No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 157: Ryder Cup Stock Report with Job Fickett

Episode Date: July 30, 2018

Our European Tour correspondent Job Fickett joined to take a look at current Ryder Cup standings, who are the locks, the captain’s picks as of today, and who has the edge as of the end... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 157: Ryder Cup Stock Report with Job Fickett appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most! to bring me down from when I get too high, if I get too excited about the upcoming Ryder Cup, you're here to remind me that Europe has a strong team, is that correct? I'm here to remind you that Europe has a strong team, but I would also like to make it known

that I am not turncoat-tron, and I will be pulling for the United States team. I was born in the United States, and even though I like the European tour, I like the European team a lot, I think this is gonna be be a really good one actually. Yeah, you are the voice of reason, I guess you could say. I'll take that.

Okay. We're going to talk a lot about the point standings, Radar Cup picks, the captain's picks. We're going to talk about the golf course, a lot of the dynamics, team dynamics, pairings. We're going to, I think we're going to try to tackle it all. We did some research for this. We got some numbers prepared. But first, we're going to to tackle it all. We did some research for this, we got some numbers prepared, but first we're gonna start with the European team. I wanna know from you, you're looking at the standings,

you kind of wrote something back in March, even kind of locking in about eight guys on the team, made your guess on who the captains picks are. How much has that really changed since what you wrote in March? And what would you change about it if you could? Well, I think obviously I took a lot of flack at the time for not picking Casey as a locks straight away.

And that was fair criticism. It really hasn't changed a whole lot though. I mean, some of the guys that were locks early on really haven't moved around a lot. Sergio and Stenson have kind of dropped down and obviously Molinari is the big one that's jumped way up to the top of the standings. But as far as the stalwarts, Rose, McElroy, Fleetwood obviously has even played better over the summer. Ron, Noren, those are the guys that really we're going to expect to see a lot of points

come from the European team. We got some interesting questions to ask. Like, I'm just gonna do it, I'm gonna ask it out loud. I think this is the case, but is Sergio Garcia going to make the Ryder Cup team? Probably. He probably is, but, you know, we talked about this a little bit. Sergio Garcia has not made a cut in the United States

since the players where he finished 70th. He missed a cut at the US Open. He missed a cut at the Open Championship, which is obviously not in the United States since the players where he finished 70th. He missed the cut at the US Open. He missed the cut at the Open Championship, which is obviously not in the United States, but aside from a T-12 in Germany and a T-8 at actually LaGolf National and France for whatever that's worth, he hasn't had a good summer. He hasn't really had a great year. he hasn't had a good summer he hasn't really had a great year and uh... he would be and he's and he needs a pic right now so it's it's gonna be very it's pretty come probably come down to the wire i think fortunate enough for times to be on you can look at it as a positive or a

negative i think his decisions are pretty easy if you look at it right now right so if you're if you're in right now walk us through so we in the world standings are a start with the european points the European points, Molinari, Rose, Hatton, and Fleetwood are your leaders. Now looking at these points, Hatton had a commanding lead back when we initially started looking at this. It's a little more interesting now. So walk us through how the European tour points work. How do you qualify on points for the European tour team? So there's two ways, and this is new way that that they decided to do it. This year kind of in a reaction, I guess, to the year or the United States side task force,

task force. So there's two ways. There's there's the European point standings and then there's the world point standings and then there's four captain's picks. So 12 players on the team, the four best European standing, the four best world standing, and then obviously the four captain's picks and the four best world standing that aren't the four best from Europe. So it's correct. Yeah. So, so, so right. So the way that they did is there's an acknowledgement from the European tour and from, you know, the Ryder Cup that some of the best players on the European team were not kind of getting their due because they weren't playing in Europe all the time. And this is kind of like the Casey rule for lack of a better way of putting it, but Paul Casey, Justin Rose, some of these guys play primarily in the United States or the majority in the United States, and they needed a way to kind of functionally rank those guys and the stronger fields, frankly, that they're playing against. So you can accumulate points based on the money that you win, and there's multipliers

on the European side, and then you also can accumulate points on the world side. And another interesting thing that they did this year was for the Rolex series events, which are the kind of the big national opens, there weren't any European points available anywhere else in the world for those weeks. You could only earn points in Europe for those weeks and they had $7 million to get the guys to stay in Europe. And that's kind of like the big wild card as far as some of the bigger moves we've seen. Molenari jumping up, you know, obviously even before he won the Open Championship, he was

in because he won the, you know, at Wentworth and it was worth, you know, 1.5 points, and also, you know, $7 million per. So, which I'm in on, I like that. I think, and me too. Once that, once this, like, kind of the spring, rolling the back half of the spring into the summer, is the European tour season for me. Any flexing they can do on the PGA tour, like all of those events are infinitely more interesting than anything that happens on the PGA tour.

Now I actually like, on the PGA tour, it's fun to watch some of the kind of guy, the web graduates get all the starts that they want. I mean, the first half of the year, they really struggle to get into events and you know, with guys like the top guys taking off more weeks in the summer, then they're able to get into a lot of it.

I enjoy following that, but. I think that's a perfect way of putting it. And, you know, the European tour is really only in Europe during the summer, then they're able to get into a lot of it. I enjoy following that, but. I think that's a perfect way of putting it. And the European tour is really only in Europe during the summer. I mean, otherwise they're all over the world and some of the courses they play are just whack. And so it's a good symbiosis between the PGA tour and the European tour, to like you said, let some of the guys that are fighting just to kind of

keep their card or get their card. And then also you see a some of the guys they're fighting just to kind of keep their card or get their card And then also you see a lot of the big American stars go over and play like in the Scottish open friendship So it's worth noting we're recording this Sunday morning July 29th a lot can happen between now and the end of the year I shouldn't have to have that as a disclaimer But also any points we're referencing the the Canadian open not no events from this week are going to be counted in what we're saying. This is going to come out tomorrow, but I don't think one day of sanding shift is going to really, really change things.

Now, next week, it might, on the US side, we're going to get to that. So, anyway, so, Tirol Hatton has 3.8 million points on the European points. Let's Tommy Fleetwood has 3.4. Now, Norton and Rory sit at 3.3 and 3.1 million, which I know there's a lot of numbers, but they're within shouting range of knocking both Hatton and Fleetwood out on the European points list. Is and if if that happens is Hatton is sitting there nicely at 220, but I want to just talk about Teorohatton from the beginning. Back in March, he was far and away.

The leader on European points looked like a lock for this team. Is he still a lock for the European Ryder Cup team? Yeah, I would say that he probably is. And, you know, it's... There's no probably with the word lock. Lock means... Is he a lock? It or not? It sounds like no. Is he answer? Which is fine. Yeah, maybe the answer is no. He's a favorite. He's a favorite. Yeah, he controls his own destiny. Yeah., and you know, obviously he's got two big events coming up the on the state side. He's gonna be at Firestone and in the PGA and you know, he can play his way into being a lock and

he's close. He's in and he really would have to drop off to really fall out on points. I mean, he's there in European points and world points, but it just is interesting that he might end up losing that huge lead that he had on European points. And so that's Moanaari, Rose, Hatten, and Fleetwood on European points and then the next four that are getting in on world points,

Rory, Rom, Noren, and Casey. Now Matthew Fitzpatrick is pretty close to Casey on the world points list, and I'm not going to get into the nuts and bolts of how this is calculated. But the ones just out on world points are Fitzpatrick, Sergio, Ian Polter, and Eddie Pepperel. And then there's Russell Knox, Rafa Cabrerabeo, Henry Stenson, Tuorbaugh and Olsen, Ross Fisher.

That's kind of the guys that are first out really when it comes to points. After we have, let's assume those eight that are in or in, I don't think there's going to be, I think if Matthew Fitzpatrick passes Paul Casey, I think Paul Casey is getting captains, but he's going to be on this team, which I still don't understand how Casey's is this far down in the rankings, but that's a different topic. Anyways, who are your four captains picks sitting here right now for the European team assuming those eight are in?

Sergio, Stenson, Polter, and probably Rafa Cabrera-Bello but I would say any of those three other than Polter are maybe interchangeable. And I think that Sergio, not trending really in a great direction, Stenson's health might be an issue. I mean, he's got an elbow injury. It's kind of been plaguing him. Rafa Cabrera Beos probably the best of the,

kind of the best of the rest other than Polter. Polter's record speaks for itself and he's gonna be on this team. Rafa Cabrera Beo played really well in his debut in 2016. Which by the way, Pulters' record is 12 and 4 in the Radar Cup. I knew it was good, but I remember he was not great in 2014. His record is 12, 4 and 2. As much as we rip on that guy, my God, that is the...

