something out of nothing.

Sens: Just as no one wants to lose a match by botching a short putt, no one really wants to win that way either. So you can understand the ‘good-good’ impulse. But it’s got to be a lot easier to sit with for Sargent. Gough is in the tougher spot, left to grapple with the ‘what if’s.’

Obviously it blew up for Gough, but I think it was a strategic blunder in the context of that scoreboard at the time.  The tide was swinging red and good-good to me only makes sense if you'll be happy with a halve....I can understand it from Sargent's point of view.... He's the top dog and doesn't want to fire up the GB&Iers by showing he was down to Gough.  The problem from Gough's perspective is that they needed a "W", a half point for a tie wasn't gig to help.

Speaking of "W's", did you catch this silly controversy?

That "W" stands for—wait for it—the WALKER Cup. But apparently, some felt it meant something else. Specifically, that the heavily favored Americans, who boast eight of the top 10 players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, were already chocking up another W in the biennial event they've dominated both historically and in recent years.

Players and team captain Mike McCoy were asked a seemingly obvious question about the white letter adorning their caps—and replied with a seemingly obvious answer: 

Although "Silliest controversy ever" is a very competitive category....

But despite that, and the fact that the Americans wore similar caps in honor of President George W. Bush attending in 2013 (as well as in practice sessions in 2015 and 2017), and the fact that the entire event is named after his grandfather, George Herbert WALKER, a former USGA president, some just had to read more into it. Take this piece in The Scotsman with the headline, "Star-studded US team insist 'W' on Walker Cup caps doesn't stand for 'win.' "

Um, you know why they insist that? Because the 'W' doesn't stand for win. It stands for WALKER. And the U.S. has worn different versions of the hat for the past decade.

We've seen athletes create grudges all the time, it's pretty much the plot of every episode of The Last Dance, after all.  Though this one seems to be a media creation...

Both the Walker and Ryder Cups began as the U.S. vs. GB&I, and I very much treasure the historical connotations of that moniker.  That said, this event is suffering a major competitive imbalance, and it seems inevitable that Continental Europe will be added, as happened in the two professional cups.

Europe In Full - Captain Luke filled out his roster, and had some surprised for us.  These were the six automatic qualifiers:

Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Robert MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland

Fitzpatrick moved himself into an automatic slot with his play last weekend, which because of their bifurcated lists might have actually helped Donald.  These were his six captain's pick:

In a 30-minute made-for-TV show on Golf Channel, one week after the American team was finalized, Donald punched the Ryder Cup tickets for Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard.

I opined last week that I was skeptical about taking Aberg, but that was before he won last weekend's event.  Hoigaard seems mostly famous for being out there with his twin brother, but I'm not the only one surprised:

Biggest surprise among the captain’s picks?

Nicolai Hojgaard. He’s deserving, with three finishes of T-6 or better in his last six starts. And there was a real possibility Ludvig Aberg’s European Masters win would have cannibalized Hojgaard’s chances, in that there was theoretically room on the Euro roster for one upstart but not two. Give Donald credit; it’s a fun and “sexy” decision, but above all else it’s a decision that’s brazen. —Joel Beall

If only because I couldn't imagine this guy being left at home:

Biggest snub?

Adrian Meronk, obviously. What looked like a very complicated European picture clarified over the last couple weeks, to the point there were really only 13 players Luke Donald could have
taken. Meronk was No. 13, and I don't think he deserved to be. For all the talk of an "old boys club" on the U.S. side, I can't think of a better way to describe the selection of Shane Lowry, who doesn't have either the recent form or the Ryder Cup pedigree (1-2 in his lone appearance) to make him an obvious pick over Meronk, who won three times this season—including at the host course!!!—and was better than Lowry in the second half of the summer. —Shane Ryan

Meronk is the player with the biggest, most legitimate gripe. He currently sits third on the Race to Dubai, and is the Australian Open, Irish Open and Italian Open champion. And the last of those titles was won on the Marco Simone course that will host the Ryder Cup later this month. Then there is Meronk’s style of play. The man makes birdies for fun. By way of recent example, he made 20, plus one eagle, in the European Masters that concluded just yesterday. And his overall form this year has been excellent. Other than his victories, he has four other top-10s and three more finishes between 10th and 20th. Based on Donald’s repeated public assertions that he would select “in-form” players, the Englishman has let down Meronk. —J.H.

Just don't see how they could resist having the first Polish golfer ever in the Ryder Cup.  Plus, he seems to like the golf course, although that brings back traumatic memories of Curtis Strange being selected because he had once won a U.S. open at a Ryder Cup venue, and we all remember how that played out...

