No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1009: Ryder Cup Roundtable

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Soly and TC are joined by Kyle Porter and Jamie Weir for a spring Ryder Cup roundtable.  The Americans are still betting favorites, but should they be? We look at who’s trending on both sides, potential options for captains picks and take a look back at the Hat-Gate controversy in Rome. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Support our sponsors: BMW ⁠⁠Oars and Alps⁠ ⁠FanDuel.com/nlu If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the first and I would say delayed Ryder Cup roundtable episode. The delay is entirely on me.

We'll explain that here coming up shortly. But solid here joined by my guy on the American side, holding down the top of the screen with me, Mr. Kyle Porter from normal sport. Hello, Kyle. How are you? Mr. Sally Solomon. My first, uh, my first appearance as a, as a business owner, as a, uh, and golf entrepreneur. Yeah. Yeah. Jumped in with, with all of, all of you guys. So it's good to be back. We'll have to talk about what the writer cup. I could, what was our last one that we did? Was it post Rome?

I don't think we did one post Rome. I think I was too depressed. We, we had to keep Jamie away from the wall. Into hiding post room. That's the voice you hear is Jamie Weir. He got canceled pretty much. I think with enough time has gone by that he's uncancelled. I think we'll talk about some of that, but hello, Mr. Jamie Weir. How are you? Christopher, it's a pleasure. It's wonderful to see the sun shining here in Berkshire. And I am, uh, how many months are we now from New York,

but already excited. Can't wait. Four months away. Mr. TC is of course here. Uh, hello TC. I know you, tough morning for you, but I thank you for joining us. Tough morning. Played, played some match play and just, just got beat. You know, I was, I was giving up 18 shots and, uh, beat four and three. Uh, yeah, played pretty good, but yeah, it was, it's, uh, you know, things have changed for the boys on, on here. We've got, got business owner, Kyle, We've got podcast host Jamie. Of course the sky golf podcast. Sky Sports Golf Podcast. Yeah, exactly.

Microphone and everything now. So we want to give a shout out this Ryder Cup update brought to you by our friends at BMW. They are not only the official vehicle of no laying up, but also a worldwide partner of the 2025 Ryder Cup. Looking forward to spending some time with them on site at Bethpage later this year to experience the ultimate team competition. Speaking of the ultimate team competition, Kyle, I'll start with you. How are you feeling about your team at the moment? If you're new to listening to these episodes, I root for the America team, Kyle roots for the America team, TC as a trader and roots for the Europeans. And of course, Jamie is the biggest European golf fan on the planet, I would say. But Kyle, you're on my side here for today, I think. How are you feeling?

Not great. Not good. Not good. No, it's not not good, Bob. You know, I was thinking about this, You know, I was thinking about this. The top of this is we're fine, right? Like the top five, six, but then you start to get, and I know we'll talk about like the individual kind of slots in the 12, but you get past six and you start looking around like, what is this? You know, and look, like it's May 20th, like these things, it can take a different shape over the next three, four months. I mean, we've seen it think about

go back to the Lucas Glover discussion, you know, like that changed in like three weeks. And, and, you know, I think we're on the same page. So we didn't think he should be on that team, but the stuff changes so quickly. So I'm not like fully hitting the panic button, but I think there's a lot of things working against the United States in ways like this year in ways that they, they weren't, even if you go back to 2016 and 2021 on, on the home home turf guys, Ludwig hadn't even, hadn't even left college yet at this point a couple of years ago. Long ways to go.

These guys are trying to pin me down on JT Poston and Andrew Novak and all this stuff in May. I think I'm just going to keep a running list of all the stuff that gets thrown at me over the, that's been thrown so far and will be thrown in the next several months. But TC, how are you feeling about your European squad right now? I feel good. It's almost, you know, I don't listen. I don't want to get overconfident long way to go. We'll see how they set up the golf course. I feel like it's a more well balanced team now. I think sep is, is, you know, really solidified himself. Tommy continues

to play just like above average golf. That's a great way to describe it. himself. Tommy continues to play just like above average golf. That's a great way to describe it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to, I'm not going to take the bait on that one. Uh, Rom, you know, Rom's shown some, some signs of life. Uh, Sergio's really, really like a lot of negative self-talk there, uh, which just usually means there's some good golf that's about to be played by him. So it seems like there's just a ton of depth and I don't want to call it an embarrassment of riches, but I do think there's some surprises on the back end too. I could see a guy like Erasmus Neirgaard-Peterson who just played exceptionally well yesterday at US Open qualifying. I could see him, you know, sneaking, like sneaking onto the team, getting really hot

here. He's an absolute flusher. So Jamie, is that aligned with what you're thinking? Yeah, I don't think I could be happier with where the European team is right now. And I think Luke Donald and Dodo Molinari probably sort of feel the same way. Obviously, it's been a season of unprecedented success on the PGA Tour in terms of tournament winners, Rory and Sepp with multiple winners, the likes of Ludwig and Victor and okay, Tom Dieter who might be on the outside looking in the moon, but he's a winner on the PGA Tour this season and those players who haven't won, the likes

of Shane and Tommy just playing consistently brilliant golf. And I think it's an extremely settled team. I think you could see maybe 10, perhaps even 11 of the team from Rome being on this team as well, whereas there's going to be an unbelievable amount of churn I think on the US side, you'd probably only pin your hats on four. I would say absolutely guaranteed of that team that were in Rome being in Bethpage, Scheffler, Maracawa, Chauvelet and Thomas exactly. But those don't you'd absolutely put your house on at the moment.

Some people might say that's a good thing, given how heavily they were beaten in Rome. But there's going to be a lot of change on that US side and some of the sort of superstars of that team, likes of Kepp against Beath have just fallen off a cliff. Players like Max Homo, who was the superstar of that team in Rome, you know, that their star player in Rome has been very open about his struggles this season as well. Good to see a little bit of form from Max last week at Quill Hollow. But I think the US side is going to change a lot.

European side is going to be very similar. And in terms of the backroom staff for both teams, and obviously that doesn't guarantee any points on the golf course. In terms of the backroom staff for both teams, and obviously that doesn't guarantee any points on the golf course, but you've got in Luke Donald, a man who has been in the role for over three years and has treated it like a full-time job in all that time. Whereas the US captain's full-time job is to be a golfer and a very, very good golfer. He's a part-time captain at the moment, and he's done a fantastic job of trying to compartmentalize and do that as well. But his full focus, rightfully so, has been on his own golf, whereas

Luke Donald's entire focus has been on making sure that Europe are as meticulously prepared as they were for Rome. So I think in that regard, Europe are in a really settled place. Having said all that, I think the US are going to have a really strong side that marginally will look statistically better than Europe's. And they've got the home crowd factor, which we've spoken about plenty of times in the past.

And I think especially with some oiled up New Yorkers, that's going to be amplified this year. But I think in terms of where Europe are right now, in the past, if we were having this conversation two years ago, we would have been worried about nine to 12, the European team. I think nine to 12 are not looking really strong in the European team. And in fact, you're thinking like, who's going to get left off the team now? Real quick, can we fact check this like they did with the debate? Speeth is not falling off a cliff.

Yeah, that's not it. Ludwig is ranked 26 in data golf and Speeth is 29th. So Speeth actually played better golf now than he probably 23. Yes, Max is falling off a cliff. I think that that's fair to say and so under Brooks, he's disappeared. Like my my gut feel on pretty much everything Kyle is kind of similar to yours of just like it. So then feel like there's a lot of momentum. I can look at all the stats and all the numbers

and start to paint a better picture. I would say the positives on the US side Scotty is like legitimately a lot better than he was at the last Ryder Cup. Now he also played horribly, but him as a player is also just a completely different level. Just found this out today. He's the ninth best putter in the world in 2025. Like on top of being historically great ball striker,

I kind of, it kind of broke my morning. Honestly, I haven't fully wrapped my head around the fact that he's like a top 10 putter in the world on top of this ball striking. Bryson has clearly leveled up. He was not on the team in Rome, should be in good course fit. It seems like a less complicated locker room presence than it did two years ago. It's something I can kind of talk myself into by the end of the year, I think. JT is back in a big way compared to how he was playing in 2023. Speed is not going to have a kid two weeks before the event. This go around that I just checked on this there that baby's due in July. So we should be should be fine by then. They're not going to get hit with this mysterious, unpredictable

thing called jet lag that they were all complaining about in Rome. And again, if you look at the numbers, like over the last six months, five of the top seven players in strokes gained are American, including the top two, and 12 of the top 19 are American. So for all the talk about Europeans dominating overall, when you factor in all the numbers, that's not been the case. Now, we've been through this enough times to know that means jack shit when the balls actually go in the air. But it's all to say like, on paper, it's not like Europe has already won to this

point in the season. Again, it's worth zero points. But if you check the numbers, that will be the case. Now, the downside, the negatives, there's a lot of these. Xander has been pretty meh, health in question and kind of, you know, just coming off the injury has just been very, very much just okay. Max has fallen off a cliff. Max was looking like the Ryder Cup like dog dude and this team needed to rally around and if that goes backwards, like, I don't know if we get to the point where we can

justify giving him a pick even with the track record. His game has fallen off worse than JT's did in 2023. And that was a hot topic of conversation for adding him, but we can talk about that. Nobody's beating down a spot, beating down the door to get a spot on this team near the bottom. Like I honestly don't know how to fill out a team of 12 guys

as of right here right now. The good news there is it's May and we don't have to do that right now. Sahith going backwards, big tones, inconsistent. Koepke's really struggling. Cantlay has not been full. Patrick Cantlay. Going way down the leaderboard. Windham has gone way back. I'm just talking about guys that we were counting on as of a couple years ago to be a big part of these teams have kind of vacated the premises and left the door wide open. And nobody's

really stepped up to fill the void. They haven't. And again, I would say one of Sahith, Big Tone, Kepka, Cantlay, Windhamham Clark, just honestly naming a few names. I think it's fair to say one of them will play, will bounce back at least and play some really good golf between now and the end of the year and make a strong case to be on the team. Right now it certainly doesn't feel that way, but that's why you have a little bit of time to get this sorted out. Last negative I have, the Mojo doesn't seem to be great in terms of player buy-in

on this process. I kind of was hoping that the Keegan call would be like pretty significant overhaul in terms of like the players leaving it up to like a fellow player of theirs and a peer of theirs to set the tone for how the approach is gonna be. Like what I get really excited about is the American team

like from a strategical standpoint, leveling up and trying to match what Europe brings to the table on a strategical standpoint, rather than just roll the balls out and try to beat them, which is what I feel like they try to do in Rome. And I thought, I think Keegan can be that guy. I thought he can be that guy. It, maybe it's just a media thing now, but the unnecessary distraction of us talking about should Keegan fit, you know, he's playing so well. Should he just put himself on the team?

All this like makes me a little concerned just on where the overall direction of the team has gone, but I can also spend a heck of a time. A lot of time digging into all that is strategical award. Probably not, but for the sake of yes, strategic, not, but for the sake of the yes, strategic, strategic, speaking of presidential debates, sorry, the, I think the thing with Keegan is like as captain, I know we'll talk about him as a player in a minute, but it feels a little bit like, like Europe always has a plan for the next three writer cups. And I was actually pro Keegan as captain. I liked Seth Wall kind of going

outside the box and it was like really interesting to me and it provided some juice that honestly like the Americans haven't had in from like a off-the- playing field Ryder Cup standpoint but I just don't know that there it feels like a one-off thing and it feels like it's just this one-off deal where it's like After 2027 it doesn't feel like there's any sort of succession plan After that, right? It's just Tiger, right? Like Tigers just gonna do a dare manner and 27 And I think they were I think they were pinning their hopes on Tiger being captain for sure

But Tigers just gonna do his ownept them waiting and did his own thing. But it's like these it's like these captains are almost bigger than the plan. And on the European side, the plan in the in the in the whole culture is bigger than the captains. Yes. And the captains are there to serve the culture. Right. And we hear that. I mean, I don't I've agreed with you throughout with that, Jamie, like I am, as an American, very jealous. I thought so. I think agreed with you throughout with that, Jamie. Like I am as an American, very jealous of that. I thought so. I think the USA had the formula. I think they had it right in 2012.

