Fairway Rollin' - The Massacre at the Ryder Cup

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

House and Nathan react to the absolutely dominant performance from team USA at the Ryder Cup. They address who the standout players were, the greatest and most memorable moments down the stretch, and what caused the Europeans to suffer such a crushing loss. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen up all you New York fans. Veteran New York sports talk host, John Dostrompsky gives his unique take on all the big stories in the Big Apple and beyond, including guest conversations, gambling picks, and reactions from you, the listener. Check out New York, New York with John Dostromsky on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, friends, and welcome to this extraordinary golf podcast, unlike any other. This is the Ryder Cup Recap Edition. of Faraway Roll! The Golf Podcast on the Rainer Podcast Network. My goodness, it is the massacre at Lake Michigan, my birdie buddies, my par saving pals,

my eagle enthusiasts. We don't even talk about par saving pals. I am Joe House, your starter, joined by our PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard. My friends, it was a beatdown. We were convened, not even a full week ago. Kevin Clark, Nathan Hubbard, myself,

and a couple of fellas had a perspective on how this might go down. Speaking of Nathan and Kevin, I was arguing for a slightly different potential outcome. Nathan and Kevin had it right. Nate, talk, how you feeling, buddy? I'm feeling good. We are recording with three matches still on the course. is Jordan going to tie his match?

Can we get to 18 and a half, 9 and a half? So that's the goal here is still 19 is still in play. And that would be the all time record in Rider Cup play. And I think the only way to really talk about this Rider Cup is in terms of all of the superlatives. And because it's still happening, we're not going to get to all of them. You'll see those superlatives tonight, tomorrow, on into the week around the extraordinary superior performance by this U.S. team. But look, the prevailing narrative of this U.S. team assembled as the single best team

ever assembled in the history of the Ryder Cup, at least on paper, as measured by the official world golf ranking, you don't compete it on paper. You competed on the golf course. These boys went out on the golf course and whipped ass, Nate, dog. they did I am thrilled USA I am sorry for your betting

I really hope that you hedged like we talked about there were plenty opportunities to hedge yes look one of the things that if you saw the videos that Tiger Woods made before he had his accident

you know he's going around with Dwayne Wade on whatever the course is in L.A and he just keeps telling him keep it simple, simple game, just keep it simple. And if you dialed it out to 30,000 feet on this team, for all of the superlatives, here's the truth. This team was unbelievably better at golf than the European team.

And this team was also younger at golf, or at life than the European team, which if you saw John Rom today and you think that he didn't just get tired, He got tired. Okay, so there is something to the stamina of youth in this Ryder Cup. They were better, they were younger, and they were playing in front of tens of thousands of home team fans. I think that now the question house becomes, it's not a surprise that this team won, but we've talked so much coming into it.

The case was really the mystique and the chemistry of the European team. And the counter case, of course, was, well, that was then. these guys are older now. But what I want to ask you is, does this undercut, just a little bit, that lure of the Ryder Cup? We're seeing a lot of the captains in tears

on the U.S. team. We're not seeing any of the players in tears. We're seeing the Europeans in tears. It really matters to them. Do you think this matters as much to the Americans collectively? And by the way, is that maybe by,

you know, is that maybe the reason why they won? Yes, of course. it definitely matters to these guys. And, you know, I think all of them are ready to write their new chapter. This is the U.S. team, the changing of the guard of the U.S. team, right? No Tiger, no Phil. Zach Johnson is a vice captain.

Matt Couture is a vice captain. The oldest guy on the team is DJ. And one of the great things, you know, I kudos to NBC for grabbing the U.S. guys as they won their matches and getting sort of immediate reaction. The only kudos they deserve for this entire coverage. Well, I do like... I mean, Dan Hicks, stay out of the way when Bryson's putting for Eagle on one. Just be quiet and let us hear the roar.

They could have been quieter. I would have lied. There are a lot of things we could quibble about. I will give them credit. The golf course and the visuals are just stunning. I mean, I don't know when on the calendar this might get... We're going to be old men by the next time we can get back to this venue. But what a venue.

