Subpar - Subpar Special Edition: Our week at Whistling Straits, What USA‘s dominating win means for the future of the Ryder Cup

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

On this week's special edition of GOLF's Subpar, former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz provide an in-depth recap of their week at Whistling Straits, talk the future of the Ryder Cup, and share what they were most impressed by during USA's dominating victory. The episode then concludes with our FanDuel Sportsbook picks of the week for the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Hello world. Welcome back to golf subpar. What a week it was. Sleys, you and I were getting amongst it around Whistling Strakes with the people and Team USA just absolutely put the whipping to him at Whistling. The wood. Just brought the wood. Let's call it what it was. I was just a domination from start to finish. Morning opening session, three to one, never looked back. And I mean, we talked so much about, I feel like we've been talking about the Ryder Cup for six months plus going into it. We all thought more or less this thing would be fairly close. close, but we both were leaning towards the U.S., and I got to be dead honest. I didn't see a 19-9 ass-wopin out there when this thing was just getting started. But I felt like after the morning session of day one, looking at the pairings for session two, I was like, man, other than Rahm and Sergio, it was hard to find points that Europe was going to come up with throughout the week and damned if they didn't have a hard time doing it. And we brought this little bad boy right here, back to the States, finally.

Yes, you did. I got my team USA hat on right here as well. I love it. We're patriotic. We are very patriotic. But, man, we've got to tell you a little bit about this. because if you've never been to a rider cup, you got to go. It's obviously a bucket list item.

I will say it might be the hardest golf tournament to watch as a fan. Just because Friday, Saturday, there's only four groups playing at a time. So everyone is there, but the atmosphere is unreal. We got there on Monday night. I had to do a bunch of stuff on Tuesday. Didn't get a chance to go around the golf course. Wednesday. We did our serious XM show live from the golf course, following Team USA around.

We were inside the ropes. and my God, what an atmosphere. They were six deep during a practice round. They had family inside the ropes, watching them play a practice round. Unbelievable. Practice rounds, I put the pack on to go out on the golf course, walk around, trying to get the 10th fairway.

It must have taken me 35 minutes to get out there. You could not get through the fans to get out there. As soon as I got close to getting the 10, it all stacked up. Team USA was coming. Spieth, Thomas, all those guys stood up right there. I mean, the chanting, the cheering after the... I mean, they're hitting two balls off the teeth.

They're not even like doing it. You know what I mean? There's zero intensity out there. And these people were going nuts. From the minute you got there, you can just feel this thing's different. We hear about it all the time. Like, you know, there's certain events, certain things that people hype up so much. They're like, oh, I got to go do it. I got to go do it. Or golf courses. You got to play this place. You build it up so much in your mind that once you actually do it, you're like, oh, yeah, it was cool. But it wasn't like what everybody was saying it was. This thing from the moment you step there, I mean, it's just a different vibe at the golf course. The first tee for the opening tee shots, we were both down there. And like the entire grandstand's,

bursting out into the Star-Spangled banner and the chanting. And then finally, J.T. and Jordan come out of the tunnel. All that shit. Like, they come out of the tunnel and it was just mayhem. Dude, I was getting goosebumps and all this. I was like, I'm ready to run through a freaking brick wall right now. By the way, first tee time. 705 central time.

505 is got still time. And my man was there on the first tea getting amongst it. Not many things can get me out of bed at 505, but by God, the Rider Cup is one of them. And that whole week, dude, lived up to the hype, all this stuff. We got to do some cool. We had to get out there on. on the golf course. Got to share a booth with Greg Norman.

I mean, what the hell's going on in the world? I was like, hey, Shark, what do you think about this? I was like, what am I doing? Like, what world are we living in? Where I'm asking Greg Norman, what he thinks about golf? But man, dude, what a week. And just a straight up blitzing from start to finish. Just going back to the opening T shot.

Like, when they walked through the tunnel and that place went crazy, I mean, I've never, I was nervous. I felt like I was going to have to hit a shock. I was, my heart was pounding, goosebumps. You know, following Jordan and Justin around as they played Rahm and Sergio was so cool. You know, I was, lucky enough to bounce around from group to group the first day before I ended up in the booth with my man Brian Ketrick and Greg Norman.

But this is going to be very interesting to see what happens with the Rider Cup Sleece because, you know, there was a lot of talk going in. Can team USA turn this thing around? Lost five of the last seven. It's been a rough go. USA is absolutely stacked on paper. Average world ranking of 8.9. Always the case.