Davis Love was an exceptional captain. That was just a freak rider cup where 99 times over 100 USA win that rider cup. What happens? One of the greatest miracles we're ever going to see in sport, let alone golf. And all of a sudden they're like, Oh my gosh, what do we do? We need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

We need to go for Tom Watson, which was an absolute unmitigated disaster. So what do they do? Lo and behold, they go back to Davis love two years later at Hazel teen and it's a roaring success and then 2018, they felt they kind of had this succession plan. Furik, okay, I think you got in lucky and I think Thomas Bjorn was meticulously prepared and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But then Steve Stricker was a great captain again on home soil. And I think Zach Johnson was just a weak captain who allowed the boys club quote unquote, to bully themselves into the team and then got painted

as this awful captain and then the PGA of America again went, Oh my gosh. Uh, right. We need to do something radically different. We need to think left field. Let's have Keegan Bradley. And it just came out of nowhere altogether. And they've created a rod for their own back now because he's a good enough player to be on the team.

And as I said, it's not even whether he should pick himself or he shouldn't pick himself or he qualifies or he doesn't. The fact is his full focus is not on being the U.S. Ryder Cup captain right now. And Luke Donald's full focus for three and a half years has been on how do I prepare this team as best as possible for the Ryder Cup. And that's not a criticism of Keegan. You can't do both jobs to the same level that Luke Donald is doing one job. A rod in their own back. That's such a good, such a good phrase. Rod for their own back. That's such a good phrase. Rod for their own back. Rod for their own back. I think Jamie, that's a really good point. DJ has been making this

Armageddon analogy of, we've got astronauts, we've got drillers. Instead of teaching the astronauts how to drill, why don't we just find some drillers? And it feels like, I mean, just knowing what I do about Bethpage and how Keegan, you know Keegan wants to make this team on points. Like he's a competitive SOB and that, like, I know he said, Hey, I'm not going to pick myself, but his focus, you know, his focus is, is split between. If you're one of the European players, I think you're probably more scared of coming against a fired up, cast pumping Keegan Bradley than you are of playing JJ Spohan or Russell Henley.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And Solly, like regardless of, you know, I know you've said, hey, Keegan doesn't want to pick himself, but. He said that. No, I know. And he said, hey, I'm going to do, and he's kind of said, hey, Iegan doesn't want to pick himself, but he said that. No, I know. And he said, Hey, I'm going to do it. And he's kind of said, Hey, I'm going to do what's, what's best for the team or maybe what's best for the team is him playing. And then at some level, you know, it

just, it just seems like this is such a distraction. Yes. That's why I know right now. And then, and then while exited stage left, that's where it seems settled to me was like, no, no, we're not going to do the whole captain's pick thing. It's not going to be a distraction here. If I beat the fucking door down, sure, I'll go play on the team. That's more of an indictment of like, who we what's going on with the Americans right now. I feel like Keegan has gotten this like backup quarterback treatment that just feels completely out of bounds for me.

Like he has two top 10 finishes in majors in the last decade. The last time he played in a Ryder Cup team, he got trounced by Jamie Donaldson for the final point. He went one and two. Rory showed up eight minutes before the tee time in 2012. That ended up being the deciding match. He cost him the 2012 Ryder Cup. He had a great run with Phil and the few team matches before that one. Like no one has gotten a better editorial

look back. He did cost him Medina. That's huge. I feel like he's just a better player. He wasn't. Rory showed up eight minutes before. He's got to compete him. He's playing the best golfer in the world at Medina. Let's maybe point a finger at Steve Stricker who's won it with two to play and lost his match.

That was tough. There's a lot of tough stuff. But anyways, nobody's gotten a more kind like his like revisionist history treatment that Keegan has gotten in this in this realm like two top tens and me. That is just because nobody else is playing well. True. Yeah, crazy. And like that's where like, you know, like Harris English, we haven't mentioned his name yet, but he seems to be playing some

of the steadiest golf of anybody. He's on my list. On the US side right now. And like, like he would be a lock for my team if we were, if we were choosing it today, you know? I think we are. I think, yeah. I mean, I think he's, he's, so the US top six in points right now is Scotty, Xander,

Bryson, JT, Morikawa and Henley And English is seventh and he's close to Henley. Henley has not played well over the last couple of months after getting out to a somewhat early lead. The next six that are not in are Harris English, Matt Van Neely, Andrew Novak, Brian Harmon, JJ Spahn, Patrick Cantlay. So really, I mean, I don't think anyone beyond that is getting up past number five on the list.

And this is where it's like gets hard to predict because Bryson I guess could fall out because there's gonna be so many points available and all the big money signature events that Bryson can't play in. And so basically the only thing I'm worried about in there is like if somebody from that like if JJ Spahn goes and wins a signature event, then we're gonna end up in the situation again of like, like forcing your way onto the team, despite not giving, not improving the team's chances. Harman was not a liability in Rome. Harman was. Harman stunk in Rome. He absolutely was a liability. I went out there.

As long as like Max, I thought they were pretty good. Harman was terrible though. Like Max had to carry him. It's like, sorry, let's, let's say we get down to like JJ spawn or Ben Griffin or Keegan being on the team. And Keegan said, Hey, I want to do what's best for the team. What's best for the team there. That's where I don't know the answer, but I think like removing himself from the conversation. Like how do you, I don't know how he could look him. Tying a lot of things together here. Players getting paid now for being on the team also.

So like a part of this also would be like, I'm going to get paid myself by picking myself to be on the team. And like, I don't know how you make that call to somebody else and be like, yeah, I picked myself over you, bro. Like that, that's kind of the whole, what I think he's trying to get out in front of like, that's not going to happen where I think like it gets interesting is if he says if the team demands it and I finished like seventh in the points, which points seem to matter to those guys. We're going to do a vote and yeah, the boys club is going to vote on this. Super, super messy, uh, in there, but I don't know. It's kind of already messy.

And it's, well, I wrote this down. It's a lose-lose situation, right? And, and I don't think Seth wall intended this, but you can't pick yourself because then if you lose the Ryder Cup, it's like, yeah, man, like you shouldn't shouldn't pick yourself. Like you put Keegan into this box that he can't get out of, but then I'm a TC, he probably should pick himself at this point because the bottom of the team is, is that week and he's playing. I mean, what if Keegan wins the BMW again? Right. Like winter season grasses, like the kind of the rye and the bent and stuff. He's yeah, I don't know. I just,

the only American player from the Rome team that beat Keegan Bradley at the PGA championship was Scotty Scheffler. Sure. I mean, what happened at the mass? Like this is where like you tend to do, and I get that's part of the fun. It's not like this anymore golf course. It is, and we're four month.

It's part of the fun. Like it's the most recent tournament you look at and you say like, I mean, Zach Johnson, top 10 at the masters as well. Are we gonna be sick? It's fun to do, but it just is, it always tends to be like, where I guess I have a lot of problem with the conversation.

Why I tend to like fall back on the strokes game stuff to much ridicule is like, yeah, you remember the pop ups on the leaderboard, but there's very few guys in golf that when they fall below 40th, you take note of and like remember, like if Keegan didn't top 40 at the PGA, nobody would have noticed. Like, but he gets up on the leaderboard and you're like, Oh, he's playing great golf. He could miss four straight cuts and he gets one top five and everyone's like, Oh, you got to put them on the team. Whereas like for me, I tend to gravitate more towards the guys that are really consistent and the, and the dudes that like don't have these peaks

and valleys. That's, that's the, that sounds like JT posting to me, Sally. I mean, sure. I get, he put them in the mix. Sure. If he beats the door down, sure. But I don't know if I'm really seeing that necessarily, but then it all goes back to like, I don't know how much you want to unwind it, but like I, I'm a big believer in in the Herb Brooks camp of I'm not looking for the best players, I'm looking for the right ones. In terms of,

that's what Europe, like Robert McIntyre was not one of the 24 best players in the world, or between the Americans and the Europeans, not one of the 24 best come Ryder Cup time last year. But what did Europe do? They got the most they possibly could out of them. Why? Because they had a great plan. They had a great plan of putting Justin Rose. The Justin Rose's assignment was to play with Robert McIntyre. I don't remember exactly what they did. But I know they got points out of what should be on paper their weakest pairing. But like Europe, that's why I admire Europe's way of doing things so much better than the US way of

like, Scottie Scheffler pissed down his leg last year at the Ryder Cubs. Andrew Schauffele, he went one and three. Conmore Cowell went one and three. People keep acting like it was the boys club that cost the US the Ryder Cup. Their top players sucked. They kind of refuse to acknowledge, why do our top players keep sucking in this event? Because you try to treat it like every other event.

You don't treat it the way Europe does in terms of preparation, understanding a plan, how it all mixes together. They just like try to take control of the boys club was in charge. Sorry, but you're kind of arguing against your own point there because on one hand you're saying, oh, I look at the data and I'm looking for the most consistent players. But then you're saying actually when it comes to Ryder Cup, you kind of throw a lot out the window because it's about being having the best players for that situation. And the fact that there are some players who can elevate their game when it comes to a situation like that, like Bob McIntyre,

who's somebody who just loves the heat of the battle and loves going toe to toe with somebody. And that's why he was unbeaten in Rome. That he might not have been the statistically strong as all the other players that were there, but he ended up being somebody that Luke Donald could turn to. So you're saying like, I don't want the best players want the right players. Well, like, who are the right players? Like, what do you and that's where that's where I'm struggling a little bit with like, you know, do you want guys that are great putters? Do you want guys that are great locker room guys? Like flesh that out, tell us who those right guys are. And you're not going to like my answer to that. My answer is like, I don't know the, I, what I have to like the information I'm working off of is just

like publicly available on, on what their numbers say. Right. I don't know these, like that you're going to get that answer through like, again, I always go back to Paul McGinley and the example he laid out for like how he handled Victor Dubuisson, which and through Graham McDowell, which again, might be some revisionist history here. But it's like Graham, you're one of the best players in the world right now, but I'm only going to play you in foursomes. And you got to babysit Victor Dubuisson. And if you do that for me, I'm going to send you

out first, right? And the US is going to put a tired player out first, you're going to be well rested. I've talked with Rory about this. He's fine to go out third, he's going to play more in the like, I don't know. I can't tell you. That's a pretty similar situation to what they had with Bob, to be fair, last time. Yes, exactly. They had to sort of sell it to Justin Rose. Justin, I know you've never done this sort of senior statesman on the team taking a rookie under your wing before, but that's what we've got you pinned for. You're only going to play two sessions, four balls both days. You're going to have Bob alongside you. Bob was dreadful by

his own admission on Friday and Justin had to carry them to half a point. It clicked on Saturday. They won their point together and then Bob was fresh to go out and win what was essentially a dead rubber against Wyndham Clark on the Sunday. But that's what he did. And that comes down to just preparation. And you know that, I know you did a fantastic podcast with Eduardo Molinari after the last Ryder Cup. Dodo is going to have that so prepared to add a T who plays with whom, what plan A is. If plan A hasn't worked, okay, let's go to plan B. But you know that they're going to have all their ducks lined up. So I think like going back to the right guys, I think some of that is open mindedness as well of the right guys may not be the obvious ones of,

you know, maybe that's a MAF or maybe that's a Daniel, like I think it's a Daniel Berger for sure, but maybe that's a Michael Thorbjornsson, right? And they get him, but part of the issue is the US team can't even get guys to play together at the Zurich, which is the team event or, you know, or you scoff at an Andrew Novak who won the team event and clearly plays well in those settings or, you know, like it, it just doesn't seem like they want to put any skin in the game to figure out or, you know, kind of explore who those right guys are in those settings and everything.

Whereas the European team is, you know, goes out of their way to pair guys up during DP World Tour events. For sure. You know, like, I mean, I know Dodo's got, he's looking at guys that we've never fucking heard of right now. Like truly. I mean, like he's got guys that are so deep that you're just like, Hey, just in case break glass in I'm in case of emergency, but you know, like solid, like is that a Denny McCarthy? You know, like there's just,

cause I think there's certain attributes too of like getting certain puzzle pieces, how do guys fit together, how to, how to compliment build. And it doesn't seem like, like, I mean, that, that seems so far beyond CJ last year of her. It seems beyond the US in general. Again, this is where I'm not two feet in on. Following 2021, the way Stricker handled it,

I was in on, okay, they've got this figured out. They got the blueprint figured out. It really seems like they have. And ZJ, honestly, I talked myself into ZJ because I thought the system was strong enough that one guy couldn't fuck it up. And I was I was wrong about that because it was messed up in more ways than it could count. So I'm back out on like the process. And honestly, like a lot of the excuses I heard afterward were just kind of like, yo, yeah, we were competitively rusty.