That Other Cup - I won't be at the keyboard again until Friday, it seems, so I'll just throw up a few other easy bits.  First as relates to the ladies:

5. Before the Ryder Cup gets underway, we’ll head to Spain for the Solheim Cup, where the U.S. will try to beat Europe for the first time since 2017. Stacy Lewis finalized her team with three captain’s picks on Monday, although one of her most well-known players, auto-qualifier Lexi Thompson, has struggled lately. She’s missed eight of 10 cuts this year, has yet to record a top-30 finish and is in danger of losing full playing privileges for next year. What’s going on with Lexi? And how important will Thompson finding her form be for Team USA to end the Solheim Cup losing skid?

Zak: Lexi’s long game isn’t nearly as good as it once was, so she’s lost a bit of an advantage she
once had. But all players go through valleys, and we only tend to pay the most attention to the best players. So she’s going through one. Is that concerning for the Solheim Cup? Absolutely. Does she have to play more than two or three matches? Not at all. You can hide people in poor form during these events. So if that’s the case, it’ll be up to Capt. Lewis.

Sens: The stats show long-game struggles. What the numbers don’t measure are confidence levels, which don’t seem nearly what they once were. But how many times have we seen fiery competitors find their form for these team matches? It could happen with Thompson at this year’s Solheim Cup. And if not, Captain Lewis adjusts accordingly. Of course, it would help the U.S. cause for Thompson to play well. But all is not lost if she doesn’t.

Marksbury: Lexi is such a star, it lifts the entire women’s game when she’s playing well. I’m so glad we’ll still get to see her suited up in the stars and stripes in Spain. She’s a fierce competitor, and like Justin Thomas, I’m hopeful that the pomp and circumstance of the proceedings might coax her into better form. But the U.S. team is also deep! Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda, Meghan Kang, Angel Yin, Rose Zhang, to name a few. I feel good about the team’s prospects even if Lexi remains in a bit of a rut.

I've been a Lexi-skeptic for quite some time, but still a shock that her playing privileges are at risk.   She's quite fragile, so this away game could be quite the test.

The Solheim Cup has been good fun, not that it'll draw any audience, because of the frisson of bad blood between the teams.  Though the marketing slogan, "tune in, because these girls really don't like each other" might be a difficult sell.

Ryder Bits - Just a couple of riffs from that TC panel:

1. The U.S. Ryder Cup team was finalized with captain Zach Johnson selecting his six captain’s picks. While a few of the selections were obvious, there were a couple of mild surprises, including Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler leapfrogging into the top 12 to kick out Cameron Young and Keegan Bradley. What are your thoughts on the six captain’s picks?

Sean Zak: These picks were about comfort for all involved. For Jordan Spieth, who likes playing with Justin Thomas. For Scottie Scheffler, who is best buds with Sam Burns. But mostly they
were about comfort for Zach Johnson. There would be more discomfort had he selected Lucas Glover, a 43-year-old. There would be some discomfort in finding who to pair with Cam Young (though that wouldn’t be too hard). There would be some discomfort in bringing along anyone besides the guys who mesh best with those already on the team. So with that in mind, they were fine picks.

Josh Sens: Agreed. The picks are fine. As easy to defend as they are to criticize. Johnson could have gone any number of ways with equally valid reasoning. It’s been said before and I think it’s true: Ryder Cup captains often get too much blame for losses and too much credit for wins. The blame seems especially intense in the US, where the sense of American exceptionalism makes it hard for a lot of fans to accept the possibility that the US team simply got outplayed by a stronger or more cohesive squad. People think there has to be some other explanation. It almost makes you want to root for the Europeans, as all the hand-wringing and soul-searching and second-guessing in the wake of a US loss is a kind of curious entertainment in itself. And it helps feed the fervid, flag-waving rivalry that this thing has become.

Jessica Marksbury: I agree that all the picks are defensible. And I sympathize with Keegan, especially, knowing how much the Ryder Cup means to him. But Johnson’s decisions illustrate the whole point of having six picks. It’s meant to grant the captain the flexibility of not choosing the next guy down on the points list, deserving though he may be. And that’s exactly what he did. Whether it was a good or a bad call, well, we’ll let you know in a month.

I just hate the cool kids vibe to it.  Of course the team dynamics are a legitimate factor, but I keep revisiting that 2014 presser and thinking that Watson was about right.

Although I do love the circular logic of, was JT picked to give Jordan a safe space, or is it the other way around?

2. Thomas’ struggles over the past couple of months have been well-documented. Is there even more pressure on him now after he received a semi-controversial pick? Or is an event like the Ryder Cup exactly what he needs to start fresh and get out of his slump?