We may have to just go play it. We could do that too. To the point that you're sort of asking about, the real interesting thing I heard Brooks Kepka in his interview, these guys, although they're young, they've known each other for 15 years. They've all been playing against each other. So the idea that, you know,

you wondered about chemistry, and for sure all of the, you know, we're not going to run through all the silliness with Brooks and Bryson and questions around that. And, you know, some of the stuff that Brooks said about, you know, how hard it might be to change mentality from, you know, being your solo operator and coming together in this way. The unity was there. It was apparent. All of the combinations that we anticipated played out DJ and Moracawa were unbeatable. Patrick and Patty Ice and Zander were unbeatable. DJ and Morikawa were the question mark coming in, weren't they? We didn't know how they were going to play because we hadn't seen a lot of DJ and we definitely were worried about Collins back.

They just said a signal on that first day and all of a sudden you're like, oh, right, he's the highest rank American in the world. And Moracawa is the guy who just won the British Open. We're going to fucking annihilate them. That's exactly what happened. That's right. The question marks, injury-wise, were Kepka and Morkawa, is Morkawa back, you know, is his back injury in the rearview mirror? And, you know, what are the lingering effects, if any, with Kepka's wrists? And the answer to both of those things were absolutely nothing. Those guys were ready to rock and roll. They rocked out with their cock out. There was nothing stopping the U.S. team. And look, all you can do is measure it by the historic leads that were generated in the, on Friday, historically we had Saturday, and then we came out and we won the singles as well on top of that. We've already won the singles, even though now what we're watching on television

is, are we going to get to 19 points? Yeah. All I'm saying with this is this is obviously an awesome, awesome team. But I think the disparity was as much about Europe being not very good as it was about the U.S. being great. And I just mean coming into it. I mean, Sergio playing amazing was awesome. And Rom absolutely came into his own. And Rory sort of did Rory Things. But the rest of that team performed about like what you would expect, I think.

And so my only, I can't let that go. Rory doing Rory things. Rory's not good at golf right now, bud. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Okay. But like that was expect. Like I don't know.

I mean, Rory's Sunday performance was exactly what we've seen from Rory, which is he's kind of out of it and he makes a huge run on the Sunday, right? I mean, that's, I'll remember that at the Zozo until I die. Like, you got JT and Romm and Cantlay battling it out and Rory shoots the best round the day at six under when it doesn't freaking matter, right? Right. I'm just saying, I think we could have expected this coming in and that was my case for why this was going to be an absolute blowout.

I just wonder if part of the reason why the Americans did well in spite of the culture is that coming in, it wasn't clear to us how many of them cared passionately about the Ryder Cup. And I just wonder if that took some of the pressure off for them to just go out and play. What is lovely about the scenes unfolding on 18 is some of the guys are getting it. I mean, as Stricker was in tears, he said, Bryson and Brooks wanted to play together. So maybe through the course of this week, they actually learned about that sort of lore that the Europeans have carried on for so long.

And if that's the case that this team of young, badass great players is going to actually give a shit about this Ryder Cup and learn how to have some of that team room chemistry, watch out. So this is one of the interesting takeaways. I wanted to compare notes with you on. The core of this U.S. team is young enough that this could really could be our team

in international competition over like the next, if we're lucky, six, maybe eight years, if we're lucky. I mean, you know, everything can change, you know, year to year. Injuries, guys, you know, fall off. But the guts of this team, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spee, Bryson DeCambeau, Patty Ice, Patrick Cantley, Zander, who am I leaving out? Morikawa. I mean, Brooks, like all those guys, can be the core of our team. And as I look at Europe, I see no young blood that's of any interest whatsoever.

They're best player. Nobody's scary. Their best young player is Victor Hovlin. And whenever that guy gets a short game, he will be a four, he's going to be a major winner. But he does not have a short game right now. And, you know,

he was able to muster a half against Moracawa, even with, you know, Victor's superior equal to equal to. I would never call his ball striking superior to Kalamarkawa, but he's better off the tea. And it was a fun match to watch, but, you know, until he gets a short game, you can't take him seriously. The truth of the matter is, Nate, the truly competitive competitions coming up on the international stage are now, to me, the President's Cup because there are much more interesting young guys in South Africa, young guys in Latin America, young guys in Mexico, young guys in Mexico, young guys. is in Australia. Like, those teams are all,

that team is going to be something, I think. I think you're right. Look, coming into today, and it's a little wonky because of the format, but the recorded scores this week,

you had ROM at 15 under, and then it was basically all Americans until Sergio and Hovland and Lowry at sort of six under. But if you looked at all across those scores, coming into today, you would have said Brooks and Bryson and maybe Schaeffler, and DB were underperforming relative to the other guys.