This event was on the schedule for like 15, 20 years. How long is it? Not knowing that they were like, like who they were going to be paired up with until the day before, right? Your jet lagged? We had tournament reps like, oh my God, they chipped. They just made more putts than we did. Like, no, they beat you T to go. They beat you in every possible way. Like dig into why that might be instead of just like assuming again I understand the take you that I'm talking out of my ass but like I have doubts that the US can get through to all the things you're talking about all the things that I think truly matter in this team event about

getting the most out of everybody so what do I do I default to like okay who are the best golfers I think the US would rather do it that way of like just getting the strongest golfers out there, roll the balls out and play. And that works at home. That approach has worked to great extent at home to the point where I don't know if the US, from a cultural perspective and from talking to a lot of these players, can get anywhere in the realm to be able to buy in the way Rory does and Rom does to the European process. I just don't think they can copy that. I would like to see that. That would get me really excited. That's honestly why I'm a little bit muted on this Ryder Cup is I'm just not that excited

about it because I think the US should win at home. Like I think they should. And I think that if they do, they're going to pat themselves on the back and not have really learned a whole heck of a lot before going to try to win at a dare manner because I think they treat the home in a ways the same. And what works at home doesn't work on the road. And it's just kind of like you're expected to win this you should win it even if like the momentum is not on your side right now.

That just leads me towards not like if they do win, I won't like be that excited about it. I just I'm because I'm just not in love with with the overall process. Yeah, I love what you're saying about the difference in a home team and a road team. I mean, we see this in, in, in other sports as well, but I think especially here, one of my takes after Rome was like, Hey, when you're on the road, you have to bring your own juice, whatever gets you, like you have to bring guys that are going to,

I almost would like rather see somebody like Billy Horschel who's just completely psychotic in, in, in situations like that. He kind of laid an egg at the president's couple big time. Yeah. Which was, but was that, was that at home or No, it was a home quail hollow. He was, yeah, it was a ghost. Well, yeah.

Well, I don't know. I just, I think when you put guys like, uh, like a Capca in a road situation, they're just, I don't know. I just, I think when you put guys like, uh, like a Capca in a road situation, they're just, I don't know. They, they don't, they don't do a ton for me, but then at home, the crowd provides the juice, right? Like there's a, you don't need to stir anything up. It just, you kind of roll the best players out there like Sally's saying and, and let the crowd carry them. Um, but I think one of the problems this year, Sally, and one of the things I'm

interested to hear y'all's take on is this is the first time where. Like I think back to 2021, it's like, yeah, man, we can't take Kevin Kisner and Kevin knob because we have to set the course up at 7,600 yards or whatever, because you got all these poofers on the other side, like Poulter and just- That's flipped now, right? That has totally flipped. And I don't know, I mean, the US's problem, TC,

is that it's dogs, like the guys that you want, are not bombers, and it's bombers, like it's guys like Windham and guys that hit it a million miles are not really dogs. Dude, that's where I would, I would lean into that then. And you know, and lean into the cant lays, but then, then you start looking at guys like Patrick Reed. Let's get some of the best wedge players in the world or, you know, I'm sure.

So like, I didn't know when you wanted to get into this sort of core setup stuff. Well, so yeah, just noting this again, I feel the same way and I don't know exactly how DataGolf's model works in terms of like, if it flattens out the whole teams or if it counts like all right, Rory's going to play five times. So it's going to be his distance. It's going to play more to advantage. I don't know exactly how that models out, but it says they project the US to be 0.03 strokes better per round off the tee. So very, very marginal

difference, 0.4 yards longer per drive off the tee. So again, very marginal difference. And they expect Europe to hit 0.2 more fairways per round. Who like what's the what's the group that they're going with? Is that out of the top 20 like candidates or is that so it's it's I hope I'm describing it right, but they're modeling it off of like probability of making the team like a predicted skill. So it's not just taking the top 12 current. It's like, you know, in a nutshell, there's regards regards regards skillset. There's really nothing separating into two sides of the movement. Whereas it was the case that the European golfers were the more that they had it straighter, but shorter and they sort of plotted their way

around the golf course. It now seems you look at potential players that could be in the US side, the likes of Russell Henley and Brian Harmon, JJ spawn, those kinds of guys, they are more the sort of strategical golfers and the big, the guys that hit it a mile, Rory McIlroy, Rasmus Hoyguard, Sepp Strackett, Sepp doesn't hit it a mile, but you know, Ludwig, they're the European guys now. And I don't think it's possible to set the black course of Bethpage up to be a little strategic plot your way around kind of course. It is a big ballpark.

I think it's gonna be pretty neutral. And I would be curious to see what that chart would look like 2018 teams, like how different that would look between Europe and the US because it does feel like it has evolved since then. But like, the big course boost guys on the European side, I mean, it's Rory, he gets three tenths of a shot gain per round, which is that's massive. And the big one on the on the US side is is is Bryson. He gets like 29 shots like approach. Otherwise, it's it's still pretty minimal. Like, Tommy gets a slight hit Shane

gets a slight hit. Rom slight boost sep slight hit. Aaron rye gets a big hit. I don't know if he's like seriously in the conversation, but like in the conversation, they were saying they would they give it a better than 60% chance that he makes the team. So it, it, it basically all that to say like the U S is a little better on approach, a little better around the green, a little better at putting and a little bit better off the tee and Europe is slightly more accurate, but it's so marginal that it's just like, like I wouldn't even call anything an advantage.

So I don't, I don't know what the U S is going to do with setup. I honestly don't. Uh, I don't think there's anything they can do, right? I don't think it's like, you know, Valhalla where Paul Azinger can be cutting down tree limbs to help his team and things like that. There's nothing they can do, which makes that this course more, more suited to the U S side. Based on the info we have, like you can get really granular on fades and draws

and left pins and right pins and front pins and back pins and all that stuff that like I could see them doing and I know they do do, I just don't have access to that information and I have no idea what favors what or have any insight as to how they might set that up. But yeah. And I think all of our course set up stuff

for this course is with high rough during majors, like as far as like when we've seen it prior. So that kind of throws a wrench into things too, where I doubt they'll have the same level of rough up and they're pretty flatish greens for the most part. So yeah, I mean, Sally, if I'm like, God, the more I think about this, the more, So yeah, I mean, sorry, if I like, God, the more I think about this, the more shit if I'm, if I'm Keegan, I'm like, I want, you know, you're going to have Xander and Cantlay and, and, and, and Scheffler and JT and those guys, but man, give me, give me some dogs. Like I want some junkyard dogs, like burger, hoagie. You're probably going to see Sam Burns again, that sort of thing.

And it's, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know,

it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know,

it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like you do it? We're like, all right, let's say we got four guys that bomb it. Odd holes. You guys are going off the odd holes and we're shaving the rough on those holes,

but the even holes were growing it up. And it's good. You know, can they, can they fuck with them on that level of detail, which I think is, again, I don't think home team should have as much control. I only want some foursums. I put like Poston or Jackson Coyvon or Clinton, you know, shit like, like we're just going off the board.

How many American golfers have you listed so far? A ton. That's the thing. Akshay like there's, there's just so many like, all right, if it's just you're taking a lottery ticket with Wyndham, you know what you've got with Wyndham, right? You might as well try to develop something for the future. And I think that's what they've done such a poor job of in the past. And then the guys that the guys like a Zala Taurus or, um, you know, a saw hit, they haven't really backfilled in like you

thought they were going to. That's a little bit. My point though, TC is there's, there is no through line. All these writer cups for the U S happen as like a one-off in a vacuum thing. And they don't think about 2027. Or somebody does, but there's no continuity in terms of the way that they think about 2027, or 2031, or 20, whatever. And this is going to sound like an excuse, but like the president's cup

coming at like that, you're just onto the president's cup next. Right. And it's the same group of people doing it. And I think so much of that comes down to the fact that there doesn't seem to be no sort of continuity. Solly's much wider point about the cultural differences between Europeans and Americans. You're just, there is no world sport where the global team sport that the

U S are good at. It's just, it's something that doesn't come naturally to Americans as a, as a general concept being part of a team. All the team sports in the U S are sports you invented yourselves. Um, and you know, individual sports golf and tennis and, you know, Olympic sports like swimming or athletics. Yeah, that's where all the American superstars are. But there's a reason why there hasn't been a great U.S. soccer side on the global stage or there hasn't been a great, you know, pick your team sport. It's because it just culturally, America is much more of an individualistic society and Europeans, British, wherever you're from in Europe,

there seems to be something that is much more in our DNA about coming together as a team. And I think that's the, you see it on tour weekend, we got you, how many European guys come from the DP World Tour, which feels like one big family where they're going on having dinner together there every night and they're traveling to tournaments together and they go to the States and they get homesick and they struggle to adapt there because everybody is in their own little bubble with their team around them But they don't mix as a group and then suddenly you're asked once every two years, right? Forget all that individualistic stuff

We want you to come together as a team and it's something that they just find very difficult to do that that hit me during the Masters Shami after so Rory wins and just the exchange that That him and Rose had and then even the wives had Kate with Rory and Rose's wife hugging Rory and and You're watching it and you're like, I don't think it's just that they make more putts right like that's Never was I know Frustrations with the players it's more ingrained in their DNA to to like play

team golf, play, play, you know, play full stop. Yeah, like they do that more often. And so you are you are discounting D.P. World Tour does have the team cup, which, you know, I know a few years ago, Dr. Mojah helped set this up, but Tommy was the captain of one of the teams last, or two years ago, team Rose was the captain this past year, but Tommy, Laurie Cantor, Hatton, Matthew Jordan, Tom McKibben, all those guys showed up and played. That says something. Some of this though, I, I, I, I, I'm as hard on the US side as, as anyone. And I do feel like, all right, if we really objectively look back since

Tom Watson debacle in team events, they've gone win, win, win, loss. Yeah. But I think that when, when, when they've done that purely on talent, though, I know, I know, but it is like they're, they're what? Seven and two since 2015. I know that includes a bunch of rider of president's cups, which don't end up really counting for anything, but there's a reason why Europe need to sort of have an advantage going into Sunday. And that's because talent wise, the U S probably will win most single sessions, but when you're, well, you have to play alongside somebody that's where Europe have, have

it, do have an advantage and historically have always had an advantage. Ian flipped their historic disadvantage on its head with, uh, in what the first couple sessions last time too, right? With the, was it four ball or four sums? They went, Friday matches, they went, went, what they do first? Foursome's. Four ball. Oh, sorry.

It was Foursome's first and they went. So basically like, if you look at the difference in all of the Ryder Cups, it has been like the home teams dominate Foursome's. Like that's the big thing. Like the US dominates Foursome's at home and cannot play them on the road. Like absolutely cannot play them on the road for whatever reason. It just, I don't know. I feel like at some point-

Just to go up in a slight tangent to the point about that first session in New York, I think that first session is so crucial. The first session is always crucial. But the reason I think it's particularly important to Beth Page is if you get a lot of red in that board, those New Yorkers are just going to be on the Europeans all afternoon. Whereas I actually do think, and I had this chat with the aforementioned Billy Horschel actually, Billy said, New Yorkers will eat their own. If Europe were doing that opening session four nil, it'll be the American players getting dogs abuse all afternoon.

So for Europe, it is crucial. If they can get off to out of the blocks fast, then that crowd could turn very quickly. I would love to get the sports talk radio guys, mad dog in the boys. These guys suck. Keegan's shitting himself. Get him out of here. Oh, it just, I, oh God, I think we, we can spend a lot of time and we will have the course this year figuring out the bottom of the US team. I think it's a faster answer to like the US winning the Ryder Cup. It's gonna be figuring out why the number one player in the world cried in Rome.

Like Scotty went 0-2-2 and lost 9-7. Like that is a much bigger problem than like Sam Burns being on the team or Jordan being on the team. But anyways, we'll get to all that. Before we get too carried away. Look, it's hopefully we get a nice sunny, sunny Ryder Cup. I know we're headed towards a sunny summer, at least down here in Florida. Orson Alps sunscreen is the best sunscreen on the market. If you ask me, you're not going to end up smelling like a pina colada.

It's lightweight. It's not greasy or sticky TC. I hope you were all lathered up this morning. It was so like no wind today, not a cloud in the sky. I was lathered up, teed off at 730 and still like, you know how much sunscreen I have to put on my head to keep it from having the stew sink? And you know what I don't see? You know, I don't see, I don't see a white cast or a residue on your head at all because it doesn't give you one. It's simple, fast, easy to use. They

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T.C. Can I just say, I think Stu Sink has been surpassed as the tan line in chief golfer. Oh yeah? Did you see Alex Norton when he took his cap off at the weekend and his hands shaking on has been surpassed as the the tan line in chief golfer. Oh, yeah. Did you see Alex Norton when he took his cap off at the weekend and his hands shaking on the 18th green? I mean, I didn't see it was like it's done with a ruler. I mean, it's extraordinary. So I think Stuchin has finally been usurped. Norton's got a little bit of buzz up there, though.

