No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 730: Ryder Cup Roundtable with Jamie Weir and Kyle Porter

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

With just a little more than a month to go our foursome of Ryder Cup sickos are back to trade barbs ahead of the action at Marco Simone. For the stars and stripes, Soly pairs with Kyle Porter while the Euros are represented by Tron and Jamie Weir. We take the temperature of both sides and potential captain's picks, venue and setup concerns, the path to victory for each side, the shortcomings of the points systems, underrated players on both teams, and a ton more. 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. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lang podcast. Sully here. We got the crew back together, Ryder Cup check in. Can't believe it's been like three months, I think, since we did the last one, since I came

home from Italy, just whining and screaming about Marcos Simone. There will be no whining and screaming on the rest of this show. TC is here to represent the European side. Hello, TC. Hello, Sally. It's, uh, you know what? You might do more whining and screaming because a lot's changed in the last three months. Is the score still zero zero? I think it's probably a probably won't. Now I think a lot has changed. Maybe back to zero because you're

I'm to put in already Jamie Weir from Sky Sports. Hello, Jamie. Hello, everybody. Oh, I think a bit has changed. Maybe back to we're zero. Because you're I'm to put in already Jamie we're from Sky Sports. Hello, Jamie. Hello, everybody. I think a bit has changed. I think the European teams looking pretty nice and settled in the US teams in total disarray. So I think that's what's changed. Amen. But you know, how porters here to help you stay off these two idiots on the bottom of our screen. Hello, Kyle. Yeah, two idiots, four dads now. Congratulations, Salih. Yeah, very, very, very exciting. I think, I don't think it is zero, zero.

I think the US should still get a point carried over from whistling straights because of, because of how egregious that score was. You know what, Porter, I found myself like, I'm like, why does this rider come feel different? Why do I not like have the same like yearning just to whoops, Europe's ass? I think it's the polter effect. They murdered him. He's done. He's they put his head on a pike. Gets over. They got their polter revenge.

1999. And I don't have the same like dude, I look at the European team like, like, I don't know how you feel about this, but like, I kind of like Rory, like he seems like, okay, guy. Like, Rob, I think I root for him every week. Havelin is becoming one of my favorite players. I don't have the same. It's not helping like be justified. I lost it advance, but I don't have this. That's actually that is a good question.

Who is the focus of your iron your on emulsity? No, in that your and you okay? Yeah, I'm glad to be a service. I think I think I think that's the reason we need Tron over there so that it's easier. Because I can't just like, obviously, Tommy and Fitzpatrick to add on to those guys that you said.

I think one really interesting sort of writer cup, like long arc subplot is how much more likable you could argue the European side is than the American side. And I don't think that's always been true, but it's certainly become true over the last, I don't know, six, eight, ten years. And I think it will again probably be, if you're just, if you don't have any allegiance at all, like if you're just a random like, hey, who should I root for in the right or cup, I'm from New Zealand.

It seems like kind of an easy choice. Welcome to the squad, guys. Are you from New Zealand? Are you from the United States? I just like, I just like likeable people, likeable individuals. It's not like this has changed. I mean, I know Polter's not on the team anymore, but like, it's not like this has changed

all that much than swistling straight. It's like it was a far more likeable team than anything we get into as far as set up goes. Whistling Straits was abysmal. So that was not a good set up either. Let's do that right now. What was abysmal about it, Tron? Do you like that they played golf instead of just had the rough up to your knees? No, it was a terrible spectator experience.

It was true. It was, it was funny. I was out at Aaron Hills this week. And I'm like, one of the Ryder Cup here, like this is a problem. Of course, like so much better. Just the way that the par threes were set up, some of the, you know, all the irons and stuff, you'd rather be just like, you know, short irons and wedges. No, I mean, like two, you know, 240, 250 yard par threes, that sort of thing. Big boys stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think. think many of the best par threes in the world are over 200 yards. They're all the best par threes are, you know, 12th of August postage.

They have a short par threes. They had a was that 12 on the back nine there by the water. A little bit of a block tonight. I forget. Bottom bottom line, Sally, it seems like, you know, I'm getting an awful lot of messages from people lately here saying that you've, you seem to be adopting the eye test now that it, now that it suits you getting JT on the team. You've tried to put this on me for way too long.

Like, you've tried to make it that I only look at the day that I print off the top 12. And those are my guys. How many times I haven't tried to deny it? I've been on Monday's pod. Correct me if I'm wrong. On Monday's pod, you literally said like the data doesn't match her at all. I think pretty much I'm, you know, I'm just a star in the parker. In 2018, I was, I was reading off like, well, look at, I mean,

look how much better the US team is than Europe. And then like on that, like on Friday afternoon, I was like, whoa, fuck, man, like it's not about that. Like it's not. All right, I've learned a lesson since 2018. I would say you want like you. It doesn't matter as much to me about having like a hot hand over as it is the most talented guys, right?

And the numbers do tell a story on that. I feel like we have enough. If I know you're going to JT straight on this and I didn't want to start with this, but you brought this into it. Like if you we have enough data on this to say like he's an extremely talented player playing. Yeah. The low level level level that we even thought was possible, right? So it in this case, it's like, I'm not ignoring the data. I'm like,

looking pretty deeper at the data to be like, dude, look at like what JT is capable of. And the only point I thought don't think I've made on like JT versus Glover to this point is if you flip their ages, I think I would feel differently about it. If JT was a 43 year old playing horrifically, I'd be like, dude, it's probably time to move him to the back. You're an ageist. I'll take that over being disloyal to the data or disloyal to the IITS. I'll be an ageist.

That's totally fine. And if Lucas Glover was a 30 year old that was like showing an ascension like we've never seen before, I might feel differently about it. But like, I dove into it this week at Twisted some stats about it. Like, you want to see the stats of 40 year olds in the Ryder Cup, especially on the US side, like going back to 99, they've won 35% of their matches. Like, that's so bad. I don't know if that sounds horrible.

That is, it's really hard to have a win rate that that's that low on this golf course as well, which we've already said is going to tire you out. It's about, you know, basically being pushed on this golf course as well, which we've already said is going to tire you it, that, you know, basically being parsed on the mountain side as well. And if you really like think a little deeper on it too, it's like, all right, what, you're maximum playing Lucas Glover two team matches, right? He's not going out two sessions in a day, like that's not going to happen, right? But JT might get relegated to that if he comes out and shows Friday morning that he's not in good form, like I don't think they sent him back at afternoon. Maybe he sits all the way to singles, but you have a chance

to get lightning in a bottle with him and you have a chance for him to go all five matches. And like that's, that feels like an option you'd rather have with the 12th man than somebody who, you know, you're relying on just that, you know, has won a couple tournaments recently. That's my thinking. Are we doing it? Are we doing the JT segment? No, I forced it upon me. Yeah. Well, it's just solid. It's just good to see you back in kind of a balanced outlook. No, yeah, you did, man. You did. And like it was, it was very much, it's not just the Ryder Cup stuff. It's the way you view PGA tour golf and PRL. It's got large. Now it's good to see, it's good to see the eye test have a place in

your models again. Listen, the Stroke's game, Kaval is always, we're always evolving, Tron. We're all there's there's an evolution to the, to the SG Kaval. So, you know, we're, we're, we're making our way. But it's funny, like some of the same statistical stuff is, it's always saying like the similar thing to, you know, Scotty was the last guy on the team in 2021, right? And I think with that, it's like, all right, like, if Ludwig's the last guy on the team, now you, you know, you get them on the team and then in two years, it looks obvious, right? In two years, it's like, oh, man, like, this was, this was obvious. There's not enough data for him right now, but I'm using the same thing as you, Sally. It's like he's a horse. He's played a bunch of match play. He's someone that I have total confidence in. Worst case scenario, he goes out and plays exceptionally

well in all shot and they want to they want to hide in case scenario. For sure. Like basically similar thing as what you just said with, with like JT, it's like, Hey, like there's just because like, like I think those guys are somewhat comparable of like JT doesn't like, he's got the statistical sample size in his past to suggest, hey, I'm a highly talented player. Ludwig doesn't have that statistical sample size, but he's got the eye test, basically saying the same thing of,

hey, he's highly talented, he's the future. Like, I think they're both good dice rolls, you know? For sure. An interesting question that was posed with some, a lot of people have been texted me arguing about this, but like, you know what? Question I'm not prepared to answer total hypothetical.

If it was JT versus Ludwig right now Question I'm not prepared to answer total hypothetical. If it was JT verse Ludwig right now, I'm not prepared to like answer that one. I would, I might lean Ludwig on that in terms of like, if you're looking for a player that's ascending, that we don't know what we, we simply don't know what he has versus like, again, we kind of know the back of the baseball car with Lucas Glover. And I know he's made a putting change and I'm super thrilled for him. But like Ludwig could be a, if I could go to the data, a two strokes gained guy, which is heady, heady, heady company. And like, if it's about

something like that versus, I don't know, I, I do that was thrown out to me and I'm like, dude, that's a, that's a way more interesting question than a part of why I've defaulted to JT is like looking around as a Keegan, Sam Burns, Lucas Oliver, Russell Henley. Do I feel strongly about either of those guys over my dog? Go ahead, Jimmy. I was just going to say, I think a good person to talk about when we're talking about JT is Bryson and I'll

tell you why. So the data obviously matters to an extent, but you cannot measure team chemistry and you cannot have, you know, there's no measurement for Stroke's game chemistry. And I feel like we say this all the time, but a team is not necessarily your 12 quote unquote best players. A team is in any sport has to be harmonious, has to be an environment where everybody's comfortable with each other. And JT is not playing great golf at the moment, but we know that he is the guy that's bouncing

off that walls in that team room. And who I saw a video yesterday on Instagram of Patrick Cantley hitting it to like two feet or a foot at one of the par threes at Wisting Straits a couple of years ago. And it cut the camera cuts back and Cantley's got his two arms raised in the air. And JT straight in there hugging him. Now JT wasn't even playing in that match. Can you imagine how much that's getting under the skin of all the Europeans who are standing on that tee bus? Oh, if you're not even involved in this game. So, um, so I've never done that.

You can't put a price on having somebody who gets under the skin of the opposition and also just makes you stand a foot taller. And you compare that to some of that Bryson. Bryson is playing better golf than Justin Thomas at the moment. There's no two ways about that, but he is not a popular guy. He is disliked by some of that team. And if he, if he were to get picked, he's going to be in a team room with a captain, four vice captains and 10 players who he has effectively sued. And the only guy in that team room who he hasn't sued, Brooks, we know that he thinks he's a dickhead. So, you know, you cannot put a price on having, and I just think from Zach Johnson's point

of view, when you've got the options that he has, when you've got the strength and depth that he has, why put that factor, that toxicity, that potential toxicity into the team room at all? You know, if it, let's say it comes a choice between Bryson and Ricky, and I don't know if it's going to be a choice between Bryson and Ricky. Now, is Bryson's golf that much better than Ricky's, where you can carry somebody who's going to be a negative toxic influence, as opposed to somebody who we know is hugely popular with the rest of that team?