And with the exception of DB, I think the best rounds of the day were from Bryson Scheffler, maybe not Brooks, but he had seven birdies out there today. So those guys, I mean, everybody showed up and did their job.

Daniel Berger was kind of meh this week, not totally on his game, which was interesting because he was the one we thought was maybe a killer. But, I mean, all of our guys are scary good in this format. There's no doubt the Europeans have ways to go. And speaking of Daniel Berger's straight vibe and DB straight vibe and he's on the T on 18 tied.

So his point, I take it back. No, no, I'm just saying. If we get the full point out of him, that'll get us to the 18 and a half. The other match that's in a half position right now is Harry English. Let's see. That one's over. Oh, it's Jordan Speath. So the two matches right now are

Speeth against Golf Jesus, Tommy Flewwood, and DB Strait Bybman against Matt Fitzpatrick, both tied off the T on 18. 18. So we'll see where we land in terms of whether it's an all-time beatdown or whether it's just one of the all-time greatest beatdowns. It'll be one or the other. House, let me put out what I think were the top five moments

from this rider cup and you can quibble with them. Tell me what I've missed. Tell me if they mattered or not. Moments is great. And what we're also going to do is who your favorite performance was by and who disappointed you the most. But let's do moments first.

I love it. Okay. So my top five moments for this rider cup were as follows. The speith shot on the par three. Yes. Where he launched it into the air. Never mind that Thomas missed the putt and they lost it. I can't not never mind it because that's what it does alter it.

I know, it does. It would have been epic and if they've gone to win. But, but, but that shot was incredible. Yes. The Lowry, the Lowry putt celebration yesterday was terrific with his dad on the green. You know,

I thought it was hilarious. Yeah. It was funny and it irked the U.S. enough that you're like, all right, game on. I loved it. Bryson driving the green and making the putt today was one of the top five coolest moments I've ever seen.

on a golf course and that guy basically turned around his image. You know, they said on the broadcast that they cannot think of, they couldn't come up with another time in Rider Cup history where a player has opened a match by driving it onto the green and making the eagle putt. Yeah. I mean, I thought you were going to say where he's opened a can of whoop ass. It was over. Both of those things happened when he did that.

I mean, and it just, the transformation of him, it was the, we talked about it coming in. It was the perfect environment for him. everybody was, you know, contractually obligated by their citizenship to cheer for Bryson. And he responded extraordinarily well. He's still so weird and so awkward in some of those settings. But he was awesome. He was awesome. He was awesome.

And it's also clear that he's beloved. Like there were a lot of hugs from and around the team. And I ask you, I put this question to you, do you think that our appreciation for Bryson was enhanced any by him just wearing a normal baseball cap, a normal golf cap, we'll call it. Yeah, I saw some of that chatter. It seemed he was a little bit more normal.

Who knows? Maybe it squeezed his brain differently. I just think this was exactly what Bryson needed. We thought it was maybe going to be him going abroad over the summer, right? And that didn't work so well because of his comments around the vaccine, everything. Anyway, I'm happy to see it.

there is that sort of like kid who's a part of the team who gets picked on all the time, but delivers in the moment and everybody gives them like Nugis at the end in the winning scene in the movie or whatever. That's what seems to be going on for Bryson. But he definitely won over hearts. He will always have a soft spot with me for having the Cajonis to drive the damn green, drain the 40 footer and, and, you know,

end it once and for all in that moment. And let's do those call that 1A because the nature of the moment made it. so prominent. So just a quick interruption. Speath and Fleetwood split. So we're at 18. So we could get to 19 if D.B. Straight Vibein wins or 18

and a half if there's a tie. Those are that's 18 and 18 and 18 and a half of both in play. Stevie, please run back to tape from last week when the call was 18 and a half to 9 and a half. God, I wish I'd bet that. The odds were spectacular for that. I know.

