No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 53: Kevin Van Valkenburg talks Ryder Cup

Episode Date: September 12, 2016

Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN is back to react to Davis Love III’s first three Ryder Cup picks, and preview the event. We talk Fowler, Holmes, Kuchar, Bubba, JT, Berger, and break down what we... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 53: Kevin Van Valkenburg talks Ryder Cup 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! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Ling at Podcast. I'm Chris Solomon, joined by my good friend from ESPN, ESPN the magazine writer, Kevin Van Volkenberg. Kev, it is Monday, it is, what is it, noon at Eastern Time. Davis Love made his picks one hour ago. The goal is just to be, I don't care how good the quality is.

The goal is just to be the first podcast to talk about the captain's pick. So let's just get through this as fast as can. I'll get this posted and then just so we can be the first one out. Is that cool? I think the above should be not be the last pick. That's like a... Well, we're straight for the final pick already. We're not even going to talk about the first three.

I don't think we need to have a podcast anymore. I think we're good. Oh, I misunderstood the instructions. I just skipped right to the end. Well, first off, what's new with you, man? What's going on? Where are you today? What's going on in Kevin Van Volk?

It's Berg's world today. You know, I still live in Baltimore. I'm getting ready for my NFL reporting to sort of keep going throughout the season, watch for Paulie yesterday and go to Ryder Cup in a couple of weeks, so prep and for that a bit, but juggling a few NFL stories as we go there. That's my other main responsibility besides writing columns about the majors. You're lucky that I'm not going to do make you do the whole podcast in the Gary Player voice, but there will be a Gary Player question later on. I'm not going to do, make you do the whole podcast in the Gary Player voice, but there will be a Gary Player question later on.

I'm just going to warn you about that. The player impression, which you know well, has been kept under wraps for nearly a year or so, I think, more than a year, because it debuted at the British Lusher and Bacon finally, like, he tricked me and made me live. There wasn't any prep or anything. I was like, couldn't write out a script or anything. Let's be clear about that though. He suggested it and you jumped on it

within like a half of a second. Like, okay, here I go, fine, here I go. There was family friendly Gary Player. Family fresh of you. Well, in 30 seconds, all right, let's see what, if Gary Player was doing a segment right now on the golf channel, I'm Rich Learner. I'm gonna ask you a question. And're going to be Gary Player and you're

going to tell me what his take is on the Ryder Cup Captain Pick. So, Mr. Player, thank you for joining us. Today, Davis loves selected Ricky Fowler, Matt Cooter, and JB Holmes as his captain's picks. What did you think of the selection? Well, Chris, I thought it was an excellent call. I like all three young men. I just...

I'm hopeful that... that Ricky Fowler will not be distracted by the young girls at the malls of America in between the matches. That's as we know that the young man is a fine-looking fellow. And I just... I just... I'm just worried that this mustache is going to be limiting and in the number of ways he could focus on as all the ladies will all around him at the malls and such and it I hope there you have time for pushups

Last question Mr. Player, what did you think about William McGurd being us bypassed for a spot? William McGurd I know you know Chris that he is he is my nemesis having won the memorial earlier this year I yeah he seems like a fine fellow i don't know him well but i wish him luck even though i i i feel that he has he has disgraced the game by winning for the prominent tournament that should have been to someone someone more renowned all right i got that within the first three minutes of the podcast a great

now crying so we're off to a lot of the place is playing out all the inside jokes here exactly exactly i don't care if nobody gets it. That's fine. But all right. So love made the three picks. They're rather predictable. I would say are you surprised at all they went in this general direction? Not surprised especially because followers on the you know the task force. I think we've been talking for a while like I didn't feel like there was a scenario really where Ricky was gonna get left off and after the Olympics basically you knew that Kutra is gonna be a part of it too that enough of the sort of good vibes around the Olympics are the sort of

the forced you know embrace of the Olympics I think that we saw by some of the the Gulf media demanding that we insist that the Olympics was a success meant that sort of coach was going to be a part of it. I'm a little bit sort of higher on JB than you. I know that you're sort of feeling a little bit like, why do I want a guy who's hits it long and then doesn't hit greens and doesn't pop particularly well? I feel like if you were going to sort of pick him or Baba for that spot, that I'm on board with JB, I mean I've talked him a few times, interviewed him with a fast chair

for a little bit. Like JB's, he's got a good vibe to him, I know this sort of like, we hate in a lot of ways like when we ignore stats for like chemistry stuff and sports that's sort of the new way of looking at things, but with Baba, like like this always the risk that it's gonna be raining or something one morning and he's kind of how does way through the first match or he's just gonna decide like that he's just not feeling it. He didn't like the McDonald's at the age or whatever and so I feel like there's no chance at all that JB will like check out and quit on you. The key is going to be all in once to prove himself so badly. It's part of the last successful sort of product up team we had. I can feel like

if he can play well enough in Borsum's, I'm on it. I'm good. I can buy that. I think obviously I'm not like thrilled with the captain's picks, but I don't I'm not like screaming injustice at this point. I don't think we have a big issue. I'm not like thrilled with the captain's picks, but I'm not like screaming in justice at this point. I don't think we have a big issue. I'm okay with the picks. I think I would have gone with Fowler and Cooture today as well. I just don't think homes, I don't know exactly what homes give you.

You kind of touched on it. I think if you're going with a bomber, you at least want somebody. I mean, Bubba is a great player, T to the green. He really is. Homes is not the same iron player that Bubba is a great player, T to the green. He really is. Holmes is not the same iron player that Bubba is. And I just don't know how much you can isolate. His lone elite skill is driving.

I don't know how much that means in match play. I really don't. And that's why my point was, if you're gonna go bomber out, this is, I mean, I don't know what has become of this podcast that I'm making a case for Bubba Watts and at this point. But, I do, I'm buying what you're saying, though, definitely on the chemistry thing.

And I, it's one of those things that I'm just hesitant to weigh in on. I've mentioned this on the prior podcast, like, we are not in that team room. I don't know how much of an impact that truly has. I do know that what it comes down to is getting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. So I kind of stick to what I know and understand

from a statistical standpoint. And the difference between how Bubba has performed on the course this season, and JB Holmes is significant. It really is. I know I've been wearing people out with stroke-scaned stats and whatnot. But, and I know that some of JB's, like some not all events are measured in stroke-scaned,

so it's not, didn't give me the complete picture. But like I said, he's giving away strokes approach in the green, giving away strokes on the green. Yeah, he's been a part of a good rider cup team that was eight years ago. What does that mean? I don't know. And he's just not had that great of a year. It's not like he's this trendy guy going in the right direction.

It's not really adding up for me to make me think that there is something more to the chemistry and the guys in the team like them. I mean, Bubba's got friends on this team too. Well, actually, I only know of his Ricky Fowler. The rest of them may hate him, but it's just amazing to me that we made this big task force and we end up picking 10-11-12 on the point's list, and it just seems to be the same boys club. I think I will say that JB is I think he's six on tour this year in birdie average. So if you're in a four balls match and he's going to make five birdies or whatever, that might be four or five holes that you win there. So that's the decent sort of contribution.