It's just not worth it from his point of view. So I thought we were maybe going to come on Bryce to Bryson later in the show, but I just think that's quite a good comparison, Justin Thomas and Bryson in terms of look on the Struce game data. One is obviously playing a lot better golf than the other at the moment, but is one or much better if team fit than the other? Yes, absolutely. I think that we can we can yell about the JT thing and holler and whatever. I think it will. I think it's, I didn't realize this even like a week ago, but after talking to several people this week, I don't even think it's really, I think he's just on the team. Okay, I think he's going to be on the team.

I think if he wasn't, he'd have gone over and played Europe, right? Like he has to, he would have gone over and played some European events in these in these weeks. Yeah, probably. I just, I think Jamie's point about, I don't know that the sort of casual American fan truly understands how much all the European players hate JT. Yeah. Like sports hate. Not like they don't like in a ride a cup environment. Yeah. In a rider cup environment and there is, there's a lot of value on that. I told somebody last night, I think JT is who everybody thought Patrick is actually who everybody thought Patrick greed was, right? And, and so I agree with what Jamie is saying of like the numbers are bad. He's not, I mean, like there's just a lot of things working against him, but the value

that he brings on everything outside of that is really high. And when you've got spieth and chef learn all these guys that I'm sure probably making the case for him behind the scenes, like, hey, there's nobody, there's not a 12th guy that like stands out above everybody else. And so I think when that's the case, would I pick him as a captain? I don't know, but I actually think Zach Johnson is going to. I think it's unquestionably a role the dice, but he is, he's kind of a European polter

and that he gets under, so the American polter and that he gets under the skin of the opposition, not just the players, but the fans as well. And it's all the dice because with polter, you know, we remember Medina and remember Paris, but there have been times when Polter has been picked and he's absolutely stung to play. So he was not gradically in Eagles. He was not great two years ago, whistling straights. And it could be that that happens with Justin Thomas.

It could be that he plays a session on Friday morning. He's absolutely awful. He's just heading all over the shop and then he sits idle Sunday. But even to have him in that team room, I think is such a benefit. I think it's like we're kind of arguing amongst ourselves. I would imagine like there's a consensus here that like I've kind of come around on the JT stuff. It's, you know, solid your point. Like, does anybody else knocking down the door? Like Luke, his Glover could be argued he was,

but also he was coming from so far behind. His floor was so much lower to where like, like, Fina would have been one of those guys. Or like, I'm not sure what you do with Russell Henley. Like, at this stats, say one thing. I don't know how malleable he is as far as a teammate, as far as the different formats and all that. I think, but I don't know.

It just seems like one of those things. Are we sure Brooks is on the team? I think that's a more interesting question. I think it'd be unnecessarily dramatic for him to have missed by like 30 points or whatever it was to be the seventh man. Like if he played even one P like Scottie Schaeffler said this, I think today or yesterday, if he played

one PJ tour event, he would have made the team like, I don't think anybody has beef with Brooks. I don't think anybody has beef with DJ. I think that's a different. Just I know you understand this. But for the listeners, say, I still get so many bryson messages. Like people need to know the difference in the guys that sued and the guys that didn't. It's an enormous thing. There's a bunch of bad faith people on Twitter that will still be like bison should be on the team that just trying to drive engagement.

It's a non starter. It feels like they're kind of, they people are doing that with Brooks already as well. They're trying to create a controversy when there isn't one. I think Brooks will get picked. But I'm just saying it with Brooks as far as like, like I know it's like, it's far as like, like, it's not necessarily like should he be on the team or will he be on the team? It's like, he's not playing well

right now. And he's got a lot going on his personal life. Just had a kid, you know, it was like long hospital stay. All that stuff. It's like, that seems like kind of a kind of a question mark. And I'm sure he could be ready. Like, it seems like he, you know, probably answered the bell, winning the PGA without much prep time prior to that. Like it seems like he, you know, probably answered the bell, winning the PGA without much prep time prior to that. Like that's like, I'm just putting the masters. Yeah, exactly. Like that's, you know, that's certainly pretty, pretty compelling there. But I think my, my feelings with Brooks are, as Sean says, like if he doesn't get, get picked, you know that people will make it about, oh, it's cause he plays live. But if

he doesn't get picked, it's causey's not playing great golf, right? It's, you know, he's basically being picked on the back of two good, two meaningfully good performances, the most recent of which was in May. And what's he done since then, really? Not an awful lot. Now, he's a different category to Bryson and that he didn't sue anybody that's going to be on that team.

He's refused to ever carry any water for live. He doesn't, you know, wear the branded logos. He doesn't, he didn't credit them with his PJ tour, his PJ championship victory. And he doesn't carve on what a great live is. He openly admits he'd have stayed in the PJ tour. If he'd known that his body would actually hold up. So he won't create a rift in the team. I think he's popular Brooks. But I think the reason you pick him is essentially because he's Brooks,

fucking Capka. And he's in a completely different category. You kind of ignore all the strokes game data with Brooks Capka, ignore any of his form. He's just, he's a five time major champion who you want to have in your team, right? I've, I've complicated feelings on Brooks and it stems to like, dude, I don't know if we ever know when he's going to play well, except for the majors, right? I mean, his, his record is so weird in terms of five major championships, no one will ever deny that. And then like week-to-week, I don't feel like he's the dude. I don't think he feels like he's the dude. He gets up for certain tournaments. Does he get up for the Ryder Cup? I don't have an answer to that. I don't think it's

yes or no. He went three and one his first year in 2016. He was number one player in the world in 2018. And he laid a fucking egg in France. He was one, two and one. He was fine. I thought it was straight. He went two and two, but it was kind of indifferent. And like, I think there's enough. I think he's going to get picked. But like I have like five legitimate concerns when it comes to what I would say is I texted

Ricky the morning after the PJ championship. And he had on Ricky said this one means the most. This one is more special in the other four because of what Brooks has been through. And I wonder whether he would feel that way about a rider cup as well. So having been through all the entry stuff, having been through all the the fallout of live and blah, blah, blah, to actually make this rider cup team, I think would actually mean something to him as much as we try to paint Brooks's guy that doesn't give a shit. He clearly does give a shit. He loves having a point to prove. He loves to prove people wrong.

And to make this right a cup team with all the noise that's been going on, I think he would be an addition to the team. And I think the other 11 guys in that team room would want Brooks to get on there. On that same note, like, why aren't we talking JT versus DJ? And I know J, you know, DJs had an uneven season but he also finished T10 at LMS. Can I finish on Brooks real quick? Yeah.

Just kind of finish on Brooks real quick is some of the concerns, Jamie, that I feel a little different about one of my concerns based on what you just said, which is, I do wonder how much he wants it. And I don't even mean that as a shot at him. I just like to your point, T.C. just had a baby

that spent 20 days I think in the NICU, again, speaking of somebody with some fresh perspective. Like, that's not nothing, like a huge, huge change in your life, having a kid, speech getting ready to have a kid right before the Ryder Cup as well. So it's not, he's not the only one there. But big gap in play, it's similar to live in PGA tour,

both are gonna have a big gap in play leading up to it. Weird live Chicago event is the week before the Ryder Cup. And I don't know professional athletes are professional athletes, but don't love the idea of getting on a flight Sunday night and jet lagged into Monday. Like I think that's not worked great for the US in the past. Friday until I got hit a golf bowl though, isn't it? It's like a low time. You know, it could be good prep. It's a dog shit course in Chicago. That's true. Yeah. That's true. All that. I mean, there's just enough question. I, I, no one is doubting Brooks kept his major championship record when like when he, when the chips are down

and these huge ass met like stroke play tough setup events. He is the dude until he's not the dude and we don't give him enough credit for that. We don't talk about it enough. I don't know if that translates to this rider cup. I'm not saying it does or doesn't. I just that's a question mark for me. Do you think there's any a question for all of you guys? Do you think there's anything in Zach Johnson's head where he's thinking if I don't pick Brooks? It's just going to cause such an almighty shit storm. Yeah. Yes. For sure. And I think, I think one thing, Sally, I remember actually arguing in 2021 that Brooks was like a problem for the US team because he did remember he did that. I think it was a golf digested deal where he was like, oh, the writer couple, whatever,

you know, like I just want to do my own thing. And it's like, do you even want to be here? And I give him credit because I think in 2021, it was Wayne Straits, there was a galvanizing of him within the team to where he actually feels like part of that group now. And he said, he was like, in 2021, he was like, this is a different group of guys,

and it's way more fun than in the past. And I think there was a shift there for me in 2021 with Brooks at Team Events, that it's like, man, I want that guy. And so many of the answer to so many of these questions as I think about them, I don't know if this is the right way to answer them, but it's like, US hasn't won in Europe in 30 years.

Sorry. If it's tied 11, 11, laid on a Sunday, do I want Brooks Keppga or Russell Henley in the arena? Fuck yeah. It's good point. Yeah. And that's maybe like a very reductive way

to sort of like sort through all this and figure out who's going to be on the team. But if I'm the captain, I can't not think about sort of that side of things. T.C. I want to come back to your JT versus DJ question here in one second if you allow me. I'm supposed to say this off the front. This episode is brought to you by BMW, a worldwide partner of the 2023 Radar Cup BMW will be electrifying the Radar Cup with a fully electric fleet of vehicles for players and officials. This September, our other partner on this episode is our friends at athletic greens. I take AG1 literally every day. I gave it a try because I wanted some better gut health, wanted an energy boost.

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T.C. We're bringing up a question there of why isn't it JT versus DJ? Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like driving is a massive, massive component of success on this golf course. I know DJ's had an uneven season, missed the cut at Hoy Lake. He came out firing at LACC shot at first round 64, then kind of backed up from there, but he's played well

in some live events. He's won one. He's played poorly in others. It seems like the floor is still higher, especially if he were to kind of lock in for that stretch. I don't know. I just look at, but you know, there's there's kind of a mixed resume. You look back at 2018 in Paris. He didn't, didn't play all that well, but played all five matches. Played all five matches at Wisting Strait and beat the shit out of everybody. And it's one of those things of like, man, you would think that that would, even with all the live stuff percolating, and I know, Jay, you know, I know DJs can be a little flighty sometimes, but man, you would think that that probably earned him, you know, a benefit of the doubt selection at some point. And it's kind of shocking to see him not get a little bit more mention

as far as, you know, like you said, Sali, like he's a guy you, you could trot out there, pair him with pretty much anybody on the team. He's gonna drive it well. He can play in any session and he's looking a little bit thicker this year, but not sure if I've fitness levels as much, but he's a dog, you know? Sean, would you, one thing I've been thinking about

as realites to DJ and some of these other guys, would you rather have, well, as team Europe, would you rather face DJ or Cam Young? Because Cam Young is the guy that, he feels like just auto in and I don't really, I mean, I like him, he's been great at majors, but I don't know that he's necessarily, like was he awesome at the

president's cup? He was okay. Hi. Cam Young is one of those where to go back to the data, I actually think his game sets up really well for that course. Like, because Tron says you need to hit it not just long but straight and long. And basically, he's just teed a green, I think there's not many players better than him. And it's just for him that the putter has a kind of a bit like Scotty light in terms of he's so good T-Degrean, but the putter just hasn't been behaving. And I think he could be an absolute menace, especially if the course set up, you're going to have a lot of you're going to have long iron in your hands a lot of the time. Cam Young is a guy that I would kind of fear in that

team. I'm with you, Paula, if it wasn't for the Fred couples interview, where he basically put them on the team a month ago, I don't know if I would have penciled him in his strong as I have. And maybe it's in my, I've just kind of had him in there as like, yeah, that's happening regardless. And I mean, if you look at his year, it's been slightly worse than last year. And he had a golf ball change that he made and he switched back around the John Deere and he's played better golf since he switched back to that golf ball. I'm kind of with you though. I'm like, it's not been fantastic. His putting has taken into the client this year, but I do also go back to he's one of the best drivers of golf ball in the world.