He's an animal. Ridiculous Radar Cup record. However, however, I want him on the team. I want him to go down in flames. I think, I really think it might happen too. It could, you know, he just, he just turns into a different person on the greens particularly. I mean, he just makes putts from everywhere. And there's nothing more annoying in match play than watching your opponent be out of position.

He's not a great ball striker. He's prone to, you know, some hausle adjacent shots occasionally. There's nothing more annoying than seeing your competitor be out of the hole and then bury like a 30 footer for part to have. I thought it interesting that Ram was on the podcast back during the players week. And he said, obviously, Polter's going to be on this team

and Polter's played well since then to further validate that. But I was just like, wow, even at that point, the European team guys are like, yeah, he's on this team. He's a heart and soul guy. I mean, he's a locker room leader. He's got more experience than most of the other guys on the team. Guys will rally around him. And that's where I think we can get lost in a lot of questions

we get. Who is Jim Furek going to pick? Who's Thomas Bjorn going to pick? A lot of the captain selections come down to the players. 100%. And it's, you know, they had this figure head that it makes the final decision. But I think mostly on the US side,

the assistant captains are actually stronger voices than the captain is. The captain is like the CEO and does all the media and is the facing, I guess the the face of the team, but the input from the assistant captain is like, tiger like overruled Davis love on some pairings and stuff in the 2016 writer captain. It just, all the pressure comes down on that main captain to make the right decisions around yourself with the right captains, assistant captains, and know which advice to listen

to, but it's not a one-man show like it was in the Tom Watson days. I was just going to say Tom Watson is maybe the best example of not listening to your assistant captains, not listening to your players, and maybe Hal Sutton is kind of in that same vein where if you delegate, and you should, if you delegate to the guys who are kind of in the mix, and especially with Tiger and Phil, I mean, they really have their fingers on the pulse of what the guys in the team room are going to want. And I think that's a good take. So a topic of discussion that I don't really hear anymore, and I jokingly asked this to

Thomas Björn. You'll see this in our video work about Germany that's coming out soon. But jokingly asked him if he was going to select a French player for the team, because it's kind of been a storyline leading up to this that, you know, they're playing in France for the first time. And do you, I mean, essentially Steven Gallagher was a captain's pick in for Scotland in 2014 because he is Scottish and it's like, are you going to take a French player so the local fans have someone to support and root for? I don't think that's really even a question at this point. Is it? It's not and it's disappointing. I would say

that Alex Levy probably had the best chance and his personality would have been great. I mean, he's a fiery guy and a really good player, a really good ball striker. And he won earlier this year and kind of looked like he was really trending in the right direction after I think he won in China. Regardless, he has really kind of fallen off and he's playing well this week. I was just taking a look at the leaderboard and he's in 20th place in Germany at the Porsche open, but I mean he's Yeah, he's not even he's like 23rd on the European list, I think and Simon Barker had a great question He said should Bjorn pick Levy for a wild card not only because he's French but has Torsoss in bucket loads He is so animated that it would be just absolute entertainment.

And for that alone, he should be selected. Let's remind ourselves, this is an exhibition. This is for entertainment as much as badly as we, you know, I'm rooting for the US to win and take this very seriously. Like, this is an exhibition. He was also born in the United States. He was born in California to French parents and has, you know, moved back to France and lived their most of his life

But I think that that would also kind of be like a little interesting could he be on the west he Well, I think maybe that might be the in Furex selects Levy doesn't play him for the first two days sends him out in singles when he needs a rally Behind them to get the French fans behind it playing for're playing for the red, white, and blue France. What do you want? I actually kind of like that. All right, so what else are you seeing kind of, I don't know, you threw out the name Matthew Fitzpatrick. Eddie Pepperall is kind of a guy that's been on the rise here lately. Is there, if you look at it now, I think Bjorn doesn't have,

the bullets that last spot. And I think Cabrerarabe we would both agree that RCB has that last spot as of now. Is there anyone really knocking down the door there that is changing your mind about anything? Two guys. So first of all, this take is going to be hot and it's a problem because anybody that follows the golf Twitterati knows how much Eddie Pepperel's beloved on Twitter because he speaks his mind, he's funny, he's got a beautiful dog that likes to show off the dogs junk all the time. But he's 10th in the European standings, he's 12th in the world standings, he finished, you know, second at the Scottish Open, he looked like he was potentially going to win

the Open Championship, he's trending in the right direction. He won earlier this year. You know, Pepperel's right there and I think you could very easily make a case for him. The other guy is Torbjorn Olsen, who, you know, Thomas Bjorn being Danish, Olsen's being, you know, there's not been a lot of Danes. You know, he's eighth in the European standings, sixteenth in the World standings. He looked really, you know, quite's athened the European standings 16th in the world standings. He looked really, you know, quite good at the open championship Early on the Sunday broadcast. They should I'm knocking down the flag. You can see that he's, you know, really good ball striker is probably under performed in his career overall, but

You know, he's another guy that could have another top 10 or top five and maybe even make the team on points. I mean, from the European side. So yeah, and I think it's important to just note that at this point, you know, we can lock in what the four picks would be right now, but it really doesn't mean anything, right? There's so much that can happen in these coming weeks. So it's important to at least look at important as a relative word. We're just sitting around here talking about golf. We have no say in what goes on, but it's important to kind of see who's sniffing around and with a late charge, could make things really interesting. I think it's maybe a little bit more interesting on the US side than is the European side, just

because really, and I'm going to get into some numbers here, like the drop off once you get to you pass like Europe's like top 15 players is steep. Correct. And it is, it's always been the same. And I'm not arguing that it should be different, but Europe is very fortunate. This is like a 12 person event, I think, because if you put in the top 12 Americans versus the top 12 Europeans,

it's gonna be a very good match in the Ryder Cup. If you took the next 12 Americans and the next 12 Europeans, bloodbath, it would be a absolute massacre. But that's not what this competition is. Anyways, just wanna get that point in there. Let me shout out Russell Knox real fast, too, just so that I don't get an angry text from Tron and, you know, whenever he listens to this, you know, and Knox, Jack's Beach guy,

you know, adopted Jacksonville University dolphins, you know, and Knox won the Scottish open. He's ninth in the European point, so, you know, Knox is another guy to keep a look out for that not a lot of people are talking about, but I would say he'd probably be third for me after Pep role in Olsen. What about, I try not to get too deep into this because one, we don't know who's going to be on the team too, it's really hard to guess how they would pair them up once or on the team, but do you have kind of some pairings in mind? I think some of them are kind of no brainers when it comes to the Euros, but what are you kind of seeing for potential partnerships lined up?

For ForSums, Molinarian Noren is going to be menacing. Ball striking is, and if they're both putting the way that they've put it well, you know, the past three months for Molinarian, but those are two guys that are going to be in the fairway on every single hole and it's going to be devastating to watch guys that, you know, just ball strike it to death. They don't miss shots. They don't miss shots. They're always below the hole, the air, the fat part of the green, those two.

I kind of like Fleetwood and Rose maybe. I know that Stenson and Rose have been their ultimate pairing, but I think Fleetwood and Rose would pair very well. To English guys, none of that necessarily means anything, but I think Fleetwood and Rose would pair very well. Two English guys, none of that necessarily means anything, but I think they kind of have similar personalities, they kind of roll with the punches, and that might be a good pairing, maybe for four ball. Two guys that can make a lot of birdies. Peperal and Polter, if Peperal makes the team.

I'm like, oh God. That would be an interesting one. Peperal, just shout out out to Eddie and we talked to him a little bit in Abu Dhabi Mir there. He said, if I don't make this Ryder Cup team, I'm probably gonna attend as a fan. Like that's how excited he is. One about this golf course.

The pros rave about this golf course. I think it's fine. It's cool. It's okay. But these guys absolutely seem to love it. Pro's love water. I'm not really sure why, but they absolutely love courses with water. Anyways, if he got, he probably just gives no fucks about anything. Correct. Like he, I don't know what his behavior would be like during a Ryder Cup.

I don't see him as like a super excited guy, but like, he is one of the more interesting characters if he actually gets out there. I'm rooting for that. I think, you know, putting him, and that's kind of like why putting him with polter, yeah, would be a great, you know, the kind of the Yine Yang, they kind of maybe balance each other out a little bit, or you could see polter, you know, peprol kind of feed off polter and kind of get fired up, which I think would be cool to see. So you're feeling, what are you, I guess, what you're overall feeling on the strength of the European team as we sit here, three months out.