I mean, you can't guarantee it. And I think he's not particularly great in like Eagles. I think he's like 160 if there's something that Eagles per round. But making six the six most birdies on your rounds in turn that's I think that has to be what love is looking at. I think what when we Louis talk about like the task force when we're not around and then we end up pick it in title 11 12. I think if you like listen to what Michelson you see his interview yesterday where he was saying well you know we have a plan we're

not gonna find somebody to hear him say, we're not gonna find out 30 minutes before the match who we're playing for. Who was that aimed at? He still can't let that go. Frankly, I would have a hard time letting go either. It's funny to see people still defend Tom Watson and be like, oh, well, you know,

he shouldn't have done that in public. He shouldn't have shaked him in public. And never really actually being able to defend captain's job that Tom Watson did. Like, there is no defense of the sort of schedule that Watson rolled out 15 minutes up before on a napkin. I think what Phil is saying is that there's been a lot of planning and talk, whether it's

what's fear, your contiger, and love, and whoever else is about you know, and stricker, the vice captain is sort of saying, okay, who do you want to play with? Here's how we're going to set up the matches. These are the holes you're going to tee off on, you know, when you go to the Hazelteign to play a practice round or something in between there, I want you to visually like think about like, okay, this is the holes we're going to have you go out in this match. We're going to play all the natcha out here, so start thinking about this. I mean, it just seems from a field talking that he's much more buying in, he's much more

willing to do his kind of field routine where he's slapping backs and shaking hands and betting huge wads of cash, all sorts of stuff. I feel like that has to help a little. We can't totally discount the chemistry factors because we're more into understanding in the game analytically now. Yeah, I agree. And they definitely, the easiest thing to point back to

is our most recent Ryder Cup win in the 2008 and Paul Easinger always talking about chemistry. And there is seriously, there's obviously something too that real quick, I think, I think, can we expect in expecting Phil's Hall of Fame speech is going to be similar to Michael Jordan He's like still going to be listing off all the people that slide it in Tom Watson's going to be first on that list Tom probably long gone at that point. He'll still be Wait, it's filled already I guess he's already in the Hall of Fame, right? They don't they do speeches for that I don't know how it works jokes still stands anyways. That's fine

a fame right they don't do speeches for that I don't know how it works joke still stands anyways that's fine yeah you know it would be nice if Ernie could have played in the master's playoff but made that put on 18 so Ernie I see you're in the stands here you're not wearing a green jacket any reason why that might be the case here I have an extra. I'll give you borrow one. I've brought it in my bag. That's three of them actually. My kids are wearing them. I think, back to what you were saying,

a bit on the pairings and the matchups. And I know that they haven't really used the word pod. I know Azinger will give you that word. Azinger can introduce himself to you, and he'll mention the pod system. I'm pretty sure it did work. I you and he'll mention the pod system, I'm pretty sure. It did work. And I'm using a creator of the pod system. Created the pod system.

Do you think that there's a chance that this team, Davis Love, the assistant captains are, I've heard the phrase paralysis by analysis, do you think that there's a chance that they could become victim to this at this point uh... as possible i mean anything i think in terms of the americans over thinking things is totally possible because it's so much pressure having one two last ten uh... you know it's a it's a route i mean we're you know i have gone and swung through all the motions are the last year of

thinking like over at the house the european's like like, oh, we're going to absolutely house the Europeans. There's US is absolutely going to throttle them to being like, I don't see how we can put a winning team on this, you know what I mean. So, you know, think of like just as like a fan of American golf, how much analysis and how much discussion we do week to week talking about it, you have to think that, you know, this is consumed loves life for the whole year,

leading up to, I would love to read like a big narrative story about how many hours a day he sits there like staring at stats and looking at paper and going out and playing practice rounds with guys and obsessing over, okay well, if I get Phil and you know Zach versus Andy Sullivan and Rory in this match like who's gonna you know who's gonna t off on the third hole like i'm sure those thoughts go into their heads and if they tighten up it's gonna be sort of zasters what i what i do think is sort of maybe works in the west's advantages there is going to be a lot of pressure on

the sort of few lions that the europeans have left i mean luckily for the europe, Roy is playing putting so much better in the last, you know, little stretch that having that putting less in, I forget the guy's name right now, but it seems to have sort of got him feeling a lot better. Because when he's on, when he's like just a ruthless killer out there in Ryder cups, it's a whole different ballgame. Like, he's going to win, you know, he goes 4-0, 5-0, whatever, that's really hard to sort of overcome because he's so dominant, but if he was playing like he was kind of

earlier a share where it's sort of hitting everything at 15 feet and I'm still, I can't make a single birdie because I don't trust myself, then who knows. So if the Europeans come out and they start firing at, you know, these warriors start making a bunch of birdies and sort of shushing the crowd in reverse to read, I don't know, it might sort of start to weigh on the US a little bit. Like again, seriously, like, you know, we have to deal with Matthew Fitzpatrick, me and a Ryder Cup killer. You know? We're going to see if Rory tries to do the reverse read in front of read.

We're going to see like a Bob Barker happy deal more scenario. I'm pretty sure. Like, imagine read like with a crowd at his back and not on a opposing soil right now. I cannot wait to see what he's got in store. Oh, like, I mean, you have a video that you're gonna drop at some point, which I'm already like giddy excited thinking about having seen a little preview of it, because it's the perfect sort of Patrick Reed thing ever Well, I did I did put together a quick video just of just some like highlights from American teens within the last 20 years Do you have any idea how difficult that was? It's all clips of Reed that's all it is There's like two other fist pumps from other people because Reed was like a one man highlight show in 2014 the only guy showing any real emotion out there but it's fascinating I

mean I think you and I are both in on this is like at the moment that we sort of like totally fell for Patrick Reed was kind of that moment when he just brushed that drive and then refused even pick up his tea and I think I remember tweeting at that moment like I love cheering for Patrick Reed Sorry, not sorry, and you retweeted it and it got like 100 agreed to it was like all the sudden people were like Yeah, I think I'm in on this like There's no one guy who's just given FU's right left That was even before the shushic like that was when we did flip the switch for us and read was like oh my god We gotta get behind this guy

Here's why I don't get to I'm not like too animated about Captain's picks at this point. At this point in 2014, I was recorded on podcast saying, I think Patrick Reach had give up his spot on the team because he was playing so poorly leading up to it and I just did not like him at all. And I could not have done a further 180 after the writer cup of them.

So again, anything I say, well, I guess my take can never be worse than that one. So I shouldn't be too nervous about statements like that, but it kind of just goes to show how much all this analysis that we do, all this talking about it, that we do means so little when those balls go up in the air 18 days from now. I mean, and that's what makes Captain's picks

conversations so fun and not fun at the same time. Like, there's no way to, so let's say I want Daniel Burger on the team, he's not going to be on the team probably, I'm going to guess. There's no way I can look back and be like, I was right, he should have been, because we don't know how he would have played. And you can only really doubt what the captain has done. And you talk a little bit about wondering how many hours of his life it takes. Like, for me right now, I'm not even like involved in the team in any remote way.