And if you haven't caught up on all the rider cup stuff, I still think there's a fair amount of people out there that think this is the golf national in terms of, you know, driving distance doesn't matter. It's all about accuracy, whereas like the profile of of Marco Simone, I've been asking the data golf guys about this. It's like basically like 20 out of 160 European tour courses. It's like 25th in driving distance, 25th in driving accuracy in terms of emphasis. So weirdly, strong emphasis on both driving accuracy and distance. The best comp they had for a golf course in the US from a driving perspective was Bay Hill, which is obviously a course that plays long, narrow, fairway, stick rough. So picturing

that more so than picturing what we saw at LaGolf National with Roy hitting irons off the T's is just an important distinction. So that's probably where can gets the nod because he is, I mean, yeah, he's a 0.79 off the T strokes game guy. That means something. That's where I feel like to the the European setup might even exacerbate some of the driving stuff as well. Like it's going to be set up even more severely than then it was during the Italian open, right? Yeah. What are you hearing Jamie about setup? Like, I don't, I don't think it's going to be, I don't think it's going to be wildly different from what we saw the most recent Italian open.

I mean, I think they are pinching in fairways in some places. I don't think it's going to be like exactly fairway like up to your ball sack, or sorry, rough up to your ball sack. I think it's going to be. I don't have to ball sack when we sit. Yeah, that would be. Yeah. Okay, just to clarify, it was rough up to your ball sack in May. Like, not far off.

Like if you're really no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're talking at times four yards off the fairway. And like, you know, keep it in the fairway then the 12 yard wide fairways with like curves and slants to them. Like some of that could be to like keep them off balance as well for like keep it in the fairway then. The 12 yard wide fairways with like curves and slants to them. Like, I know. So I'm going to that could be to like keep them off balance as well for like when the US team went and did their scouting like to, you know, not know how it's going to be set up, right?

And that's the good news. Yeah. All that's. I mean, maybe it's always got a different ball sack metric like I know. I mean, I mean, after maybe, maybe after four kids, Kyle's is a bit lower. I don't know. I mean, maybe after maybe after four kids, Kyle's is a bit lower. I don't know. So maybe. But I do think it's going to be, look, it's, it's obviously going to be penal in places. But look, what I keep hearing from, from players that I'm chatting to as well as there

are just is going to be a real emphasis on hitting it along and straight off the tee. And then once you get the ball in play, then, you know, it's game on from there. So yeah, which doesn't feel like how JT is playing right now, right? That's where I get back to a DJ and, and, but I think it's worth noting if we, if we are looking at the numbers, like, compared to, and we know JT's been bad, DJ's been worse, right? So again, that's strictly from a stroke's game perspective. So I, again, I default back to, like, I don't know if you can go to live and play bad. I don't even understand how DJ's in any conversation. I think there's about five or six players that are ahead of him in the list. No,

genuinely, I mean, Wistling Straits, obviously you can't completely disregard it, but you take out his record out Wistling Straits and he's actually got a record of below 500 in the Ryder Cup DJ. He's not this generational talent. He's not Justin Thomas when it comes to Ryder Cup. He's not Ian Poulter, he's not Colin Montgomery. It doesn't bring out the best in them. Yes, he was outstanding in one Ryder Cup when all the stars aligned. He just happened to click that week. But actually, he's kind of been a liability to the states in previous Ryder Cups. So if he were absolutely, you know, playing amazing golf over and live, then obviously he's in the conversation because he's Dustin Johnson. But I think there are four or five players who are not going to make the team

that I would have ahead of DJ and the list at the moment. The likes of Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, those kind of guys are all ahead of DJ. I don't even understand how DJ's in the conversation. I think one in foreign France is a big strike, I do. And we've not talked enough about like how different the European writer cups are from the US ones. Like, there's also, I think with DJ,

one of the things I'll push back on a little bit there is like DJ, like he's one of those guys you can pair up with anybody. He's been paired up with like, Mikkelson and Kucher a lot and like some baby sitting there. I think the biggest knock on DJ and probably Brooks is they didn't go to Zach's charity event, right? I mean, you know, I saw, I saw JT posted his travels for the year on his Instagram, like, you know, counting up his miles and all that and Cedar Rapids was on there.

Like he made sure to put that on there. Sure. You know, I swear this, I told you guys before we started recording. I said, guys, I want to talk Europe first. And you guys did this to me. You guys did this to me. I did. Yeah, you did.

You were, you, Kasey did. I did. You know, hand up solid, but that's, that's because we wanted to save the best, the meat of this, of this episode, right? I'm going to ask this to Jamie, what is, what is the European path to victory? What does that look like? Right? I mean, 2018 was Moanari and Fleetwood, Hendrick Stenson and ForSums just drilling fairways. That was the path. What's the European path to victory look like right now? What are the what are the keys? Real quick. Can I say what the path is? I think it's if they reduce the teams to eight players. Like that's the path to European victory.

Well, I, you know, I agree with Kyle to extend that I think those top guys, you know, three of the four best players in the world under European. I don't think anybody can argue with that. Rory Ram, Hovelin and Sheffler, the four best players in the world. European. I don't know if you can argue with that. Rory Ram, Hovland and Sheffler are the four best players in the world. Now, I think those three guys, you're going to have to ride them pretty hard. They might have to play all five sessions. Maybe Matt Fitzpatrick as well. But so I think the path of victory is that those top players need to be hot for that week. And then we need to just hope that one of the nine to 12 guys chips in with a few points here and there. What I would say is, you know, a lot changes in

a year. And I think when we did our first one of these podcasts, you know, we kind of predicted our teams. And if you look back at that now, we're so far off. And from US point of view, after last year's president's cup, you would have said, it felt as if 10 of that team were almost locks for room with the exception of Horsesland Kisner. All the other 10 guys are definitely going to be in room. Now, since then, we've had three guys who weren't in that team, Bruce Kepp, a Wyndham Clark, Brian Harmon, all win major championships. We've had renaissance for Ricky Filer, Keegan Bradley. And then we've had just in the last few weeks, this completely left field

boulder in the shape of Lucas Glover as well. So there's six guys. There's something he's been thrown into the mix What I would say is, if you listen back to that podcast a year ago, I said there were seven locks for Europe that I would see definitely being on that team, and those seven remain the seven locks. And I think if you look at all of them where they were at Whistling Straits, all those guys played at Whistling Straits. And if you compare them now to the players they were then, well, I think John Ram is John Ram. He's just, you know, he's the booey. He's always, it maintains a pretty high standard. Rory and Tommy are both coming into Rome playing better golf than they were two years ago. And the other four guys, Shane Tyrell, but especially Fitz

and Victor are not just playing better golf, but they're fundamentally better golfers than they were two years ago as well. So those seven guys, I feel really, really confident about. Then I think Justin Rose is obviously a pretty obvious number eight, he's gonna make the team as well. I think as things stand at the moment, I would put my house on Agent Moronk, making the team as well.

Why you laugh at me? As soon as the nobody's ever well, you know, I'll put my house up to Jamie. I'm here in the same thing. He's got a nice hat. He look, he's won and he's finished second at that course. And he hits it long, he hits it straight. And I this goes back to what I think I said in a previous pod.

This is typical condescending sneering out from the Americans towards the European to our players. And age and rank is a better goal for them. And a lot of American golf fans might give them credit for as things stand at the moment. But Macintor has a final automatic spot, which is tough right now. I'll be honest, statistically like, you know, like, listen, I'm nobody. It's like nobody can replace a Gary Berter. You know, he's got a big heart, all that stuff. Can I replace a guy for? I am very, very, very concerned about Bob McIntyre.

Will you apologize for making me apologize for Big Shot Bob? I think we can wipe away. Listen, he's kind of automatically qualified. I mean, it's, I've got something to say about Bob, right? That if you look at, you look. I mean, it's I've got something to say about Bob, right? That if you look at you look at the data, it's not good. It's not pretty with Bob at the moment. The former is a concern. There's no question about that. There's two things I would say about Bob real quick. Isn't he like the dog though? I isn't he like if

you're looking for a profile like dude, kind of this is kind of this is kind of one thing I feel about him and you laugh at me when I say this, but you might, I just have a feeling with Bob McIntar. I just got a feeling in my bones about Bob McIntar that the Ryder Cup is the kind of atmosphere that will bring out the best in them. He just strikes me as that kind of character. He is a little gotsy street fighter. He has that dog in him. I don't think he's the kind of player who'd be phased by standing on a first tee with Scotty Sheffler or Jordan Speeth or whoever opposite him. I just think he kind of just takes all the stride. And one big thing I would say about Balmack and Tyres, basically he's had two outstanding weeks in the last year. No, that's not great. But if you look at what those

two weeks were, well, one was winning the Italian Open around Marcus Amuni when he knows that Luke Donald will have been watching and paying attention that week. And by the way, it wasn't an Italian, a week Italian Open Field, it's an Italian Open Field that had Roy McLeary, John Ram, Matt Fitzpatrick in it. And his other big performance was his home open, which will have meant more to them than anything else. So that shows to me that those two performances

are when the pressure would have been at the most intense and yet he was able to perform. So I think he can perform when the chips are down. Maybe he's that kind of guy who doesn't get himself up for the D&D checkmasters, but he's the kind of guy that when the stakes are really high, suddenly it brings out the best and Bob. And I just get the impression from watching him

and talking to him. He's such a laid-back character, but he's just a fighter. And I think he's a man that you want that team room. Jamie, I agree. I think you warm stuff out a little bit, trying to make this team because he wanted it so bad. He played more events than he probably should have. And I'm not sure it actually helped him point wise,

but that was his decision and means a lot to him. But I totally agree. I think you see his, he's got that dog in him. I think there should be a captain's agreement that pair him against Harmon in singles. That'd be sweet. You know, it's a street fight. He feels like McIntyre feels like the weird match play scenario where it's like, dude, any golf tournament ever. Am I taking like Bob McIntyre or like Xander. And then they got paired and matched together. That frustrating like, how the fuck is this guy beating me? Like how is he beating me? And that is, I remember watching Leon and McGuire against Nelly in the Soulheim couple

a couple of years ago. And I was like, dude, any stroke play event back when Nelly was playing a lot better, I'd be like, I would take Nelly in this. And then immediately in that match place scenario, it just like flips. The pressure goes to the better player and I don't know. So that's kind of a comp that I've written down here, Bob and Leona. Yeah. They go about their business in a pretty quiet, unassuming kind of way.