Two months out. Two months out. Yeah, a little over two months out. I mean, I would say I know that they're probably not going to be favored, at least on the betting line. I think that they're, I mean, the one thing that we keep going back to and, you know, history is what it is, but the United States isn't won in Europe since 1993.

And it's not like, you know, Colin Montgomery said earlier this week in his press conference that he thought that this was maybe the strongest European side ever. I went back and looked at maybe like the last, you know, 10 teams and he might be right about that. I mean, at least, you know, usually where it falls off very badly for the Europeans is the last four or five guys, sometimes the last six guys. And there's just really not that big of a fall off now. Yeah, it's definitely tightened. I mean, they have eight to nine, like really, really strong

ones, right? And for the course of team play, your weaker, you're quote unquote weaker links can be hidden a little bit better. And, and that's, that's kind of where they've made hay in the past is they've dominated the team sessions and the US has done really well in the singles. The, the exception being 2012 or everything flipped in that regard. Right. But for the most part, you know, they, they've just done so well in team play, particularly in ForSums. We've seen that shift a little bit in the, in the past years in 2014.

I mean, they just destroyed us in ForSum. I think there were seven, they won seven of them when we have to one of them, which is just a disgrace. Yes. And then the first ForSum session last year, it's the last Ryder Cup, the US swept them. So I don't know if necessarily you can go off a ton of trends. I don't know how much that means. I think Ryder Cup only occurs every other year.

And we look at like a trend as if it means something, but really the sample sizes are just so damn small. They're small. And you know, it's, it's, I mean, the last five Ryder cups for all the European dominance, the Europe's one, three, the US's one, too. Yeah, it's a selective cutoff that I chose there. But like, oh, six and oh four, we're just disgraceful US team.

Correct. They combine to earn, I think, 19 points. You don't like Chris Riley on the Ryder Cup team? Hey, listen, Brett Wetterick is not walking through that door. I mean, go back and look at those teams. I do it. I've talked about this on this podcast. Why do you hate yourself so much?

It is just, well, it's a good reminder of where we came from. That's right. I mean, this is not the Ryder it's a good reminder of where we came from. That's right. I mean, this is not the Ryder Cup team. And that's where everyone says, you know, there's so many, you know, look at the world golf rankings. And then people are like, well, the US has been favored in like every Ryder Cup. And they keep losing.

How many Ryder Cubs was the US really favored in that they lost? 12, they were definitely favored. Yes. And they should have won. Yes. That was just, I almost throw that one out because it's such an outlier, which, but oh, four, they definitely were failing. Do you have to throw a Brookline if that one was fine?

Sure. That's fine. I mean, I'm not really going back to 99. There's not a lot. Tiger and Phil might be the only consistencies between that team and this one in Sergio, I guess. But I mean, 2002, I doubt they were the favorites at the Belfrey. I could be wrong. Oh, four and oh six.

I sure hope they weren't the favorites and lost 18 and a half to nine and a half. Oh, eight. They were actually the underdogs, I think, and I mean, they had been Curtis and boo weekly on that team and they blew out the Europeans. Azinger was making them cut down limbs of trees so that JB home wouldn't hit them off the team. Come on. 2010. I mean, it was just 14 and a half, 13 and a half rider cup. I don't know. I could call it was just if 14 and a half 13 and a half writer cup I don't know I could call it a tie but like that's not whoever was favorite doesn't really matter in that regard And I don't think the US was a big favorite if they were favorite in that one and 14 they were definitely not the favorite at Glen Eagles and 16 they were and they were on the one so I don't know

I don't I don't put a whole lot into I think more times you line up You know the team that's better on paper is probably going to win more often than not. And that's not like a bold thing to say. But it's, you really can. And we're going to get into some numbers here. If you're ready to start shifting into, into you as here. We'll do it.

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So go to TravisMatthew.com and today and look for the hybrid shorts designated by their Prestige Triple 7 Fabrication. Travis Matthew has got you covered for this summer. Now back to our conversation on the Ryder Cup with Job Fickett. So as of right now, you mentioned the US is the betting favorite. US is one to one to win, and Europe is six to five. So, I mean, it's very, very, very close, but US overall is the favorite.

It means absolutely nothing when balls go in the air. And I'm gonna dig in this in numbers here that, again, I'm gonna address before this comes out. Once the ball's going in the there, none of this matters. All right? You were killing me early on for hedging so much. There's no problem. No, no, no, no, levels. I'm gonna try to break them down level by level. One, the bias towards Europeans

in the official World of Ranking so it's been very well documented. Two, very selective endpoints for him to use top 20 because the US has more guys in the top five, in the top 10, in the top 15, the Euros have more in the top 20, and Americans have more in the top 25, and in the top 30. I wish you more than the top 25 and the top 30.

I wish you guys could see this right now because Sali is basically the Elmo fire gift right now. So that is the official World Golf rankings that already favor the euros. Now, when I dug into the Sagger in rankings, Golf Week Sagger in rankings, which are, in my mind, an infinitely better measure, more of a power ranking. So people want the official World Golf rankings to be a power rankings and they're not. They're sticky. Like, your results from a year ago could matter. And the point system is very messed up, which has been good to do.

Yeah, European torque is to designate which events they want to be, yes, worth bigger points. It's a free crack giveaway for official World Golf ranking points. So, um, the Sagan rankings is a reflection of how you are doing against your peers. It's a free crack giveaway for official World Golf Ranking points. The Sagan rankings is a reflection of how you are doing against your peers. It's what I would want the official World Golf Ranking to be. It's a factor in your ranking against the top 10 players in the world, the top 50 players, the top 100, and your overall ranking against all other players. So it's like one-on-one versus you tee it up against 155 other guys. You have a win-loss record up for that week. If you beat them all, you have 155 wins and zero losses.

So that's how it works. Now when you break down the rankings in the sagrants, the, like on the top five, there's three Americans in one euro. Justin Rose is the number one player in that. And I'm fine with that. I think that he has definitely earned that spot. I would agree. In the top 10, there's five Americans for euros. Now it starts to get interesting. In the top 15, there's 10 Americans in four euros. In the top 20, there's 12 Americans, seven euros. And skipping down a little bit,

top 30, 18 Americans, eight euros. Top 50, 32 Americans, 10 euros. So back to my earlier point of how the Europeans are very benefiting a bit from this kind of having a cutoff at 12 people. It's very interesting that that next level they don't have those guys really knocking down the door to be on the team and the US may have like too many guys kind of choose from. Right. I mean guys, you know, and we'll get into this, but, you know, guys like Kizner, you know, that looked really good at the president's cup and and paired well with Phil. And, you know, not even really that close. No, he's really not. But the point of all

that is to say that, you know, there's 10 euros in the top 50 of the Sagan rankings. As of right now, if you're building this team, there would be two guys that aren't the top 50 players in the world that would be on the European tour team. So again, you can hide those guys. It's not that big of a deal. It's more about your strength at the top. And if your top players are better than the other teams, top players, none of that matters. It's just interesting that the depth is really, really not there in Europe. Now, going back to before the 16 rider cup, I said that the US is gonna win four of the next five rider cups. That was my claim.

Bold take. People didn't love that, as you might imagine. I said, we're gonna rock them in 16. They still like you better than ship, no. Thank you, thank you for your time. That I think people had confused me and ship me a lot on this take, but I said, we're gonna rock them in 16.

We rocked them. 18, I think is gonna be close, and I think is still gonna be close. I'm not gonna rock them in 16, we rocked them. 18, I think it's gonna be close, I thought it was gonna be close, and I think it is still gonna be close. I'm not gonna sit here and say the US is gonna dominate this at all, I still think the US is gonna win, but it's gonna be very close in my mind. But I think the US is gonna win in 22 and 24.

I think once you get past this year, and we're gonna kinda, we talked a little bit about it, but it's fair to maybe ask the question this point of Stenson and Sergio are past their prime. We chat about this a little bit. I mean, Sergio and Stenson are both over 40. Stenson's got an elbow injury, that's kinda nagging him a little bit.