So is that just or is he is he started totally? It's gone. It's gone full SAP at nine. Scotty's up there too. Oh, yeah, Scotty's fighting losing battle. He's like 45, I mean. Zach Johnson was, and then he had just one of the most miraculous resurrections we've ever seen. Look, it's made SAP a better golfer,

just admitting defeat. Leaned into it, yes. Be proud of it. I think we're one of the most, you know, maligned groups in the world. You know, there's a lot of baldists out there, you guys. So. The last. Well, you European guys, what, what does your team look like as of right now? Again, I went through the top six for Europe right now on the point standings, again, top six get automatic selections are Rory, Shane, Rasmus Hoyegaard, Tyrell Hatton, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose. The next six on the list are Tommy Fleetwood, Ludwig Oberg, Thomas

Dietrich, Matt Wallace, Rasmus- Nicholas Nohrgaard. Nicholas Nohrgaard, Victor Hovland. And then the next eight that are not inside the top 12 are Thor Bjorn, Olsen, Laurie Cantor, Robert McIntyre, Aaron Rye, Rasmus Norgaard-Peterson, Neergaard Peterson, excuse me, Jorge Campillo, Jordan Smith, Paul Waring, I believe. Rom not listed anywhere on there. I assume that's something to do with membership or whatnot, but obviously Rom's going to be on the team. But what, what's your team look like Jamie as of right now?

So I think there's, I think there's 17 players for 12 spots is the simplest way I can putting it, putting it. And I think actually you could even argue at seven players for two spots. So I think those top six, I will imagine, I imagine we'll all be there. Rory, Shane, Rasmus, Hoygards, Tyrell, Sep and Justin Rose. Justin Rose may fall out of the automatic six, but I think he gets a pick purely for, I mean, I want to come into Justin Rose a bit more detail in a bit anyway, but I think- Jamie, you've got, you've got who you've got Rory, Shane, Sep.

Rory, Shane, Rasmus, Tyrell, Sep and Justin are the, are the six in the spots of the moon. I think they'll all be in that team. And of the ones who aren't in the top six, whether they managed to get into that top six or whether they don't, I think they'll all be in that team. And of the ones who aren't in the top six, whether they managed to get into that top six or whether they don't, I think that who I think will definitely be on the team are Tommy Fleetwood, Ludwig Oberg, Victor Hovland and John Rahm. I think we were all in, we'd all be in agreement on that. In which case you're suddenly talking about, I think seven players for the final two spots and those seven players are Bob McIntyre, Matt Fitzpatrick, who we haven't mentioned yet, Nikolai Huygaard, Aaron

Rye, Thomas Detry, Matt Wallace, and Nicholas Noorgard, who would be an extreme dark horse, but a very good course fit. So I think that, and as I said earlier on, you could see a scenario where 11 of the team from Rome are all in this team as well. And perhaps the only swap is Rasmus Huygard in for Nikolai Huygard. I imagine there's a big temptation to have both twins there, given just they're sort of how well they played together in Zurich and a number of other factors. Bob, by his own admission, is not playing well at the moment, but, you know,

won two big tournaments last year. And I think has shown that when the pressure's on, he performs at his very best. If I were to have any concerns about the European team at the moment, and it's really sort of nitpicking, it would be the likes of Ludwig isn't playing great at this very moment in time. Victor Hovind has been very open about the fact that his game isn't exactly where it wants to be, but you're talking about two generational talents there who I am fully confident will have sorted it out by September.

And of course, who played together and will hopefully play together for the better part of the next decade and beat Scottish, Kepka nine and seven last time out. So I'm not worried in that regard. And I think it's just, it's looking really settled at the team at the moment. And there are so many easy partnerships to be had there. So all in all, I think the European team is looking great. So if you were to, if you were to put a gun to my head at the moment,

I would say the top six will all be there. Tommy Ludwig, Victor and John will be there as well. I think Bob will find a way of making his way into the team. So you're talking about the last spot there. Matt Fitzpatrick really great to see some green shoots of recovery from him in recent weeks. Nikolai, I think Fitz will probably make the team, even if Nikolai might be the better course fit. I love it.

Real quick TC. I love that our problems are JJ Spahn and Danny McCarthy and your problems are Ludwig and Victor. Yeah. Yeah, I think Ludwig had, I think that bout of norovirus or whatever he had just kind of set him behind. He's like, he's in a blender right now, but I have no doubt. He's one since that. Exactly. He wanted to right after that. Yeah. Any concerns, Jamie? Like, so how is the points list working this year?

Is it what is it? One points list? There's no, yeah, there's no European in the world anymore. It's all one points list, which is why Rasmus Huygard is probably the one that sticks out in that list at the moment. But he got off to such a good start, mostly in Europe and has been playing pretty well on the hole in the PGA Tour. And I think he's a player who, you know, he was Thomas Bjorn's cart driver in Rome two years ago

and saw his twin brother play and just, I think that lit a fire in him to make sure he would be on this team as well. Nikolai has not played that well this season, but when the two of them were thrown together at Zurich, I mean, they should have won the Zurich really. They missed a ton of putts and were still runners up. So I think it's very tempting to put both of them on the team.

I think what's really exciting from Luke Donald's point of view is Luke Donald will have walked away from Rome knowing that the likes of Rory McElroy, Tyrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Ludwig Oberg, Victor Hovland, John Ram, knowing that they weren't going anywhere. But the emergence of somebody like Sepp Stracke as not just a solid player, but as one of the world's very best players has got to be something that is just an added bonus. When you look at somebody saying, right, I'm actually going to elevate myself to the next level and playing great golf, like on lots of different styles of golf courses, you know,

La Quinta in January isn't Philadelphia cricket club in May and isn't Royal Liverpool in July. He seems to be a golfer for all, all weathers and all sort of types of golf. Of course, not as well as Sep. So I think the emergence of Sep is really exciting. And I think there's some other names that are a little bit further down that might not be ready. Rasmus Nygard-Peterson, Eugenio Chikara, Laurie Cantor. They've all been playing solidly, but it's on the DP World Tour and it's very difficult to put your hand up and get a pick for a Ryder Cup in US soil

when you're playing in Europe all the time. But I think there are lots of nice headaches for Luke and Dodo to have at the moment. It's such a different spot than they were in a few years ago, where that five or six spots were super unsettled. I think the one thing that could maybe throw a wrench would be like if somebody like a Wallace or even Pavan or Stephen Yeager, somebody like that kind of goes on a run. Like, I don't know what you do with Stephen Yeager.

He's top 50 in the world, but he's not, you know. I think he was two years ago as well, but he's for whatever. He's never really in the world, but he's not, you know, I think he was, I think he was two years ago as well, but he's for whatever reason, never really in the rider cup discussion. Matt Wallace, I don't think it would be a particular problem because I think Matt Wallace is somebody who's just made for something like the rider cup. And I think he has got such a bit between his teeth to try and get on that team as well. And top 20 finish at Quell Hollow next week, last week, coming off an injury as well.

I think you're going to see some pretty good golf from Matt Wallace over the summer. New York crowd would be, he would be God, there would be a lot of ear cupping going on. I don't know if he's ready for that. I don't use rabbit ears as it stands right now. Can I throw like two challenge flags at you guys here? Please. Again, just kind of going off of the golf that's been played where their current game status, Justin Rose and Rasmus Hoygard Rasmus is is like if we're looking again, if sorting by any level of play over the last three months, six months, like Rasmus trending the wrong direction. It is trending very close just being a zero player, an average

player as of right now, way down that list. And he's third in the points list right now. Could there be a situation, and I don't know exactly, I'm not exactly positive in how it holds on, but end up in a spot where he holds on in a point spot, despite his game, not heading in the right direction and having, not being, having the luxury of being able to choose a lot of guys that are playing better golf than he is. If you ask a question like that, my answer will always be,

we'll see. Luke and Duda will find a solution. The way they did for Nikolai, well, Nikolai was a pick, but the way they did for Bob two years ago in Rome, there will be a trick up their sleeve as to who they pair Rasmus with to get the very best out of Rasmus, what format they use, and how they keep them fresh for singles.

Plus, I would say that Rasmus's game sets up really nicely for Beth Page because he hits it an absolute country mile. And for somebody like Justin Rose, if you were saying, are there any concerns over Justin? I mean, I remember walking the back nine with Kyle at Augusta and we just kept saying to each other, man, whatever you think of Justin Rose, what a competitor he is. And somebody who just is able to, when the pressure is at its absolute most intense, able to produce exceptional shots under the pump. And he is somebody you want in that team. And it's funny, I think even before Rome, there was sort of talk, okay, Justin

Roses are being slowly put out to pasture now and he'll be a vice captain. If not in Rome, he'll be a vice captain of Bethpage. Well, he was a hugely important part of the team in Rome. And I think he's going to be a hugely important playing member of the team this time as well. And perhaps he'll be captain in Ireland in two years time, who knows. But I think there's still a lot of life left in the old dog yet. And he'll be a brilliant captain. It seems like too, just methodical and all of that.

I mean, yeah, Jamie, like his performance at Augusta was among the most impressive of our lifetimes. I think truly, one guy we haven't really talked about Torbjorn, he's playing pretty good golf right now. And he's been on kind of a run since last fall. You know, I know the talents in there and it's just a matter of, you know, kind of drawing it out. But like, I think the, where I get the most excitement both for this year, but really more so for 27 is the Danes. There were five Danes in the field at the US Open or at the PGA and between Neirgaard Peterson and

then the kid that Nicholas Norgaard and then Jacob Scouf Oleson as well. He's you know, he's kind of an older rookie or Oleson as well. He's kind of an older rookie or he's 24 or 25, but he's a stud as well. So, not quite ready for prime time yet, but I think he's coming. But I think Norgard and I think the other Rasmus, Rasmus Nurgard is an absolute flusher. So I think I would not be shocked if one of them goes on a tear this summer and kind of inserts himself into the conversation. But I feel like Rye and Fitzpatrick would be kind of tough. I imagine they're probably tough to pair with other guys because they're so thoughtful.

Much as I like both of them, I think I would agree with you in that regard. Aaron is a really lovely guy, but he wouldn't say boo-doo-goose. He's very quiet. He keeps himself to himself. He is a bit different. He came up. Is that a British saying? Wouldn't say boo-doo-goose.

You all looked very confused when I said it. I was about to say he's quiet as a church mouse, which is maybe also a British expression as well, but he's just very, okay, you have heard that one. He's just very shy. He, he, he's always done things a little bit differently. He didn't come through the same sort of ranks as a lot of guys didn't do the college system like a lot of guys do coached by his dad. And he is very different.

And I also think he is more of the sort of methodical kind of plot your way around the golf course kind of player, as opposed to somebody. I can't imagine Aaron Rye like pumping his chest and cheer it and getting the crowd going in New York. Like, or even just being a great fit for somebody to play alt shot with. Yeah. Like, whose ball are we going to play? And fit. So look, I love fits to bits, but, you know, Hazel teen. Okay. I give him a pass in that because he was a rabbit in the headlights. He was too young. Whistling straights. He was kind of paired with Westwood, which was just awful for him. We did see a little bit more of, you know, he's a major champion by the time he played in Rome.

And we did see a little bit of what he is capable of. He was paired with Rory, which helps. But I do think fits to somebody who maybe isn't a natural fit for a Ryder Cup team, but he is coming out of his shell more and more as he matures as a golfer. And I played golf with his dad actually a couple of weeks ago, who was saying that, you know, he had an awful tournament, The Heritage, which is a tournament that's very close to his heart, came away from that and spent time with his coach and just found something. And since then there have been green shoots of recovery and, you know, he was in a while, for a while he was in the mix on Sunday at the PGA championship as well.

So I would love to see Fitz, you know, form his temporary classes permanent. I would love to see him have a summer where he forces his way onto that team. I would love to see Fitz's brother get himself into the conversation. Yeah. I was not in a great place at the moment with his game. But like future, that would be, that would be awesome to have the two of them on a team together. Oh, you guys on a team together and the the two of them on a team together. Hoye guards and the team together and the Fitzpatrick's team together.

Yeah. So Sally, Sally, to answer your question, we got the horses in the back. I asked if there were concerns over Rosie and Rasmus Hoye guard, which I real quick one, I got three things. One, did you'all see the tweet when Aaron Rye almost domed that girl up on at the PGA and somebody said, will he sign one glove or two? Then he takes one of his gloves off when he hits bunker shots, which is wild. Two, I think one thing we do, and this is a little bit, I love the Hoy guards. I think they're really good.