They're not like pumping their chest big, lard in your face characters, but they just, when they're in that environment, they're just gritty, gutsy, match players. And I just have that feeling with ball, but this, you know, I agree with Tron that maybe he got slightly right a cup fever this year and that might have his golf might have fallen off as a result, but I just think in that cold, running that environment, he's going to be like to the man or born.

There was a Scotty Schuffler at a quote last week at the BMW Championship where he talked about, he's like, listen, we want guys on the US team that are winners. I want winners. And he was like, it's not necessarily guys that have won tournaments, which sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, right? But he pointed back at, he's like, look at me in 2021. I hadn't won a PGA tour event. But I think that our captains and our team saw somebody that was a winner. And, you know, that, that's the part. I, and I think all, that to say, I think that applies to somebody like a Bob McIntyre. He doesn't win a ton, but he is at least from my view, a winner. And when you put somebody like that in match,

but this is where, hand up, like, Tron, you're right, like, probably lean too much on Stroke's gang and date, like, all this different stuff. Half the right or cup is just, you're just riding on emotion, right? And you can't, people say like, oh, you want JT just because he yells a lot. No, I want JT because he's emotional

and because you can't fake, I mean, if JT just because he yells a lot? No, I want JT because he's emotional and because you can't fake, I mean, if JT is faking his emotion, he's been doing it for 10 years, right? You can't fake that for that long. And so much of this event is played on that and is built on that. And that's where Bob McIntyre, like his emotion at the sky to show up

and this stuff like means something to him. And you can't replace something like that. So I think it'd be I think it'd be awesome to see him there. I don't know if he'll make it but I think it'd be really cool. I think there's something to be said too for like like the the top half of the European team is so much stronger seemingly than it was before. Obviously I'd rom and Rory but like like you said Jamieatton's playing better golf. Fleetwood is playing world-class golf. Can I raise a teeny tiny concern on Ram? Like he's playing.

Not playing great golf. He's a teeny tiny, you know? I mean, I don't know what that matters. He's John, right? Yeah. He's John Freakin' Ram. And like, you know, he arrived in the Huy Lake in, you know, not the greatest of form. Shoot to 63 in the Saturday.

If it wasn't for an insane generational performance from Brian Harmon, then he could have been lifting the Clara Chug winning two majors this year. So I got no concerns at all about John Ram. I've got a feeling he may well be paired with Matt Fitzpatrick as well. It's just a pairing I have a hunch on. And I think that's a pretty formidable pairing. And the absence of Sergio fits sort of slots right in there and other insane ball striker who just puts the light so I feel quite confident about that pairing.

The only reason I say that is just like obviously we he had a generational winter and I think many people were talking about he might even win the Grand Slam. It didn't end up doing that but has it listen for Ram's at worst, one of the three best players in the world, hasn't won since the Masters. See as a second place, finished the Mexico open T2 at the open championship. Miss cut the travelers T37 at St. Jude T31 out of 50 at the BMW. Like it's not been to a he's won more recently than Scotty Shethra. Correct.

Um, you just couldn't wait to get that in. You didn't even hear what I said. But I also think it's like talking out of both sides of my mouth here. It's like, when you have this weird schedule this year, like, this is a different, like, different flow into this of these guys aren't going to play a tournament for four weeks leading up into this.

And I don't know if the immediate results, necessarily earping guys will strip and Justin Thomas, the news is he'll play the 14 at championship. So, so there will be a bit of golf between non-room, European guys will strip and Justin Thomas the users he'll play the 14th championship. So so there will be a bit of golf between nine room, but just just going back to 2021 is you know, you look at it, you got Polter, you got Westwood, you got Paul Casey, you got Burnt Weasberger, like there's some ass on that team, right? And like it's you know, and like older ass, like, you know, nearing the expiration date, right? And, you know, I don't know. I just think that, you know, it's like, we're wrong.

Or, like, Sep, we haven't even talked about Sep yet. Like, he's having a great season, you know, I'm a little bit worried about like his floor or whatever. But like, Sep seems to have that dog in him and. And I don't know, I don't know. It just seems like there's a lot more, like the floor is higher for lies European guys. They're better, I mean, like, what? Bern was like one of the leading points getters. He was the fourth in the points rank last time

for the European ranking. I think it for, I was SEP in the team as well. I would say say definitely just on all. Is that 10 Jamie? So I think there's 10 more to go. I think there's 10 guarantees. Where's Guido? What's he doing? All right, so so so Rory, Rob, completely blindsided in that one. Havlin. So yeah, the 10 or we've, we've got the seven that have remained the seven. I just say, Rory Ronbob, Harlan, Fleetwood, Hatton are like the qualifiers as of right now.

They're the six at the moment, right? No, I think there's a question mark on Bob if he falls out of the automatic spot. And there are five guys that could catch in this week in the Czech Republic, like so of Janik Paul, Victor Perez, Adrian Moronk, Adrian Otegi, and I'm forgetting one. But there's five guys that could overtake him into that final spot. Assuming those automatic six remain those six,

then I think we're talking about one final spot, because I think five of the picks will be Tommy, Shane, SEP, Justin Rose Rose and Maronque. No, obviously if Maronque then Pips Bob into an automatic spot, you're talking about two spots. Whether Bob gets one of those, I think is a little bit more up for debate, but I think you're essentially talking about a 12th man.

No, and I know who Tron's 12th man will be. I think everybody knows who Tron's 12th man will be. I think it's a no brainer. And I think if he plays well either this week or in Cron, then Ludwig's in. And because I think his game sets up so well for that course as well. We've already said, hitting it long, hitting it straight off the tee. There's not many players who hit it longer and straighter than Ludwig.

So I don't have to. Yeah. I mean, like I think we've seen Ludwig's B minus game for the last six to eight weeks out there is his approach play hasn't been great. I think he's got time to get that cleaned up. He's always driven it like this. I think he's always going to drive it like this. The chipping's been better than expected and the putters been hot and cold. But I don't know. I just think Ludwig's like he, hey, it's invests in the future. B, I think his floor is very, very high that, that, you know, like he's shown a propensity for playing really well and, you know, going out as a rookie on the PGA tour.

I know he hasn't played well on Saturdays and Sundays, but like getting out to hot starts, the moment not being too big for him, beginning the week and he's getting more, you know, he's consistent. So I'm all about him. I think it's a no brainer. I'd also say I spoke to two of the guys who are gonna be on the team this week who will remain nameless.

I said, as things stand at my window, who are your six picks straight away, they said, Laurie, Strack and Moronk fits Rose, and then either Ludwig or Alex Norrin is what they actually said. So. Yeah, I think North and Mac and Tyre, like if Mac and Tyre gets bumped out, I think I think North Mac entire like if Mac and Tyre gets bumped out, I think in order Mac and Tyre or if Adrian Dumont ditches

a start plays well this week and wins this week, it's like, holy shit, do you take him too, you know? I mean, it would be what would be great to see is somebody doing what Eduardo Molinarie did. He didn't quite do it. He didn't quite win, but doing what Eduardo Molinarie did back in 2010 and in the final qualifying event going out winning it, just grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and saying, you can't not pick me. No, Luke, I mean, that'll be brilliant to see somebody do that. I don't know if that's going to happen, but only again, only hesitation on Ludwig, T.C. is the stat that we dug into.

Like 40 year olds don't do great in the Ryder Cup. Like it's just, it's just what's just what the numbers say. Okay. So that's the only only. We feel great about anything you guys said for the last five minutes. I was waiting to get that. I know I know Shane's in, but do we like his current form played well at the Scottish, played okay at travelers, missed the cut at the open. Can I 51? That's what I want to say is again, digging into things like things get decided with the qualifiers is like, I know the captain's picks amounts are different now,

but like, I feel like Jamie, if I if I were to to poke you a little bit, I feel like you just you list off the top names on the European side as if it's printed in written in stone that they're going to play great in the writer cup. I think it's like, no, no question. There's written in stone obviously when it comes to the Ryder Cup. I'm just saying that I think all those, those seven guys who are going to be on the team that were at Whistling Straits are all in a better place

now than when they were two years ago. And we've spoken to Whistling Straits being the kind of perfect storm in that the Europeans arrived there. Audiforham, the Americans arrived there in Form, strikers seem to get every call right, podrigmaids and bad calls. The crowd was 99% American because it was still post-COVID. Everything that could have gone wrong for you went wrong and that rider cup, which is why you got this

hugely conflated score line. I think it's going to be a lot different this time, plus it's on European soil, obviously. On the shame front, are there any concerns? I would say absolutely not. His results this season haven't told the full story plus us on European soil, obviously. On the shame front, are there any concerns? I would say absolutely not. His results this season haven't told the full story of how well he's playing.

He said, top 20s at Riviera, the Honda Memorial Travelers, the Scottish, and at three of the four majors, he was 16 to the Masters, 12th of the PGA, 20th of the US Open. The Open, he missed the cart, which was just a complete anomaly. And if you look at the data, he's pretty consistent. Over the last three months, he's ahead of the likes of space or Cam Young, driving, as we've said,

now it is crucial around Marker Samoone. I don't know if you guys, would you hazard a guess where you think Shane Lari sits in the overall driving data and the PGA tour for this season? So taking into account accuracy and distance, where do you say Shane Laurie is? He's probably 80th percentile, like, you know, probably 20, 25. So he's 60 second in distance, 28th in accuracy,

or overall driving, he's eighth on the entire PGA tour. And I think if you ask somebody where Shane Laurie said, that would surprise people. That's the total driving stat, which don't love that stat, by the way. But I would, I would look at, but I was getting how that adds up. My point is he's pretty accurate. And I, I walked a few halls with, with his folks at the Masters. He has got it on a string from T to Green at the moment.

He's just having trouble with the flat stick. So I know that Shane just again, he's another guy who this just brings like the best and I'm like he was one of the few highlights at Wisting Straitze a couple years ago. He absolutely loved it. I remember being in tears at the end of the day and Sunday just saying, I don't know how I'm going to go back to playing just for myself again. I just love these guys. I love being in the team environment. I've got absolutely no concerns about Shane, Shane Lariato. Adam at 34th and Strokes getting off the team in the last six months and 43rd in the world over the last 12 months, just a tie bow on that.

But I would I would tend to agree with the the match play part of that. Kyle, go ahead. I was going to say, if you don't want to just fight for yourself, you could always go to live. I mean, that's true. I always sit down there. So it's like you just have a one point spot on smash. We'll split maybe.