And Sergio has undergone some severe, not severe, but life changes, you know, you got married, has a kid. Finally, one of major, it's, yeah. I don't wanna question his desire, but I think it's priorities are definitely it's a dip and it's will come back up as you know The sleepless nights go away from having a young child that's it's a different conversation, but I Again the counter to that point I just made is well-filled entire all those guys are getting past the prime Well, yeah, the point overall is the US has a ton of guys knocking down the door stable ready to take their place And I'm just not positive that Europe actually I'm quite positive that Europe doesn't have it at that same depth now

All you really need is a couple guys to really break through at the very top level those two guys in this coming here John Rom and Tommy Fleetwood both were not on the rider cup team last go around. Correct. Which scares me a little bit. So, they've gotten these two breakthroughs after that. I'm not, it's too early to say, but I'm not seeing that guy that's going to break through anywhere near to those levels. There's some guys that are really good European players.

I mean, I'm thinking younger guys like Jorge Campio from Spain, I mean Jordan Smith, I mean you would probably like- Just Bear Guard, like- You would lump Fitzpatrick in there, but none of them have won on, you know, the kind of the larger stages yet. I mean, even Fleetwood hasn't won in the United States yet, and, you know, there's only so much that, you know, you can do to really get up you get higher up in the points if You're not finishing in the top 10 top five winning a lot. I mean really wins are probably Overrated except for writer cup points where they're yeah the difference maker. Well, you're right see Mullen are

And that's where yeah, wins are definitely Overrated in evaluating a player's talent now. I think there is a talent in showing you're able to show up and beat every player in the field, right? I mean, but if you look at like the Saggering rate rankings, how often Ricky Fowler beats a ton of top players, it's staggering. I mean, he is without, by any measure, what using those numbers, like a top player in the world, he's often criticized for not winning enough, but it's hard to look at his record against top 10 and top 50 players and think you are not performing at a high level because he

is. Right. Exactly. This is what's going to pull big Randy out of his bedroom up there. But I'm sure he's up there just, you know, grinning his teeth right now. So again, I'm going too far into the sags, but some other stats that jumped out to me that the Americans have 13 guys that have a better than 50% winning percentage against players in the top 50. That's kind of, that's crazy.

The Europeans have seven. There are nine US guys with a better than 40% rank against the top 10, and there's six European guys. And if you lower that number to 30%, so there's 18 US guys with a better than 30% winning percentage against top 10 players, and there's eight Europeans. And those nine guys and those 18 guys, I mean, a lot of, I would probably assume that some of those nine guys,

one of them maybe would be Fina, who probably isn't on the team right now. I mean, there's some guys that are very high up in the Sager and rankings that may not even be on the US team. Correct. And so it's worth noting that there's only five guys in the world with a winning record against the top 10. Those guys are Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Justin Thomas,

Ricky Fowler, and Jordan Spieth. I just find that's that interesting. I mean, of all the, that's consistency, right? I mean, when guys go out and miss cuts. You kind of forget about them and you don't it doesn't bother you that much, but I'm surprised that not C DJ on that list like he against top 10 players in the world. He is they beat him more often than he beats them if that makes sense. Some of some of the tournaments that you know DJs kind of been obligated to play in I guess either through sponsorship stuff or ways made to schedule

haven't exactly been like time to much. Yeah, it's time. I mean like he's in the Canadian this week. Is he gonna be there if he's not sponsored by RBC? No, probably not. That's not especially with yeah, that's a that's a tough one to add because that means you go Open shape it. Sorry, the UK bridge open sponsored by her majesty to the Canadian open to Bridgestone straight to BGA. So you So you're playing a major in your fourth consecutive week. Great, and he's in physical conditioning can do that. But that's a lot. That's two majors. That's a trans Atlantic flight, two trans Atlantic flights.

And a small, the sponsor obligations that go with RBC that week into Bridgestone WGC weeks are really actually pretty chill for those guys. But PGA, and then rolling into the PGA championships, just an interesting way to do it. One week off and then four straight FedEx and you get a week off built into the playoffs and then you're going to the Ryder Cup. So we have tight grind to the end of the year for DJ. There's a reason why there's not many top guys in the field this week at RBC.

Correct. All right, so looking at the things. Yeah, that might be it. It's okay. It's per-zack Blair on the... It's a great condition. That's a great condition. So, all right. Looking at the US team now, the points list, I think, is pretty strong right now, but still some volatility possibilities at the bottom. So, I think if we're looking at it,

Brooks, Capca, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson, are lock locks, like they're going to be on the team on points. Yes. Speed, Fowler, and Webb make up the bottom three for the, again, the top eight, make it, and then there's four captains picks. Speed is sitting pretty good at 5,000 points. I think he's probably good, assuming it just a strong finish out to the year, I think

it'll be quite the upset, and it would be quite the storyline really if he fell out on points. Ricky, okay on points at 4,600, then webs at 4,200 and then Bryson knocking down the door, right? Just a few, like 40 points behind Web. As we tape this, Bryson, the Chamber looks like he might be about to win in Europe this week too, so there's that. But I don't think it doesn't get anything for that. I don't think so, but I mean, which is ridiculous. It is, it's a little ridiculous,

but it also goes to kind of the overall, like if he has to make a pick, you would look at that. Yeah, if you're gonna say, oh, well, he won three weeks ago. Totally, so. You would, but I mean, it's kind of ridiculous that the PGA of America runs the Ryder Cup, not the PGA Tour, yet only PGA Tour events get points for

the US. Come on guys, let's, let's, it's gotta be a better way to do this. I'm not a fan of the point system. I think it should be so incredibly obvious. Basically, whoever gets that eighth spot, it shouldn't feel like they don't want, the captain doesn't want them on the team. I'm not saying that's the case with Webb, but like, why should we be locked into a guy that we might not want to take?

Why is that the best system? Why not do, it's 12 captain's picks is never gonna happen, but why can't we make it six? Like, if the team was, if you're selecting the team right now, are you telling me you're taking Web, like if that's, let's make it top six. Say, Capca, DJ, Reed, JT, Bubba, and Spiether there. Are you selecting Web for the team?

No. And some of that is based on the fact that he, well, if you look at how he performed in the last Ryder Cup where he played two times and both of them were not good, and the fact that he's, you know, kind of, he had disappeared for a long time because of the putting woes. I mean, when they took his, you know, the ability to anchor the belly putter away, and he's you know kind of he had disappeared for a long time because of the putting was I mean when they took his you know the ability to anchor the belly putter away. And he's finally I guess figured out a way to put I mean he put it extremely well the players were he won. But no I'm basically grasping to try to make a case for him right now I really just can't. I mean people forget he texted his way onto the 2014 team by he convinced at least that's more on top you know that's more on top than it is on web but texted his way onto the 2014 team by he convinced at all.

At least that's more on top. You know, that's more on top than it is on web, but he skyed his opening t-shot in 2014 and then gets played on a match in the team session. They lost confidence in him. And I think he, he have his singles match that year, but again, I just don't, I hate the idea of being locked into a guy that you don't want to bring there.

And maybe the guys do want to bring them. Maybe it's just me that has this pre- Is it a good ping pong player? I don't know. That's the argument I don't want to hear is, well, who are you going to pair with Bubba? Don't bring another weak link potentially to the team just to pair up with Bubba. That has not worked in the past either. No, not at all.

So anyways, let's say those eight are in. As of right now, sources are saying, I don't know how to say it, I have some good intel. I can tell you as of right now, again, this won't matter because in two months or in a month when they make the picks,

a lot could have changed, but I know who the four captains picks would be. Phil Mickelson is going to be on the Ryder Cup team. Let's not mess around with it. Barring injury or anything happening, Phil is going to be there. At this point, I can't believe we're still getting questions about it, but yes, Tiger is going to be on the Ryder Cup team. On the Saggeren rankings, he's the eighth best player in the world right now,

so I think we can safely pencil him in. Yes. he's the eighth best player in the world right now. So I think we can safely pencil him in. Yes. The one that kind of surprised me as being essentially a lock to the fill level is Matt Koocher. He is about as safe to be on the team as you can be. And I mean, he's one of the steadiest players out there. He is.

He's a guy that you definitely, you can rely on him if you need to gut out a point in a singles match. I mean, he's one of those guys that I think is... Cooters, got a 6-7 and 2 overall, Radar Cup rating, one in three in singles. Nothing good or bad necessarily, but that's why I'm just surprised.

Singles was a bad take. I know that you've never tracked my previous team. I know the ping pong, maybe for ping pong reasons, essentially he's gonna be on the team, but that's the one that kind of surprised me is being a lock. One that doesn't surprise me is being the fourth one, and I think it's really it's only gonna get interesting

if Bryson passes and gets in on points, which is a very real possibility. Sitting at ninth, that's where I think that frees the team up to take somebody like Xander. But as of now, that fourth captain's pick will be Bryson. And I think that really adds an interesting dynamic. Tiger wants Bryson on the team. Yes.