I'm worn out from looking at this already. Like worn out with, try thinking about it every day, talking about it with people. And I have no say in it. I can't imagine the pressure that comes with actually having to make these decisions, making sure that the guy, and it sounds like, I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but it does sound like there's so much control

in other places with the assistant capins and with the players on the team that love I don't know if that's his way of kind of Moving the potential blame off of himself and kind of easing the pressure Or not and like yeah, I don't know if this is a good or bad thing We don't really have a winning formula to go off of but I think he's he's open himself up to a Lot of criticism. I mean he's just he's yeah He's made it if you'd gone with like fresh blood,

just like, if you'd just gone burger, JT, Ryan Moore, Kevin Naugh, then I think people would have bought into that. And if they lost, he wouldn't have doubted him. I think if we lose this one, it's gonna be really ugly. I mean, we can't have like a second task force, you know? What good is that gonna do, really? I mean, literally, I think I want, like,

makelson to just be the next captain, or tiger to be the next captain, because we, you know, one of those, I mean, I think that the idea, you know, the idea that tiger didn't care about the rider cup, I think is sort of really unfair over the years. I mean, maybe he didn't always feel comfortable entirely in sort of like having to drag around

DeMarco's, you know, Iron Play, 33rd throughout some of those rider cups. But likearco's, you know, Iron Play, 33rd throughout some of those Ryder Cups. But like, if you look at that, it was one of my favorite pictures in golf, it's a picture of like from behind the green when Justin Leonard made that putt in 99. And I'm not kidding, Tiger is like four and a half feet

off the ground and like his right leg is like, it's like he's hurtling over, you know, Bernard Longer or something to get to get to the art of celebration. He's so into that moment that you can't look at that picture and be like, oh yeah, Tiger don't really care about the Ryder Cup. Like I'm someone who has held Tiger to a totally unfair standard over the years and have some regrets now about it that he's out of, you know, my life on a sort of daily, you know, sporting basis. And I really am all, all

yet unwishing like him to be one of the next, you know, one of the next three for captains. The whole, I guess I don't even remember the source of when, where did that start with? Was it, I think it was David DuVall's comments calling it an exhibition. Where did that whole narrative of the US players not caring about the writer come from? I know DuVall said something about not getting paid for it. Which, I mean, a tiger and phil, we're big on that of like, you know, you're kind of, I don't,

like, I can't really plan them for this because they were sort of looking around like, okay, this is a huge money maker for the PJ of America. Like, and all of this money is going to you guys. So when they sort of fought up against, hey, let's donate some of this money to charity and eventually they had to sort of fight to get that done. But the narrative media wise, and this is even before you and I could ever even consider like media people, so this is the whole generation of other people saying, oh, how dare they be less grateful.

I mean, the thing that you hear about college football players, what they should just shut up and play, you know, like, you know, someone's making money off of you. You want to have some say in where it goes. And I guess that was before the hue. I mean, right as the tiger boom of money was coming in. So it wasn't these guys were not, they were wealthy. Don't get me wrong, but they were not the filthy millionaires that they are now, right as the tiger boom of money was coming in. So these guys were not, they were wealthy, don't get me wrong, but they were not the filthy millionaires that they are now, right?

I mean, that's, so I'm sure there was at least something to that. But it seems like now, these guys talk about it so much and care about it. To a point where it almost feels too much, like how often do you hear like Sergio or Rose or Rory like really talk about their excitement for the Ryder Cup? To them, it just seems like such a natural confidence. I don't know, they're just, it seemed to lose confidence about it that doesn't border on cocky. And

then it's almost like, is it fair to say that we maybe care too much? The players care too much or trying too hard to get this monkey off their back and get this losing streakish thing over with? I think there's a lot of things. I think that's maybe part of it, they care too much. I also think that for a long time, that Europe sort of saw it as their chance to sort of say, we play golf pretty darn well over here

over the other side of the pond. I mean, if you look at history, who were the greatest golfers of all time? It's Bobby Jones, it's Nicholas, it's Woods. You can't really find a European until you get down to Harry Vardin, or there's going to be, yeah, Vardin, and some of the like, you know, on Fowldots,

some of those guys, they don't have a person with 10 majors. So I think there was for a long time, sort of an American arrogance of like, ha ha, the writer cup, we, you know, England shows up and we just absolutely stomp them and then we go, you know, off to drink whatever. And so when the year, when, you know, Sevi came around and started to sort of embrace this like, yeah, we're coming right back at you. And on the war on the shore and stuff, that one was huge. And I think that the Europeans kind of saw this every kind of time out as like their

chance to sort of stick it to these sort of cocky Americans. And you know, if you look at them like politically a lot of those European guys are sort of liberal, they're progressive, the terms are very sort of conservative, so underlying elements of that, we're always kind of there. And I think that they just sort of embraced it as in terms of like well we have nothing to lose because everyone expects us to sort of get house the Americans there the ones who sort of dominated the game for a century and you know now we only can't we really got to kind of be great was you know when have the open championship when Peter Larder was sort

of winning five British opens but you know it's a whole different deal now there's they've just always this writer kept really I, it's probably wrote something like, they always managed to find a guy who's like, we've barely ever heard of who they're sort of, you know, his win in a couple, you know, tournaments on the European tour, like Thomas Lefais or whatever. And he's thrown him out there, they hide him all week, and then all of a sudden he's win in a match against D'Volver, he's winning a match against Tom Kite or whatever. And you don't get it.

Like, you're just like, who is this dude? Who is this Frenchman? I mean, one year I remember they didn't even think, one guy who didn't play all week, and he didn't think until singles, and they threw him in there and he won his match. I can't remember who it was. I feel like it was in, it was the one in Spain.

And they're just like, what? Look who? How? But they just, they exude that sort of like freewheeling confidence that we've never really had. And I think that does go back to the whole, like what I was trying to get to is that anything really can happen.

And I know we were talking about this in our group chat today as well, just like, it doesn't, I don't know, you can put the, you can put the 12 best players in the world on one team and put the next 12 on the other team. And like what do you think the odds are? Probably like maybe 65, 35 that the other team would, the, the 18 would win. I mean, if you do that in the NBA, you're gonna get that, that 18 is gonna win every single time, right? Yeah. And so with a golf, it's just such a, you know, in match play in that short, it's such a quick event.

It's three days. If you're game discipline, like, and PGA Tour of your game disappears for two days, you miss a cut, it's such a quick event. It's three days. If your game disappears, and PGA Tour of your game disappears for two days, you miss a cut, you're back the next week. Jordan Speake missed the first two cuts of the playoffs last year and won the FedEx Cup. Like, it doesn't necessarily mean anything about you as a player.

If you play poorly or great over that stretch of three days, and we all like to go back to our favorite moments, either positive or negative about certain players. Like, I'm guilty of it too. Like, I want to read on the team and playing probably all five matches just based on what he did in 2014. There's no guarantee that's going to happen again, but we just have so few like experiences to draw off of.

That's why I'm very selective about when I cite Pete players records. I gladly use it against Fierrick because I think that that is one guy that we have a huge sample on to be able to reach conclusion. Do you think we are safe from Fierrick getting that final captain's pick? I think so. I don't see how you could pick Fierrick now like two weeks later whatever. Like after you've already made the other picks, if he had made the tour championship, I think we could all be a little bit nervous. I think on some level too, the fact

that he's sort of a vice captain or whatever that he's participating in the stuff has got to make love feel like, well, you're still going to be a part of this. You're still going to sort of get to common be, wear a hat and all that stuff. So the idea that we're just going to leave him home seems like a hat and all that stuff. So, the idea that, you know, we're just gonna leave him home seems like a little bit harsher.