I one guy on live that I will. I do want to give a shout out to because I think he's playing some of the best golf in the world right now. And you guys are going to laugh. I'm dead serious. I can't wait. Planting. And landing.

He's fucking flushing it, man. He's six in London. Third of Greenbrier, leaventhed Bedminster. He's played well all year. Okay. What's the next part of the podcast? I had the many stats for for guys in there. And there is, I didn't say, Jay Haas was a 51 year old captain's pick in 2004.

And I, I should have clarified that in the stats, but those teams, by the way, those teams from the mid-naughties were just, it was, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's my point on like, you know, why would Jay, ZJ throw in a hand grenade like Bryson into that team and he's got the options he has. We're not talking about 2006 when it was like Vaughn Taylor, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterick, making up that team. It's like, he's going to leave some studs off this team this time, ZJ. So why would you create a dilemma for yourself when you don't need to? What's crazy is that O16 was favored. I look that is crazy. I don't know.

I was like 18 and a half, 18 and a half, nine and a half. Yeah. Almost the worst in in radical history, but that changed recently. I think I asked you that question and what the path is because I think it, again, the Moanari Fleetwood thing that happened at France was like what flipped everything on its head and Stenson, I think in the in the ForSums of just the guys that played their role to perfection. If you think back, Roy didn't play very well. Rom didn't play very well.

And they won by eight. Like it was, it was a unconventional path to doing that. And I'm wondering what that is, right? Is it Rory and Ram absolutely balling out? Obviously, Victor Havelin's going to need to win his first Ryder Cup match. Matt Fitzpatrick is going to need to win his first Ryder Cup match. If you look at, I guess a challenge I have on fits. I know he just played great at the BMW is the 2022 year is more of an outlier. Like he's fallen back in line with a lot of the rest of his career. He is longer now, but like again, if we're looking at data, he's kind of falling back into a, you know, a the same guy he was in 21, 2019 around that level. Then he is the dude that

was way up there, major champion in 2022. That's a question mark. There's just, there's a fair amount of question marks in there. And they're going to need at least one of those guys to go off, like totally go off. His writer top record is a fucking disgrace. Yeah, but it's not good. And he's fully aware of that. But I would say this is the first home. Right.

It's a first home one. And look, he says, Hey, he was just not ready for that. He was a 20 year old pop, like rabbit in the headlights. He just didn't know what was going on with our writer cup of tall. Couple of years ago, he wasn't the player he is now. He also had some pretty bad pairings. He's only ever been trodden out in four sams. And I think he's dying to play four balls this time. I knew he is. And I just, I mean, I can't say enough nice things about Matt Fitzpatrick. I

absolutely love the guy. I think he's the model professional. I think he is the hardest worker out there. I think he identifies a weakness and he just works his tail off until he has improved that weakness. He went into last week knowing that he was in the outside looking in and he suddenly produced this performance where he could have ended up winning the tournament, had Victor, all the not short 61 on Sunday. I mean, the guys just got stones. I mean, as I said, and he's just on above, you know, at the end of the day, he's just the nicest guy as well. He's completely on the earth.

I'm buying on his. So I look and I, I think he's got a game that really sets up well for that course as well. I truly think it's like, it's not that he can't win a Radar Cup match. I would wonder like, hey, dude, at 05, are you not thinking about it a little bit going into it? Is there a little added pressure to him to like flip the script on this? Again, I think we probably still have not talked enough about like how different European writers cups are.

I mean, it, you as team goes over and shits the bed every single fucking time. Every time. Do you guys, I was just thinking about this. I was thinking about this earlier today. Do any, a, a, a, solian, um, T.C. you're quite a bit younger than me. I'm not sure what H. York Kyle. I mean, you just, H.C., you're quite a bit younger than me. I'm not sure what age you are, Carl. I mean, you just, age beautifully. Are you, you're a midwife?

He's like, blending. Um, but, um, do you guys remember night, D3 at the bell frame? No. No. No, I was eight. Right. Okay.

So you're all younger than me. See, I, I remember it. So I, I do actually remember the US winning a new European soil. So it's quite cool that you kind of remember it in your entire lifetime ever happening. So that's all I can point to one to make. Question for you guys. Is the, like, I don't think there's gonna be a ton of like,

a tall rabbit Italian golf fans out there. No. Is it just gonna be like a split crowd of like a shitload of Americans coming over? No, it'd be a lot of. There's a lot of France was not a lot of French fans either. It was a lot of people that traveled over to it. I've met so many guys in recent weeks.

I met so many guys at Hoilake who were saying, I'll see it at the Ryder Cup that they've had this booked way in advance. Every year the Ryder Cup gets exponentially bigger. There's so many guys making a trip. I mean, a trip over to Rome in the end of September. It's pretty sweet anyway. If you throw in a Ryder Cup into the, into the into the I'm just saying I know a lot of American guys saying the same thing of like, Hey, I'm going over there. Yeah. Yeah.

There'll be a decent American presence. I'll say this for as bad as the golf course is from a golf perspective, it like through through honestly to no credit of Mark Sermone, it could be a bomb ass venue. Like there is the hills and the valleys and the amphitheater settings for a lot. Like the noise is going to permeate through that. Like I thought the golf national was a horrible venue for a lot of reasons. I thought it was horrible to navigate. I didn't think like you couldn't, guys, I was just there as a fan.

I couldn't like figure out what was going on in any parts of the golf course. Italy's going to be so different. You can see the different parts of it. You can hear, oh, that was an there as a fan. I couldn't like figure out what was going on in any parts of the golf course. Italy's gonna be so different. You can see the different parts of it. You can hear, oh, that was an eruption at number 12. I understand that. Here's what just happened over at the sixth hole. I can understand that. The first T setting is gonna be awesome.

The 18th hole setting, the 16th hole is gonna be absolutely out ranges. There's so many great places to sit and form crowds and enjoy the golf. And all that, I guess it's going to be a great viewing venue in that regard and great atmosphere. I have a feeling now. I just, I would of course wish the golf would just be set up more to showcase the golf than it would be just to penalize slightly offline drives, but we'll see how that plays as well. What's interesting about that cell is,

you know, you're talking about Rory and Rom and like Europe's need for them to thrive and they didn't in Paris because they didn't have a setup that was conducive to their strengths. So as as more and more European players play primarily on the PGA tour, like a Fitzpatrick or a Fleetwood or whatever, and play in those very myopic setups that are just the same, the same, the same, and develop those skills. Does it really, is it a benefit to Europe to continue to set courses up, like in the sort of European way that we think of? I think when there is a talent gap that favors the US side, Europe is better off putting the course set up

into a blender and making it a 120 yard, to 160 yard approach contest, more than it is, like 170 to 220, which is what the US tried to do at Wistengstrains, was like, dude, you wanna beat us out ball strike Xander and more Kawa and DJ and can't lay from like long way out. And France was like, no, dude, let's drive it to this area and let's like hit wedges in and we're going to hit it closer and the crowd's going to go fucking nuts and you guys are

going to shit your pants and it worked. Like it really did work. So I don't think this talent gap is that severe. Like I don't think they have to. That's big of you, Sally. I mean, that's just the numbers, T.C. I also think there's like some insane ball strikers in the European team that's Timeroyden.

And if the intel is that they're gonna have long hands and their hands a bit more often this time around, then I feel pretty good about Tommy Fleetwood, John Ram, Victor Houghland, Roy McLeary, Matt Fitzpatrick, having long arms in the hand. You know, look, on the flip side, you're going to have Scotty Sheffler, Cam Young, Jordan Speedwood, long arms in the hand as well, which is, you know, pretty good as well. But I agree that the talent gap isn't as pronounced this time around. It's amazing where we were, you know, sitting there in the RV at Whististling Straits and you're like,

man, this is, this is so bleak for the Europeans. Like, you guys are so fucked and just like, hey, just, just trust us. We got this Ludwig guy coming with us. We got guys on, on the come up and over the last, you know, in like three to six month intervals here, it's gotten more and more positive. We trusted the process. We told you to hold your horses solid. I'm in the victory flag right now. Like what happens if you go to those 18, nine? Like what, what happens then?

And we'll address that when it happens. I think I said a year ago, look, I'm a strong believer in fight. I got a good feeling about this. I don't know. Porter, what do you think's gonna happen? good feeling about this. I don't know. Porter, what do you think is going to happen? I truly, I think I have reached this point. I usually reach this by mid day Friday, like the memory of the US shitting that bed in

Europe. I think I reached it way earlier this time around and I don't, yeah, so I know it's a question reporter. I don't think they're going to shit the bed this time. I just don't see that happening. I'm back and forth. Oh my This team different or is the same thing gonna happen and I everything is telling me this is a different team. The thing that we haven't gotten really since 2012 is a lights out really close late on Sunday, writer cup. And there are a million reasons for that, but I've sort of talked myself into that's what this is going to be. And I'm hopeful that it is because there's nothing but engulfed better than a close Ryder Cup on a Sunday. Like it is, it's as insane

as it is at a US Open or a PGA or whatever, at a Ryder Cup it is just phenomenal. And so I don't know who's going to end up winning that. I know we do these predictions. I don't even know who's gonna win a major with three holes left. And I'm having to predict a Ryder Cup like nine months out. But I do think more so than in years past for a number of different reasons that we've talked

about that it's going to be a lot, it's just going to be a really tight close writer cup, which I'm pretty excited about. It's a question for you guys on the US side. Have they gone over yet or when are they going over to do their scouting? I think I want to say the second week in September. I don't know why I, I want to say September 7th or something like that. I don't know why I want to say that, but that's not, don't, I hope they don't know the Greens for three days before that.

And, Well, so that's where you get into some of the stuff that Europe does. The US has a way better way of accounting for things now that didn't exist as of 2014. And I think that you were like, in, I could be making up this timeline a little bit, but in the process of implementing, but not really trusting in 2018, but like they look at who puts well on

blank green speeds, like 10 to 10 and a half. Like that is the Europe's going to slow it on the greens. Our data is not, hey, strokes gained on the PGA tour where they put on way faster greens. It is who puts well when the greens are this speed. That's our look. They should actually speed the greens up for the scouting trip, mess with them, take some rough in like I'm all in on that stuff. That's way definitely part of the deal.