But I think one thing that happens with some of these European guys is when you become the best guy in your country, you get talked about differently, even if you would be like the 40th best guy in the United States. And so it's this weird, like I just like to date a golf, Rasmus is ranked behind Cameron

Tringali, right? And that's not everything. Like I think Rasmus is a better player than Cameron. The maddening part is these guys show up and play great in the Ryder Cup, Kyle. That's like that. That's me looking at these spreadsheets and just be like, what, how are they losing to these guys? But I think also put in his position to succeed at the right up to that. And also I think there is something about like, Hey, I'm the best dude in my country.

Definitely is. And I've had this very conversation with Thomas Detry. And that is like, I will, I will always be the first Belgian to do one in the PGA tour. And that means something to me. And so you take that into this team event and like, Hey, I'm representing, I mean, the video in Rome where they're like, they say their name and their, uh, in their home, like, like that's freaking awesome. Yeah. And it's just, I don't know. It's, it's like, it's an

interesting juxtaposition with how we talk about, I mean, JT Poston might be the best player in, I don't know, name a country like Wales, but he's like the 33rd bet or I don't know. He's probably like the 17th best guy in the United States. So it's just, that's interesting. And it wasn't interesting. Sorry, Kyle, not to interrupt your point, but what's interesting in that regard is when, if we look at the president's cup, the reason or one of the reasons that cited for the international

team have already always struggled is they don't have one identity to rally around. Whereas if you're on the U S team, you know, it's the red, white and blue. We're playing for the star spangled banner. Well, it should really be the same kind of logic for the Ryder Cup. There's nothing really to being European. Nobody really feels European. You feel Spanish or you feel French or you feel, you know, if you feel British or Irish and, you know, so many of those countries that they rally around Brooklyn

and so many of those countries have historic beef with each other as well. There's no reason to unite under the European flag. And we're up against a team who are representing their country, not their continent, but we seem to be able to do it. It's because the Americans were aim pointing all through Jose Maria's line in 1999. That's the rally cry they're still working off of. My last thing, what do you do with Sergio? We haven't talked about Sergio.

There's a reason. I mean, you know, he, he said, I hope this fucking tour it's like fails or you like, I mean, you know, I think Sergio has got a long way to go before he's ever backing good graces if ever. Uh, and guys like we haven't even talked about Callum and Sandy Scott or Adrian Dumont de Chassard. The bench is so deep, Jamie, and there's guys that could pop at any moment that you know, we're on to 2029. On a serious note, I think the one guy who I think this might be one Ryder Cup too soon for him, but we could see in Ireland is maybe Eugenio Chikara, because I think he is a properly good player. And I think he's already shown

he's cut above a lot of the players in the DP World Tour. But I think there are some question marks with him regarding how much of a fit he'd be in the team room. I think he might rub a few people up the wrong way. I'm not sure he's a particular player. Sergio 2.0 and in some regards, there's eight Europeans that have been among the top 12 Europeans in each of the last four time periods, which is three months, six months, 12 months, 24 months, like guys that have been consistent through any window that you look for. We've named seven of them and left one off,

which I think TC is going to have to own this one. It's Alex Noren. Well, I know I was going to, yeah, it's, it's, I mean, it's just over one time. Period. Right. Hang on over. Sorry. It's totally over what time period. So each of the last, like, if you look at, um, like strokes gain over the last three months, six months, 12 months, and 24 months, he's played twice in nine months. It is, but he's been... He's got sample size incomplete, right? He's played twice in nine months and one of them was a top 20 finish at a major

championship. Another one that fits that category though is Aaron Rye. He's been a remarkably consistent performer for, but I agree with your reasons for why he's probably not a great fit. I think on the Rose front, great, unbelievable masters. I think come September, that's going to feel really far away. He's going to be 45 years old. He's had an injury pop up since then. It might be one too many, which I think immediately once whistling straights kicked off, it was like when you had Poulter, you had all that, it was like, oh, that's, this is one too many. And you'd almost rather be. My counter to that, Sully, would be how many people came away from Royal true in last July saying Justin Rose was runner up that that's probably his best chance of winning

another major going on. I can't seem doing it again. The very next major championship is in the playoff to win it. So I think Justin Rose has, has proved people wrong. A lot of times during his career. And I think he's somebody that Dodo and Luke would want to be there. It's basically like, if, if the equivalent of Keegan is like, let's say Keegan plays really well at Oakmont, right? Almost wins Oakmont. It'd be like the equivalent of like Justin Rose being the

captain right now. Right? Justin Rose is like seven years older, isn't he? Yeah. But just like as far as their position on the team, um, one other guy, Jamie, Tom McKibbin, I know he joined live. It's tough to kind of assess him, but he seemed like he was kind of on a trajectory to being, yeah. And he was definitely on, on, he was definitely on the radar for Luke and Dodo as well. Um, when I put his name to Dodo last time I was chatting to him, he just said, it's just so difficult to get an accurate, accurate gauge of how well these guys are playing.

Tom, Tom did play in the PGA championship and he's definitely going to try to qualify for the U S open as well. I think he's already in the open championship. And so he will play, you know, at least two, maybe three of the majors this year. And that's really where he needs to make hay while the sun is shining. If he wants to have any chance. But I think he's very much a dark horse at the moment, which is a shame because I think he's got all the talent in the world. Tom McKibben.

And then just on the, I know Chakara has been kind of the one we've been talking about, but Pouj has been a far better player on Liv. Any rumblings of him? Again, yeah. So Tom McKibben and David Pooj were the two players that Dodo mentioned to me that he is keeping an eye on on Luke. So it's just hard to gauge them. You know, they're not playing in on great golf courses and they're not playing in overly competitive fields. So how do you gauge how well they are actually playing? And I think that's the difficulty for guys like that. Obviously for Tyrrell Hatton and John Rahm, we know that they're great players. It doesn't really matter. And we'll see them in the majors. So it's different for those two. But if you're

not a John Rahm or a Tyrrell Hatton and you're playing in the league, it's very difficult to put your head above the parapet. It's also just as much as we've been at the teat of the Europeans so far, but like Luke Donald having a deputy like Dodo, like a two headed multiple. He's doing who's doing that job in the US. That's what I keep coming back to. And John was. Yeah, it might be. Yeah.

For some rumors of John Wood being. Either shove pushed aside a little bit or undermined or whatever, like the players seem to be really taking over. I mean, I wrote this down. I wrote this down in my notes, TC, but having a player captain would be kind of like fitting in some ways for the really would like it would be, it would make a lot of sense. Like honestly, like just make Scotty the captain and just let him, you know, or Scotty and Ted Scott are the two captains. Cool. I work hard like make like Joe Griner, the captain. Academy would be an interesting thing for another guy.

Blandy. We haven't mentioned him. You mentioned a lot of guys below Blandy in strokes gained. Let me just say that it's it's quite remarkable. Landy's for Blandy even make the cut last week for how far he hits the ball. And how he's crazy remarkable. And he's defending a major challenge defending this week at congressional on a proper golf course. Uh, you know, we'll see how it,

and then he's showing up at Oakmont cause he's, he's the defending U S senior open champion as well. Like he's going to get some serious reps here as we move forward. All right. We got to get to the American team before we do that, whether you're dialed in every shot or just following the action on Sunday, Fandel keeps you locked into the PGA tour action all week long right now, all customers get a profit boost every third and fourth round each week.

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tokens, restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount see terms at sportsbook.fando.com gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Live odds as of when I put this agenda together were US minus 125, Europe plus 145, Thai plus 950. Just an interesting note. Kyle. Minus 125. That's...

It's light. Disrespectful. It feels kind of generous to the US, huh? I mean, it's a home game. I'm saying disrespectful to the Euros. Yeah, for sure. That's as small of a favorite as they've been in any of recent Ryder Cups. I think the books are catching on to like, yeah, we shouldn't be doing, I don't know.

It would still be an upset, I think, if you're one on opposing soil. I think for all the stuff we've talked about, like the home field, again, a part of the Ryder Cup that kind of bores me to death. If the US goes on to like romp in this one is just like, what are we doing here? Like what, clearly one team is doing this better, like the whole process. And you can just come back home and wipe the floor with them all over again, just kind of seems like we need to do something about this this

home field advantage. Anyways, US side. How do you have a team? Are you willing? Are you willing to put 12 guys out there? I do I wrote down 12 I wrote down my 12. And I think what's interesting, Sally, is there's so many different ways you can talk about this. You can say, well, what's my 12 that I would select if I was the captain? What's the 12 that I think they will select?

What's the 12 they should? There's a bunch of different ways. And I guess before I give mine, I want to kind of revisit, you like philosophically, do you value consistency over a long period of time when you're, when you're putting your team together or do you value like, like, what's your hierarchy of what you value when you're putting your team together? It, so it's like an unjudgeable scale on this. But it's like,

all right. Like honestly, I just got gut feel of like, hey, when this guy goes to tee it up in front of 10,000 people on that Thursday morning, do you feel good about that? Or do you not? Because at times I've tricked myself into like, Ricky Fowler has been very consistent over all this. And as soon as he puts the peg in the ground, like, ah, shit, here we go. Like, this is not good. This does not feel right.

So how do you, how do you, like, that's where I'm at, that's where I was so adamant about JT in 2023, was like, dude, kind of just seems like, I know he hasn't had the best year. There's no argument about that, but who do I feel better about putting him out there, him or Lucas Glover?

Like, that was a pretty easy question to be answered on my end. So there is like, you look at the numbers, you want to see who the best player is, but also just that gut feeling of do they have that dog in them is where I end up going. And somebody like Kepka, I don't like to have that dog feel when it comes to this event. Like I just don't think he cares that much about it. And I'm like, as we're sitting here right now, I have absolutely no problems leaving him at home. Like his game is not in good shape. And like, I just don't think we need a vibe like that.

That's kind of like the little ringer test I put somebody through. Like, am I going to feel good despite all of JJ Spahn's numbers looking really good? Am I going to feel great if he's on the first tee at Bethpage? And I'm not going to, so I'm gonna look past that name for somebody like as of right now, I'd rather have big tone. I honestly would, like at least I've seen him perform in some of these Ryder Cups. Like he's not been amazing,

but what's his overall record in Ryder Cups? He is three and three. Like that's a better known quantity for me than a mystery like JJ Spahn. I would feel differently if it was like an up and coming young talent that we hadn't seen under the gun. But I don't know, I also like I was big writer for saw hit. And then when the President's Cup came around last year, when he was out there, I was like, ah, this doesn't feel right. It does

not feel like, like, guy made for the spot. So yeah, I think we're on the same page there. I think what's interesting is you talk to guys behind the scenes of like, Hey, here's who I don't want the other team to pick. Like that should be your team. Like whoever they say they don't want to see is who should be on your team. Um, you have to have a baseline. You can't pick Max Homer right now. Um, do I think that Max is closer than maybe some guys that are in the, like the top 50 in data golf. Yeah,

because he has equity built up over team events from the last six years. And for those who are saying, well, how can you drive a JT in 23 and Max, not Max in 25, like the level of fall off is completely different. Yeah, Max is like a, he's on the credit as well. Yeah. True, the true also true Jamie. Um, I'm with you. Uh, it, it's kind of the way that I look at it. I think, okay, there, there's gotta be a bar of, I kind of look at last six months. I think three is pretty short.

12 is getting, I like last six months. I think looking at that is good. And then I think like, do I want this guy in a match where the, the final writer cut point is on the line? Like Max was in 2023 in Rome, like, do I want that guy over that putt? Uh, so the 12 I came up with, I'll just read them off and subject to change. Obviously I don't even think I, if you were saying like bet on this, get on fan duo and put your, put your money down. I don't even think these are the 12 that I would necessarily bet on this, get on fan dual and put your, put your money down. I don't even think these are the 12 that I would necessarily bet on being on the team eventually, but these are the 12 that I have as of today.

All right. Is this for if we were playing next week or if we had to lock in now to play in the fall, play next week, I think that's a different question, but that's an interesting one. Scotty, obviously Bryson just, I'll never forget whistling straights, him driving the first green on Sunday and just whipping up the crowd. He is made for this event. It is incredible.

This version of Bryson too that is clearly hamming it up for the crowd is going to be awesome. He could be like, he could carry them. Yes. Yeah, totally. So Scotty Bryson, uh, Xander, JT, uh, more cow, those are five blocks. Can't lay as of today is still there. He's playing not great. He's not been horrible, but for him, it's been bad. Uh, burger, Henley, spieth, H E Harris English. And then my last year I've got Maverick McNeely and Sam Burns. I don't love those last two. I don't necessarily love Henley and Harris English.