That is a fact. And one adding Tiger to the mix is really going to potentially shake up the way the pairings fall out. I can easily see Tiger in reed pairing up, breaking up the Reed's spieth so that, and again, I notice this is way overblown, the JT spieth friend thing, but they do like playing matches together. They would be a good team. They would want that.

I don't have any inside info other than my gut. My instinct tells me that I think spieth would like to get out from under the reed shadow of the Ryder cut pairing. Yeah, I mean, and I maybe reed would like to not have to carry Jordan's speed. I was back all the time. I don't know how to say that. That's fair. No, it's very fair.

At least in Hazeltein and kind of somewhat of the presence couple of years. From what I've gathered, it sounds like, spieth would like to get out from under it and that reed kind of dictates, he's like, no, I'm playing with Jordan. Like, Reed is the alpha in this situation. There's a free layup for Tron there.

But Reed is the, but I think you can kind of defer to that if you say, all right, Reed, we are breaking up you in speth. By the way, you're gonna play with tiger woods. How's that sound? Yes, please. I think the best is gonna be watching Reed try to be the alpha with Tiger. Oh I think Reed Tiger for a four ball pairing makes a lot of sense and you can see where I'm going with the next one

I think Tiger wants to play with Bryson and they both play the same kind of golf ball and they play a lot of practice rounds together I would imagine that that has been discussed between the two of them, and I think that is gonna be a pairing you see in ForSums. I think so too, and I think that that's, I think also kind of intellectually, they pair well together. I think they see the course the same, they kind of see the nuances.

I think that they're kind of the ones that are playing 86-dimensional chess while everybody else is playing checkers. And I think that Tiger having someone that's kind of like his intellectual equal might inspire him a little bit. We can talk at length about Tiger's Ryder Cup record and why some of the pairings he's had haven't worked. But I think Tiger's a little bit more mature, a little bit more kind of a team guy now.

And having somebody like price into Shambho as kind of like some of he can mentor I think would be incredible. I think there's definitely something to what you just said and the Tigers rider cup record gets criticized frequently for just not matching up with what his stroke play individual record is. And I would think that his attitude having been an assistant captain now is changing that regard. And he views himself as a playing captain and almost maybe views his game as secondary

and doesn't focus necessarily as much on himself. I think it's fair to say during even during the team play, like Tiger is a me guy and his focus on his own game more so than, I don't know, whatever it takes and I have no experience in this regard but whatever it takes for camaraderie or a team to work, I don't think that's been a big focus for Tiger. I think that will be different this time around.

I agree completely. It's his first Ryder Cup in six years. It's kind of crazy. I mean, you could see how much it meant to him in Hazel team to just be a part of the team and how much he was itching to get out there. Even the president's cup too, I mean, he refers to that president's cup as like, man, that was, that was kind of,

like seeing that support from those teammates is kind of what is inspired him to get his game and get his ass back in shape and make it work. Clearly working. I think there's something, still something miraculous happened between that president's cup and now for what we're seeing. I don't, what's funny is I was going back through some old tweets and I think he hit the first fairway at the hero challenge whenever he played his first start last fall or last winter.

And I tweeted something like, Tiger for Paris, let's go. Look at that, it's like, oh my God, that's actually really gonna happen. This is a real thing. I think that first, if I remember correctly, they showed the shot tracer and it was like 189 ball speed and we all just unanimously draw jaws on the floor. But we're still joke.

I still could not have picked like I think it took even like three or four starts this year to be like, this might actually end up happening. And I think we can all agree that what has happened has exceeded any reasonable expectations. But not only was JT not a part of the last Ryder Cup team that won 17 to 11. Neither was Tiger Woods. Neither was a Tiger that's now one of the 10 best players in the world, I would say, was also not on that team. Yeah, and I think that there's one thing that I wanted to say that we talked about a little bit before coming on, which is that, you know, Tiger kind of also provides a lot of cover

for Fierrick in this situation, if he's on the team, I mean, if he's on the team and for whatever reason, he doesn't play well or we lose, Tiger is going to take a lot of the blame for that probably, depending on what his record is, and he probably would accept some of it versus if he's not on the team, which isn't going to happen. But if he wasn't on the team and we go over there and get trounced, I mean, Fierrick is going to get eviscerated for that. But if he's not on the team and we go over there and get trounced, I mean, Furek is going to get eviscerated for that. But if he's not on the team to be correct, that discussion should not happen any longer.

Barring injury between now and then he's 100% on the team. And it's a better Ryder Cup for it. Now the US is only one, three Ryder Cups in the last 20 years. However, Tiger hasn't been on a winning Ryder Cup team since 1999, and that's 19 years. Oh, Tiger hasn't been a winning Ryder Cup team since 1999. That's 19 years. Oh my god. I mean, he was not on the O18, he was not on the 16 team. That was the only two teams that have won. I forget that he wasn't on the O18, I always think of that. That was knee surgery. Let's talk a little bit about, well, first, I want to take one quick moment to just laugh at, I mean, I know Furek has to say this, has to do this,

that Furek made the comment that he's not ready to commit to Tiger at this point, and he's gonna go through the same process everyone. Let's just take a quick second to bullshit that. Tiger's on the team, the team is almost entirely already made up, but anyways, I touch on it. If Bryson ends up getting that last spot, who are the guys that are realistic candidates

for the fourth and final pick? And let me do my, every time we talk about the Reddacup, my rant against what they've done with the Horser Rule and how they've completely messed it up. 2014, they made their captains picks before, they made them right after Boston, after what is now the Dell Technologies, they selected the selected web, Hunter Mayhan,

and Keegan Bradley. Billy Horseshoe finished second that week in Boston. He went on, and the team is set after Boston. He went on to win the BMW Championship the next week, and then went on to win the Torch Championship and did not get to play on the Ryder Cup team. So they panicked, and in 2016 did this dumb thing where they added one, they would

make three picks and then save one pick for after the tour championship. So basically on the night, the Ryder Cup starts, you don't have your 12th team member. Right. Totally messed it up. Like the pendulum swinging way too far in the other direction. In 2014, after the tour championship, there was a week off. Like you had two weeks before the event actually started, it made a ton of sense for to save a captain's pick to after that week. It did not make any sense to do that in 2016.

You don't make a pick on Sunday night when the event starts, I mean, practice around start Monday, like don't do that. And they screwed it up again this year. They're gonna make three picks after September 3rd, which is after the Dell technologies. And then they're going to make one more pick after the BMW championship the following week. What the hell is that one week going to tell you? Why make the spectacle out of it's almost like a tryout for that one week. If whatever Kevin Kizner finishes fifth, but Tony Fiennell finishes 10th.

Do you take Kisner over him? Like you just automatically make that week like a tryout week or so. How do you explain taking Fiennell over Kisner in that regard? If Zander Schoffley misses the cut, does he lose out on his spot? Like, what is the solution? I mean, this is kind of the thing,

because now we've seen them, it's kind of like a moving target. They've shifted around when that final pick is going to be, I mean, what do you think the solution is, if there is one? In years where it goes tour championship straight to the Ryder Cup, then make all the picks at once.

I would make all of them after BMW. You have a week off after BMW, and then you have the tour championship, and then you leave on the charter that night from there. That's it. That 2014 season was like an anomaly in the schedule, like that you had that time that it would have made sense to save a pick for after the tour championship. So last year that that one pick they waited too long to make it. That was too late. This year it's like too

early to make any real difference and it's a week after it's six days after actually that you that you picked the last guy for the team. It's that guy becomes the last guy in. He's not one of the first guy for the team. That guy becomes the last guy in. He's not one of the first picks by the captain. It is the true 12th guy on the team. It's like being picked last for kickball and gym class. So I think they should have waited, like in 2014, they should make all of the picks after the tour championship, all of them.

Maybe what's the point in, and obviously this wasn't a topic of discussion until a horse will kind of broke the system. And then, yeah, they said, it's all screwed up. It just doesn't make any sense to me. It's just last year it worked out not well at all. I mean, Bubba was on the team in 2016 and Ryan Moore finished in a tie for second in the playoff with the Torch Championship with Rory and or he lost to Rory. And they like had to take up Like their hand was pretty much forced and even up through that playoff, there was like

discussions within the team like, how can we not take him? What's the point? And it just did not play out. I mean, it ended up playing out fine because they just crushed him and more played, end up getting the winning point. Point point. Yeah. He didn't blow when he won away and that he. And the idea that and Bubba,

I would have looking back at it, would rather I've had Bubba on that team. I think he's more of a variable now, more of a question mark of having not been on a team, what's it gonna be like this time around. And he was a better fit for Hazel team. Right, exactly. Ryan Moore's not a good fit for Hazel team at all.