I just think like if we're looking at paths to victory, like two names, I don't know if we've even said yet are the most important on the US side. And that's Zander Schafley and Patrick Cantley. Like, yeah, okay. Well, look, yeah, we don't, it's what we do in brighter, a couple of leadups. You talk, you hand ring over the captain's picks and all that, but it is almost always decided by like how your top guys play or who, you know,

it's about, you don't know who your top guys aren't going into the week, but the DJ, Mora Cala thing at Whistling Straits was like a little, I don't know, that wouldn't have been the top-building team coming in, but they were the gas pedal and they stomped on people. The Xandr, if you're a beat Xandr in Cantlay, US is in big time trouble, like big time trouble. And it does feel like, and it feels different coming into this with JT playing so poorly, but it felt like, all right, we got Xand and Cantlay and we got J.T. Speed. Like that felt like the Rose Stinson Sergio Rory for some of the peak European Ryder Cup years in the early 2010s, 2012, 2014, all that was like, and then you throw in the, the polter pairing with anyone and now you like the, you flipped it more than 50,

50 in each team session, right? And if those, if those two teams go out and, and perform Europe's in trouble, I, I have a feeling because we haven't talked about sky, I don't know who skyd is going to play with. Brian Harman. That would scare the life out of me, Scotty, Shafran and Brian Harman, just kind of holding serve on the holes where Scotty's putting and then just winning everybody whole or Brian Harman's boxing. That would, that would terrify me. Because if I was to list a concern on the US side, it's putting, right? It is, I do think

these things are a lot of people think they're decided only with the putter, but it's really about more about ball striking than people realize. But there's enough concern between Scotty Sheffler, JT, speed, if I'm being honest, the putting Cameron. More cow. More cow has been a little better with the putter this year, but like Cam Young has not been a great putter. Max Max has had a great putting year. Max is really, really good. Yeah, it just kind of fell down. I'm only judging this one one weekend, but it kind of felt when he got when he got that lead. Chicago last week in the putter kind of deserted him. He had a missed shorty on the or that triple bogey is kind of ringing.

And a lot of people's people's heads, but he has said he's 0.66 strokes came putting this year. We just blown away his best season ever. So that is a concern. But I think it, you know, it's, I remember at Wishing Straits when I sat kind of between six and seven and two and three on this little walkway. And like just watch everybody come through and it was like, well, I don't think I had appreciated how good that US team was at that point,

because Patrick Cantlay just like wandered by and it was like, shitties like the seventh best player on this team, I think right now. And yeah, he was either post-semitter, underfeated to go back. I know you asked this question about half an hour ago, but to go back to what is Europe's path of victory. I think it's just about catching lightning in a bottle and finding a couple of pairings that that just really really work. And when I look back at previous rider cups, people forget this, but Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson went pole McGinley through them together at Glenn Eagles.

Everyone's like, what really? Rose and Stenson? And then they went on to be one of Europe's greatest pairings over the next few rider cups. And likewise that rider cup, he just, you know, people sort of raised eyebrows when GMAC convicted of boys and girls. And then he was like, well, I'm not going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to say that I'm going to they went on to be one of Europe's greatest pairings over the next few rider cups. And likewise, that rider cup, you know, people sort of raised eyebrows when GMAC and Victor Duboison were put together, but they just got each other's vibe.

And then looking back at Paris, you know, Frankie and Tommy obviously were just unbeatable that week. And Thomas Bjorn leaned heavily into the data for that, I know. So, you know, I don't know how much Luke is doing that and how much it's on gut instinct. But if they can get a few things, there's going to be a lot of new pairings for Europe this time. Okay, there is no Polter, there is no Garcia. There's going to be a lot of pairings we haven't seen before from the European point of view. Like I said, I'd feel pretty confident that John Ramon

Matt Fitzpatrick will be one who does Rory pair with. Do you put him on the Victor Houghland? Do you really want to put two of your best three players in a pairing together? Or do you want to spit them up and just have them drag along the rookie? I mean, there's so many things, so many balls up in the air for Luke Donald at the moment. But it's just about if you find that pairing where when you see them listed in the team together on Thursday evening, you go, oh, really? Wouldn't have put those two together. And suddenly they just click and they rattle off four points in two days. Then that's the path to victory. I mean, Seb Stracca, I think, could be an unbelievable four balls partner for somebody. Because I just think if

you put him with somebody like Shane or Tommy or Victor Hoveland, who's just going to hit fairways and greens and keep you in every hole. And you have some like Seb Stracca, who's just going to fire every single pin and make a shitload of birdies. Yes, he'll probably make a few double bogies as well, but it doesn't matter if you've got a fits or a tummy alongside you, then I think Sep Stracca could be dangerous in four balls. Do we know if four balls are forcing him to go in first? I don't actually know that.

No. Europe has gone four balls first. I believe the last two times. I know they did at Marka, or at LaGolf National and that's where they kind of pants. Furek, we lost that session. You lost that session, but you kind of got pantsed a little bit because, yeah, I don't know, explain it. Like what the US team threw out in the morning meant that he had to kind of own them for the afternoon and they had weird force. I don't know. It seems to have become, you know, I remember Ryder Cups when, you know, I remember Brookline in

99 where three of the European teams sat out until Sunday, but it's kind of become an unwritten rule. No, the old 12 guys from both sides have to play in Friday, and I don't really know where that's come from or why. Question for you guys, just a couple hypotheticals here. We've got, I'm looking at the T times for the the D plus D real check masters double here double and uh and also the DP World Tour just put up some Ludwig content on the on the gram um we've got Ed Mardomoll and Ari Yanek Paul and Rasmus Hoigard playing together in the next group we have Francesco Nicolai Hoigard and Ludwig playing together and then the group after that we've got, Nicolai, Boyguard, and Ludwig playing together. And then the group after that we've got Adrian Moronc, Torbjörn Olsen, and Shane Lowry. And then the group after that we've got Otagoe and Podreg. If Podreg goes out and wins

this week. And check, does he get a look? Um, no. Did he get a look? No. And the other one you didn't mention, well, the other two you didn't mention, Luke Donald, this week is playing with Bob and Alexander Bjork, who would be a very left-field choice, but you just never know. Nicholas Corsart, who's obviously a vice captain as well, is playing with Pablo L'Arathabal and ADDC. So when you look at the pairings, it kind of feels as if Victor Perez certainly I think has kind of missed his chance now and Adrian Otegi. Although he's playing alongside Podric Harrington who will report back to Luke obviously,

but you look at those two guys in particular Otegi and Perez have kind of been left out in the cold a bit by not playing with, you know, a captain or a vice captain, I thought that was interesting. Do you think Nikolai has an outside shot? I think anybody who's playing with one of the vice captains or the captain is obviously being considered. I think what's interesting about you and I talked about this so I but going to just six automatic qualifiers, like normally if you have eight or whatever the nine, the number used to be, it would be very hard for a captain to go away

from like the three that barely missed out. And now, because you only have six, it's like, okay, well, we're still gonna take the three that barely missed out. But now we can kind of go a bunch of different directions at the bottom, which I think makes the entire qualification process more interesting. It just makes the whole product stronger. I think, right? For sure. I still think the US. I think both sides still need to tweak their point system a lot.

I mean, you could really get handed. I'll say this, like I do mean disrespect with it on this one. Like if Yonic Paul gets the final spot, that's a problem for Europe. Like that's, like I'm sorry, like you don't want to take that. You don't want that guy on your one. Like if Janik Paul gets the final spot, that's a problem for Europe. Like that's like, I'm sorry, like you don't want to take that. You don't want that guy on your team. Like you don't, I don't understand why you would set up a system like that where you're going to end up taking someone that is just like totally not in your plans to take, right? Well, I mean, we kind of are in that position already where, you know, we all like Bob as a character. And I've already given my reasons in this podcast for why I would have him in my team, but he's not playing great golf. And yet he's in an automatic sport off the back of one really strong performance in Scotland. It's always so disconcerting. Yannick Paul,

whenever I pull up his PGA tour profile, he looks like Hubert. He's also a Colorado Buffalo. So you're going to piss off Coach Prime here. Well, and I think for the US side, like the kind of, this is working in there. It's working out okay, but like Brian Harmon has made an obviously, he made the team after he won the open championship. And he's played very well since then and more than just he's justified a pick on a lot of different fronts. I think and it's worked out fine. But like you took a guy from basically outside the realm of of consideration automatically onto your team several months in advance.

And it might not come back to bite him this to go around, but it's not a good it's it's got to adjust the point system, like especially with how much the person's have changed in in golf and like they're already doubling the points for majors and majors are already worth more money. You end up with outside like a one outsized performance can put you on a team that, you know, maybe you haven't justified through other statistical means. Well, you know, I know it's slightly different because you won Quill all of as well, but Wyndham Clark hasn't really done an

a third of LACC. And I think he's a bit he sprays it a bit off the tee. I'd be concerned about having him in my team. But it's also one of those things at some point where like you got a, I don't know, a guy's got to be able to earn his way on the team and a major and another PGA tour event, you know, like how do they do it with FedEx or with a torchampian ship? How does that count towards the, because it's like points are mapped, the points are wrapped up, right? Oh, for, but for last year, you mean? Yeah, or just in general. Yeah, like how do they, how does that count towards it?

Because it's, they must do it off the shot or later board share later. Right. X cup, you know, four. Yeah, but it's all, it's a good question because it's all right. It's all money in, I don't know. So I don't know how they wouldn't count in either year, right? So the, the, the, the, the qualification has already ended now. So 2023 tour championship won be out for anything.

And regular events, not in the year. Oh, yeah. The qualification don't count for anything anyways. So that's it. That's right. I think what is, I mean, one pushback on that point, Salia is like fill in 21, winning the PGA and then didn't make it onto the team, right? And I think, well, it's the PGA and then didn't didn't make it onto the onto the team, right?

And I think the PGA, the PGA champion hasn't made it this time either. You know how bad you have to play to not the winner major not make the team would you have? Yeah. Even for I mean, I live. Yeah, Brooks says Brooks is like, yeah, I'm talking Phil. Yeah. Yeah.

But Phil was like the equivalent of Brooks who didn't play a PGA to her then and Phil was playing them right? Yeah, but I think where they got sideways this year is they they implemented this system and then all the purses like if this was a regular year, Lucas Glover would still be like 12 first right because you take the Memphis money not to bring Memphis into this but you take the Memphis money and like the 3.6 that he earned there and it just it wouldn't be as big of a thing. So they have to like I don't know you can't base it on things that can change. At some point though we can't optimize it to the point of like, hey, it's, you know, it's the 12 guys that are part of the Cool Kids Club and play in these every single year. And we're going to put together this franchise basically, right?

It does feel like it is already a bit of that, doesn't it? There's a kind of his face doesn't fit kind of. And I think, you know, you look at somebody like who's had an exceptional season, somebody like Keegan Bradley, it's probably going to miss out because he's just not, he hasn't been part of the last couple of teams. His face doesn't fit in the same way that JT's does. And I think Keegan gets crowned a little bit where like if you go back and like look at his two rider cubs, like he hasn't exactly like lit the world on fire. I know he and Phil had all the theatrics and shit. But like first two days it went down. Yeah, like all this suitcase bullshit. But like like set all that aside and just like,

I don't think these guys are one key, you know, the team. He's a phenomenal driver of the golf ball. Like you would probably fit in. Well, and I don't know what we do with Sam Burns. Well, so a question I would have, it feels like there's still a lot of sentiment online of we're making the same mistakes we've always made. The charity captains picks, the blah, blah, blah. I kind of want to flip that on its head to say, like, hasn't the laugh all you want at the name task force? How did they earn a little bit of the benefit of the doubt at this point? I mean, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they made this in 2015, they won every president's cup since then. They've won two of three Ryder cups.