But look, I wanted to keep talking about about Bryson. There's a 1A and a 1B. 1B was him driving the ball 417 yards on the par 5 on Friday. I mean, that that was stunning. It was so stunning that NBC didn't get any coverage of it. They had to go to their

backup cameras to go find it because they weren't prepared for the possibility that he might drive the ball 420 yards. Great, great job, guys. Thanks again for that. Look, I think that got usurped by what happened today. Off the first tee on Sunday singles against the all-time

I'm Ryder Cup points leader. Yes, I think you're right about that. Yeah. So, look, I loved everything about his performance. I do have to say, after Friday, you didn't feel great. You know, when he and Sheffler came out and, you know, I didn't love the way that he was firing. He didn't look like he was on it.

But through the course of the weekend, man, he just got stronger and stronger and stronger. And again, you know, he was three under coming into the day, but that was over after the first hole. He just laid it down today. And happy to see that from him and a little bit of a respite from the insanity. The next one for me,

and I know we feel differently about this, I just thought Rory's tearful interview was awesome. I know that you're angry with him because he's lost you a lot of money. I know you just want him to sack up and play better. I thought that the tears were a reflection of two years of him really wanting to play better and not getting there

and feeling like he'd let the side down. I just love him as an ambassador for the game. What say you about that? Well, I am nothing, if not a shallow person, but I want the record to be clear. I want the record to reflect. I don't care about losing money

on golf bets as it relates to my perception of the character of these guys. I am disappointed in Rory McElroy, and this has been a repeating theme on this podcast over the six years I've been doing it because the performance hasn't matched the skill level. He's the only player of the last dozen years that has the skill to me that rivaled Tiger. I thought he could win 10 majors. He's not going to win 10 majors. He went out in 2015 and played kickabout with his buddies and busted his ankle when he was supposed to be the defending champion of the Open Championship that year at St. Andrews. So that's the kind of disappointment that I have.

He was two and seven in Ryder Cup matches coming into this singles match today. For a guy who professes to care so much about this to perform so poorly doesn't really. you know, compute with me. I don't, I don't know exactly what it is that is holding him back. Is he in his own head? Is he in his own way? It is clear that he is a leader amongst his golf brethren, both in terms of the, the tour and on the European side in connection with this, this Ryder Cup stuff,

just go play better golf. He got his ass handed to him. He wasn't just bad. He was terrible. him and Lowry were supposed to be a combination that was going to be formidable and they just weren't. It wasn't interesting golf. They weren't good. Yeah, I mean, I think coming in today, he was plus two

on his own ball. So it just, it wasn't, it wasn't good. I don't, I think the problem for Rory is is deep and, and the good news as he's changed coaches, I will be surprised if we see him very much this fall. Rory needs to go away. and I think some of that emotion that we saw today was about a lot more than the Ryder Cup. I think he's happy in his personal life.

I think he's happy in his role as leader. I think he just is in one of those deep trenches of golf where you just cannot figure it out. And he's got work to do. So I'll be surprised if we see much of him. And if we want to be sort of generous about it, and I'm capable of that occasionally, just go back to his performance

in the first handful of tournaments in calendar year 2020. He was playing great. He was poised to perhaps go have an outstanding masters. He was right there for the 2020 Masters.

It was there for the taking. He was collecting top fives like, you know, I collect losing bets. I mean, he did win a quail hollow. Well, no, what I'm saying is this was the very first handful of tournaments in 2020.

Then the pandemic happened. And he, his own self, said that he had, had a hard time over the course of the summer 2020 through the fall 2020 and on into this year, the malaise persisted. He had a hard time revving up without fans. He had a hard time rekindling and refinding himself. He talked about being influenced by Bryson hitting the ball so far, which sounds ludicrous. So what you're just as what you're describing, Nate, makes a ton of sense. Let the brother go ahead and get a recharge. Like he

hasn't really had a break. Nobody on the golf calendar who's of a prominence of Rory has had a normal kind of break. So let's, you know, I'll root for it because the game is better when he's good. He just hasn't been good for, you know, 20-some months. That's all. Well, I think you're right. So, so let's shift gears to what I thought was the fifth most important moment. Please. As a vehicle for just, I want to circle back to the conversation we had before. And to me, I thought the the fifth moment was the hug between Bryson and Brooks and Stricker saying that they had actually wanted