Zak: Absolutely there is more pressure on him now, but he knows that. JT is no chump to pressure. He’ll have had a full month between events, and I gather that’s enough time to take a nice, deep breath and settle back close to his norm of form. I don’t anticipate him to play at his highest level, but even his third gear is really good when paired with Jordan Spieth.

Sens: Definitely more pressure and closer scrutiny. And a good chance Thomas will find a way to rise to the occasion. If he doesn’t, it won’t be because the moment was too big for him. It will be because golf is fickle and cruel, and slumps can be hard to break.

Marksbury: Well said, Josh. The pressure will be immense because if it goes wrong, there will be plenty of told-you-so armchair observers ready to pounce. But I think this could be just the atmosphere and opportunity to jump-start a player like Thomas. I’m reminded of 2018 in Paris when Sergio Garcia needed a captain’s pick to get on the team and went on to win three points. I could see Thomas putting on a similar display.

Can I get back to you on October 2nd?   I don't have a problem with the pick, but it's likely the one that Zach's legacy might turn on.  

I'm much more concerned with how he'll use the team, than with the pick itself.  I just don't think they project as a very good foursomes team.

That's all, Folks!  See you down the road.

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Friday, September 1, 2023

Your Friday Frisson - Walker Cup Preview Edition

A holiday weekend on tap with a good weather forecast, so let's have at it.  The header will have telegraphed my primary focus, but let's dispense with a few other bits first.

Roman Holiday - It's unclear what's gotten into Fred Couples, but Captain Johnson needs to keep him as far away from a microphone as possible, because he's making quite the hash of things.  He's got two new comments, the first of which is in support of an actual pick, so I've no real issue with it:

“I’ve got 50 texts today, why two or three guys aren’t on the team,” Couples said. “And I don’t have an answer for that. The only answer I have is, this is the team, and the team has spoken. And if the team likes another guy a little bit better than that guy who didn’t win six tournaments and do all this, then, then no one has a problem with any of it.'

Well, if only you could stick to that "no answer" bit....

“And I think the JT thing is the strongest pick. That was a no-brainer.”

Couples said that if the situation was reversed, and Jordan Spieth needed a pick to pair with Thomas, he would do the same thing. Couples says he also believes in Thomas’ ability to rise to the occasion.

“The analytics would say no, the way he plays golf, said yes,” Couples said of Thomas. “One of the things JT can do is he can dissect the golf course. That’s what we’re counting on.”

Has anyone told Fred that they play singles as well?

But doesn't it present our hardened  warriors as just a little precious... that Jordan couldn't possibly pair up with anyone else.... More to the point, Jordan's own game is diminished to such an extent that he required a captain's pick, yet his position in the cool kids club is such that he gets a +1 invitation.  Of course, no one seems especially worried about who Brian Harman or Wyndham Clark will be paired with, but I'll leave you to ponder that.

I've been harping for almost a decade on that 2014 Ryder Cup press conference, but shall we revist those comments of Phil Mickelson:

There were two things that allow us to play our best I think that Paul Azinger did, and one was he got everybody invested in the process.

He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their pod, who—when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod. ... And the other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us, you know, how we were going to go about doing this.

Besides being an inappropriate venue and the worst possible messenger, Phil's point was that the American players require a safe room to perform, which might well explain their crash-and-burn routine in road games.

The other silly bit is that there is an actual case for JT based on his historical record, including especially his play at road game cups (Paris, most notably), but Fred can't be bothered making it.

This is the comment getting the most ink, which has some truth embedded but why go there?

On Couples’ most recent episode of The Fred Couples Show on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, he and Downing addressed Bradley’s insinuation that being a self-described outsider contributed to the fact that he wasn’t picked.

“There’s no ‘outside,'” Couples said. “I saw Keegan Bradley’s statement. I left him off the [2011 Presidents Cup] team when he won a PGA. It’s the harshest thing you can do to a guy. I feel like it’s the players’ team, but you can’t have guys telling the captain here’s who I want, should be on it, unless you’re a Jordan Spieth or a Scottie Scheffler, or a [Patrick] Cantlay.”

Ummmm, Fred, isn't that exactly what's happened?  The only complication being that Jordan Spieth isn't really Jordan Spieth any more, though I guess once you know the secret handshake...

But then he gives the game away:

“Now they’re picking other guys that may not have the record of Keegan, but they pair them up perfectly,” Couples said. “I like Keegan. He’s an older guy, and he’s not in tight with them. If that had 20 percent to do with it, I won’t argue that.”

Keegan played well enough to be in the mix, but not well enough to consider it a snub.  But Rickie's record is barely indistinguishable from Keegan's and he's only three years younger, but he was considered a lock, mostly because he's good buddies with Jordan and JT.