I know, but they're five and six and one since then in team events. And they just coming off the biggest Ryder cup beat down in history since the Europe has been fully involved. How much, how much of that do you think is because of the task force or how much is in spite of the task force? I think because, so people misrepresent what the task force is or was.

It was a reaction to like, all right, Tom Watson came in and blew everything up and said, here's how we're gonna do it. And they said, we're not doing that anymore. We're gonna keep the same captains in rotation. We're gonna have a system. We're gonna have the same statistical models. Like, Patrick Harrington, after the last,

after Wisteng straights, like, almost concerningly say, the US has copied everything Europe has done, felt like a pretty seminal moment to me of like, do they've caught up on all the archaic stuff that they used to do where they would auto put fill on the team and it seems like they actually have a decent system in place, some decent continuity and a decent plan for keeping team chemistry

a factor in this. And we'll find out, we'll find out in a few weeks. But I think that's my point, that's my kind of my point that it's nothing to do with the task force that there just happens to be a generation of American players who are all absolute studs who all get on with each other. Like that's nothing to do with the task force that people are happy in each other's company these days that you don't have those two characters that you don't have tiger and fill those two alpha males sucking all the energy out of the team room. JT is probably the closest you've got to that now, but he's still like a hugely popular team member. That's nothing really to do with the task force.

And you know, I said, you know, you look back in 2006, the teams being made up of Brett Wetterick and volunteer and JJ Henry. You don't have those passengers in the team anymore. You're not talking about leaving off the likes of Keegan Bradley and Sam Burton's. I mean, they've got so many good golfers and that has nothing to do with Atasque for us. That's just the luck. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, right? I think both things are factors. I think putting power back in the players in terms of their investment in the team, like what happened at Wisting Straits from my understanding is like the players that were already on that team had a pretty decent saying as to who who felt out the rest of that team like that's a factor of the team chemistry factor that I've kind of dismissed a lot in up until like 2018 I dismissed a lot of that to say like team chemistry is going to matter for how comfortable you feel in the moment in performing right right? A huge question of always has like, how can you take this huge group of talent

that you as always brings over and they play so shitty? And it's if you have levels of discomfort and whatever that might be, Brooks talked a lot about that about like, dude, I don't get my naps in or like, I, if I have to go through the course at 5 a.m. when I'm not playing in the morning, why would I have to do,

like, why would I need to do that? I felt like, Western Straits are kind of like, dude, do what you need to do?. Why would I have to do, like, why would I need to do that? I felt like Western Straits are kind of like, dude, do what you need to do? Like, whatever you need to do, let's accommodate that. That feels like putting some power back into the players that didn't exist in 2014. Yeah, and I just further that point,

so I would say that something that is something that the Zingard did in 2008 as well, which for whatever reason, Corey Pave in 2010 and Davis Love in 2012 2012 and especially Tom Watson in 2014 decided to move away from that yeah I know you did that pod with Zinger a while ago where basically those players decided to get to choose the third member of their pod or the fourth member of their pod I can't remember what it was so look if it comes down to that if it comes down to the guys that are already on the team kind kind of get a say in who the picks are, then maybe that is something that works a lot in JT's favor.

I like like somebody that I think we're underestimating. I think it's a massive massive feather in the United States cap. That's Homa like between how he drives the ball, his iron play, he's raised the level that's putting his president's cup performance. All that is on the flip side, like looking at Sheffler's president's cup performance, a quail hollow on a course that should fit him extremely well. I know he's probably exhausted. And he had that.

He's going to tour championship and all that. But if I don't know, there's some I remember flagging that both. He and Burns played way better golf than their record showed at the president's. Yeah, Burns did Burns did. I think Scotty drug some he had one. Scotty had one really bad session the first one. And since then I feel like I I asked for some extra data on that one. I got some good ones on that.

So they they're the data. Didn't matter. I was going to say yeah, yeah, I keep trying to you can fuse. It's crazy. Matters the next second like no other data because they't keep trying. I'm trying to, you can fuse. It's crazy. It matters the next second, like, no, the data. I guess they're my god. I know he's got baby brain. He's going to three hours sleep at the moment.

But I mean, I can't keep trying. It was a real matter. No, that is a very real thing. I've learned that as well. So do we finish off what the US team is going to be then? I kind of felt we talked about it and then moved away from it. So who are the six picks now? Jordan speed, obviously, absolutely nailed on. I kind of felt we talked about it and then moved away from it. So who are the six picks now?

Jordan Speed, obviously, absolutely nailed on. Colin Maricawa, nailed on. Cameron Young, Ricky Filer, Kamala. Brooks, and JT. And then, and there's that 12 spot. Is it JT or King Bradley or San Burns or I think Tony Fino's lost his shot now unless he wins in Atlanta. It kind of feels, it kind of feels set in stone, not a bit, regardless of what happened this week.

I think that's, I think that's right. I'm bummed that the Tony's been so bad since Mexico. He was he was awesome in Paris. He was really good. He would be awesome in Rome as well. I think the red drive for the golf ball. And I think I'm curious. Like what if what I don't think Lucas Glover should be on this team, but what if he what if he does win the tour championship? What if Fina wins the tour championship?

What if Russell Hindley wins the tour championship? Those are all things. I guess Lucas close. Yeah. Those are all things that are probably not going to happen, but if they did and then you do, I don't know. I don't think this week doesn't matter at all, but I do agree that it's, it does feel

like those are the 12 that are, that they're going to take to. Look, if I, how many shots back is 20 feet now starting this week, like, what is he three under or something? You're pretty impressive. You went on a lot. Like if he manages to overhaul a seven point deficit to Scotty Sheffler, a five shot deficit to Victor Hovland, a four shot deficit to Rory McLeore. If he manages to beat all those guys and win the tour championship, that's a big, you

can't not pick me, ZJ, to the captain, isn't it? But I just don't see it happening. It would come from nowhere. I don't know. I'm very much in the camp. Like either he's your guy right now. And one week shouldn't one week. I'm not going to advance shouldn't change anything. He either is your or your guy. And this is kind of look, I understand why there's been the Lucas Glover debate. But you know, I'm really pleased that the guys had this like Rejuvenation his career. He sorted out a big part of his game that was just like must have been infuriating for such a long time for him, but just because he plays well in back to back weeks, one week by the way in which a week in which he's not up against any of the big names at all.

Okay, then the next week, okay, obviously all those big names are there and he went on beaten, fair and square, but just because he's had 10 exceptional days does not mean he's going to be playing exceptionally well a month from now, and he's not a generational talent like a lot of the guys he would be in conversation with for that 12 spot. And, you know, and I know that you kind of have given me stick for this in the past solely of just there's a temptation to always say, oh, he's one of tournament, he must be in the right a cup conversation and we overvalue wins and it's probably something that you look at somebody for example, I call him or a car who hasn't won all season, but has been consistently excellent, but we're our judgment of him is kind of clouded because he hasn't got that w. And then you look at somebody like Lucas Gover, okay, he's got back to back wins. Is he playing as well as Colomore a car probably not? Is he playing as well as Scotty Sheffler who hasn't won a tournament since March? Definitely not. So, you know, we overvalued wins, which I know, I kind of, it's a bit that I kind of play up to, you know, just to wind you up. But, but even that, I think that's, that's the case to Lucas Glover is not even that. The question

of like, how does all that correlate to your performance in the Ryder Cup? I don't think we have an answer to. Like, I, it's not, it's not simple, right? I know who I'd rather take to battle. Like, I would rather take a more Kawa, who is this is this like this level of talent is just going to stay pretty steady no matter what then hoping for a peak week from somebody. But I work out my go, oh, and four, like we don't know what's going to happen. And it's not even like, you know, I've written really hard for JT's record. And it's not like, you know, guys that have great records haven't had bad rider cups as well. Polter example, Sergio's had bad rider cup. And he's like the best European rider.

Roman, Roman, Paris, Roy's, and for all records, not very easy, 500. Like he is, 500 is actually a pretty decent, not for a Roman. Roman, I mean, come on. Okay. Well, remind me of Tiger Woods and Phil Michaels record. And records. That's what I'm saying. Exactly.

So that's, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? That it just, everything goes out the window. Yeah. I agree with you. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm

not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm not going to 40s. It's incredible. I like, I'm going to be, I may not watch the rider cup. If love big is not on. He's got to be on, right? He's got to be on. He's got to be on. People thought I was fucking crazy when I was sitting on the RV and you say that's crazy. We go three, you know, I'll let you say that, right? All right. We don't even know if he's on the team yet. Just to be on the team, though, even to be in the conversation, people said, you're a moron.

You're you're out over your. Yeah, look, I'll hold my hands over. I thought you're a bit of a moron 12. When you were saying that this amateur should be in the right cup team, but I agree with you. Now, Tron, who do you want an apology from? All of us who on Twitter, like it wears, wears really looking. I want like a formal, formal heartfelt apology from Sally

for just front running all this and getting so far ahead of it and being like, yeah, you guys are fucked for the next 10 years. Like, might be Europe has no, and if you're, if Europe doesn't win, I'll show over there. If Europe doesn't win this one, it's the highest out the ass. If Europe doesn't win this one, I think there's cause for concern. Would you agree with that, Jamie? It will have mean we've lost a whole

one rider cup in a row in European soil yet. So yeah, you've lost three out of four. And then you're going to bet page next probably with Tiger as captain, if I were to guess. And I mean, will Tiger be a good captain? I don't know. The thing is like on a serious note, you just don't know. I mean, you could not have predicted that two years ago after Whistling Straits that within a year, Matt Fitzpatrick is going to be a major champion that a lot of these players, floors were just going to rise to such an extent. And you just don't know what the next just going to rise to such an extent. And you just don't know what the next, what it was going to be going to happen two years down the line. I think it's, look, obviously, I think it's becoming increasingly difficult to rid and ride a cups on, on foreign soil. But

um, that's what I'm worried about. I agree that it's holding. I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be a really close one this time. I'm worried that it's, we're just going to keep holding serve for a long time. And I don't mean that I don't know from a course setup. Does the rider cup need a US victory? I don't think it needs it because I think it's still amazing and we still get hyped up about it regardless. But does it need somebody to win the rider cup and for on soil? I think we need a close one either way. I don't think it needs to win, but it's got to be a good one. I think one last, well, there'll probably be many other, but one last point on JT and the differentiation between between picking, I just thought of this, but like picking

him versus I think in the past, when you took like somebody who hadn't qualified, you were taking a name. You were taking a sort of legacy figure. And I think with JT, people will look at it like that. If like, oh, he's just in the club, he's just a name, he's a major champ, whatever. And it's like, well, actually, he's like the sort of the soul of the team.