I mean, it's just, yeah, but this was a whole other level. They've never been that stacked. And a lot of different names that were in that group. Yeah. And a lot of young guys, you got six rookies on the team. And they went out and they put on a show. They were on a mission from the moment it was talking. I mean, they went in early the weekend before, played Whistling Straits,

tried to figure out what to do. And credit to Steve Stricker for, I mean, arguably one of the greatest captains we'll ever see in the Ryder Cup. Whatever he did, whatever he said, it worked. This team, every single person, all 12, scored a winning point. Not just a half point, a full winning point. Nine guys scored at least two points. Yeah, and on the flip side of that, you look on the European side. Other than Rom and Sergio was there with him, but Rom was doing the heavy lifting.

You couldn't find another point out there. They were the only guys doing it. And it got to the point when we were, parings would come out, whether it was afternoon or the next morning or whatever it was. And I'm like, guys, the biggest issue right now for Steve Stricker is, who's he going to sit? Who do you go sit? You sit Tony Fino after he went out in the afternoon of the first day and played probably the best golf on the property?

All right, you got to go sit down. You know, who are you? Everyone's playing pretty damn good. Who are we sitting out? And on the other side of that, Harrington, other than Rahman Garcia, it's like, all right, who else is our guy? Who else is going to go out and get points? You couldn't find them. The depth and just the strength of that team. Finally, we always, like, we're frequently favorites on paper, but it doesn't always play it like that. 18 holes in matchplay. We've talked about a ton of times. Anything can happen. It just played out like you kind of would expect it to if you were just reading them.

You just saw these two teams and here's their world golf rankings here. Here's theirs. All right. Well, yeah, this team should steamroll them. Yeah. And it actually happened this time. The boat race at Coler's place. I like that. Yeah, it was special to watch. But, you know, like I said, Steve Stricker, they had a game plan. They stuck to it. You know, imagine if the Atlanta Falcon did that against the New England Patriots. Stuck to their game plan. Might not have blown that 28 to 3 lead.

But they went out first three sessions, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1. It's 9 to 3-3 going in to the Saturday 4 ball. And it got a little dicey there for a little bit. Team Europe got on a little bit of a heater looking like they could possibly make a run, you know, maybe get three points, maybe even sweep the afternoon. We got a 9-7, maybe a 10-6 ball game, which we've seen guys come, seems teams come back from before.

But right at the end, Team USA put it on. And here it is. It's 11-5. 2-2 in that session is like, this thing's a dirt nap. Yeah. 3.5 points. Yep. 11-5, heading into the Sunday singles.

This thing is over. No one's ever come back from that far. And then you look at the singles pairings, the singles matchups, and Team USA is favored in 11 of the 12 matches. The only one they weren't. world number one, John Rom against Scotty Sheffler. And what does Scottie do?

Goes out there. Bertie's the first four holes and just dominates the Spaniard. Scottie doesn't know. Scottie knew on Sunday. Tell you that. Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet start for the kid. Went out there. The only match that they're favorite in out of the whole thing.

He goes out there and does that to Rom. And by the way, there was a time late in the day where I was watching in the stands or whatever. And I looked up and it was U.S. leads in nine. Europe leads into one time. I was like, dude, nine to two and a half. Like this thing is playing out. I mean, it was just start to finish, man. There was no let up in any of these dudes.

They knew going into the day, hey, 19 is kind of the, they wanted to get to 20, I believe, but they knew 19 to 9 was like the biggest margin of victory in the modern era of the Ryder Cup. They were all fully aware of that. And sometimes when the Cups decided, you know, you see some of the matches out there, hey, pick it up, all this stuff. There was none of that. They knew 19. I mean, even Burger coming all the way in, winning that last hole to get the point and get to 19.

Like they all knew with that. They wanted this thing. It felt like the President's Cup where they wanted to end it at Liberty National and Daniel Berger's one that came out and said, like, I want this thing to be done. I want to beat their heads in, basically. And they did it. You mentioned, first of all, two things. I want to go back to Scotty Sheffler for one second.

Because it was 11 to 5 going in. And yes, Team Europe, possibly if they got crazy hot, could have maybe rallied back and did something. But, you know, they had five points going into Sunday. John Rom had three and a half of those points. And here's Scotty Sheffler going off in the third spot. He goes out, wins the first four holes against the only guy that can score for Team Europe. I would have to believe Team USA was on the range warming up and looking and be like,

oh boy, this thing's over. The only guy that can do anything is getting smoked by our rookie, Scotty Schaeffler. Yeah, their bully just got punched in the nose, you know? I mean, that's the guy that was just manhandling us. I mean, by the way, God damn, he looked good. Rom. Oh, he's unbelievable. It's a joke.