You know, a year ago or whatever in our chat, like I was sort of starting this idea of like you better watch out because these captains have always tried to take care of their older guys. And as every comment they love made throughout the year, I'm like, well, you know, if you haven't been there,

it was like it sent a shiver down our spine. It's like, no, no, we've done this. We've already been down this road. Stop it. So, you know, it's like what Kenny Perry's getting, making this, I mean, he wasn't like, Hammerspick, but he's like 51 or something. I mean, that's just kind of logic, makes those sense, you know, why keep repeating over and over this stuff that hasn't worked. You know, that's why we were sort were on the Justin Thomas train. There was like, okay, you don't have to play him in five matches. Put him out there just in four seasons, let him make a ton of birdies, and the other guy

can sort of pick him up when he's making bogies. And why won't that help? It not only helps build for the future, but it might help right now. And I think putting Fierrick on this team, Fierrick should be maybe the captain while he's, you know, time around. He has enough of a resume that, you know, if you win in a major as American, if you're won a ton of tournaments over time, you should get it unless you're in Larry Nelson. For some reason didn't get to be the captain, and I'm going to bring that up on every podcast and send him a bunch of stuff. But, but uh, you know, it you screwed up as badly like as Watson did

I have a hard time from my seat determining what makes a good captain and what doesn't right? I mean the fact that the PJ of America seemed and it seems to be this way for a while And I don't think it's gonna stay this way or I guess at least it was like this for the Europeans for a while And they've gone away from it and that and winning a major was a criteria To being a captain of this team, which I never really understood why Sean McKeill would be qualified to do this and why Sergio Garcia wouldn't, you know, or something like that. So hopefully that line of thinking is changing.

But again, in my mind, the captain's job is about forming as good of a team as possible. Okay, so for me, the chemistry stuff, again, there may be an element to it that I don't fully understand, but the chemistry issue is solved by getting the ball in the hole as fast as possible, and as few strokes as possible, right? I mean, I heard Ted Bishop say, I think it was on Bacon's podcast the other day saying, like, you know, we look back at the cap and see a 2014 Tom Watson, but you look, you forget that the Europeans outplayed us by 35 strokes. And it's like, well, no, listen, part of the deal, what we're getting at here is they didn't build the best team.

They didn't put the guys in a great place to succeed. And so that that's part of the deal, right? And the fact that they made the cap and picks when they did, and they only took three cap and picks, I think they did, they've at least improved that process, but it's still just, it's hard for me to say that the captain's job is more than making sure there's not huge conflicts within your team, finding guys that they're comfortable playing with each other and getting the best players out there, giving them a chance to succeed. Do you think there's a major part of that that I'm missing? No, I think that that's totally right. I think in golf that there's, especially because we've done it this way for so long, and there's always this build up on that session of like who's in the 11 spot,

who's in the 12 spot, there seems to be this like protectionist policy of like, well, we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. How could we pass up on the number 12 guy when he was so close to getting one of the, top eight spots until like the last few weeks or whatever. And we've done it too. We're going to be overcalculating all the stats.

And well, if this tournament counted, like the guys who we want would be there. And maybe just put them, with USA basketball, they don't calculate quite like this at point averages. It's totally different, obviously. But they just sort of pick the team that they want to pick. And some guys they say, yeah, I don't think you're a good fit, leaving you home.

And you don't like it, tough deal. That's a totally different way to look at it. But for some reason golf doesn't, we're so kind of obsessed with, well, we gotta just go with essentially the top 12 point qualifiers. There's no like total wild card that we can bring in here that was a young sort of good chance.

I mean, every international team in some way, and this is just especially true to President's Cup, my God. Why are we not putting two young guys on those teams every single time? Like, yeah, if we lost the President's Cup, it would be embarrassing. But I'll take a President's Cup loss if it means like we're a better Ryder Cup team down

the road, right? I agree. The problem with that is it's run by two different organizations, right? PJ Torer runs the president's cup, PJ America runs the Ryder Cup, and it's not, their interests are not aligned. Because I made this case very strongly that Brooks Cupca should be on the president's cup team last year, specifically exactly what you're saying. This guy's going to be on our teams for probably the next decade

and might as well get him some experience. I think we can talk a bit about what we actually think experience means, but question I have for you and I will admit before I even ask it, it is a very leading question. I'm willing to go back to 2008 and I'm not using that as a bookend just because that's the last one, the US one.

I just think, oh oh six well first of all we can have an entire podcast about the 2006 Ryder Cup. We're not gonna do that. Oh six and oh four are such ridiculous outliers. The USDMoth 18.5.9 and half in both of them just terrible teams. 2002 again that's we're going too far back there. So I'm looking at the last four Ryder cups. Do you think things are as bad for this this US group as I don't know I don't want to say people but as people make it out to be? No I mean wouldn't our home mentality feel different in some ways if we had one in 12? Do you remember the like the sequence of events that had to happen? Yeah, I mean it was insane. It was ridiculous.

It was in 2010 or 2012. Both of those matches are so close. And 12 is ridiculous. 12 is if that crazy tip that Mikkelsen makes in that match, the mrs. that lifts out in that match with Rose where he does those sort of take us out off and clap when Rose makes I mean either one of those things is so close That if that one of those shots goes in and the other doesn't the whole Ryder Cup flips I mean that's that's honestly even though I was like Physically in pain. That's one of my favorite sporting events ever like I wrote something about it You know just about like why with a semi certainly when when husband or you like looked up at the sky and like broke down

in tears thinking about sevy that was such a great like powerful sports moment and if anything goes different like in that match like if tiger goes out in houses mornari beats him you know freaking you know eight and six there's not nearly as much pressure on me you're fear to blow that match can serve you or there's not nearly as much pressure on me or fear to blow that match can serve you or there's not nearly as much pressure on field have to win his match like that that whole thing could have flipped on literally like one whole and how all those matches so

i don't know like are we putting together horrible teams not necessarily in ten and twelve like those are pretty good teams that just happened to sort of get beat you know what if polter isn't't go nutso in that previous day, making like four 5 straight birdies to have that match against Stricker and Tiger, like, do they, you know, does that cup flip? Probably. And that's why we hate Polters because he stuck in our eye when we most needed to close them out. It's, it really does burn because that was like the most ridiculous rider cup.

Like, it really did slip a rider cup. Like, what, what Polter did. I just, I just was googling while you were talking. I wrote this in 2014 just the sequence of events that happened for the Euros that had to happen for the Euros to win in 2012, which was on Saturday. Stricker missed a 12-foot birdie on 18 that would have had his match, okay? Pulter birdies the last five holes on Saturday to win one-up. That goes down in Ryder Cup history as much as I hate me in Poulter. That's absolutely remarkable. Rory got a police escort to make his tea time on Sunday. Like he almost literally missed his tea time.

You know what, you've apparently knocked on his hotel room door and was like, hey, aren't you supposed to meet your match in 20 minutes? I still have a lot of questions about that sequence of events. We all do, but let's leave it there. Okay, so after the glory, need to please that score and one his match against Keegan, by the way. Justin Rose birdies the last two holes, including a 35 footer on 17 to beat Phil one up and Phil's chip, as you you mentioned lip down.