But by far the best evidence that Fred needs to be gagged was this from a month or more ago:

In a candid conversation with his co-host, George Downing, Couples seemed confident while revealing his take on the prospects of the current American fence-sitters.

“Here’s the guys that are not confirmed and need to make a case,” Downing prompted Couples. “No. 7: Max Homa.”

“I’m like one of the 19 assistants, I’ll say Max Homa’s gonna be in Italy,” Couples replied. “I’ll say Max Homa’s gonna be in Italy, without getting anyone in trouble.”

“Cam Young,” Downing said.

“Cam Young will be in Italy,” Couples replied.

“Jordan Spieth?”

“Will be in Italy.”

“Keegan Bradley?”

“The rest is — I’m stopping,” Couples said.

How is that remotely appropriate?  

A couple of final thoughts.  First, to me it's curious that it's the JT pick he's defensive about, whereas to me the Bradley omission was likely to put Sam Burns on the team.  This obviously was done to placate Scottie Scheffler, though does anyone remember Burns' performance at the 2022 Prez Cup:

Sam Burns (0-3-2): B

Burns’ record is not indicative of his play and more a reflection of Scottie Scheffler’s struggles (which is a damn odd thing to write about the reigning Masters champ and PGA Tour Player of the Year). Still, even with a new pairing in Billy Horschel on Saturday afternoon, Burns failed to register a W in the first four sessions. Unfortunately for Burns, Sunday was more of the same, playing strong and tough golf against Hideki Matsuyama, flipping a 2-down deficit at the turn to a 1-up advantage with four to go. But Burns doubled the 15th and his 23-footer at the 18th to win the match came a foot short. The case can be made that Burns was the second-best player for the Americans this week, yet he posted one point over five matches. Golf, man.

I'm persuadable on this one, he did win that last Match Play after all, and he's far younger than Keegan, which to me is more important than their buddy system.  That said, we've got no shortage of players whose best form is in the rear view mirror, and I don't much love that Scheffler-Burns team very much, although that's mostly due to Scottie's putting woes.  Not sure which format will suit, because Scottie projects as a great foursomes player, where's Sam is perhaps a bit too mistake prone for that test.

The Spieth-JT pairing presents the same issue, but here the answer is more clear cut.  They should be a fourball team and be kept away from foursomes.  Even with his woes, JT still makes a ton of birdies, and Jordan's big misses are legendary.  But I can't get the vision of Jim Furyk throwing Phil out in foursomes in Paris out of mind, so all bets are off with our genius Task Force.

Team Europe - We haven't peaked in some time, and are still awaiting their captains' picks.  But here's the headliners:

Qualified:

Rory McIlroy
John Rahm
Viktor Hovland

Locks:

Matthew Fitzpatrick
Tommy Fleetwood
Tyrell Hatton
Shane Lowry
Justin Rose

A typically top-heavy European roster, dependent upon these guys playing often and well.  You'd expect those top three to play all five sessions, but it's the middle tier that will need to step up to keep them competitive.  Those guys have shown some signs, but certainly haven't played consistently well this year.

Captain Luke has four picks, from among this gaggle of players:

Robert MacIntyre
Sepp Straka
Ludvig Aberg
Adrian Meronk
Seamus Power
Alex Noren

The first two are locks, and deservedly so.  Ludvig Aberg is the most interesting name on that list, and I'll include this background:

A genuine wildcard option with supreme talent as the No 1 amateur in the world last year, while gaining invaluable experience on the college circuit at Texas Tech. No Ryder Cup experience, obviously, but the 23-year-old has played plenty of team golf in the junior ranks and has taken to professional golf in style with a series of impressively high finishes on the PGA Tour as a rookie. If Donald is looking for a spark, Aberg might just provide it. Broadcaster Nick Dougherty revealed a conversation between himself and Donald on Aberg: “He told me there have only been a few [players] that he’s played with for the very first time that have the ‘wow’ factor. One of them is Rory. Now he says Ludvig Aberg is one of those guys as well. He said his driver is a huge weapon, he makes the game look effortless. He added that as long as he continues to show form, he will definitely be considered for the [Ryder Cup] team. This guy is going to be a superstar.” There is also the added bonus of a potential mentor in compatriot Alex Noren, who is also in contention to feature in Rome.

Definitely a comer who will play in future Ryder Cups, though it would be quite the roll of the dice to add him this year.   Europe's Ryder Cup DNA includes stellar performances from grizzled vets long past their competitive primes, so I'd expect him to take two of those bottom three.  Obviously Meronk doesn't fit that profile, but who could resist the first Polish Ryder Cupper ever.

Donald has six picks, which are to be made on September 4th.