to go out and play together. And so what I want to ask you is, does culture matter? Of course. Of course it matters. Why are you asking that? Well, because, so do we think that Steve Stricker

deserves kudos this week? You happen to have some behind-the-scenes intel that you shared that's with me, private text that I'm going to docks right now that shared at a high level that there was some malaise amongst the young guys coming in on that weekend practice and that maybe some of the guys were hung over that they weren't fully believing in Stricker. How did this happen? Was this just the Ryder Cup and being surrounded by the moment pulled them together? Or do you think Stricker

did something special as a captain to warrant sort of a real MVP, quiet MVP of this week? it's these guys. I think it's what Brooks Kepka said in his interview immediately after he finished his round. These guys have known each other for a long time. And I think it was kind of refreshing for them to all be together and have some time to just sort of, you know, chill a little bit. Not be trying to kick each other's ass. Yeah, like it was, I thought it was very telling that that Kepka and Berger went out first because those are two Florida State guys. They've known each other forever. And, you know, there was, you know, some, some reports out there about them having a chilly relationship along the way. And there it is. The all time record in the history of

the Ryder Cup, Daniel Berger beats Matt Fitzpatrick, because Matt Fitzpatrick, his approach in the water on 18. 19 to 9 is your final for the 2021 Rider Cup. You should have taken the over, over Hubbard. Over Hubbard would have been the play. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. But to the chemistry point, the culture point, I really just think it was like an opportunity for these guys to reconnect in a way that they just haven't like been together. These guys have known each other for all this time.

I love the threat of that narrative. I love it. Even the add-ins, even like Tony Fienow, right? He's beloved. They love him. They didn't grow up with him necessarily in the same way, but they love him. So like I honestly. everything will change.

So it's a ridiculous question. But if you wanted to trot this team out next year for the President's Cup and then the following year in Italy, this very same set of 12 guys, goodbye me. Go ahead and do it. I'm fine with that.

So that brings us to our sixth and final, you know, big moment. I gave you five, but I'm giving you a bonus one. And that is, do you know who had the worst week? Patrick Reed had the worst week

because he went from being Captain America to being Mr. Irrelevant because if you're right that culture matters, they just showed that they did not need him to beat Rory McElroy and that they definitely did not need him in the team room. And there is a sense that, you know, Brooks and Bryson could come together.

That really was the focus that the team was thinking about. If they'd had another flare up in the air, you know, who knows if they could have done it. but Patrick Reed's sitting at home right now, stewing. I don't know if he's stewing, but you made this point, and I know you're kidding, but I think it's right.

That this was MJ and Isaiah Thomas. I think those guys got together at Eastlake and the six who had automatically qualified. There was the reports of that dinner. I think they went to dinner and sat down. I don't know if they were they went, but I think Stricker went around the table and asked him

Sheffler or Reed and I bet it was a and I think it was a unanimous vote for Scotty Sheffler. I really believe that. I really believe that. It sure looks like they were right after today.

I mean, Ram definitely was tired but Scottie Sheffler just had a fastball coming out of the front nine today and played awesome and it was a great call

to bring in young blood to be a part of this because as we talked about last week, what the hell was worth keeping? flush the system bring in the new guys, let them learn, and hopefully start building good habits from scratch. You got to do a rebuild at some point. And this really, in a lot of ways, was a rebuild. And again, you know, is that Stricker who did it? Or was it the guys in the dinner like we thought,

sort of saying, this is how it's got to go. And really, you know, Stricker became sort of the Mandela theory of leadership, which is like put your most nimble sheep out in front and let them lead, not realizing all the time they're being led from behind. That's a terrible paraphrasing of Mandela's quote about leadership. But that's really what Stricker did here. He let his big dogs lead. He clearly took input

and here's the result. You know what? That makes him a good leader. And I don't mean to suggest anything that undercuts or undermines his effectiveness as a leader. Letting those guys have the prerogative to engage in a little self determination, letting them having

some say, letting them all have stakes. That's important to these young guys. Nate, we're old, but I believe this generation, they want to have a say in these matters. They want to have a little, they want agency. They want control over their own lives and they don't want to be told what to do. And I think they, they came in with the perspective. Many of these guys came in with the perspective about this is who I'm going to be comfortable playing with. This is what I think is going to work for us. And I think, you know, Captain Stricker to his credit listened, a good listener. And it's a Harvard business school case in the sort of management of millennials.