He's number one player in the world. It's not a discussion. By a very, very large, even this, I thought, was really telling just how, like, the other players in the world reviewing John Rom right now. Brooks Kepp got interviewed after his singles matches. He ends up going two and two for the week. They're asking about his record.

He's like, yeah, two and two, you know, would have liked to be three and one or put more points on the border. But he's like, guy, like, my two losses were to John. Like, come on, what do you want me to do, basically? And I'm like, that's Brooks Keppka. He doesn't really dapp up. He doesn't give a lot of props to a whole lot of people. Like, major's the only thing that matter, all that. I'm going to beat, you know, Tiger's major record, all that.

And then he's saying, like, I lost twice, but it was to John. I thought that was a pretty interesting take there, just the way that Brooks Keppka said, you know, spoke about John Rom. Well, the party was on, and they deserved it. They put on an unbelievable performance. Captain Steve Stricker. The other question is now, who's going to be the captain in Rome? When Team USA goes over there and tries to win on foreign soil for the first time since 1993, it's been a long time.

But if you look at Captain Steve Stricker, okay, 2017 Presence Cup, they win 19 to 11, just an absolute whipping. This year, Ryder Cup. They win 19 to 9. I mean, whatever he says, I know he's got great players, but something seems to work when Steve Stricker is at the helm. Yeah. I vote, I think it's a no-brainer.

another go. We gave Davis love two cracks at it. Let's give, let's give him a go. See if he can solve the problem and get a W overseas. If you would have taken a poll in the team USA press conference post game last night, it would have been unanimous across the board. They all, they were asked the question. They all wanted strict. By the way, they would agree on a lot of weird shit probably during that press conference. That's the best press conference I've ever seen in my life. How about DJ, by the way, in that thing? Just taken over and actually, you saw all those dudes. You saw the personality. I think we need from now on the PJ tour, three bare minimum before you go in the press tent. and you'll learn a lot more about these dudes going forward.

But if Steve Stricker, I don't know, the speculation, if he wants it, I think you're going to have potentially 10 of the same guys that we just saw this past week on the team in Rome, right? It could change. But I think there would be the bulk of that team will look the same. I fully expect, minus some weird stuff happening. If you took a poll of the players, they're going to want Steve Stricker. So I got to think if he really leaned into it, like, I'd love to go again.

Be hard to say no to a guy that just went 19 to 9. With that being said, I don't think anything Steve Stricker does from this point on in his career can top what just happened for him this week he's a president excuse me he's a writer cup captain it's on his home it's in his home state and he goes out and does that it's like everything just worked out perfectly he even said it's you know when he was interviewed afterwards like hey i don't have a major but this is my major it was just like a storybook deal for for steve stricker so i mean i you get no argument for me if steve wants to go again hey buddy you got it but you can't top that listen there's some some names being thrown out there you know

tiger's obviously going to be a captain whenever he wants it it's at beth page in 2025 that's a no brain. That's done. That's done. You know, just talks to Zach Johnson, possibly maybe Justin Leonard, who's a Rider Cup hero,

major champion. But listen, I just think it's perfect. You know, Zach's still young and playing quite a bit. You know, Justin's not the oldest

and he's doing TV now. I say we give Stricker or another go. Bring Phil over. Yeah, Phil's, I talked to Phil during one of the practice rounds. I was like, man, this is so cool, like that you want to be involved with this.

He's like, I would not miss this for the world. I love this event so much, whether I'm playing, whether I'm a vice. captain, whether I'm a captain, I'm going to be here. This, I, this is a thrill for me. He was so involved out there, like, in the practice rounds, walking with guys, talking through shots, all this stuff. One thing I want to give Phil huge credit for, he's big on social

media now. He's tweeting out. He's doing Instagram. He's doing all the stuff, right? He does a great job with all that. This week, you didn't see one thing from Phil. It was all about, he didn't want to steal the spotlight from anyone. It was all about the players. He'd fade off all that stuff. I barely saw any interviews from Phil. I didn't really even see him talk a whole lot. one picture, and it was a picture of Brooks and Bryson at the opening ceremonies. Oh, when they were like that. And Phil was in the background. He goes, who's that handsome guy in the back?

Didn't he win the PGA? Yeah, yeah. Well played. Well played. Chimed in there. Of course, you got to get the PGA reference in there. But like, other than that, there were no videos. There were no, hey, I'm driving up to the writer.

It was all players. He took a back seat. And I think he's, I think he's huge in that team room. He'll be back in Rome if he wants to be back. You got to get him back because Bethpage is his, for sure. Beth page is his. That's in stone. Sheboygan, Wisconsin showed all.