Not at all. Not at all. That neutralizes all of his best skills. It kind of made like, it kind of just really put Bubba in an awkward spot because now he's riding, or he gets, you know, kind of picked his like this fourth assistant captain, or whatever. He's riding around and he's there and he's cheering guys on.

He's trying to be, you know, a good team player, but you could tell it was eating him up. And it became a topic of conversation on the broadcast because NBC needs things to talk about. And, yeah, I just thought it kind of put them in a really awkward spot. I think Bubba should have been on that team. Well, I mean, Bubba is, is, is Zane, you know, Bubba's personality has been well documented. And the reason like he wasn't selected on the team is because of his personality.

I mean, he was like ninth in the point standings and top eight make it. Right. He was intentionally bypassed might be the same thing that happens to web this year, although, it could be a different reason. But so he wasn't picked because of his personality. It's not because of his golf ability. He doesn't have a great writer cup record. But anyways, you brought in the personality to the

room without his golf ability, right? Which was just it worked out again. I get a little nervous about 2016 and how well it worked out for the US because of we have a lot of people forget to mention or don't mention that that European team was trash. It was just was not a good team. They were not going to win that show. The bottom six was all the rookies and just yeah. It was not a strong team like Rory and Pears andafa, like all played out of their ass and they got spanked. Like it just wasn't a strong team.

This is not going to be a game. Andy Sullivan, Chris Wood, no offense to those guys, good players, but I mean they did not match up. I mean, didn't what do you think went one and one fits went oh and two. I mean, what really at the end was Kimer and Westwood and actually it wasn't necessarily the rookies with some of their vets that just absolutely shat the ball. Well, and they kind of and Darren Clark hid all the rookies. I mean, that was the thing you said.

Right. You know, Fitzpatrick played two matches, would played two matches. I think Solven played two matches, maybe three. I mean, for God, he was something to you. So there you go. I mean, Clark made the decision that he was gonna try to hide all of the rookies and put a bunch of veterans out

and then like you said, they all should be dead. So, well, I mean, as well as things worked out in 2016 for the US team, getting complacent. I don't think they necessarily are, but like it was more of a reflection of how poor the European team was than it was, how strong the US team was. Now, the president's cup is kind of a joke, but what that US team did in the president's cup last year was send notice. Special. That was yes. You are. The world is officially on notice that maybe we figured out this team golf thing and again, I don't put a ton of stock in it, but they almost won the presents couple on Saturday.

Correct. An absolute massacre. Can we jump back in? Because this kind of fits in with one of the Twitter questions we had, which is I think I'm a paraphrase, is Bubba's locker room personality, you know, better now than it was in 16. Yeah, it was Will Bardwell's question. He says, yeah, is the personality any better post 2016 than it was pre 2016?

You know, I'm gonna say yes. I don't have a ton of input like from locker room guys or whatnot about it, but it seems like the Bubba kind of hate towards him is dying down some. It doesn't bother people as much. Maybe more people are just used to it and kind of his own course antics are what they are, but I get more of the sense that guys don't dislike him as much as they maybe once did. I'm gonna have a deep state take, which is that CBS has deliberately not miked him up as much on the course. Oh, and maybe that's how I love this on so many levels.

I even personally find myself disliking Baba less. I don't have the energy maybe for it as much as I once did, and I think like his on course behavior has improved. He doesn't get out and say as many dumb things in the media. Also, he's won a lot this year. I mean, he's been very, very good, really consistent. He's actually potted well.

I'm not gonna come. It is worth addressing that he played the French Open once. It was in 2011 at this course. It did not go well. It is one of the... He was shocked that there were no French fries. That's really the problem. It's one of the go-to stories for people that dislike bubble the things

He said about you know, I saw the tower thing or whatever it was I don't know I'm just ready to get back home like yeah, that's that guy's he's not gonna be a cap and pick on this team He's gonna make it on points, but like you don't take a guy with you that says those things or is that uncomfortable about Where fans are walking and all he just had a bunch of really weird criticisms of the French open back when he played in it. So on that note, we got a question just kind of about what the atmosphere is going to be like in France and whatnot. One I think, I don't know how strong the French fans' memory is of Bubba's comments or whatnot, but I think he can expect maybe some extra booing that comes with it.

These can be ribbed. Yeah. So this was a topic of conversation during the French open that a French pro, Michael Lorenzo Vera made the comment that golf in France. He says golf is not a good thing here. It's for rich people and spoiled kids. That's the image we have. Golf is a very private thing for people in France, private courses for only rich families or rich people. that's it. People don't care about the Ryder Cup.

Honestly, nobody knows that there's gonna be a Ryder Cup in France, only the golfers know that's it. There won't be many French here. Flame thrower. Wow. If you're asking. Burn it to the ground, Mike. If you're asking who Michael Lorenzo Vera is,

that's a fair question. He's not going to be on this Ryder Cup team. 34th in the European point standings right now. Which is, I, you're only gonna hear this from a guy that far down the standings. So I don't, it's, I don't discount that being said just because you may not have heard of the guy or he's not gonna be on this team. That's the only reason he's able to say this. And there may be all of the European tour players maybe thinking that as well.

Golf in continental Europe is different than it is in the UK. And I don't know a lot about golf in France, to be honest, but it's similar. It's similar in the Netherlands. It's similar in Germany and a lot of other places where it's not like it is in the UK. UK is so incredibly open. And we've talked about that in many podcasts.

And really, the the rider cup in itself is it's a just a huge business, an enormous business. So when you are asking yourself why the rider cups go to certain events, well, they play the rider cup the old course and it needs to be a car news to be such a great match play course. You don't really understand what the rider cup is if that's the case.

I mean, go see how many hospitality are set up, see how many tickets they sell, how much merchandise they sell. This thing is just a profit making behemoth. It's enormous. On the backs of some very entertaining golf matches, but I mean, yeah, your asses. But the golf courses are the settings and they are, it's more about logistics. Yes. Yeah, the infrastructure and all that, I mean, they take these courses, they tinker

with them and they change the rowdings of them. I mean, Hazeltein, they flipped, you know, the 16th hole to make it the 7th hole to make sure everyone got to see that hole in the front nine and whatnot and making the players walk longer distances in between holes to get with their janky rowdings. And from what I've gathered, I don't know if've gathered, I couldn't find anything online on this, but talking a couple guys, they're going to make the 18th hole at LeGolf National, the 15th hole, which is like about a 470 yard par four, but then approach over water, water all down the left side.

It's got a big theatrical hole, but they want to make sure most of the matches get to that hole. So that's going to be the 15th. And I think the routing stays the same. Basically, just flip flop in the 15 get to that hole. So that's gonna be the 15th, and I think the routing stays the same. Basically just flip flop in the 15th and 18th. Yeah, they play parallel to each other. Yeah, share the same water hazard. So it shouldn't be a major change in any way, but yeah, so the rider cup is, I mean,

if we're talking like reality, like a true competition, it should never leave the UK. Like it just shouldn't golf in continental Europe exist, but it's not nearly the same passion. The fans that are going to be there in France are probably from the UK. Yeah. I mean, maybe if Great Britain and Ireland and prior to that Great Britain didn't suck so bad for 70 years, the first 70 years of the Ryder Cup, you know, and then having to add

Europe in order to kind to balance it out a little bit. But even still, the total number of fans, even with maybe three Swedish guys and our two Swedish guys on the team, are there going to be that many fans in Sweden that care about having a Ryder Cup? No. No. And it's, I mean, listen, the process for bidding on a Ryder Cup is similar to the World Cup

and Olympics and there's some... Backroom. ...imperpriities that happen and there might be I mean into the future I'm not positive how firm of soil the Rome rider cup is standing on at this at this point. I know that It's well, it's out there There's a course in Ireland that is pushing for that one very very hard and it may end up changing locations It may also depend on depend on how this one goes, but I'm not expecting a very anywhere near Hazeltean level like Ram Bunkschis at Misfior.