Yes. Furek bogies the last two holes to lose one down to Sergio. Stricker bogies 17 and fails to birdie 18 to lose one down to Kimer. I think he had a look at it on 18 is why I wrote that. So if one of those things flips, the US wins the Ryder Cup. Like absolutely one of them. And one thing I've always wondered why people didn't give Tiger more grief for this, but Tiger had like a three foot put on 18 to have the Ryder Cup, like to tie,

like you're put of retain the cup, but I feel like there's a difference there, don't you? Like 14, 14 is different than 14 and a half, 13 and a half. The thing, I feel like he got a free pass, like he looked completely disinterested in the putt and like, that people didn't even mention afterwards. I know it really wouldn't matter, but did that matter to you? A little bit, it felt weird, but I was so like, disbanded about the total collapse that

I couldn't, I was annoyed with him for essentially shooting, like, I don't think he made a birdie in that match until like 16. I mean, it was really not good. I mean, it was, that was when he was still the number one player in the world. And Mollandari basically like slapped it around and didn't, everyone kept thinking throughout that day like, okay, you, we know this match is like in the bag like to go or sigers in when this match floor up or, you know, even worse. And Mollandari just basically like shot 70 Tiger 71 and ended up winning that match. And so that's where I was sort of totally disappointed.

I was like, why aren't you dropping the throttle on this dude to give us a little bit of breathing room, you know, and just didn't happen. Like I just, I still can't, it was almost like revenge for 99 because it just sort of felt like, oh yeah, like everything's going well, we're clicking, building the nervous about what Polter did yesterday, but you know, this is no big deal We only got to win five matches today and nope like couldn't even get that done They're up 10 for 10 for on Saturday before that Polter match went down Yeah, imagine the the rider cup that happens when Polter is the captain for Europe. No, like who do you want to see?

Like is that where we've got to go? I mean, it mixes older, so it's that I can't imagine who I want exactly to sort of lock horns with Polter, but I wanted to be someone of the same kind of mentality because I can't imagine living it down at 50 years old or whatever when Ian Polter is like drinking champagne and like dancing all over the I don't know the dumb Trump derail writer cup It's gonna be Polter and Phil in 2024 at Beth Page right You know it pulled just a little young to get that cabinet ship right. I mean he's still he's 40 I guess oh I'm not baby. That's eight years away. I mean how old's love when you got it for the first time?

It's 46 or so and whatever. I think, so was it, briefly, David Tom's slated to be 2018 captain. Is that what I've heard? Is that sounds consistent with what you've heard? But that's what I think I've heard because you get guys who win the PJ Championship get a chance to usually be a captain. But does that inspire you at all like what no one

didn't talk i mean i like do you think i was made the most of his career you know his abilities and you know he won he's sort of the anti player for our mentality because he won a major by laying up literally and it was it just makes me ill thinking about that and you know I don't know I mean I would really be curious to hear like what Tom's like mentality was what his sort of plan was how was he sort of attacking the idea of being I still know I'm not sure that I could totally be on board he have to kind of win me over in some ways yeah and in stricker in 2020 I think well first well, first of all, Tom's gonna be, what, wouldn't you think he would have been an assistant captain at least once before?

I know that's not necessarily a criteria, but you don't even hear his name as a part of this process at all. That's why I don't think, that's, it's only, I have no inside information on this at all. I just have a hard time seeing him be the captain in 2018. I know I've heard that. Uh, 2022, do we know who that's going to be? Or does, I feel like that, there's been a rumor out there on that as well

I mean isn't maybe that's tiger right like you gotta think that he's gonna be you know Ask to do it in some point in there That's the point yeah wouldn't I feel like his first one will be at home You think I wouldn't mind taking tiger to Europe like you know He certainly he knows how to play like all different kinds golf, and he would be a good person to sort of, you know, to say they have that. I would say they have these more like some iconic venues across Scotland or whatever. Why are we going to Paris or whatever, and next time around this stuff, I want to see like Carnistiose or Ryder Cup, or one of these old fun courses.

Yeah, why are we going like Nicholas courses? What was the point of going to Glenn Eagles? I don't understand that at all. I guess we really don't tend to care about the golf courses that much for these cups. I mean, the course really just becomes brushed aside and the match play format is what becomes a storyline. How much fun would it be to have a Ryder Cup

but it will be interesting? I know, obviously the courses are sort of, play formats, what becomes a storyline. How much fun would it be to have a writer cup at Hell will be interesting? I know, obviously, the courses are sort of, there's all these politics behind the back doors, which you never even imagine, like understanding in some ways. But there's this pecking order for what courses are vying for PGA's, and what courses are vying for US opens, and what courses should be writer cup venues, whatever.

But the neat thing about Beth Pages is that we kind of know Beth Pages a little bit. It's not Fahalo where there's been one major in the last 20 years. Like we've been to Beth Pages a few times ago, there's every year for the barclay, for the one internment every year and stuff. And so knowing those holes makes it feel fun.

The thing that's fun about the masters is that you can anticipate in your mind holes that are coming up and what that means and so we can spend like a whole year kind of dreaming about well you know how much fun will it be like if Roy and Spiefer sort of you're going down the back nine and they're both hitting second shots into 13 trying to make it go we can kind of do that with that page or we could do that with you know places like you know like Pebble Beach or places that are sort of known. We can't really do that with like, clean Eagles. You played

gun Eagles or whatever, like, or the K-club. Like, who would ever even thought about those courses before the Ryder Cup skater? Yeah, no. I don't even have any memory of, well, again, that was the 06 Ryder Cup teams. I don't have any memory of the actual K-club at that golf course. I did play it. It's a really fun golf course. I think that they are going for, they don't have any memory of the actual K-club at that golf course. I did play it. It's a really fun golf course I think that they are going for it. They don't for some reason they don't want to seem to have this at link style golf course I don't know why I don't know if that's for the fan reasons or the logistics. I really I really don't know Having been to one Ryder Cup. It is like it is truly a logistical

I don't know what the word is, dynamic, I guess you could say. There's four groups out there and there are just tens of thousands of people. There's not much golf being played. You're not seeing a whole lot. The main concern for them is the logistical, I guess, imagination too. I remember having to wait an hour and a half in Medina in 2012 for waiting for the first group to come by. And we just got, we were like 10 rows deep

on number 15 green, which is dribble par four. And like, that's how early we had to get there just to see the four groups come through. And the rest of the day, we tried to like follow some people and we didn't see much golf the rest of the day. So I know that's at least one factor that goes into it, but I'm guessing money and politics has a lot bigger factor that goes into it again.

I don't think we have enough time to even remotely, or time or understanding to know how that goes down. The dirty secret about golf is that it's hard to watch like in person and understand like before scope of what's going on in the tournament. I mean, I, you know, at the masters this year, I didn't get to see, you know, I saw watched Will at play through a man corner, but then I didn't stick or I didn't go on with him.