All Things Walker Cup - An historically significant event in golf history, predating the Ryder Cup, it allows the best amateur players t show off in a team match play format.  Adding to its allure, the venue choices have been unbelievably inspired recently, including rarely seen venues such as Seminole and Cypress Point (the latter in 2025).

The excitement here is to see something unusual in these times, match play on the Old Course.  Geoff is predictably all over this and he first reminds us of how long it's been:

It’s been way too long since pure team match play has been over the Old Course at St Andrews. The Dunhill Cup was a splendid event from 1985 to 2000, but the format consisted of three-man
teams in stroke match play. That’s as absurd as starting a professional tournament with the leading player ten-under-par.

The Ryder Cup?

Never been to St Andrews in the 96 years since those matches between professionals were established.

The Walker Cup?

Eight times at the Old Course but not since 1975.

How long ago was that? They played in May and the GB&I team had been announced a full seven months ahead of the matches, prematurely ruling out Nick Faldo. That meant Great Britain and Ireland sent out its Gordon’s, Hugh’s and Ian’s against a USA squad featuring Curtis Strange, Jerry Pate, Craig Stadler, Gary Koch, George Burns and three all-time amateur greats: Vinny Giles, William Campbell and Dick Siderowf. But at least they played matches and GB&I kept it close the first day before USA pulled away for a 15.5 to 8.5 win.

Lengthy excerpts for sure, but let's allow Geoff to explain our mutual excitement: 

Other than The Amateur twenty years ago (won by this week’s GB&I captain Stuart Wilson), the Old Course has been awash in events all played at a stoke play format too often prone to negate its most brilliant, cerebral and downright juicy qualities.

In a card and pencil world, many of its pesky half-par holes featuring nearby boundary lines force safe plays out to the center of the out-and-back links. In recent championships, holes have been cut in spots so incongruous to making birdies, even risk-takers have found themselves unable to enjoy the rewards of flirting with the 110 bunkers or perilous Old Course boundaries.

Merely turning loose ten elite amateurs from each side and playing foursomes in the morning, singles in the afternoon each day, should alone make this weekend’s Walker Cup fascinating. If the wind surprises forecasters and really blows, a fourth protagonist will only make the proceedings better. The energy should be dynamite as well, with galleries walking the fairways and standing immediately next to greens as opposed to being held back farther back.

Just think about playing that Road Hole in match play, where you could win it with a bogey.  I you're one-up on the tee, do you play further left and dare your opponent to flirt with OB right?  

The other bit worth noting is that the Old Course is a pace-pf-play nightmare in the Open, featuring six-hour rounds.  This is partially a function of those drivable Par-4's, but more the result of the double-greens and resulting narrow corridors.  With two holes and two tee boxes in close proximity, the players are waiting interminably for others to play, the issue being the resulting crowd reaction.  

This is not a big factor this week because of the smaller number of groups.  Mostly as the guys play the outward holes there will not be anyone playing the inward nine.  perhaps in singles in the middle section of the course, but that's about the extent of it, so play should move.

If you're expecting the Ryder Cup format, this one is a little different, beginning with it being only a two-day event:

FORMAT

Saturday
4 foursomes matches, 3:30 a.m. ET start
8 singles matches, 8:45 a.m. ET start

Sunday
4 foursomes matches, 3 a.m. ET start
10 singles matches, 8:15 a.m. ET start

And the TV coverage reflecting those pesky time zones:

Saturday: 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Sunday: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel)

That's a reasonably generous coverage window, as me memory from Seminole is that gave us a mere two hours each day.  Obviously Golf Channel can spare their airwaves at those early hours, especially over a holiday weekend, but I do hope we see the foursomes matches finish.   If you're playing this weekend, you'll need to power up the DVR.

My biggest golf dream, at least the biggest that doesn't involve my own play, would be a Ryder Cup on the Old Course.  That would be just epic, but can never happen due to the economics of the Euro Tour.  Their every four years home game is a vital cash infusion, as it's sold to the highest bidder each cycle.  Of course, flush with Saudi loot, maybe we can start dreaming again?

Have a great weekend and we'll pick things up next week, although likely not until Tuesday at the earlier.  

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Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Midweek Musings - You Complete Me Edition

OK, I know I didn't expect to be with you this morning, but the Wednesday Game™ had been moved to midday to avoid that pesky morning rain...

We'll just spend a few minutes on Captain Zach's picks, then I'll leave you to get on with your day.

As you might have discerned from my header, the self-help language is quite the tell:

“A lot of time, a lot of energy has gone into this process,” Johnson said Tuesday at the announcement. “That’s probably no secret. I am very confident in these six, and my confidence comes from the mere fact that I am surrounding myself with great people.

“We came up with what we felt was six guys that made these other six [auto-qualifiers] whole.”