Whistling Straits was beautiful. The weather was, I mean, it was chilly. Windy played very difficult, but the golf was awesome. Congrats to Team USA. Congrats to Team Europe. I mean, just making this team as an honor. Either team is an honor. Whether you win, lose, it is such a cool event, one of the greatest events in sports.

You know, we hear a lot of times from players how they don't pay attention to what's being said in the media. They don't watch golf on TV. But a certain fella that also is part of a podcast called Forplay, a man who's been a guest on here named Riggs. decided to jump ship and go over to Team Europe after his man, Kevin Kisner was not picked. And boy, did Team USA let him know about it Sunday night after they won.

So don't ever listen to any of these golfers when they say, don't pay attention what's written in the media, they don't watch on TV. They know. And they took it personal, and they went and they wore Riggs's ass out. And I loved it. Eat shit, Riggs. We were with them all week. He came in to eat with us in the media center there or whatever.

I was like, yo, Team Europe fans sit over there, bro. I think it was a whole deal like I'm going to pretend I'm rooting for team Europe and then after if the U.S. wins will say like look I did my job I had to motivate the guys and they went out there and got the job done. So yeah he was very pro-kisner going into this thing when he didn't get picked. He jumped ship and you just got your ass. Justin Thomas said thanks for showing up. Nice. Yeah, he just totally faded him on the walk. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I love it. Poor Riggs. See, he's going to have to like earn his way back to be a team USA fan. They're not just going to accept him immediately. Good luck getting interviews from one of these dudes going. Maybe they get blackballed out of there. Who knows? But we were with him a good amount of the week. And yeah, he's got to wear it.

He's got to wear it for two more years. Maybe he'll convert. But we traded Riggs to Team Europe and we picked up Farity for Team USA. That's like San Buoy and Michael Jordan stuff. I love it. But thanks to everyone who came up to us at the Ryder Cup. Yes, man. Awesome.

And get amongst it. Said hi to us. Took a lot of pictures. It was a lot of fun. Three Sheep's Brewery was incredible. Trace. Shape us. That's not the word.

Someone on Instagram informed. me that is in fact not the Spanish word for sheep, which I never intended for it to be, but I think it's got a nice ring to it. But man, we had a lot of fun there. Thanks to them for hosting. I know we didn't get to do the live interview out loud. We had a little issue with the sound system, which was, which was unfortunate, but y'all were a great host for us. Thanks to everyone that came out, said hi, took pictures, bought merch. Great place. If you're in Sheboygan, go check it out. 17 beers on tap. I think we left a little bit there. Not a whole lot, though.

There's a few kegs still standing. There's a few kegs still standing. but we had our man, Coles Wendell was in the building. Coles in the building. Yeah, man, we had a time. It was awesome. Great, great time. Hopefully everybody had a good time.

Quick before we wrap on Rider Cup stuff, I want to ask you because, like, this is kind of, we saw what Team USA did this week. Projecting for it. All right, we just won one. It was like a must win. Team Europe's been dominating this thing.

Looking forward, I'm having a very hard time thinking that this doesn't, this, I don't want to call it dominance, but I think Europe's had their run where they were dominating the cup. I think this is the beginning. This is the passing of the torch

to Team USA. going forward looking at it. I mean, you got guys like Ian Polter, I would argue that's his last Rider Cup as a player. Lee Westwood, I would argue the same. Then you got Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey. Both guys have been a part of a lot of teams. I think they're maybes for the next one.

But even take whatever you want, look at our team. It's like 10 of these guys might be back. Most of them are just entering their prime. DJ's oldest guy on the team just went 5 and 0. Not bad. And we got a couple other guys sitting at home that you expect to come into the next. Will's All Torres comes to mine. Sam Burns.

I'm not as familiar with the European young guns. I'm sure they got some talent up and coming, but it's not to the likes of Sanders Chaffley, Patrick Cantley, all these guys that we got in RTA. It looks like going forward on paper. This could be the run where maybe the U.S. starts to take hold of this thing. Yeah, and I think right now,

whoever the captain is going to be, if they said, hey, you can take these 12 guys right now or wait and see it plays out, they'd probably take these 12 right now. But if they go overseas and put on a performance like this and blow them out in 199, then I think we're definitely in for a run of dollars. prominence by Team USA.

And by the way, the fans were awesome in Wisconsin. They were great. They were loud. There was booing. There was cheering. It's just how a Ryder Cup should be. It's what makes it so cool. I'm starting to worry about when this thing comes to Bethpage and New York.

Dude, that thing is going to, there's going to be some shit set at that tournament that hadn't been set at golf tournaments and look out for Team Europe at that thing. I think that could be arguably the most raucous, you know, boisterous crowd that we've seen at a Ryder Cup. Just experiencing it in Wisconsin. I'm already nervous. Johnson nice is like a saying, you know, everyone's so nice up there. Well, New York's got a little different saying about their folks.