I went back and watched the speed, since I was there on 12 watching him melt down. Anyone who was with speed, like watching that happen, like Porter and I were in real time, they didn't get to see Danny Willett, like Birdie 14, which was sort of ended up being a huge sort of moment in that match, because the speed looks up at the scoreboard and sees that Will it has just birdied. He's just made another bogey all of a sudden his lead is one so he's got to make kind of a nervy swing on 12. If you're watching on TV, you're seeing all that sort of unfold, but you can't really do that in person. So that's why it's sort of complicated I think sometimes I think the best golf stories when we get in the media are for people who get out there and walk and get lucky and get something happens right in front of their eyes, but a lot of the time it's just hard to do because you can't see.

It's easier to watch them do me. I think it's become like NFL in that way. I was like going to an NFL game. Really not all that fun because you don't have access to replay. You don't have like, you can't, it's really, you have to sit in with binoculars. You have to drink more runs like scream behind you, like I love the writer cup for the experience, but if watching it, I think that for me this time is when my first can be really different trying to kind of, you know, walk it all, especially in a place where you can't use your

phone or what their lot of places are, you can't like see what's going on ahead, like you have no idea what's happening. I still love the story from you and Porter at the Masters. You were there on Speedway, Meltedown on 12. And Adam Stanley tweeted, like, you know, Kyle Porter's out there. I think he's following Speeds Group. Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

And I guess Porter just got back to the media center and then very next tweet I saw on my timeline. It was back-to-back tweets. Porter just goes, I have seen unspeakable things. Like, Stanley couldn't wait to hear what he had to say. And then Porter's like, I'm not gonna talk about what I have just seen. It was hilarious to me.

But you're exactly right. Like, I went to, I don't go to many tournaments anymore, but I went to the mortalist year. And I was just amazed how much I forgot about the golf tournament. Like, I just watched the golf that was in front of me. I was like, oh yeah, well McGurts went in this day. I guess I just didn't even care about it.

Whereas TV, it's all just like the narrative driven right down your face and you're only seeing the leaders. So it is very different in person than it is in reality. But all right, we've been kind of whirlwind here, but we did talk about JB Holmes. I want to get your opinion on Ricky Fowler. Would you have taken him as a pick? Do you understand the pick by love?

Would he be on your team? I think so. Yeah, I mean you got to have somebody to play with Jimmy Walker and you feel like they've been playing these Tuesday money matches against, you know, Phil and Whomever all for a year and those are there's certainly some pressure when you're putting for $5,000 or whatever on a whole some pressure when you're putting for $5,000 or whatever on a whole mix and seems to think that that's a huge component in like learning how to play like good match play golf. You know Rick obviously hadn't had the year that we all thought he was but the talent is absolutely there. Like we know that this guy has a complete game that he's a you know when he's playing well he's a great driver with ball, he's a great wedge player, he's a great iron player.

Like, there's really, obviously, the weaknesses in his game have sort of shown up more in the second half of the year, but he has played like, okay, in the last, you know, I mean, he played pretty well at the PGA. He obviously didn't finish. You know, the other guy's ran way with it, but I mean, I just feel like Ricky's gonna be a part of the American golf, you know, for the next 10 years, like a huge part of it. And he was close enough to where you're like, yeah, I definitely, like if there's a question of doubt, like I'm not gonna sort of upset, so

or, well, you know, it wasn't quite, you know, better than this person in, you know, Scrooch, Stroke's game approach. I'm a big believer in that, but I also not going to sort of make it the deciding factor in whether to leave a super talented player off just because he had sort of a bad streak of it. Right. That last thing, part of what you said is, is right exactly where I am. And that, look, I, yeah, I've gotten a little stats heavy the last couple of times, a couple of weeks, but again, I'm looking at, like just like you said, a very talented player that was fifth in total strokes game for this season amongst American players.

Like, it's not like he's had this disaster season. I don't get where this is coming from. It's this weird point system that, you know, gives a lot of weight to majors. Yes, he did not play well in majors this year. Does that mean he's not going to play well for three days in September and October in Hazel team in Minnesota? I don't think that's necessarily a great correlation. I made that same argument that Jim Führer finished second in Oakmont. I don't think that means anything comes September, October. For me, it's about lining up the best possible players. I think, yeah, Ricky's had a less

than stellar year, but I think he is one of the best players. One of the best players that the U.S. can have or can can can put on this team. If there were guys like Berger and JT that were beaten down the door that were really coming on strong, could you make the case for those guys over someone like Ricky? Maybe, sure. I mean, I can see that a lot better than I do. I mean, yeah, people are claiming for Ryan Moore, Kevin Naugh, you know, I've been claiming for Berger.

Some people will still go with JT and it's not like these guys are even outperforming the guys that you want to bypass. And I know, again, that also doesn't mean that they would be better in the Ryder cups. Some people have seen enough of Coochern, enough of Fowler in Ryder cups, did not want them on the team anymore. But like you just said, he's going to be a huge part of Merrick Off for a long time. He's not going away. I just couldn't justify not putting him on this team. Along the same lines do you feel similarly differently about Matt Kutcher's selection?

I kind of feel indifferently towards Kutcher. I mean, he's such a nice guy that I think that, you know, he gets a lot of sort of love from people for if he was a had a different game like people would you know if he was a different if that same personality was on a guy with the that same game was on a guy with a different personality people wouldn't care about it it's like a lot of coach you know sort of like oh yeah like I love coach it's always my eyes always great guy the coach should be like I said you coach, he doesn't make a ton of birdies, like he doesn't make a ton of mistakes.

He certainly has shown like in a couple masters that he pressure is not exactly something that he rises to the occasion to, but I think he's sort of a good team guy. Certainly like, gonna be someone who a lot of the guys are like, yeah, I'd love to go out there with Coach, I'll play with Coach. I know he's gonna, put some balls that are going to give us a chance to make some buries and smash them all, I don't have to carry us.

I'll smash all the way to Tiger and I want to say that up where they were doing. The Coofy will smith the press friends and the hand shakes and stuff. That was fun. That was a sort of bull molding for me. I keep making argument against Cooch. I'm not going to sit here for me, so I, I can like make an argument against coach. You know, but I'm like, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you like, yeah, it's gotta be on my team. But I cannot think of Ricky at the Rykep without

a thing about your tweet about how Rory was basically carving team Europe's initials in the back of his hair with his favorite plays. That's still one of my favorite riding cup tweets. So I was like, we're pretty, obviously, we're pretty pro USA until like we're getting housed and then I was like, we're pretty, obviously, we're pretty pro USA until we're getting housed. And then it's like, well, what are the funniest jokes? Yeah.

No, this is what's. It's gotten a lot harder to make. Ricky doesn't follow me, but it's gotten a lot harder to make jokes about some players that follow me now. And I know they're going to see them. You could put a timestamp on when I stopped making jokes about Rory because he, I think it was like October of last year or whatever.

