OverDrive - Sands on the behaviour from American fans, if Bradley should have any regrets, and if Woods will captain the Americans in ‘27

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

NBC and Golf Channel Commentator Steve Sands on the behaviour from American fans, if Bradley should have any regrets, and if Woods will captain the Americans in ‘27.

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like the Europeans were in control. It seemed like the whole way along. The whole time. Joining us now on the Maple Toyota Hotline, here he is from NBC and the Golf Channel. He was there all week. Here's Steve Sanzi. Can the Americans take anything from what went down yesterday?

Here's three words I've never said in my life. Go Blue Jays. Yes. That's a boy. Jump on the bandwagon, Sanzi. I love it. Let's bring that magical Joe Carter magic back in Toronto. Come on.

Love it. Love it. Can the Americans recover? Is that the question? No, can they take anything from yesterday? Like, is there any solace you could take from yesterday? I mean, the only thing they could take. The only thing is that they showed some heart, and they stepped up yesterday.

And like you said, the 15, 13 is a little closer than it actually was. Yesterday was a bizarre day. and actually for a little bit there it looked like Europe was going to win the thing 22 to 6 and then for a little bit it looked like wow the Americans could actually win this thing so it was a wild day

but I think showing hard they were professionals yesterday and I thought that was really cool to see from the Americans Sanzi was too much being made of the crowd being hard on Team Europe or were you fine with it or what did you make of it

I'm sure you were right in the thick of the things hearing some of the comments you know, what have you make or all that? Listen, I got to tell you guys know me well. We've been friends a while and been on your show a bunch. I'm a proud American. You know, I love traveling all over the world, and I think it's great. I think it's great meeting guys like you, having beers with you guys in Toronto

and seeing what the world is like at different cultures. I thought the Americans embarrassed themselves over the course of the last three days. I just, I think I'm not trying to be old and be a crumogen, but, you know, there are certain things you can yell in sports. There are certain things you can say in sports and keep it sports-like. Cursewords happen, whatever. But, you know, throwing stuff at Erica McElroy? I mean, what grown man?

Who throws things at a woman, okay? What are you doing? You know, why are you yelling things that are so personal to a person's wife who is standing there that you're bound to get reactions from players? Now, I will say, I do not think Rory McRoy or any other. player should ever curse at fans. I don't think paying customers should ever get yelled at or cursed at by the athletes who are performing. But my gosh, how much can a guy take when he's getting stuff yelled at? I mean, I thought that the American crowd was way over the top and it crossed over

the sports gamesmanship fun line and became personal. And I thought that that was pretty bad. I did not think the Americans, American fans showed out well the last three days at all for the world to see. I didn't like that at all. Yeah, it was, it became, it was going to be one of the stories. I said this earlier. For two years, we talked about the crowd in New York, right? It was always the bill. It's going to be crazy.

New Yorkers are crazy. They're going to go crazy. And once the competition became somewhat of an afterthought, that became an even bigger and crazier story. Yet it kind of speaks to the European. and their ability to fight through it. Like, in a way, did it galvanize them because it didn't slow them down at all? Now, and here's the thing.

I don't think the Europeans are better. By the way, the great, great, great, great, great, great majority of fans were great and fun and having a good time. It's a different event. It's not some congenial golf hoity-toity type of thing. Everybody understands that. Well, when someone's yelling at Rory McElroy,

when he's trying to fix the button on his shirt, Hey, Rora, you don't need a button to choke. That's fun. That's great. He laughs, Tyrol laughs, Shane laugh. Everybody laughs. Everybody laughs at that. But when you start taking shots at someone's wife and shots at what someone's wife looks like, what someone's wife acts like, come on, man.