And I think there's a, I think that matters. Like I think there's a big point of differentiation there that people will freak out about and completely miss and say like, Oh, Lucas Gauvers playing the best golf of it. It's like, do you want to bet the writer cup on the fact that Lucas Gauvers knows how to putt? Like probably not. I mean, I just like, I don't know.

I think. Can I ask you a question on that front? Porter is JT the only guy that could play this poorly and make the team? Like if speed was playing this poorly, is he make the team? Cause he didn't, that is a good question. He didn't at role Melbourne in 2019. They didn't take him and he was playing poorly, which I think is disgusting. I was riding for speed in that one.

If you, if you, you could check the tape on that one, but like, it links master. I, I think a good comp is 2018 when Thomas picked Sergio Garcia. He got pelters for that. Why an earthy picking Sergio Garcia. He's an awful form and he was vindicated a month later. So I think that's a good example because JT kind of is in that Sergio bracket of one day I could see him being the record all-time point scorer for the US. And it is a very good question. Like if other players were stinking a joint out to the extent JT, would they have that much credit in the bank that they're almost guaranteed to pick?

Like right or wrong. I don't think Moorakawa would make the team at JT's, you know, it's drug scheme or miscut level, you know? I because I think like Mooraka doesn't have that dog in him, certainly, right? Like, when he's off, he's off. He's not like, he's not the captain, you know, like, that's kind of what up.

That underrated part of all of this. And I know we're talking about online discourse, which can be, it's super messy this time of year, all the time. This is better. This is a better discussion than Shephard vs. Kissner in 2021, which is, you know, we could, we could

frame some of that. We could send some of those tweets to the golf all fame, but there are external factors in all this, I think. And, uh, I don't know. I guess what Jamie, let me ask you this. Is there, is it a blessing in disguise that, that like Sergio went to live? Like, I know, it's probably a downside that Peters went to live. Like, that's a guy that would have been a great fit, could drive with a golf ball. But like would Sergio have been guaranteed on this team? Had all the stuff not happened. Yeah, had he stayed?

I don't know. I mean, it did kind of look. I know that Sergio had a good points hole in Wistling Straits. A lot of that was fact under the fact that he had the best player in the world as his teammate, who kind of just dragged him along. I just kind of feel regardless of the fact that they all play and live. No, it two years ago felt for me like the end of the road for Westwood, Polter, Garcia, that generation of, you know, Kym or McDowell, they're kind of the stents and their time had already passed. But that kind of felt like a sort of line in the sand anyway. I remember even feeling that on the, on the, on the Sunday evening at Whistling Straits

before any of this stuff with the Saudis was about to happen. Which, which I see that with all those guys, except for Sergio. Sergio seems like the only kind of. Yeah, look, Sergio isn't an anomaly because, you know, his record speaks for itself, but you know, is he, is he one of the 12 best European golfers at the moment? Absolutely not. And, you know, I go back to the whole, you know, his presence in the team from this time around would be a distraction.

There would be obvious questions about it. He has had falling out, falling out with some of the people in there. He has not behaved very well over the last two years, but had all of that not happened, would he be in the conversation? Yeah, he would have to be because he's a surgery bloody girl. It would have been like the equivalent of the JT conversation of like, you know, if you had been played well, right? Because, search use, you know, 12 years, 14 years old for the JT, so it's not quite the

same conversation. Because I think, I think the thing about Sergio is like, you know who doesn't want to face Sergio on Sunday in Europe, in a redder Cup, somebody like a Wyndham Clark. Like that's a nightmare. Like you'd rather face anybody than Sergio on a Sunday in a Redder Cup. And I think the same about JT. Like, I don't think, I think there are guys

that are already qualified on the team that European guys would rather play against than JT in a Redder Cup. And I think I agree with you. Go grow quick on. I think we're making a snake of thinking that 2017 Sergio Garcia is 2023 Sergio Garcia. And is he as scary a prospect? No, no, maybe not for five matches, but maybe for one. I'm going to fight you on that, Jamie. one of my strongest memories and takeaways from Wisting Straits was watching ROM and Sergio pairing, watching how, I don't even want to call it team chemistry. I think we can kind of conflate that with raw, raw and getting along great and high-fiving.

But like watching games compliment each other was, it was like, holy shit, the best way to get something out of Sergio. It was the only hole in the game with Sergio's putting, right? When they, when it was, um, wrong driving, Sergio iron, wrong putting, it was like, oh, you're not beating this team. And then like, you might get a little gap here because Sergio's not draining the putts after wrong stuffs it. But watching, wrong gets so much out of Sergio is like kind of where I'm at with speed and JT. It's like, dude, we've, we've seen this in many different forms of those two getting so much out of each other and that's what makes this event different it's what makes the stroke

play stuff as much as I want to talk about the strokes game it's what makes that kind of get thrown out because we don't we can't measure that in at the 3m and you can't you know and I think what bears that out is you look at space record on in Sunday singles. And it's terrible. Sure. So all of a sudden he doesn't have his buddy alongside him. Yeah. I think I think JT and speed they're capable or liable to shoot a 63 and best ball in like an 84 and alternate shot right now. Like the the variance is not good.

They might win at 84 though. They just like they win all the time. It's fucking sick. So anyways, we started JT. I think we're ending there. But we are we we are we we we finalized our European team. I think you have, haven't we? It's Ludwig. It's Moronc. It's I guess the only the only question mark is if Big Shot Bob gets it's overtaken. I still think that 12th spot is interesting. And you know, obviously for obvious reasons,

you're leaning towards Ludwig. I'm pretty sure that he's obviously a name pretty close to the top of Luke Donald's list, but I think there are others who are still in the conversation. I mean, Ludwig needs to go play well this week. He needs to, you know, I think there's a few guys who I would have loved to have seen on the team that haven't made the trip over for Czech and for Cron, the likes of Thomas Tetri or Aaron Rive and who you think maybe the only reason they're not making the trip

over is they've already been categorically told, look, you're not on the team. But it would have been great to see one of those two guys try to come up, you know, imagine winning in Switzerland next week and saying, don't pick me now, I kept them. I think I think the one thing I'm disappointed about is like we're deprived of seeing like surgery versus can't lay. Surge, you know, just like a mega getting under can't lay skin, you know, something like that or can't lay getting under surgery of skin. I think they will got under a lot of people's skin.

Usually this time of year, I'm like, wait, I've got spreadsheets going of all possible pairings after having some conversations with some people close to the situation and how they get pairings done. I'm done trying to guess like the level of information, the level information they have and like what they try to do and the simulations they run for making that stuff work is like, oh, they seem like they'd be a great pairing together. That does it. I can't, I'm at risk of sound like a huge idiot as this goes. So I'm super curious what they do with Moorakawa. Again, Gut would say Moorakawa and Max, I have no idea if the numbers would check that out. They play together at the old,

what's it called? What's the Mickey Mouse tournament they have in May? Yeah. They play together there, didn't they? How did they get on? I don't remember how they did. I don't think they were there. I don I think it's going to be a slightly different environment I just said that yeah, sheffler no idea what they're going to do there It's fascinating Ricky. What do you do with Ricky Ricky? Win them Clark. I don't know it's well get we will have I'm not you can sick Ricky with anybody can't I maybe who knows Anything with this. No, I'm sent you guys have Got it other things to do I could talk right or cup for a lot longer than we have and I'm sure we'll do plenty more

Oh, are we are we squeezing one more in before the event itself? I think we have to don't we yeah, yeah I think we have like post post pics everything locked in but I think we pre event We do that and then we also, I got Thursday night once the first pairings are out could be a really fun one. Sean, we can do it. We can do it from think of court to scene together. Yeah, well, I was going to say like that one might be over by Saturday morning, the, the America. I agree. I was to say T.C. If the Europe is down seven going into Sunday, will you fly across the Atlantic to see a possible comeback?

Down seven. No, absolutely not. Okay, so just the open, just the open. Wait, wait, the US is down seven. Sorry, if Europe is down seven, would you fly across? No, okay. So just to listen, when I go to, when I go to Italy, it ain't to watch. I'm making a fleetwood comp here. I know. I have logistical concerns about Marco Simone and the roads getting in and out. Uh, I don't know how. But you're going to have a lovely electric beamer to cruise you about the place. Aren't I have concerns for other people? That's what I was trying to get. Right.

Okay. Uh, no, I don't know how all that's going to work. Cause man, it is out kind of in the middle of nowhere, uh, with not a whole heck of a lot around it. It's some really cool spots up near like 12T where you look back and you can see like the city center of Rome and the rolling farm. Like it really does feel like Italy. There's a sick, like abandoned farmhouse behind the 13th hole

that frames that hole really well. It's really cool. It's just the golf holes themselves are. Look at this trophy, if you will. Do we think blockies gonna like get the call? He'll be there. He'll definitely be there. The late call assistant captain ship. Locky will be like skydiving onto the first he'll be lighting the torch. He's delivering the rider cup to the victory ceremony. Delivering the rider cup to the victory ceremony by a last-minute

last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last- last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last-minute last- last-minute last- last- last-minute last- last- last- America's like mascot these days, sure. He'll be with the the MJ that that crew. He'll be hanging with them. They're always they're always hanging out there. You're going right, man. Cheyenne. You're going right, Porter. Oh, yeah. Just make sure. I'm actually leaving tomorrow to get over there. You're having your scutting mission next week. Oh, I can't wait. I hope we get a close one. I don't want to cry again like I did in France. That was that was a tough scene. But yeah, guys, this is so much fun to do. I cannot wait. We do. We got so many great questions. I think we've answered a lot of them without reading a lot of them off. I do apologize. I was not going to get to them, but a lot of great submissions. But I think we kind of covered it all. So,

how have we managed to speak for an R and 40 minutes? It's the best of it. Every time we do one of the, like, we're not going to have enough to talk about, but solid, solid coming back to come back around saying that the Euro team has a chance. I've been saying that. I've been saying that. The first time we did, no one is walking into this saying the US is going to, like, what pass? No one. An R, an R and 40 minutes of solely saying the data matters. No, the data doesn't matter. No, but the data really matters. No, but ignore the crazy. I think every time we've made picks, I've gotten, I've like dropped two points on the, like, we're getting closer and closer. I might just pick a tie at some point. Like they're just going to tie and the US is going to keep that. That would cup. That would stink. Block blocky retains the cup. Blocky gets to cup of playtime.

Blocky vs. Who for the playoff. That's what they should do. There should be an emergency playoff. Who could be who could be who could be who could be blocky vs. Rory, hasn't it? Because you know, blocky has Rory's legs. Rory, blocky gets to play from where Rory drives it. I think that right. Yeah. That's how we decide the rider cup. No, Rory and blocky, they would that would be a good for some steam. Really, but Blocky playing from Rory's drive, we already knew that that's the best pair in the world.

All right, that is officially a wrap on this Ryder Cup episode. Thank you to all these are so much fun. Thank you for listening. Excited to see the captain's picks next week for the US side. And we'll do it again soon, boys and chairs. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most.

How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

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