So, dude, Bethpage is going to be insane. By the way, let's just look ahead to that one real quick. 2025, four years from now, okay? Captain. Captain Phil. How about on the other side? Ian Peltzer. It could shake out that way.

I mean, my goodness. Can you imagine just the press? We need to have like that HBO like 24-7 where they go, you know, they sit in and get Calmerman, whoever you want to get in there and just let them stare face-to-face and just talk to each Yeah, that'd be because those two, some firecrackers there. But that's a bit, if you're thinking it's Phil, which we all do, and it's going to be, who's the guy that matches that kind of intensity or whatever? Ulther, though.

No doubt about it. And he will get amongst them. Those eyeballs will pop out of his head like they did at Medina. Loof. I love it. Well, the Ryder Cup was incredible. We had such a great time. Congrats Team USA on a dominating performance.

And by the way, we threw you a little winner with Fandole last week. Chicken. A little plus 185. I said USA to lead after day one. Day two, day three. Cash that chicken if you, ticket if you bet it, plus 185. So we're on to the Sanderson's Farm Championship. Get a little chicken trophy.

The old Sandy Farm, speaking of chicken. Great tournament down in Jackson, Mississippi. One of the best player gifts you get all year. Got a few options, Yeti Coolers, Big Green Egg Grill. It's incredible tournament. That's nice. Take them both. Add a little excitement to your golf watching experience

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All right, like we said, it's the Sanderson Farms Championship, a chance for some guys to continue a hot streak maybe in the fall, some rookies to lock up their card early. You never know. We had Max Homa win the first one of the year. This tournament's been very interesting. We've had Sergio Garcia win, Cameron Champ, win, and then the likes of Peter Malinati, Ryan Armour.

It's kind of all over the place. It's a wide open event. Sam Burns is your favorite. this week. Sergio Garcia is back to defend. But Sleez, I'm going to go... Props to Sergio even for showing up, by the way. After a week like that, dude, you're exhausted.

You could easily tap and say, now I'm good. He's going down there. All right. Well, I'm going to go with a guy who's been on a hot streak on the PGA tour. He won three times this past season on the Corn Fairy Tour to receive that battlefield promotion.

Been playing some great golf. This is a golf course where you can send it a lot. There's some room out there. He's 32 to 1 plus 3200. Mito Pereira. Do you know where he's from? International. Chile.

International player, as I said. Mito Pereira is my guy plus 3200. Okay, I'm going back to the honey pot here. This is my guy. I've been riding this man since he came out. He is a ball striking Jesse, as we like to say here. puts it in the fairweight, puts it on the green. He's 24 to 1 this week.

I'm going to go Corey Connors. You do love Corey. I love betting Cory Conners. I don't know why I always bet him. I just like, hey, it's it so good. He's going to win sometime. All right. Let's go down the line for some value, maybe a long shot that might surprise.

I can't believe this guy's odds are this. He loves Ramuna Grass. He's a PGA Tour winner. He's a Georgia Bulldog. Plus 9,090 to 1. Big Hood, Hudson Swofford. Wow. That's shocking odds to me right there.

Yeah, I don't mind that pick at all. I'm going to stay. I'm going to keep this, you know, we're homers a little bit. So I'm going with my value right here. Another guy that strikes his golf ball and can get as hot as anyone. I love this guy because when he starts making birdies, he don't stop. He just keeps. going, keeps going. Joel Damon sitting there at 100 to 1. I think he's got the game to do it.

And like I said, I just love the fact he'll just stack birdies up over and over. He's got no conscious once he gets going. Nope, got that first win last season. No reason to follow, not to follow it up with another one this year. Great player. And I like that, especially at 100 to 1. Honey to 1. I like a lot of guys at a honey to 1, but I especially like Joel. Well, if you've never tried Fandul's Sportsbook, what are you waiting for? Go to fandul.com slash subpar or download the Fandul Sportsbook app to get started. Be sure to sign up with promo code

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Gambling problem? 1-800 gambler. Or call 1-800 next step or text next step to 53342. All right. Well, that's going to do it for this week's subpar. Best of luck gambling on the Sanderson Farms. And next week, we got a returning guest, Lee's. One of the most popular guys on the PGA tour. He's number one in the FedEx Cup standings as we sit right now. Number one in our hearts. Max Homa will be in studio, can't wait to sit down with Max.

He is now a three-time winner on the PGA tour. We're going to get amongst it with Max Homa on next week's golf subpar.