But if that's my, if that's, if the writer cups next night is next week, those are the 12 that I'm taking. So you've got, sorry, Scotty. I'll go through mine. It's almost, mine's almost the exact same. So I'll go Scotty, Bryson, Xander, Colin, JT, Cantlay, Berger, Spieth, Henley, H.E. And then like, honestly, my answer was going to be, I'm not even willing to put the last two guys because I want, I'm stripping the captain of his captaincy. He's got to go back out there and earn it like you got it. It's an open trial for the last two spots. I don't even want to pencil somebody in it's a 10 man team as of right

now. I'd say MAV, Big Tone, Burns, Denny, Akshay, JT Poston or a true wild card would be at the bottom of that. Like I, I would not need to see a ton from Luke Clanton to just be like, let's fuck it. You haven't mentioned, you haven't mentioned New York's very own Kam Young. Yeah. Well, I, I, I, it's been a long enough run of, I don't, even with a, with a hot run here, I'm not, I'm not willing to do that. I think P Reed's in that. I would throw P Reed in that group.

Oh hell yeah. Here we go, baby. I think, I think. No inclusions. would throw a period in that group. Oh hell yeah. Here we go, baby. I think I know inclusions He's not included on this Yeah, he is there's exclusions today, but I actually wrote this down I wonder if it's been long like I have this I had this thought during the PGA that I Think I went so far out on him that I kind of came all the way back around on him And I'm a little bit in and I wonder if it's just time to get him and speak back together. It's an entertainment product, baby. Like let's just, let's just do it.

Just send it. I cannot let, sorry, I'll let you go to see, but I just cannot let that go by without reminding people what happened in France where he bitched about not being able to play with Jordan, played with, got to play with Tiger fucking Woods, shot like 84 and then said Tiger apologize to him. Went and went and straight to the media afterwards, just completely undermined the captain and complained about all this stuff. Like that was the, then, then cheats in front of, allegedly cheats in front of the president's cup goes down

there, makes a whole scene. His caddy pushed a fan at the president's cup and then went left for like, I think we're ready to move on from the read. I think I've mentioned before on our rider cup, Ryan table podcast that the, the, the all blacks, the New Zealand rugby team have a very well known philosophy that is no dickheads. You don't want any dickheads in the team because it just drags down the rest of the team. And I think that's what Patrick Reed would do. I think Bryson's a good enough player to offset the dickhead. He's a talented enough dickhead that we'll find room for him.

I think the dickhead thing has gone out the window with the US team. There's a few of them on there. So maybe it's only dickheads TC. Yeah. So for you guys, like, where's your line of like, this guy had a bad summer, but he's still on the team kind of thing. Like if somebody like, let's say, let's say Xander keeps keeps just fiddling along or let's say more cow has a really bad summer or can't lay has a really bad summer. Can't last really bad summer. Like those guys feel like they're locks regardless. Yeah.

Top six for me. I'd say so. I mean, if we're talking like max level fall off, sorry for a dig at our boy. Like that's a different conversation than just like not being there. They're close to that. Scotty's and or Bryson Colin Colin, Cantlay and JT. Yeah. That was six.

I'd feel about right with that. So guys there, sorry that you didn't, the guys from room that you didn't even mention there when you even gave you long list where Max, Brian Harmon, Wyndham Clark, you can't see any way that any of those. Wyndham is in the, the, the last two spots for me. That's all I mentioned. Wyndham is in that for the, I probably have more guys than he did. I probably have 10 guys for those last three.

It's really more than two. On this list, it's just two spots, but I think in reality, it's more like four or five spots that guys are playing for. I think Spieth is probably in if he just maintains this level that he's at. He's been pretty good, not amazing. And he just has so much equity built up and history there. But all that to say, like my list of guys that are playing for those last four or five spots is very long

because there's so many spots there. And it's just like, that's where it gets into a really indistinguishable group of guys, numbers wise, that it just gets down to that factor of what I'm talking about of like, yeah, the process that Keegan should have for putting this team together of interviewing players of talking to them throughout the course of the year, getting to know their personalities, getting to know what their preparation is like, I, if I'm being totally honest, and some, a certain lot of people might not like this take, but like, I have genuine concerns about like Bryson's

readiness for the event. Like I, I, Bryson kind of lives in his own universe and he, he peaks for these major championships and I don't know how much time he's going to do it. He treated the same, wouldn't he? Like he was doing long drive stuff ahead of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Right after. It was right after.

Yeah. But he was like, yeah. I think Bryson is a different player than he was four years ago. I agree too. He's obviously a different person than he was as well. He's managed to find that ability to peak for the majors now, which is a very rare skill to have. And I think he would treat the Ryder Cup exactly the same way. I've got absolutely no doubts that he would be an absolute stud in that page.

That's a unnecessary diversion for me at all to say like, I don't think that in 2021 we were arguing Kevin Na and Kevin Kisner versus Scottie Scheffler. And I felt very strongly about the talent difference between that group and that I do not have the same feeling near the bottom of this team of like, you cannot leave this guy off the team. I think if anything, it's like a bunch of guys I'm very indifferent about at this point. And that's where we got time. We got time to figure this out. I think the time we did this pot around this

time last year, I think, for Europe, and I think we said, or two years ago for Europe, I think we said like, Europe's got time. And honestly, that's not a bad place, like a bad place to be. Like you, you have some kind of openness. What you don't want is like thinking you've got your 12 guys, three of them fall off in some form throughout the course of the year, and then you're kind of panicking in your process to try to find who's going to fill the back end of that team.

You've also got the unknown factor of somebody like Joe Highsmith or Brian Campbell, who've, who've played their way into the elevated events now by winning and they go in the travelers or something. Yeah. I was going to say, let's not get carried away. You guys are listed like you go way down the board and list some guys that have their PJ tour winners this season. Yeah. Highsmith is playing really good golf right now. And you know who he has on the bag? Joe, the show, LaCava 2.0. Jamie, this is a point that gets made often. And I'm glad you brought it up. Like, you know, I hear a lot of questions like with a win, would he be on the team?

I cannot stress enough for me how little like one peak week means to me in predicting how well a player is going to perform at a team event in September. No, I'm sure they could play that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Spawns, a possibility. Joe Heisman is not going to. I think Joe Heisman is a better player than JJ Spawn though. I don't know about that. Spawns already got the points, is what I'm saying. But it's going to take multiple of these. You can't just have one freak signature event and make the team the way it's structured out currently.

And the guys near the top have a shitload of points as it stands. It's hard to make movement in the actual points list. I tell you what you really need is for like, yeah, guys like Kentler or somebody like that to win a little bit and just move up, like bump up that points list. So there's nothing fluky going on at all. That's yeah. Yeah. It's also interesting. There's so many different ways you can cut this, which I guess is sort of what we're getting at right now. If you go just based on data golf rankings, you get one list.

If you go on OWGR, you get a kind of a completely different list. Yeah, I wouldn't use that. If you go on the last three months, you get a, like, I guess what I'm saying is, I can't remember a time in the past where these lists have been that different. Like they're disconnected.

They're very different. And I think that's going to be interesting because I think a lot of this stuff comes down to like what team, like for the captain, what team can I put together? Where I'll get the least amount of criticism, you know, especially on the U S side, I think they're just so fearful of like doing something that's going to be. Critiqued or seen as like, Oh, that was risky. You shouldn't have done that. You're going to, you're going to blow your, your, your chances. Ryder kept captain. So I think that is one thing to keep an eye on as we kind of come up on the picks here.

That's the thing where like, if you know, let's say Andrew Novak, he's playing good golf and he finishes 10th in the standings. And it's like, what do you do? Right? Cause he, and he would be an unbelievable locker room guy, dog, literally, literal terrier, literal, literal dog. Uh, and like, he, like, he's a guy I'd love to have on the team. If I was one of his teammates, right. And he's clearly played good team golf before and all of that. But, you know, it's just like, all right, then, then, you know, who do you leave off? But I think the guys for me, like, I'm totally with you guys on those top six. And then I, I think that the two guys that are like, if they play well at all the rest of the season,

like their borderline locks for me is Mav. Like Mav, now I've played so much right. Or so much Walker cup Palmer cup, you know, college golf. He's raised his floor. It feels like he's just like, like he had a great Walker cup record knows how to play match play golf. He's gained distance, all of that. Like he seems pretty malleable as far as knowing how to play with different personalities. And then burger. I think burgers do like, it's all you're talking about the guys that you want on that team that, you know, junkyard dogs that are going to go out and want the ball. He wants the ball. He's quietly played some excellent, excellent golf.

Both of those were on our teams, right? So I had Berger and Mav as of right now. And then I think Harris English is not far behind him either. I mean, I think Harris is a world beater. So that's why I'm not overly stressed at the current moment about the team is like, you're already seeing some guys emerge. Like I feel better about burger now than I did two months ago. I feel better about Harris English than I did now two months ago. And like, where I guess like, I don't know, like

for, it's why I feel like I always have to default to the stats on this. It's like, when you say Andrew Novak in there, it's because he's played good golf, right? Like it's because of the quality of the golf that he's put out, but the measurement of that quality of golf that your eyes are telling you like he's the 29th best

American over the last six months. That's where it just, the weekly conversation tends to be of any of these guys, he shoots the top of leaderboard. It's like, Oh, Davis Riley, he's got to be in the conversation now. And we're going to do this for like 26 more weeks, not that many weeks leading up all into it. And that's where where I end up getting dismissive of somebody like Novak's chances is like, all right, Novak's gonna be on the team, it's going to become

crystal clear by the end of the year, like extremely clear more than it is like, does he have a an outside shot of making it as of right now? But I think also you have to look at the context and the trajectory of someone's career, right? And yes, no back is learning how to Yeah, like Novak's learning how to play well on the weekend in a big spot. Like you, you know, Torrey Pines versus now.

Intangible things with Novak as well is like, I don't think you can really sort of quantify how difficult it must be to lose a tournament one Sunday and then go and win the very next tournament seven days later. Okay. It's with somebody alongside you. It's a bit of a quirky tournament, but like for a lot of players that would take a little bit of time to get over losing and such losing a signature event, an iconic signature event like that in such devastating circumstances. He gets right back in the horse and he wins the very next one. And I think that shows something about his character and his mentality. Not only that, Jamie, I think going from last year, you know, playing the, the fall series events, the FedEx Cup, you know, finishing in 86,

then having to play his way even into the signature events, even to have, you know, a shot or playing his way into the PGA championship, stuff like that. I think his, you know, looking at where he was last year, but like, Sally, if you go back to T8 at Waste Management, Phoenix Open in 2024, T8 the following week, T9 the following week, T17 at Valspar, like second in Bermuda during the fall. Like a bunch of really good finishes just to get to this point and then keeps on playing well and then is learning how to play good golf in high pressure situations and growing in his career as we go along here. I think that counts for something.

And that's where it's like if the Bratica was next week, it would be a different conversation than like Thomas Detry. I didn't hear a lot of Thomas Detry talk from you guys and he won event by like 85 shots just a couple of months ago, but it feels far away now. Like that's kind of my point is like people can tend to not necessarily you guys, but I'd say more on the social media side can tend to get really amped just for one peak week. And I'm not saying that's what Novak's done, but like, it just takes a whole heck of a lot more to have truly raised the substance of your game to be able to withstand things. And,

and I tend to go to ball strikers too, like Novak's got a great short game. Like that's what he's really separated on, but like I tend to default to ball striking, especially when these get to these competitions and all that. So I think there's also a sense of when you've got somebody that's almost 30, like Novak versus a client and you kind of are starting to know like mostly what Novak is the ceiling is maybe a little higher than he has shown. But you don't

know what the ceiling I mean, Clayton could be anything, right? Like it's almost like the NBA draft, where you almost want less film because you want to be able to dream on what that player could be. And so I think that there is a difference in projecting somebody like a Clinton or a, I don't know, somebody that's like super young, which the euros have had some of in recent years. I think the best comparison for what you're talking about is Nikolai Huygard being picked over Adrian Moranke last time around. Sure. Yes, exactly. You know, you, Luke Donald saw Nikolai Huygard being part of European teams for the next decade. He didn't see that with Adrian Marrone. That's something the US team hasn't done in the past too, is kind of stake a dude out.