And yeah, it's a lot more challenging, nothing I'm complaining about it. But, but I thought he favorited one of your tweets where you were like, make it one of his wedge game once. Like I've hit as many quality shots as Rory Day and he was like, yeah, favor. Yeah, he'll throw a like in there. And it's pretty hilarious sometimes what he does with the ones

He he wants it. I'm surprised to somebody with that many followers would and is that under that much scrutiny Like you could scroll through his likes and be like, oh, maybe he doesn't really like this player. Maybe he doesn't Q like I want to be the guy who like is like writing down funny tweets or taking screenshots I'm and showing them to Charles Howell. But when he even talked about like, oh, I don't follow you. I don't really do Twitter, but people show me tweets. So like, someone's got a carrier pigeon where they're like, oh, you got this. The layer is bodich tweet that. Charles Howell definitely has Twitter. I've called him on this before like it's maybe a secret account

Maybe does just read it, but I know you have Twitter out there You know there's an egg out there that's mickle since somewhere Googling all of it like you know mickle's in love to read the jokes about himself and like they're like Nice love that uh, love that tron crack about if you duck in the IRS Nice love that love that Tron crack about if you duck in the IRS I If that if you can't tell I'm always willing to make a fill joke because I know A. He's not on Twitter So B definitely doesn't follow me Everything is fair game when it comes to fill if you can if you can't tell

Well, you know jokes that Phil makes about other players. I feel like you know I feel as aware constantly of like all this sort of cracks about himself and everything. Like, yeah, I felt that tweet that I had where I was joking about Phil, talking about Parley's and whatever. I always get into you feel like, so I was like, yeah, pretty accurate, yeah. I feel like, yeah, he would be more proud of it than he would be upset. He'd be like, yeah, I'm glad I had this reputation. OK, why don't we get to, we've almost been 50 minutes now, and we haven't got to any Twitter questions yet.

So why don't we plow through a few of these. Person named Kyle Porter at Kyle Porter CBS says, who would you kick out of our WhatsApp thread if you had to kick one person out? That's tough. Well, it does stuff. Well, I said on Twitter, I would kick out Hashtags Mexico phone. What?

He takes that so he can read our WhatsApp chat when he's out of the country, which I feel like is very leotist. We don't need any resort phones in our chat, so the chat is still good to stay, but he would just have to sort of be on a chat band when he left the country. And his defense, he may just do it. So his work phone isn't getting all these

elicit messages. That is correct. How often do you wake up and since you're on a totally different time zone? And there are like 50 messages from us like going off about some sort of inner workings of the conspiracy. Well, that's the worst because by the time I wake up,

you guys are asleep, so I can't respond to anything. I've missed the conversation, and any response I send goes eight hours without anyone looking at it. And then by the time you guys read it, you're just now waking up anyways, and probably not ready to talk about anything. So yeah, it was the worst. It was the worst.

It was like, just knock off a fire joke and then be like, come on guys. Anyways, I'm probably not ready to talk about anything. So yeah I do sometimes when that happens I will I go in you can check in WhatsApp seeing who has read the messages I'll be like oh come on. whiff. I'll be like, oh, come on. Is somebody read, is somebody seen this yet? All right, keeping the, keeping the, within the WhatsApp group questions coming, DJ Pi wants to know, if you had 12 captains picks, how would the team be different? Hmm. I don't know if the question's asking, if you are Davis love, how does it look different

or if you are deciding? So you can go either way with that, I think. mean I would sort of say you know what like I don't think there's a huge difference between 11 and 12 and whoever I want to pick so guess what I'm putting De Shembo on the team and I'm putting JT on the team and those you know those are going to be for sure guys as I'm building for the future it's like I'm bringing up my sort of young kids to let them learn what the atmosphere is like. I mean if you ever watched that like thing with Therady where Keegan Riley talks about the first T-shot that he ever hit in the Ryder Cup and Phil comes up to him before it and he was like I don't want it to be on their

plan alter-shots like I don't want A-iron into this hole. I don't want nine iron, I want F and WEDT. into this hole. I don't want nine iron, I want F and wedge. He's telling this story and he's like, he's so scared on that tee. Fans are like going nuts, he finally come down and he just nukes a drive like 340. It's so full as wedge and the first only said they could not believe how nervous he was. That's the atmosphere that you have to prepare for and you can't do it without you know getting some experience of thing. But so like literally what I have you know what I have Zach on the team I don't think so obviously like winning a major whatever we talked about you know 15 months ago means very little I don't think I would have to be walk around

the team I just be like you know what guys this hasn't worked at all I don't care if your feelings are hurt I don't care if this is the way that we've done things in the past I'm picking the best team that I got and it's going to be filled with a lot of guys who make buries. I think I'm similar to you and the team that I would put together would look a lot different. No ZJ, no SNEDs. I probably wouldn't have homes on my team. But I mean, I don't know. We've been over it, over it, back and forth a million times on the point system and how I think it's just silly

to straddle a captain with eight guys that he's forced to take. And it should just be, the automatic qualifiers should just be like a dead given. Like the whole thing, it coming down to the last few holes, the barclays, for who was gonna get the last spot. It just kind of seems, it just doesn't,

it doesn't, how does that help you form a better team? I don't think that that, it should be like maybe four automatic spots, or like the automatic qualifiers for this year's team should have been like speed and DJ. Like that's really the only two guys that have been like hands down, you like fully earned it, but I don't know, they're not gonna change it.

They're not gonna add more than four captains picks, I don't think, so. Will Bardwell wants to know, or he just just says we're going to lose aren't we? I mean I keep spinning around back and forth on this. I don't think so. I think that I think that we're still going to wait. It's at home, you know We're other than Oakland Hills and the house on disaster like played pretty well at home So I got to think that we should almost be favored. Like why shouldn't we?

We have more talent, the better team. DJ is clearly the best player in the world right now. You know, especially if you take day's of the equation because it's an international player, like, is DJ, would you pick DJ in a match against any one of their dudes? Roy is the only person who I would say, oh, well, that's a push. Any other guy's DJ is supposed to win that match. You know what I'm speaking? This is actually really good at this sort of format.

And I think he's going to play pretty well. Brooks Kepke is going to basically has the best Ryder Cup mentality other than Reed that you can imagine. You know, we have a lot of things working in our favor. And I feel like we get to decide the format. So we get to, you know, what a role and matches a role in our first. I think that helps.

You don't have guys rolling out there in all three shots, which we've never been particularly great at. The first morning of it when they're still nervous, you know, all of that I think is going to sort of play to our hands now. If, if rookie guys like Matthew Fitzpatrick and Andy Sullivan or whatever play really lights out, like Europeans always seem to do, then if Roy plays, he goes 5-0, yeah, then I think we're worried about being grinded out to the last day, but America is the favorite in my opinion. They may not want to embrace that, they may not feel like it at all because it's gotten housed, but I still think that they are going to win.

Yep, I'm the green. I think Spinal score is 15 and a half, 12 and a half. What comforts me is that I think we are... This could be very famous last words. I think we're safe from getting blown out. I think there's very little, it's no chance that we get blown out of this. I think Europe can definitely beat us. I think the US should win, and I think that there is a chance that the US blows them out. What you mentioned way back earlier, probably not in the first 10 minutes or so, was just how much Europe relies on their horses, how much Rory, Rose, Stenson, and Sergio. They're going to play all five matches.

If one or two of those guys is off, I think Europe's in big time trouble. They're gonna be relying on Andy Sullivan, Rafael Cabrebeo, and Chris Wood to get them points. I'm gonna feel very good about the US's chances. So, if you think about when we did blow them out, you know, and they think him, writer cup, let's just call it that for now on. Yep.