Like, you can't be doing that. But anyway, look, I thought, you know, I thought the crowd was going to perhaps get underneath some of the guy's skin. on the European teams, on the European team. There's about four or five of those guys who really run hot. But the players on the American side are not worse than the Europeans. That's not

why they lose six of last eight rider cups. What Europe does is they're just better at this thing. They're better at handling it. They're better at the team aspect of it, guys. They're better at the preparation of it. I don't think

they care more. They just care a lot. lot. And the Americans care a lot, but I think that the Europeans just handle it all differently. They were prepared for that zaniness. They knew it was going to happen. And yes, there were a couple of times where the players yelled back at the fans, and I don't love that. But they were just ready for it, man. Luke Donald had, Luke Donald, right? Luke Donald's now won back-to-back rider cups, home and road. Only one other European captain's ever done that, Tony Jacqueline. He also won four Ryder Cups in four Rider Cups played, two of them were on U.S. soil. So Luke Donald had them all ready to go and ready, prepared, and it certainly showed the

first couple days. With Steve Sands, NBC and the Golf Channel, looking back on the Ryder Cup, what was kind of disappointing was the way Beth Page just didn't have much teeth. Like the greens were soft, the rough was down, and that was something Keegan Bradley was his call, and Keegan said he regretted that. Do you think if he could have a do-over, what does your regret more, not not putting himself on the team to play or having the course

lay out the way it laid out? That's a great question. I think a couple things. One is the setup the setup was benign. There's no question about that, but there was a reason for that. The PJ Championship

in 2019, the U.S. Open in 2009, the U.S. Open in 2002, you know, those are brutally difficult conditions on a brutally difficult golf course to begin with. If you had those conditions for a rider cup, it wouldn't be as exciting and thrilling. The rider cup, you need scoring. You need opportunities. You know, if you're just hitting in the rough, passing it out sideways and then wedging it onto the green, that's not going to be

nearly as exciting. And at the end of the day, it's a competition. Everybody's trying to win. It's also a TV show. You know, I think they need to know, they know they need to put on a little bit of a show there. So that's the first thing on the golf course. But yes, if the golf course was set up more difficult, I think the United States would have failed. made much, much better. Scotty Sheffler won the PJ Championship this year, and the U.S. Open was won by JJ Spawn, where Scotty and Sam Burns were in the mix, and you're talking about guys who were on the Ryder Cup team, and they won in those difficult conditions. So that's the first thing as far as the golf course. Yes, it could have been set up more difficult and would have been advantageous

to the Americans, but for the event itself, I think it would have been a really bad look to just see guys hacking it out of the rough like you do at a U.S. Open. It would have been a slug fence as opposed to a high scoring affair, if you will. Not that there's any wrong with a pitcher's tool, by any means. But at the Ryder Cup, at the Ryder Cup, you kind of

want a 9-8 game kind of thing. As far as the team goes, he's 13th in the world. He's easily one of the top 12 players in America. So by definition, not picking yourself to play makes the American team worse.

personally if you're going to have bryson de chambo on the team who's a live player bring brooks kepka he won the pga beth page in 19 he's got five majors on his resume and he's a complete hard ass so he's the guy you want to have out there with bryson de chambo so i thought that was a little bit of a mistake but that's hindsight but i thought in in not in retrospect but at the beginning of this process bradley not taking himself made the team worse that's not his fault per se it's not wrong that he didn't take himself but he by definition made the team worse by taking someone else other than him do you think we ever see tiger woods as a captain at the rider cup i do i think he's actually going to be the captain next time in 27

at a dare manor was a guy named j p mcmanus who owns that property in in ireland tiger's very close with him tiger turned down this time he turned it down he was offered it turned it down and I think he's clearly not going to be playing anymore as far as that goes. So I think he takes it in 27. It's a road game, easier to be a captain if you're Tiger Woods because you have less obligations throughout the course of the two years. And I think he'll be the captain in 27. I can be dead wrong, but that's my guess.

Love that. Love that on the way out, Sandy. Great job all week, man. It's been unbelievable. And go caps. I think this is the end of the road for OV. this could be the swan song buddy so enjoy it while you can drop the puck baby let's go i was talking to brian boucher i was trying to bushy last night yep we were texting back and forth but he's such

a massive golf guy we were texting back and forth and of course i want to talk hockey he wants to talk golf and i said are my cap's going to after we got done with the rider cup and all that inside stuff inside stuff i said i go hey are we going to be better this year and he said no but I agree I think this is going to be OV's last year last year it was contract for sure so I think it's going to be it for him so we'll see.

Love it, pal. Thank you for doing this. We'll do it again soon. Anytime, fellas. Go J's, baby. Go Jays. Steve Sands, Golf Channel, and NBC. Joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline, drive the built-in-Canada fuel-efficient funded drive Toyota Rav4. Gas are hybrid models available.

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