Because you're not just playing for, I mean, the two matches that the guy plays, it's like, is it going to affect the Ryder Cup? I don't know, maybe. But the seven that he plays over the next four years, like that's going to affect Ryder Cubs. And I think the U S has been short-sighted on that. That's where I'm like, you know, the three guys that I mentioned beyond the locks and I think Henley's borderline lock and just a really good dude to have there that super consistent can kind of pair them with a lot of different guys. Just pausing on that TC to say like we said after the President's Cup last year and then

Henley's had some success then like, hey, that's Scotty, that's your partner. That's it. That I think is going to count towards something in this process too of like those two paired really well together at the press. And I'd rather do that than Scotty Sam Burns is a reason why I think that's a reason which consigates some burns. Yeah, I feel so uncommitted about Burns as my 12th pick. I'm just like throwing him in there because he drives. I don't know that those 11 12 spots to me are so, so, so wide open. So that's the thing. You've got 10 guys then if we've talked about those, those those guys it seems like we're all pretty aligned there then you've got you've got Max Spieth. You know we had Spieth on Spieth. So I don't have Spieth on at this point especially with another

kid on the way you know like we'll see what happens. I think Max is going to play really good golf. I think Max is on the verge of playing very good golf over the next two to three months. And so I can see Max like making noise. And I think if anybody like Max has almost earned the tiebreaker over Spieth, if you know, if they're both in that similar bucket and if Max has put some good stuff back on film and carted some good results. But otherwise, man, I'm looking like I would be looking at Clinton, Koyvan, Thor Bjornsson, you know, one of those guys, you know, at least one of those guys on the team. And then you fill it out with Max Spieth, you know, Keegan, whoever, you know, Danny McCarthy, Tom Hogan, whoever gets hottest shit towards the end of the year.

you know, Denny McCarthy, Tom Hogan, whoever gets hot as shit towards the end of the year. I think the demise of Jordan Spieth has been greatly, greatly exaggerated. He, his first start back at the eight at Pebble Beach, he finished on like T69 and signature event did not, that did not go well. He missed the cut at the Genesis is all of his other events. He gained shots on the field. He finished T4 at Phoenix. He finished T9 at Honda, 59th in the players. T28 at Valspar, T12 at Valero, T14 at the Masters, T18 at Heritage, fourth at TPC, Craig Nelson James, T34 at Truist and missed the cut at the PGA. But like, you look at his page, it's green, green, green,

green, green, green, green, all of his recent starts and you go to Max's page and it's red, red, red, red, red, red with a good master. Oh, like right now it's a no brainer, but I'm just saying like, and I'm long Spieth, maybe not for this year, but for the next five years. But I think just looking at kind of what, you know, who we in granted, you know, played great at the president's cup in 22. Listen, I had no issue with Spieth on that team. I'm just saying if Spieth doesn't have a great summer and Max does, it almost feels like...

The other thing I'd say about Jordan Spieth as well is I can imagine if you are playing him in match play, he must be infuriating to play against because you must think he had to drive three fairways to the right and you must think, right, I've got him in this hole and then he produces some bit of magic to put it about four feet and drains the birdie You must think he had to drive three fairways to the right and you must think, right, I've got them in this hole. And then he produces some bit of magic to put it about four feet and drains the birdie part. And that must be such a way of getting under the skin of the opposition when you've got somebody doing that.

So I think he can't really put a price on that. Aggravating must be to play a match play. And I think we can speak differently if he wasn't on the 2023 team, like he probably shouldn't have been like he had a kid two weeks before the tournament. And I said, I thought he would be ready. I thought he was, you know, like from a professional standpoint and like, again, having gone through the newborn process again, I'm like very understanding of why he was a complete shit form for

that, uh, that writer cup. And they tried to force the speed JT magic in there and it just didn't, it wasn't there. That's kind of where I'm at is like, if he's going to be on the team, you've got to be willing to split those two up then because it seems like they're pairing them up based on their skill sets circa 2018 to 2021. And it seems like Speed is a different player than he was for sure. And as far as putting and driving, it's just a much different mix now. And they did do that in whisting straights. They split them up.

And a lot of people don't remember that. Like I think JT went and played with Cantlay and I think Spieth played with Brooks. That sounds right. I think that's right. So yeah, I, I will, I'm with you on Max in that if I see it it would not take, I don't need to see amazing golf like I don't think Max has to get his numbers all the way up by the end of the year for me to campaign for him to get an 11th or 12th spot. It's just got to be like, I got to know that the dreadful days are not there.

The floor is higher. Yeah. Because that's just what, that was what will crush a team as a dude that just brings zero there, which like, again, I trust Max to like, channel something for for an event like this. I mean, he wasn't great the President's Cup last year, if I remember right. I hope I hope I'm getting that right. But I just remember being it was a controversial pick. And I mean, he was obviously great at the first President's Cup and

obviously great at the first Ryder Cup that he played and he played with Brian Harmon that was not a great, not a great team matchup there. And they have some ZJ problems with some of that. And you know, like, they practice together and you know, they didn't practice at 7am and they Harmon tees off the second hole and Max has four iron in when he was at nine iron in during practice and they're like, oh shit, we might have miscalculated this one. So let's say Brooks comes out and like wins wins at Oakmont just out of nowhere. What do you do? You have to put them on the team, right? Yeah. I mean,

probably making it on points if that happens because there's so many points available in the majors. Ah, no, because he he's far enough down that he probably wouldn't. I think you like, and here's the difference between what I want and what you sort of have to do from like a PR standpoint, if you're the US team. I'm like pretty out on Brooks at team events. I don't think he brings energy. I don't think he brings leadership. I don't think he brings a lot of negative energy.

Yeah, it's just like, we've done that whole thing. We don't need to reallitigate that, but like, you have to take him. Like you can't not take it. You can't leave a six time major jump. Yeah. It would be a disaster. We're going to end up in this boat. Yeah. He wouldn't do us open. And then you like, you have to take him is going to be the mindset. And then you're just going to like, it just seems like it should be obvious through the consistent play. I don't know.

Jamie, they did this in 2021 six time major winner wins a major that year, Phil, and they didn't take him. And yeah, that was that that was that was the only thing he did that year. Yeah, fair. Talking about a very comparable situation. Yeah, yeah. That might be the only thing Brooks does this year. Yeah, exactly.

80th ranked player in data golf rankings. That includes all golf. And isn't it a crazier thing? Like the last Road Rider Cup was less than two years ago. Three of the US team were reigning major champions on that team. Brooks Koepke, Brian Harmon, and Wyndham Clark. And we're talking about a situation where none of them are even close to the team this time.

Well, Scottie's going to have three of the majors going in. So he'll just... My point is on those three, like just how quickly they've kind of fallen off the radar. And my point on that too would be, Jamie Jamie is like where you can get yourself trapped in on some of this stuff. Like Jimmy Walker, I mean, it didn't end up hurting them in 2016, but I think he went from 29th to 4th, if I remember right, when he won the PGA in 2016. It didn't end up mattering, but it was like, dude, I mean, it wasn't even the conversation

before he won one tournament. Then all of a sudden it's like, yeah, I bet you're going to play like three months from now, you're going to play great in match play. It just, you can get trapped in this environment of not, you know, getting guys on your team that you don't want. But anyway, it's really funny. Like Brooks is nine spots behind Bubba in the standings. 20 spots behind Bryce Garnett. Uh, 20 spots behind Bryce Garnett. Very limited on events. He can earn points. He's 34 spots behind Zach Johnson. CJ in the top 10 this year.

What do you do if Zala Taurus goes out and falls out? That would be a welcome sight. That would be a thrill. That would be a thrill. Way in. I think one of the things with the US team is they don't, this is one of my, this is why I'm pro max if he's like, does anything almost. Who's the, who are the lock, who's the guy in the locker room that's like, Hey, I'm, I guess you have JT there. But when I think back to 2016, I remember Phil saying, hey, Spieth is like the guy at for the US, like in these like in these events over the next decade or whatever.

And now that's kind of like, oh, is he going to be on the team? Is he not? And I think Homo is kind of that guy. JT, I guess, would be that guy if and I think he will be on the team. But you look at the top of like, is Xander the guy? Like Europe has this very clear like like, Ram and Rory, like, we're the guys. You guys follow us, and we're going to...

Before that, it was Westwood and Poulter. We've had guys for the best part of 20 years. Even more to that, Kyle would be like, Ram and Rory don't try to control the room. Again, we're not in the rooms, I don't know this, but they're just the ones who are like, I'm checking my nameplate at the door. Like, I'm Team Europe this week. I'm not Rory, we're not in the rooms. I don't know this, but they're just the ones are like, I'm checking my name plate at the door. Like I'm team Europe this week. I'm not, I'm not Rory. I'm not Rom. Like it's Luke and Dodo's T like, I'm

doing what they say. And then it becomes like, well, shit, if those two guys are just going to follow these guys like hell yeah, I'm excited to follow them. And like, that's what the US team does not have. That's not how the US burger. 100% agree. Like, I guess I'm just saying when you, when you have this weird hierarchy, you don't know who the, who the team leaders are because guys aren't playing good. They might not even be on the team. It's just a weird dynamic.

Whereas Europe has always had like clear cut leaders that check their pride at the door on Monday. And, uh, and they're, and they're playing good golf, you know, other than Rory in 2021, like that's, they pretty much have always been playing really good golf. And for the U S it's been a little weirder over the last several years. Which also it's, it's gotta be tough for a guy like Scotty or Xander to be vulnerable or check their ego at the door when they've got Bryson, who's like the least self-aware guy on the planet and like, isn't going to operate in that space knowing that, all right,

we're checking our egos at the door and these guys are being vulnerable. You know what I mean? Like, what's the Rodman theory? Like if you've got a good enough core, you can have one crazy person. Like you can have one total psycho, but you can't have two. I think that was, uh, I thought that was Belichick. Was it Dennis Rodman? I don't know. It could be a good theory. Other way. Yeah, you can, you can control one, but you can't control two is interesting. Anyways, we can keep going around in circles. We got it. We got a circle back to where we

started there. Jamie, we haven't, we haven't talked to you in a long time. It's been a long time since what happened in Rome. So I was first in a ratty. He didn't want to speak to me. That's not true at all. I spoke to you immediately after it happened. But it got a lot of backlash. A lot of people not happy with how that all went. I'm just giving I remember walking down. I think it was 16 fairway with Kyle and everybody's just waving their hats in the air. It was like, I

think I was a moment of like, I had no idea the power of social media until that moment. In that exact moment. In your own words, kind of take us back to what happened there. Wow. I mean, where to begin? I mean, you know, I mean, it was a horrific couple of days, just absolute dogs abuse I got on social media. And I think, you know, a fundamental misunderstanding from a lot of people that a lot of people were sort of saying how much I must love making myself front and center of this story. And any good journalist knows you never want to become the story. You never want it to be about you.

And information came to me on the Thursday afternoon that there was a little bit of a disagreement in the US team room about being paid to be there. And that had caused a little bit of tension. Like any good journalist, you don't just go with that. You have to double source, triple source the story the same way as when I'd broken the story a year earlier of Henrik Stenson being stripped of the Ryder Cup captaincy because he was going to go off to live. That wasn't on one source.

I made sure that two or three people had told me that before I was ready to go with that. And yeah, sorry, like you said, you're never really sure. Sometimes you, you sort of uncover a story like this and you think, and you think this is massive and instead of just sort of fizzles out and goes nowhere. And then some stories just grow legs and become these absolute behemoths. And that's what this one did. Like you said, I was walking down the 18th and 50,000 people are waving their caps in the air and I'm thinking, I want the ground to open up and swallow me

here. And I did this and then there's a fight in the parking lot and I'm thinking I was kind of the cause of all that. And I barely slept that Saturday night. I made a beeline for the European, one of the European press guys on Sunday. And I said, I feel like the PJ Willard of this Ryder Cup, does everyone in that team room hate me? And they're like, absolutely not.

They're fully focused on the job and, and blah, blah, blah. But, you know, that in the weeks that followed the story was sort of more came out in the wash. And Michael Bamberger had that article a week later about the fact that Patrick Canley had been overheard saying in the tea box that, yeah, I'm not wearing a hat in this and paid to. And then a few weeks later, I think Lucas Glover did a podcast where he said he had spoken independently to people on that team who said that there had been a rift created, a bit of tension created because one or two of the guys felt they should be paid to be there. But for me, that's what that story was always about. That story was always about being paid to be at a Ryder Cup.

And I never at any occasion sort of criticized that. I just said, this is why, this is perhaps one of the reasons why the US aren't performing where they're anywhere close to their talent levels. And the thing about social media is, you know, one tweet can be read and interpreted anyway whatsoever. And especially for Americans reading that tweet, all they've got to go on is the tweet. Now anybody watching Sky Sports News throughout that day will have seen I did multiple live crosses where I'm able to flesh things out a bit more.