There you go. They want to have a voice. And, you know, in a lot of these cases, they've earned it. And so you have to bring the empathy gene and and lead from behind. And so Stricker did that. I will be interested to see whether the golf media gives him flowers for this or focuses on the players. He's going to get flowers. You're kidding?

It's 19 to 9. He's going to get flowers. Should he be the captain in rum? We don't do that, do we? Do we do carryover captains? We haven't before. I mean, it looks like it's going to be Zach Johnson, but I just, you know, they love, I mean, they clearly love Zach Johnson.

Zach and JT were in long embraces as today unfolded. You know, Zach went up and whispered in JT's ear when it was clear that Morikawa had secured the half point to get us to 14 and a half. And then when JT won his match, there was a long embrace. race between Zach and JT. So, you know, well, and we've got looming Phil Tiger,

you know, captain sees ahead. So ZJ will probably get it in, but there's a pretty big pipeline of guys who are worthy captains. But I do think we need to tip the hat to stricker, even if the players are the ones who actually made some of the hard choices for this week. Well, and to that point,

think about how little we heard about, saw, thought about. Tiger. Any of the anybody like you know, Patrick Reed, anybody for of that sort of old guard ilk, the only link between the two generations is DJ who just went out and went five and no. Not again, the, the usual sort of enigma, the DJ enigma. He was playing a little bit better over the last two months. He was definitely putting better, but the ball striking wasn't there. And then he reminds us, it's Dustin Johnson.

Yes, of course he can come out and burn a golf course down over a weekend any time that the, you know, the stars come into alignment. And they don't have to be in perfect alignment. But wow, you know, the last time a U.S. guy did it, Larry Nelson in 1979, I guess is that right? 79, yes, the last American to go 5 and 0. The thing that I was surprised by was him being the 5 and 0 guy. I thought we were going to see like Morikawa out five times or Xander out five times or Can't Lay Out five times. It was DJ was the only one that went out five times. And the only thing you can chalk that up to is Stricker must have seen him the Saturday practice session the weekend before and been like, okay, he's on.

And he's going to lead this for us because he's been here before. And he is, quite honestly, the most sort of dispassionate guy. As you talked about last week, if you're going to put somebody out last, you, you were going to go with DJ because he said he knows how to close and he sort of is emotionless in that way and he delivered on that note the three guys

so that you know with the position that we were in with that 11 to 5 lead going into this morning he let off with Zander and Cantlay and then he just put Sheffler out as a potential sacrificial Lambda Ram

and you know just to see if we could get anything going. But look who the guys were in the sweet spot for where we might clinch. It was Kalamorakawa, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Kepka. So those are the guys that they believe had the, you know, the fortitude to bring it home and get that clenching point. Well, and in two years, DJ is going to be our, you know, our old guy. And so we should say fairly well to, in particular, three European old guys who are

Ryder Cup legends and that's Westie and that is Polter who I just thought had the absolute perfect attitude this week like how could you not love him like we hated him for years but there was sort of a sneaky love hate this go round and then Sergio Garcia like can we just put like a Oculus on him and and have him think every week that he's playing in the Ryder Cup because he'd be the best putter on tour I mean what an absolute fighter it was awesome to see him and it's not clear that we will ever see those three guys play a Ryder Cup again. And DJ will be our sort of Sergio come Rome. Yeah, I expect to see Sergio. I don't expect to see Poulter or Westwood. And very quick shout out to Poulter, the all-time leader, undefeated in singles. That dude's just a

baller, just a gamer. Yeah. And Sergio, all-time points. Points. And all-time points. Yeah. So the Euros are really have a challenge in front of them because they need to make some baby. they need to make I mean because what you have is is will Tommy Fleetwood ever rekindle and capture the magic that he had for about you know two years where he was on the first page of leaderboards in a couple different majors. Um, is Frankie onions ever going to be back. Will he ever rekindle? Matthew Fitzpatrick is not your great white hope. He hasn't won. He has no points. He's played in two Router Cups, zero points for Matt Fitzpatrick. He whether you call him Matt or Matthew, both of those rhyme with stink. He's not good at match play. Yeah. And, and yeah,

it's Hoblin. I mean, it's Victor getting a short game. That's right. Richard getting a short game. But he can't go one on 12. So they got some work to do. It's Rom and it's Rom.