 

If our top six guys needed Brooks to be whole, that doesn't augur well for the event, does it?

You'll have heard the names already, but here are your six picks:

With his picks, Johnson added Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns to the squad on Tuesday.

I'll note that your humble blogger got five out of six, missing only Sam Burns.....The surprise there being a complete absence of buzz over Burns....

Golf Digest asks the obvious questions:

Biggest surprise among the captain’s picks?

Honestly, I can’t say there is a surprise here. The picks seemed obvious once the sun went down at the Tour Championship. Keegan Bradley and Lucas Glover really needed to show something at East Lake and didn’t. Cam Young, while a great ball-striker, didn’t advance to the playoff finale, and his glaring weakness is putting (145th in strokes gained). History shows us putting wins Ryder Cups. Also, tough to take two rookie captain’s picks to Europe, and Johnson already had zeroed in on one newcomer, Burns, who CAN putt. —Dave Shedloski

My own analysis had the final spot coming down to Burns and Young, with Bradley and Glover out of the loop. I'm not saying it was a coin flip, but when you compare résumés between Burns
and Young, along with the strength of their games (Burns a tremendous putter, Young better from tee to green), it was really, really close. In the end, Burns' relationships may have put him over the top, particularly his friendship with Scheffler, so we'll call him the most surprising pick. —Shane Ryan

Burns. I think it was the right call—both in terms of his fit to Marco Simone and within the U.S. clubhouse—but since his win at the WGC-Dell Match Play his play has been uninspired. —Joel Beall

To me, the surprise was the lack of razzle dazzle in the whole announcement. I realize this isn’t the most made-for-TV event in the world, but with Koepka, Thomas and Burns there were some interesting wrinkles to be resolved. Within 10 minutes, ZJ announced all the names—starting with Burns—and proceeded to questions. It was all business, and in many ways, a revealing tone-setter for ZJ’s approach to the contest. —Luke Kerr-Dineen

It simply has to be Burns, as there wasn't much drama in those other picks, as evidenced by the fact that I got all five.  The issue, as the guys hit on, is that Burns has simply played quite poorly since winning the Match Play,  as Shack notes here:

Sam Burns - Went 0-3-2 in his Presidents Cup debut but seemed comfortable enough and looks like a fit with Scottie Scheffler, who might not be the easiest Team USA member to pair up. Burns would have been a tough player to leave off after winning the final WGC Match Play this year. Yet the 27-year-old scored his second top 10 last week since that win, meaning the form was acceptable enough to rationalize a pick also looking like an investment in USA’s future matches over two older once-elite major winners like Keegan Bradley or Lucas Glover.

I had expected the investment in youth argument to be made about Cam Young, but it's fair as far as it goes.

One is left with the impression that the Burns pick has quite a bit to do with his relationship with Scottie Scheffler, and it's a bit puzzling to think that a stud like Scottie would be awkward fit in the team formats.  I'll accept that Scheffler-Burns is a comfortable pairing for the two guys, but does anyone love that team competitively?  I'm even unclear as to which format works best, given their complementary skillsets.

But the karma is amusing in an ironic sense, because Burns was the victim of one of the most puzzling Walker Cup snubs ever:

After winning the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Division I college player of the year in June, Sam
Burns did what a lot of talented collegiate golfers do: He announced he would not be returning to school for his junior year at LSU this fall, but instead would turn pro. However, the 21-year-old from Shreveport, La., has one more accomplishment he wanted to achieve before making the formal jump: play for the U.S. team in the Walker Cup. So he announced he wouldn't be turning pro until the end of the summer, hoping that his impressive college resume would be enough for him to make squad.

Turns out the wait was for naught as Burns’ name was not among the 10 listed Sunday night when the USGA unveiled the 2017 U.S. team at the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

The decision came as a surprise to many considering that after his stellar season in Baton Rouge, Burns continued to impress this summer. He was fifth at the Northeast Amateur and, having won a sponsor’s exemption into the Barbasol Championship through a 18-hole qualifying event, he went on to finish T-6 in the PGA Tour event in July held opposite the British Open. He ranked 21st in the World Amateur Golf Ranking heading last week at Riviera Country Club, where he finished T-16 in stroke-play qualifying before losing in the first round of match play.

Not sure he really earned this pick, though he was certainly owed one, especially as he took the Walker Cup snub graciously.

Biggest snub?

You have to say Young here. Young's résumé in the big events was stellar, he played extremely well at the Match Play in March, but most importantly, and this cannot be emphasized enough: FRED COUPLES SAID HE WAS ON THE TEAM! That's the PR blunder of the entire Ryder Cup picks cycle, by far, and just imagine how it must feel if you're Young, read that story, and think your spot is secure, only to lose it to Burns at the final moment. I'm not saying this isn't painful for a guy like Bradley, who loves the Ryder Cup, or even Glover, but to be granted a pick by a vice captain in a media appearance and then to watch it fade away? That's so brutal. —S.R.