No, and I have some thoughts about the political and social economic fervor of 2016 being kind of contributing to the way that fans reacted at Hazeltingen. We won't go into that, but it's, yeah, there's much more of like maybe a jingoistic tent when it's in the United States versus in Europe, like nobody cares about the European Union, the way that the United States, Americans care about the United States. Yeah, and again, I don't want to generalize

what the Netherlands is like compared to France, but anyone I would talk to in the Netherlands about like no, like, up or golf, they'd be like, oh, so do you play professionally? Like, they just did the concept of like recreational golf wasn't the same to normal people that didn't play it. I mean, I think in the States, if you talk to somebody about golf, like, people know that, yeah, you just go, there's public courses and you go play any kind of style of golf. It's just not the same there.

And there's not the same, I guess, like passion amongst a mass amount of golf fans. I mean, I think the Skylin' Ryder Cup, I mean, it was Glen Eagles, it's not like a Lynx course, it's not like what true Skylin' is all about, but the fans, yeah. That's crazy. And they're awesome.

They say the same thing about Celtic Manor in 2010 for, I mean, the fans there were. And some of the worst weather conditions you could possibly imagine. They showed up for a Monday finish in droves like that. That's the spirit of the European side of the game to me. Now, how many British fans are going in? There was a question we got.

I think it's going to be a lot to answer that question. But there's somebody ask us a question of where are the Ryder Cup tickets? How can I, yeah, Scott McEw, where in the heck are all, I love how he says where in the heck and not where in the hell? Where in the heck are all the tickets and why, so goddamn expensive? Any suggestions on getting some stateside

without purchasing a Ryder Cup package? The fact that he put it in quotes, rider-cut package, that tells you that's right there. This is a, I don't know what the right word is, not a hoax, but it's like a money grab. I guess thing is golf courses host the rider-cut so that they can charge enormous prices for people to play it afterwards.

I mean, I think like Valdorama still charges like 400 euros around or something like that. And they host the Ryder Cup in 1997. It just elevates a profile of a club. And it's not. Which is why they often go to resort courses. I mean, like Celtic Manor, like the Bell Free, you know. And listen, as much as we'd love to watch the Ryder Cup

on TV, like at the old course or at Karnu Stee, or it's not a good viewing experience in person, links courses are just not. There's no amphitheater. There's just the tough to put grandstands out there. It's dangerous to put grandstands in some spots, just based on the wind and whatnot. So that's why. But that's part of the reason why this thing exists is it's for money.

So correct. Yeah. I don't know. Listen, no one wants to see, I think it'd be really cool if they would start going to venues that were maybe kind of expired when it comes to stroke play. I mean, like, Ro Melbourne with the President's Cup, it's too short for a stroke play, events with top players in the world, like they'll dominate it. But for match play, I would also make the argument that part doesn't matter for stroke

play, but like for in the eyes of a lot of people It does so it's just tougher hurdle to lead, but for match play it really doesn't matter And it's like one of the best match play courses. Yeah, it's really really really encouraged by that by At least that future president's cup site What do you say we get into a few questions? Good ones here. I think we've covered a lot so far. Riley Duncanson What will be the more dominant performance in France, USA in 2018 or Germany in 1940?

Jesus. We're not gonna address that one. That was the very first question I think we got. And one, his location on Twitter says four left. I like this guy. Yeah, I think it was also funny that you mentioned before we came on that you asked the question, you asked for questions on Twitter when only the Europeans were.

That was my mistake. Yeah, it was, I asked around 9 a.m. on a Sunday, and the Americans are all hungover and not sending in questions. And we got a little, got some good natured ribbing from the Euros, which we appreciate. For sure. I did say, got asked to save a couple tweets

about how bad the euros are going to smash us, and I will most definitely bookmark them and press or revisit in two months. We'll see. Drew Nedzinski asks, who does the delicate, genius mesh with on the Ryder Cup seems like he'd be too much of a head case to play someone else's ball and alternate shot does he automatically sit those? We talked about that a little bit earlier, and I think that's like, more I think about it, he can only play with Tiger in alternate shot.

I think that's fair. Yeah. And I think it will happen. All right. Jeremy Fuss says, how much does the golf course matter? Is lead national extremely Lynxie, and will that help or hurt either team? Let's get this out of the way now. Don't call.

He didn't. He said Lynxie, which I think is a fair comparison. But I'm going to tell Grass. I'm going to tell Grass. I'm going Linksy, which I think is a fair comparison. But I'm gonna put it on a grass. I'm gonna, that's what you think, go Linksy courses. Well, it plays firm, it's designed to play firm and it's designed to play like a Link's course. But I'm gonna put my nose up in the air here as a golf snob when it comes to Link's golf, it's not a Link's course by technicality.

So let's not call it one. He didn't, but let's into the future, we're not to call it one. It does have a bit of those vibes. And it is, I think what we love about Lane's Golf is not it's necessarily its location to the sea, but it's the soil type. It's the reaction of a ball on the ground and positioning of bunkers and learning, having to know how much ball rolls out, et cetera. Those elements should be in play, depending on how conditions last or how the rest of the summer goes in France. It elements should be in play, depending on how the conditions last or how the rest of the summer goes in France, it should play like that.

You watch it on TV, you can't tell that it's not seaside because it does look like it could be. It does, and it was built in the early 90s around the time when the stadium courses were invoked and it kind of has that feel as well. It's the best of both worlds in that regard. It is as close as we can get to taking a course, a Ryder Cup 2A Lynx course, because you need those amphitheaters, you need that

infrastructure, you need the modern space to be able to usher in, you know, tens of thousands of fans every single day. It's going to show very well on TV. We can say that much. It's going to be a good match play course, and it, especially with some of the grandstands and amphitheaters that they're going to build up, I mean, it's going to look really cool on TV and one thing to keep in mind too when it comes to You know, we kind of move past this already, but not why they don't go to traditional link style courses is one that a ton of fans

Attend this to for the first two days There's four groups out there at a time like everybody's concentrated around a great small group of holes You can't spread out and see a bunch of different players. And I would attend at the Ryder Cup as a fan in 2012 at Medina, going to be honest, not the best viewing experience. We tried to follow some groups. There was it was five rows deep the whole time. We finally said, let's get a bunch of beers. Let's sit behind the 15th hole and wait and watch every group came through.

And that was the strategy. That was the way to do it. And US came in one point on that green that morning and the US won that whole every morning. Everyone just got so fired up and that was fun because we're part of the building excitement and getting ready for groups to come through, et cetera. But yeah, it's again. You've got a lot of downtime to imbibe yourself.

Yes, I think I forget who it was, but they did let you kind of buy or rent a little TV screen that you're gonna wear around your neck. That's pretty cool. And I've like a little earpiece to see what was going on on the course. They put jumbo trunks. Nascar on the golf course. That's right. So they do do a lot of other things so you can see what's going on on the course. I remember Hazel team had a huge jumbo trunks there on the 16th hole, which was kind of the feature hole. And anyways, John Caulfield says, what number do you play Web in the singles? He is your number one on current form.

True. Just kind of wanted to get that out there. Is that the that's the European response we got for sitting this the tweet out too early in the morning. Yeah. Ryan Ryan Trask says if Tiger makes it, who's his partner in ForSums and ForBall, I think we covered that in that Bryson likely in For some and and read in for ball would be our guesses at this point in late July. Jamie weir is Baba the weak link of the US team lost every single's in for some game. He's ever played in one

city hated leg off national and generally being away from home. We covered that one. I think all fair points. Very fair. But you know, you don't necessarily have to play them in four, you probably shouldn't play them in four sums, you know, put them out in two four ball matches, let them, you know, try to bomb it all over the place and see what happens. Yeah. Uh, Lord Murray Campbell, why is the US team even wasting their money coming over Europe as an absolute lock in the Ryder Cup?

It could get embarrassing. Hashtag, remember this tweet. Hashtag, remember, Has. Hashtag, remember. Hashtag, have you seen our economy? We're doing fine. Thank you. I think the US is like the PJ America is actually making a ton of money on this.

4% GDP growth last quarter. I think we can spend a few hundred thousand going to France. Suck on that, Lord Mary. Simon Cooper from the scale of 1 to 10. How brutal are the crowds going to be? Can it will affect the. Simon Cooper from the scale of 1 to 10, how brutal are the crowds going to be? Can it will affect the outcome? I think on scale of 1 to 10 for ride a cup standard, I think it's going to be about a six.