I'm able to talk about the fact this is nothing new. In 1999, Mark O'Meara and Tiger Woods and David Duvall asked whether they should be paid to be at the Ryder Cup. Before that, Seve, Mr. Ryder Cup, had suggested there should be pay as well. So I was able to flesh out the story more when I was doing live television crosses, but black and white words on a page or on a phone,

on an iPad, wherever you're reading that tweet, can be interpreted any way you want. So if I have one regret from that whole situation, it's probably the use of the word fractured in that tweet because I think fractured is a very emotive word. I don't necessarily think it was a fractured team room. I do think it created detention in the team room. And I do think there was a disagreement between some players about whether they should be paid or not. But you know, it was when you have Zach Johnson sitting in a press conference

and tearing apart your integrity as a journalist and Steve Stricker taking to Twitter to like literally at me in a tweet and create this pile on that was really difficult to deal with. I'm not on Twitter anymore. I haven't been on Twitter for almost a year now. And it's been the happiest year of my life. But sometimes you've got to put your head above a carpet as a journalist when you uncover a story like this. Would I do it all over again? I'm not really sure I would because of just how poisonous it got and people demanding that I got sacked from Sky when I knew my bones, that everything I'd said was true. And I think the vindication was at one point on Sunday, a fairly high profile member of the PGA of America took me to one side and just said, look, everything you've said is

absolutely spot on. So keep fighting the good fight and don't let the bastards grind you down basically. But it was, yeah, it was, it was a really difficult sort of 24, 48 hours that followed that. I think it's come out in the wash that there was more truth in it than truth, but yeah, it was a strangel situation. Yeah. Jamie, I think going back to it, I think the word rift or the word fracture is probably. Yeah. Where it left some subjectiveness in there of guys can attack that, that were in the room and say, Hey, like I think, I think someone,

I think one of them said, we're the most United team ever. And it's like, well, I fucking know that wasn't the case either. Like, you know, and, and then. But also the number, the most United united US team ever might not even compare to European totally. But also it's like we're going into that. Because I heard all the same things you did. And, you know, between the Bamberger piece with him saying that Cantlay said that on the T box to Julius Mason, who's the head of comms for the PGA of America. And then various high level people after the fact kind of corroborating it. You know, and Max, Max did the same thing on our pod. You know, afterwards he was like, Tron, like,

like I didn't know what I was talking about. I was like, dude, like it's these, these same two guys didn't show up to the scouting trip in advance of this tournament. And there was a disagreement about, you know, the full swing cameras being in there. And ZJ, you know, had a like their team bonding thing was Kelly James coming into the team room to do a fucking rap like the night before and everybody rolled their eyes and like, what are we doing here? And just, it's just like very, like all these little, these little instances that just added up to like,

man, like things just aren't flowing here, right? And guys showing up and not knowing who they're playing with or not having any idea why they're playing with that guy. And it seems like all these little things added up. And then you've got the Cantlay payment thing, which was a very real thing of like, they didn't sign the release papers or they didn't sign the, you know, all the stuff until, you know, kind of the last minute. So I think all that stuff adds up to like, cool, like you can look at that from a subjective lens, but

objectively, like four or five of these things happened. And that's the reality. You know, that's, that's, that's the objective reality of things. So that, and I've definitely been there before where it's like, you have this much depth of a situation and you put it out in this many characters. And it's like, Oh, that's getting interpreted different than what I meant. And it's like the worst cascading feeling imaginable, which I think like this whole thing would have played out very differently.

I'm not, this is not me trying to give you a journalism lesson, but it would be like you're commenting on something. I look, I'm a broadcast journalist and I was on TV so many times that day, as I said, able to flesh out the story, talk about the fight. Well, look, this isn't you players wanting to be paid and blah, blah, blah. And I knew, no, it was no criticism of can't lay. You know, it was just, and people ran with the cap thing because that's, that's funny. Right. Oh, look, he's the only member. And because he's Patrick Cantlay too.

Like he's the most unlikable dude out there. But, you know, people love sort of picking up on the cap thing. I never, I never used the word protest. That was another thing that was attributed to me. Like if you're making a protest, surely then the whole point of a protest is that you make it obvious to people why you're doing it. I never once used the word protest. I just said, he's not wearing a cap because he's not being paid to.

And that's how he feels about the situation. And I know from guys that, I don't know if you guys have it in the States, but in our broadcast, we have the old like the green screen walk ups or players like walk up to the camera and fold their arms, whatever. And we use them as like holograms in the studio. When they were recording those that week, they offered Patrick Cantlay, sorry, in whistling straights this was, they offered Patrick Cantlay like seven different styles of cap or something to wear for this. And the sky guys were like, well, Patrick, every single rest and then other member of the US team is wearing them. Can you just put it on?

So, you know, so it all looks the same. I'm not wearing a cap. Well, if it's about the style, we've got like six different styles. I'm not wearing a cap. Can I, can I make that clear? So that's, that's, you're not doing that because, Oh, it just feels uncomfortable in my head. You're doing that because you obviously feel very strongly about the fact

you're not being paid to wear it. So why should you wear it? And Xander's dad had mouthed off a punch in the lead up to, like he said, the quiet part out loud of like, yeah, it's bullshit that they're not getting paid. We're working on that. You know, I think like what, what is like, again, all clear after the fact, what's going to lead to a shit storm, like was led to it was like, all right. Yo, if you're gonna kind of the old adage of

journalism, like if you're gonna if you're reporting something negative on somebody, giving them a chance to comment, like this whole thing would have made sense in an article that would have included like, I asked for comment from Patrick Cantlay, and he said he denied all this, right, which they did ultimately deny it on the back end, whether that's truthful or not. That context, you know, that might have, if you get that quote, if you get five quotes from that are all denying it in the team room, maybe that stops the report from from even going out because then it becomes that you know, you're going to look like whether true or not again, that you're lying

on this and is it worth a worthwhile story to pursue now when you put it out there and everybody calls you a liar. That's also just entangled into something that's just inherently complicated. And I think it is like you're, again, talking through all like the disconnects in the team room, you're not necessarily wrong to say as a fractured team room, and talking about players wanting to get paid. That doesn't seem like it was wrong either. But if you trying to simplify something into one tweet leads so much

stuff for interpretation, adds ability to throw gasoline on it at a level that's difficult to comprehend to the point where like, I honestly, I've treated Twitter differently since that moment of just like the power of like, whoa, what can catch on is like, this is just a risky, risky platform. So what's the upside, right? Yeah, that was a, that was a very, I think I wrote about this, but that was a very normal sport moment of like a tweet. I mean, I know it was more than this Jamie, but a tweet about a hat up ended a hundred million dollar event. Right?

15 months earlier, I'd broken the story about the, in the current European rider cap, cup captain was going to be stripped of the captaincy. Something that has never happened in the history of the rider cup before because he was going to go and join this hugely controversial new golf league. And I thought this is going to explode. And I think that got like retweeted a couple of hundred times.

Really? That that and that's what it was like. It transformed. And this is what I think we all joked about this, but the fact that the US needed that to like rally around and to get behind was like, yeah, it's sort of the point here. I will say as well, like the head of Sky Sports Golf,

I don't think was like, oh, I can't believe you've done this. This is kind of, this has become this huge story that's overshadowed the entire Ryder Cup. And I said to him on Sunday night, you should be glad I tweeted that because it made people watch on Sunday and actually made it interesting on Sunday because otherwise it was going to be an absolute just romp. So the studio shows on Saturday night or about as highly rated as you get to, but yeah, it's truly like one of those things of like, yo, that's just your opinion, dude. And it's like, all right, well, you know what, like, I'm pretty steadfast in that opinion. And then on top of it, you've got Zach Johnson cussing out the patrons at Augusta and then lying

about it on the back end. You know, it's like, that's, hey, man, like, cool. Like that was Zach Johnson's opinion that he didn't say that stuff. But, you know, that just goes to show you what, what that's worth there. So I'm so, so, so glad I don't have to listen to any more ZJ press conferences. It was, I don't know. You couldn't really say it in the, I guess you could have said it, but it felt weird to say it in the moment. It was brutal. Like just the awkwardness and the, it was, it was tough. It kind of makes me wonder like how his career was so successful. Cause like, you know, it

was built on guts and guile and being greater than the sum of his parts. And then his captaincy was just like the complete opposite of just like, it was like one of the least impressive things I've ever seen. I've had some guys from Netflix tell me as well, that whole scene in from full swing in the house in Hoylake and the whole scene around, you know, the picks and calling up Keegan to deliver the bad news and calling up the other guys to deliver the good news. They were like, we made Zach Johnson look the best we possibly could have with what we kept him. Like you should have seen the stuff that was on the cutting room floor. If we really wanted to stick the knife in, we could have been a lot worse, but we actually tried to paint him in the very best way possible. And he still

came across appallingly. Which is kind of the problem with full swing to begin with. We're just getting kind of a whitewashed version of disconnected events almost. So anyways, well, I'd, I'd started to open up an old wound Jamie. No, fortunately the thing is, as you guys have seen, I don't think I've seen Tron in the flesh for a long time, but you guys both saw me in Augusta. Fortunately, I'm about three stone lighter than I was in Rome two years ago. I've gone from a 37 inch waist to a 32 inch waist. I don't know if that's a more American language. So yeah, I, so New Yorker wouldn't recognize me as basing my point.

And then Jamie, the light, like we had a, we had kind of a, a tension or a fracture, uh, online. This was probably the last time you were, you were really on X, the everything app was, was Pinehurst was, you know, we were kind of, we had a disagreement over Rory, Rory, Rory. Yeah. Which is quite a topical subject given he did exactly the same thing at BGA championship. I liked Porter's words, but dereliction of his responsibility as one of the greats. That was kind of how I framed it a little bit after Pinehurst. And I totally got what you were saying as far as, you know, hey, give the guys some space. He's just had the

most crushing defeat of his life. I think some of it was, hey, go shake Bryson's hand. You don't even have to talk to the media. You don't have to peel out of the parking lot. But I think just as we've seen it, skipping four days in a row when there's something super newsworthy with the driver and just generally speaking, when you won the last major and it seems like there is something owed there. And you've been the guy talking about how golfers need to be more open and transparent with the media and the fans and, hey, I've just been to an F1 race. I saw how they do it. And those guys have a lot more demands and asks on their time on site. The

least we can do is meet with the media. And it seems like he's kind of thrown that out the window over the last nine to 12 months. Is that fair to say? Or is that- Sounds like you guys have team room problems. Oh man. Yeah.

I mean, I agree. I wrote that during, or at the end of, toward the end of toward the end of cool hollow of, I mean, I think Roar, like we've all praised Roy for innumerable things. But I did think it was an obligation responsibility. I don't get, I don't the whole like you got to talk every day. I don't, man, like I don't think that I don't think you have to talk every day. Middle fingers towards like the entire media.

Absolutely not. I'm not talking or, or, you know, I think, I think some of it too, like if anything, it makes it a bigger story. Yes. Yes. It works. It is a complete non-story, which is what people need to need to realize. Like a nonconforming driver is really not that big a deal.

So by not talking about it, you do make it a bigger story than it is. That's what it doesn't even feel like it's about the nonconforming driver. But I also don't know what it's about. No, exactly. It's a strange one. You're right. We praise him and we all love the guy. We praise him enough.

It's only right that we should pull him up on things as well. And I don't think it's a great look. And I was disappointed. He didn't say something on Sunday, certainly, to sort of look back and say, yeah, you know, it wasn't my week. What can you do? That's literally all you have to say. Yep. Otherwise now it's a story and it's like, it's not like it's the media's, I don't know. It's just, it was like going out of his way almost, which was so like, yeah, bizarre and tie, you know, like, and I just go back to like, see what you want about Tiger, but like Tiger,

Tiger was pretty good about, you know, popping in and saying stuff like that, or, you know, going way back through the history of golf. It's like, all right, man, like you're truly one of the greats. And the reason that people like you is because you take the high road and you do the right things. You know, and you're giving people ammo to shit on you for this. I think there's no better way to conclude this pod porter than you and I confirming and reporting fractured team room in Europe. And you can take that to the bank right here. I just received word also that one of my children has vomited just outside my door.

One of your many, many children. You need to go clean that up. So two hours, this will not be the last two hours we do with this group, because this is an absolute blast to do every single time. It is my fault that the delay has been this bad, but honestly, I've struggled to get really excited for this Ryder Cup. But you guys have helped me get there, at least a little bit. There's some interesting stories. I'm so glad to clear my name 18 months on as well. Thank you all for being here. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you back here soon. Cheers.