Probably Bryson DeChambeau. A top five at the PGA Championship, fresh off a 58 in his LIV Golf win at The Greenbrier and a good performance at Whistling Straits. A good driver of the ball, he’d probably do well in Rome. Yes, there’s maybe a chemistry issue with the rest of the team. But it sounds like he didn’t even get a phone call. I understand why he’s not on the team, but even still: It’s a snub. —L.K.D.

How about none. I mean, Young? Save for a nice run at Royal Liverpool his season has been a disappointment, underlined by the fact he failed to make it to the Tour Championship. Bradley? Two wins, yet his win at the Travelers was his only top-10 finish in a full-field event since March. DeChambeau? Unfortunately, no gifts from the content gods. The truth is the depth of the U.S. team wasn’t as strong as it was projected in terms of performance, and no one who was left off can say their performance warranted selection. —J.B.

A case can be made that the biggest snub might be Dustin Johnson, who went 5-0 at Whistling Straits. But that was two years ago, and DJ is 2-7 in Europe and 12-9 overall, which means he had a losing record until his 2021 performance. That leaves Bradley, who won twice in the 2022-23 season, and, more importantly, is 21st in putting, the importance of which we already have stressed. And, let’s face it, Zach needs putters when you look at the problems on the greens from the likes of Scottie Scheffler and captain’s picks Morikawa and Thomas. —D.S.

Like Joel Beall, I reject the concept of "snubbing", because none of these guys played sufficiently well that they had a pick coming....

But Shane Ryan is spot on with his comments about Fred Couples, even justifying the use of the Caps-Lock key.  I mean, WTF!  There's precious little that Ryder Cup cart drivers actually do, but misleading guys that they've made the team is about as bad as it gest.  I would argue that Fred should have his cart keys confiscated and, more importantly, we should dispense with any discussion of a Ryder Cup captaincy for the man.  I mean, this is even worse than the rain suits at Celtic Manor....

You'll know this is an easy one:

Pick that might haunt Z.J.?

No need for mental gymnastics here; a lot will be riding on Thomas, because (gestures wildly to the last four months). —J.B.

Yeah, this one is obvious: Thomas. The JT discourse has dominated Ryder Cup talk for the last month and has almost become political. There's talk that he doesn't "deserve" it, that he's only
making it because he's part of the buddy system, etc. etc. Personally, I think Johnson was absolutely right to take him, but you know that if he goes to Italy and plays poorly—or even plays well but loses his matches—it's going to be a euphoric round of "I told you so!"s from the anti-JT set. It's the only pick that could really backfire on Johnson. —S.R.

Easy. JT. “You just don’t leave JT at home,” Johnson said, summing up his pick of Thomas. Zach is betting that Thomas, who pairs well with his buddy Spieth, will rise to the occasion. He had better. Let’s point out that JT makes a lot of birdies, even during a substandard year on the greens. He’ll be under a microscope all week in Italy. —D.S.

Thomas. Every great Ryder Cup player—which JT is—gets a benefit-of-the-doubt captain’s pick if he needs it. This is JT’s. Either he’ll play well and prove ZJ right or underperform and come in for all the heat. There’s no in between. —L.K.D

I'm OK with the pick and probably would have made it myself, but can we lease stop fawning over that Ryder Cup Task Force.  I correctly predicted JT would be on the team. but it's troubling that it may be more because of that buddy system than his actual play.  Geoff had this on JT:

Justin Thomas - Perhaps a “controversial” pick in others years given that three players accrued more points and Thomas did not make the Tour Championship, but America’s once vaunted depth looks pretty thin right now and none of the alternatives seem nearly as reliable as Thomas to bring the Ryder Cup passion, drive and record (6-2-1). “He has, without question, been the heart and soul of Team USA Ryder Cups,” said Johnson. “Our emotional leader I would say, and I don't think he would argue with that. He just leads by example.”

That heart and soul might do more for me if he could, yanno, putt.... But I would add Sam Burns here, because if that Scheffler-Burns pairing goes bust, it'll be on Zach.

This actually might be the better argument:

He's a road warrior, and it's wildly difficult to play on the road in the Ryder Cup

Thomas went 4-1 in the Paris Ryder Cup, including a singles victory over Rory McIlroy, while almost everyone else on the American team was getting smoked. He kept the U.S. alive in the Melbourne Presidents Cup while the rest of the team sleepwalked through the first two days. This guy is a major road hound, and that's exactly what you need in a situation like the one facing the U.S., which hasn't won a Ryder Cup on European soil in 30 years. The idea that you can throw someone like Lucas Glover or Cam Young or Keegan Bradley out there and expect them to be ready to handle that fire in the same way is borderline absurd.