It's Ram and the just legendary gladiator versus at the moment. That's it. Yeah. Rom and Victor and, you know, whoever they can drag along with them. But I honestly think the real intrigue now shifts to the President's Cup. Because the,

There's so many great young players across the world. And that says it should be. That's a tribute to the effort to spread the game. And we just got to remember that Europeans are part of the rest of the world and they need to get some up-and-coming golfers coming in here so that it's not a complete ass kicking next time. Because right now, it's not clear that in two years the circumstances change. Our guys are only getting better.

So it would be nice to see the next generation in Europe. come up. Well, I don't know if we need to do biggest disappointment, biggest surprise, because we spent enough time already on Roy McElroy. Do you have any other candidates for biggest disappointment? Were you disappointed to anybody else? No. I mean, that's it. Rory was disappointing and he knew it and he owned it. And he cried about it. It doesn't change it. Yeah, that's right. What was your biggest surprise? Well, I just DJ going five and oh. That's all.

I mean, it was. That's right. I mean, we, we had the narrative all spelled out in terms of the young guys going out and kicking ass and taking names. It wasn't like a giant surprise. And there was plenty. Like, they set all kinds of records. You could just go on Justin Ray's Twitter feed if you want to see all the records that

the U.S. Rookies set in terms of points gained, average points per performance. Like all every which way you want to chop this sucker up, slice it up and measure it, the U.S. beat every kind of metric with this great batch of badass rookies. And so, you know, DJ as the elder statesman for the U.S. team going out and grabbing the 5-0, that's the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned. With all that said, we come away from the Ryder Cup, I think with absolutely no question who the scariest golfer in the world is.

And it's John Rom. And what I think we need to look into very shortly here is what the, over under on is the number of majors John Rahm is going to win next year because even though multiple winning performances by golfers in a year has started to slow down here because there's just so much talent,

it's not as common for guys to win multiple times. It's just hard to believe after watching John Romx since he won the U.S. Open and really since the memorial before that, that he's not going to win two next year. But that's a bet I would like to see

the odds on. Well, let's Just for giggles, put a marker in this. Who's going to get to five first? Colin Morikawa or John Romer. Marcawa's got one more than Rom right now. Who gets to five first? Gun to head, I say Rom. Wow.

I just think he's, I think he's just playing too consistently. He's going to be around the hoop more times than Morikawa is. But you think it's, you think it's Colin? Well, I don't think it. I just think he has a legit opportunity. it. He's just as young. The skill set that he possesses and the kind of swing that he possesses seem

to suggest that he's not going to be having a lot of physical challenges, that his body and his swing type will not be holding him back. I'm rooting for it. I'm knocking on wood right now. And I would love to see that kind of rivalry. I would love to see more Cala and Ram go head to head. I mean, speaking,

talking about two guys with ice in their veins. The most entertaining golfer, though, we get to move right to, the longest drive competition. Thank God for Bryce and Deschambeau, the most entertaining golfer on the planet. If you want to, you know,

enjoy your Ryder Cup hangover by the end of the week. It's not the Sanderson Farms and Jackson? Well, I mean, seriously, we're going to recharge also. I mean, we're going to take a little bit of time. We'll get back on this podcast once the tour moves to Vegas because let's be honest. I mean, the tour in Vegas gives us so many opportunities to talk about fun stuff and do a little bit of,

wagering of our own. But, you know, in the meantime, if you want your little golf fix, Bryson's going to be on the long drive competition. I'm sure it'll be on golf TV come Friday, Saturday. So whatever the schedule is for that. It's an embarrassment of riches, I would say, Nate Dogg, and the U.S. team embarrassed the Euro team in a manner that you anticipated, you forecast here on this podcast. Congratulations to you and congratulations to the United States of America. USA.