Yeah, I was going to say seven, so I think that's fair. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I don't even want to put Hazelteen as a 10. It wasn't like that loud, actually Sunday kind of lacked a lot of noise. Right. It was more from a harassing nature than it was like a true patriotic spirit. That's like the issue I had with it. I feel like maybe there's, it's kind of weird that early in the morning, the patriotic kind of everybody coming together thing

was really cool at Hazel Tiniot. People are singing the national anthem, the sun comes up and stuff. And then as the day goes on, and people start drinking and it gets a little bit warmer, and you know that kind of just, well it just builds like oh that guy just yelled something her asking it Roy I can do that right he didn't get kicked out Well and some of the players kind of bringing it on themselves a little bit to by playing into it

You know shushing the crowd bowing. I mean yeah, I love it. Oh wrong That's where you're gonna you're kind of asking for it a little bit this being an exhibition is what like That's where you're gonna, you're kinda asking for it a little bit. This being an exhibition is what, like, gets me hard. Like that is what, like, that is the part of it. Like Thomas Peters is one of the more shy guys out there. Him shushing the crowd at the right or coming front of all those fans, knowing what the reaction is gonna be. Like, that is what it's all about.

Right. Like, that didn't make me mad. Like, that got me super excited. Exactly. So, the more of that, that's what I'm hoping, I'm hoping it has that kind of atmosphere. We know on TV, regardless of, that's why I'm hoping, I hope and it has that kind of atmosphere. We know on TV, regardless of what it's actually like in person, they're going to play that up. And listen, like golf channel had a guy on the first

T at Hazel team, like when they'd come back from commercial break, like pumping up the crowd, putting their hands up in the like, oh, make noise, make noise, make it seem crazy. I thought I did a great job at that. It was't mean that. Bumble was really good at that too. And oh, God, when Big Cat came on the first tee as a assistant, that place, you absolutely erupted. Because that was, he wasn't having been in public eye in a long time in any capacity. And when he, he's kind of surfaced there.

He is the needle. Yep. I've heard that one before. Dead man, you of them, as his handle says, if you're furec, do you hire someone to injure web simpson a lot, ton you're harding so you don't have to take them on the team. I think this is Deadman's burner account, because there's not a whole lot else going on here.

I don't have any answer for that one, but that's a very good tweet. This is a good one from At Legal Hooks. Does course set up slash playing style or current form matter more for captain's picks? I think there's two schools of thought, especially on the European side. Like, when it comes down to Bjorn making a final decision on Stenson and Sergio, do you take courses for courses more experience or do you take the guys in current form? Ideally, you'd love to have both.

I think for my perspective, I would rather have the guys in current form than horses for courses because these guys are world class players. They adjust, you know, they play different styles of golf courses all over the world. Solid, what do you think? Well, I actually, okay, I'll answer this question first. It's like, all right, course setup or current form, what's more important? I would say current form. However, I think there's a more a factor that actually gets weight

and more than both of these. And it is, I don't want to say if it's locker room presence, but it's the guys in the locker room who they trust. Like that's, it's, it's current form. You ask, if you ask, you know, I don't know, Jordan's beef, who, who you want as a captain's pick out of these guys has it's not gonna He's not gonna be thinking of current form. He's gonna know who's playing well and who's not Yeah, but it's not gonna be like oh he's t10 and t5 the last two starts. It's like no, I want I'm not again This example. He's like no, I want Tony Fina like I want that guy next to me in the locker room So that's more of what is gonna be a factor than it is like

The point standing will mean absolutely nothing when they go to make the actual picks. And that's, there's a reason, and I'm totally fine with that for the record. Yeah, though, I mean, the points are just like anything else. I mean, aside from the guys who are going to make it automatically, you know, the points are just one but one metric that you like. They're just numbers on a page. And I know as the guy is ripped off, I mean, I've ripped off a ton of numbers in this episode,

but it means it really does mean nothing when you go out to tee it up. I feel very inferior sitting across the table from former accountant, Sally. I'm a lawyer because I don't like numbers. Yes, I've got Excel spreadsheets and everything going here. All right, this is a good question.

This is from Atpene. I can't even say these names out loud. Anyways, should more of the USA players have taken the opportunity to play Legolf National earlier this month in anticipation of the Ryder Cup, a sign of arrogance they don't need to play it or belief they can play anywhere. You guys, you and Randy talked about this

in one of the pods a few weeks ago, and I think that point is the correct take. It's a hard scheduling thing to ask the guys that play on the PGA Tour regularly to go across the pond for one week to come back and then go back across the pond to play either the Scottish or the open or both. I don't think it's air against. I think Justin Thomas probably wanted to see the course and went over there played well.

So I'm sure he took notes and you know good on him for doing it. But I'm sure he took cash as well. I'm sure there was a reason why he I don't have yes until on that for the record. But I would imagine that when when you see a top 10-ish player in the world or anywhere, go on over to Europe to play a one specific event. Just assume that there's cash tied to it. I don't know if Bryson's getting paid this week to be playing in the event that he's leading, I think, at the moment. I bet he's getting a new Porsche.

Probably, but that's how it works on the European tour. He loves German engineering. Yeah, and JT was able to make it work. JT is not married, does not have kids. Like those things are a factor when you make out your schedule. Like not married, does not have kids. Those things are a factor when you make out your schedule. For people that are married with kids, your kids are home during the summer and you're not in school.

There's just a lot of other things that go into making out a schedule other than thinking about an exhibition event in the fall. It puts a lot of strain on your team, too. It puts strain on your caddy, it puts strain on your managers, and you have sponsors obligations. You have a finite amount of energy to get yourself through the year and you don't want to wear yourself out before a major. Now, I did gather that, and I said this right after the French Open Week that I'm, what imagine, if you really want to see the golf course, all of the guys that are playing on the US Rattacop team are playing in the open championship.

When you come over, you can come, and not, I don't think any of them were playing in the John Deere, like you can come over two days earlier. If you want, you make, you know, one trip across the pond. You can fly over, play the course in France, if you want to and see it and then head over to help adjust with jet lag and go play the open championship. I think some of the guys did that and from some, what I got between like five to seven guys did do that.

I know Phil went, checked it out. And maybe you'd rather play it in a practice round where you can hit different shots From all over the place as opposed to in competition where you're more confined to what you have to you know You have to play the shot in front of you versus being able to actually go out and kind of look at different pin locations and things like that and A view and again, it's not a links course, but like Links courses play different on a Wednesday than they do a Thursday So how it plays in the middle of the summer might be totally different than how it plays in September.

Like, it could firm out even more. It could be softer if they get a ton of rain. It's not, you gather some intel, but not the best intel. You can get an idea for the layout with the kind of shots you'll need. But these guys go over, like before majors, to having never seen a golf course before the week that they see it. And if you ever go watch practice rounds Guys will hit a couple shots here and there and then just spend all of their time chipping and putting yes

That's what they use the practice rounds for to learn the green surfaces to learn the surrounds to learn the you know What kind of shots you want to play around the greens etc And then they work on their swings on the range like it's it's If I were doing it I would do it a lot different I feel like when I go play a practice around somewhere, I wanna learn how I play it from T-Degrean. Right. Those guys are so programmed to be in control

of their game's T-Degrean that it's all about controlling your speed and learning breaks and how things move around the green. So. Professional golf or Chris Solomon had some advice for you guys. We're not a player for the team. Well, the accurate, the more accurate way of saying it's like the professionals kind

of have their way of figuring out how to prepare for a golf course. And I don't think you need, I mean, look at how, and I know a lot of the European team guys have played the French up before and played this golf course before, but a lot of the guys in the European team skipped the event this year. It's not true. Essential to have played in the event to be able to understand the golf course. And they'll get there on Monday and play starts on Friday. You can get an extra day of practice during that week of. So, nope, don't think too much of those guys skipping it. Definitely wouldn't call it...

I don't think it's Erick. I wouldn't use the word Erickance. All right, if you're cool with that, I'm cool wrapping it there. I didn't even, wasn't even looking at the time. That was a, that was a lot of golf talk, a lot of radical talk. And it's probably all going to change in the next couple of weeks anyway. So we may have to. That was a, that was a lot of golf talk, a lot of radical talk and it's probably all gonna change in the next couple of weeks anyway. So we may have to do this again before,

before, before, before, before France and before the cap and spikes get made. So that'd be awesome. So really enjoyed it, Solid. Thank you for the Panera and you're welcome. And for coming by and we'll check in with you again soon, leading up to the radical. It's way easier to do than actually writing it,

actually all out on paper. Yeah, this took, you know, an hour plus a little bit of prep versus many hours of writing it all down. That's why I never end up writing anything for the website. All right, Joe. Thank you, man. Cheers. Cheers.

Get a right club. Feed a right club today. Yes. That is a nice. That is a nice. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.

Expect anything different. Thank you, thank you.