Obviously the crowd in Melbourne was relatively tame compared to what we'll see in Rome, but this is likely the pick that will determine Zach's captaincy.

Overall impression of the U.S. team?

I'll give Johnson an "A" here. I've been impressed by the U.S. Ryder Cup task force/captain's committee since Whistling Straits, and I think their analysis and choices continue to be on point. He made the six picks he should have, he created a team that has a ton of chemistry and cohesiveness, and he's given himself a great shot to be the first American captain to win in Europe in 30 years. That doesn't mean there's no room for criticism; if Spieth and Thomas in particular can't get the job done, people will rightly be wondering if he should have taken players with more form, like Bradley and Glover. —Shane Ryan

Like any coach assessing how to assemble an effective (i.e. winning) team, Johnson obviously considered relationships as well as skill sets. Zach said his six picks “made the other six whole. They’re a great fit for Marco Simone and a great fit for each other, which is massive.” His selections give him obvious pairings with JT-Spieth, Burns-Scheffler to go along with Cantlay-Schauffele. Koepka, Morikawa and Fowler can mesh with anyone. He tried to build a cohesive team rather than one based simply on perceived form. It’s a risk, but with USA losing the last six overseas, it’s one worth taking. —D.S.

Well, it seems like every four years the U.S. looks really formidable on paper until the match begins on European soil and, suddenly, we realize how foolish that conviction is. All that said … the team looks pretty good. Wyndham Clark is perhaps the biggest question mark outside of Thomas, but Clark was such a killer at LACC and his short game is so good that fans shouldn’t worry too much about his Ryder Cup debut. Despite the team’s collective struggle over the past two months it’s still deeper than anything Europe will push out. Winning a modern Ryder Cup on the road is damn tough, but if any club can break the slump, it’s this one. —J.B.

ZJ did everything by the book, solid and unspectacularly. It was to the point, and all business. As for the rest of the team, Johnson’s message was clear: The picks are there to pair with the automatic qualifiers and bring the best out of them. Picks like Fowler, Morikawa and Thomas have the record to balance the inexperience of automatic qualifiers like Homa, Clark and Harman. Outside of the top-to-bottom quality is the fact that this team meshes together really well, personality-wise. There’s only one thing left to do for the U.S. team: Get to work. —L.K.D.

The guys got a single question, though seem to be answering two very different questions.  I agree with their answer to the unasked question, to wit, Zach made very predictable and supportable picks.  

As for how the U.S. team projects, one has that nagging sense that we've seen this movie before.  Alan Shipnuck promised us an era of U.S. dominance, but this team radiates that "better-on-paper" vibe that we've seen so often.  Even those six automatic qualifiers come with huge question marks, beginning with Scheffler's putter.

I'll finish with a follow-up column from Mike Bamberger that's quite the head-scratcher.  I've refereed to Mike as the conscience of our game, but he's quite clearly lost touch with the modern touring professional, as evidenced by his prior column, a fever dream that Zach would leave Koepka at home in an act of patriotism, ignoring that every element of the PGA Tour organization is committed to that Saudi partnership.  But the current effort takes the normalization to a depressing conclusion:

Brooks Koepka almost made the team on points alone, on the basis of his second-place* finish at
the Masters and his win at the PGA Championship. The top six players on a point system qualified for the team. Koepka was seventh. The only thing that could have kept him off the team was the thing that kept Mickelson from having any kind of role with it: his contract with LIV Golf, which was once seen as an existential threat to the PGA Tour.

Now, at least by public statement, LIV Golf and the PGA Tour are in the process of becoming business partners. On that basis, the threat is over. Saudi millions and likely billions, if this partnership happens, will find its way to various accounts in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

So on that basis, money has won again. Koepka’s contract with LIV Golf was no longer a disqualifying mark. On that basis, if you let that logic play out, Mickelson should now be on the very, very short list to become a U.S. Ryder Cup captain.

Mike is slightly ahead of the facts on the ground, but that is the logical end point of the world since June 6th.  We're still waiting to see if any price is to be paid by those who conspired against the organization in which they became rich and famous, but Mike thinks the smart money should be on "No".   After the shock of June 6th, I certainly don't want to talk him down from his cynicism....

On the other hand, the thought of Phil as the U.S. Captain at Bethpage in 2025 might put me off my feed for a while.... At this point, I'm not even clear on who I'll be rooting for in Rome./

We still need to get to the European Team, which we'll do in the coming days as the gear up for their captain's picks.  I'll see you later in the week.

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