Sergio was garbage that writer cup. And it cost them dearly. Like he had just gotten dumped by a great Norman's daughter and or maybe his old and brown's daughter or the dated both of them, so it's hard to me to remember. And you know that the cause of big stick when Fowl-Doh pointed that out like Sergio just wasn't into it. But he wasn't like he kind of moped around and that was you know golf his heart sometimes when you're dealing with other things going on in your life. And so the one time Sergio was not very good, it ended up being a huge advantage for US.

Yeah, all right, I'm fully convinced now. Well, there's been no evidence that those guys are going to play poorly in this. I mean, Rose and Maccaw are potted like they're on the deck of the Titanic all season long, and now they both seem to be playing quite well going into this, or at least have resolved their putting issues. So if we're going talk about like past errors like you and me

predicted at the US are gonna win the Ryder Cup is kind of like Porter predicting that Roy is going to win all four majors every year like that's sort of like if we're gonna hot cold take sort of memorialize that then that's that's our like you could if you and I had done 20 podcasts I don't think we would have picked Europe like in any of those who just wouldn't have been able to bring ourselves, just like Porter Caprick himself to pick anyone but Roy. And every major.

The year is 2038. Porter's got like 18 different social media networks that he's using at this point, still make copy-pacing the same Roy prediction for every major. Are we haven't talked much about the fourth and final pick? Who do you think, if you're making going to be a copypacing the same rory prediction for every major. Are we having to talk much about the fourth and final pick? Who do you think, if you're making power rankings right now, who do you think is at the top of it, and how far does that list go for Davis Love?

I mean, obviously, Bob is going to be a factor. What's weird is that if Bob gets left off, there's the potential for it to be controversial, because Bob could really be hurt about it and would make us think about it and say, what other guys, why would you take Daniel Berger over me when I want two masters, I don't see Daniel Berger with two masters or whatever. It could be a thing that the players have to talk about, the love has to talk about, that he can be second guest about. Like, Bubba's the safe pick, because no one's going to be, if he picks Bubba, no one's

going to be like, oh, whoa, when on an limb there? Whoa. But the bossy pick is to pick, you know, Berger, or somebody Barbara Narr, or something like that who's totally kind of, hasn't been on a rather cup team before, hasn't won a major, isn't sort of like a household name for a lot of people. And that's one of the things that I sometimes impression about in media is that there's this sort of backlash when people make logical, but what can easily be sort of cast as controversial decisions.

And I don't know that, I mean, if you look at that match in what we were talking about, like previous Ryder Cups, Bumble went out first against Luke Donald and was like, four down through nine. Against the guy who's hitting it, like 270. Like how is, how was he for that? I mean like look if Luke played his his butt off and was like oh, yeah, making you know Spurries him for seven holes. I understand it But it wasn't like that match was off of TV for most of the day because it was Route That's if Bubba House is Donald like he should have you, you know, he was getting people fired up or whatever, you know, telling the Europeans to egg him on or whatever, like, and everything.

That match was such a letdown for me. That was where I kind of flipped where I was as someone, it's like, man, this dude, he is a head case of that. He just wasn't into that at all. It was a huge deal. And I just, you should never get beat, like, house by Luke Donald on singles in the last day. It's hard to get on the singles in the last day. It's hard to get dropped from coverage

in the Ryder Cup format. But that goes into Bubba's three and eight record. I just, what is going on? No? Just waxed. Three and eight record is clearly working against them. And I saw this quote today on Twitter that said something like Bubba said,

well, on the seven-throwing rank player in the world if they don't look Don't pick me. They must not think I'm good That's not I'm not picking him after him. He's saying that like I'm not gonna be like, oh, okay. Yeah, you're right I forgot that you're good at golf like here come be on my team I just O and three and Ryder Cup singles he's been four downing every one of those matches. He's won six of 48 holes and he's never led. Oh. I've kind of talked myself into the Bubba being an okay,

final pick if you know, if we don't see somebody step up big time in the tournament championship, but maybe I should be, I think it does say something that he wasn't picked in this round. Like why wouldn't he be picked, why wouldn't he be picked in this patch in jb who is more of the i mean wasn't sleeper pick but more of a sleeper picked in bubble would have been why why why why they must not want him on the team and i actually talked to a

player that had said had put had uh... spoken with a assistant captain rather recently and he told me that they were really high on JB and not very high on Bubba and that ended up at least so far being true. So I think that there is something to that. I think he'd like to go with a burger JT type just to get people off his back honestly and that he's got he's got to let 10 guys with experience already on the team. He can take a risk on a guy without experience.

And I know for a fact that, and again, a lot of people have discounted, they want to throw JT out just because he's not had the type of season that we kind of expected from him after getting a third and a win in the fall series. But honestly, if he finishes top five at the Torch Championship, I think he's going to be on the team. I know that Davis loves wants to put him on the team. Like he's begging, he wants JT to have to earn it, and he must be able to justify it, but he knows he wants to pick him.

So, um, as you said to me, I was kind of like, he's not, but you would point out like, and big and put it out like, he makes a ton of birdies. Like he doesn't, sometimes he has trouble avoiding like, big scores where he should make a bogey, it makes double, but he's going to throw a ton of birdies at you on some days and be really, He doesn't sometimes he has trouble avoiding like big scorers where he should make a bogey and make a double But he's gonna throw a ton of birdies at you on some days and be really, you know Those that's huge in a match where your final score doesn't really matter So especially like in those matches where it's You're playing your own ball, but your score doesn't always count great

I feel like I looked this up though, and I don't have the numbers in front of me But his birdie average wasn't what I thought it was. I mean, because some of this is us projecting from last year too when he was playing better and it was sort of hot, but you know, I think we all think that he's sort of a piece, at least of the future of American golf, and you could put him in a match with speed, and he's known since they were 17 or whatever, and you would feel pretty comfortable with the two of them, like, going ball out for America. I mean, when Justin said, like, would you rather major,

you know, or would you be on the right copy as a writer cop? That was sort of a fun moment. That was the opposite of Chris Kirk being like, oh, no, man, I don't care. What a... Right, that's... Those of the two polar ends at the spectrum.

Yeah, and if you're trying to take the stats, that base trying to take the stat based approach and put them on the team, I think if JT was on the team, you're throwing stats out the window and you're making the bold call, you're through Davis Love saying, I think you're going to ball out in Hazel team. You really haven't supported it that much with your play, but I'm putting my confidence in you. I think he has the goodwill to be able to afford to do that, whether or not he's going to. It's still a question.

I think it'll have to at least get some sign of it at East Lake. But again, I'm a no-chate-see-homer. I'm not necessarily campaigning for that. If you want to go for it, I'm on board. But it's not like I'm demanding that Justin Thomas be on this team. But I think it'd be a lot of fun if he was from a viewer standpoint. All right, man, this is over an hour. I've gotten to, I didn't get to all the questions,

but I think we kind of covered most of the topics that people send in loosely throughout, unless there's, unless Mr. Player has anything, does Mr. Player have any predictions for what we can expect in 18 days? I'd like it to be all to come down tied to the final day and then it's Brooks Capcar versus Rory in a push-up contest. See you on the first team, McElroy.

All right, Gavvy V, we're letting you out on that one. We're going to let you do a George Costanza and just leave on a top note right like that. So Thank you for the time. Thank you ESPN for letting Kevin Van Volckerberg come on the no-line up podcast and I will be in touch and go USA Better than most That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.