Les Capitaines

January 11, 2017-  PGA of America president Paul Levy announced that Jim Furyk would lead team USA to Paris for the 2018 Ryder Cup.  Furyk played on 9 straight Ryder Cup teams from 1997-2014 compiling a record of 10-20-4 in 34 matches totaling 12 points for home and country.  I was (still am) ok with this selection. Jim’s always been a class act and I felt (still feel) that he would be a good leader. The staff started to take shape on  February 20, 2018 when Captain Fury named Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods and Steve Stricker vice captains joining already appointed Davis Love III.  Nobody at the time could have possibly known that Tiger had bigger plans for 2018 but all and all we were ecstatic just to see Tiger back with the golf community. Across the pond, team Europe was also beginning to form.

Dec 6, 2016- Thomas Bjorn became the first Danish born golfer to lead team Europe in the Ryder Cup. Bjorn came in with a huge advantage on Furyk by already being a 4x vice captain (’04-Langer, ’10-Monty, ’12-Olazabal, and ’16-Clarke). Some would argue that this shouldn’t have given the Euro’s a competitive advantage but IMO being able to shadow 4 Cup’s from a decision making role is a massive bump.  Bjorn added Robert Karlsson, Paddy Harrington, GMac, and Lee Westwood to complete his team of vice captains and all that was left to do was for both leaders to fill a roster.

Les Joueurs

 

The Good: Moliwood, Ian the Great, Sergio, JT, Finau, and..Webb Simpson

We got a first hand look all year of how dominant both Frankie Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood could be.  A couple examples for those that lived under a rock this summer: 1. Fleetwood fired a final round 63 at this year’s 2018 US Open, a 65 at The Open, and a sweet little 62 in the BMW Championship. Dude clearly loves links golf- 2. Frankie looked all of us right in our soul at The Open and said, “Tiger who?”.  There was a 5 week stretch where nobody on the planet was hitting the ball better than Molinari and it earned him 1st at Quicken Loans, 2nd at The John Deere Classic, 1st at The Open, and 6th at the PGA Championship.

Ian James Pouler, American killer, Ryder Cup legend. Poults has compiled a 14-5-2 record in 6 appearances (including 2018) going 5-0-1 in singles matches and setting the world record for fist pumps to the heart. More on that later.

I don’t want to spend too much time on Sergio but I have to give him credit when it’s due. El Nino became Europe’s all time point leader surpassing Sir Faldo on Sunday. 25.5 points for home and country is freaking insane. Sergio missed all 4 cuts at the majors this year but Bjorn gambled on him and won big time. Props, Serg.

JT, Tony, and Webb were the lone bright spots for the American’s over the weekend. JT clawed back multiple times against Rory on Sunday to get the US moving in the right direction. To be honest it was one of the best RC matches I can remember watching. Hated that it ended like that and so did JT but it was one of the more impressive points all weekend. Tony Finau was labeled a rising star before the RC but after there should be no question. HE. HAS. ARRIVED. I can’t say enough good things about this young man so I’m just going to let his 6&4 ass kicking of above mentioned Fleetwood on Sunday speak for him.  Webb was the biggest surprise for me this weekend. There’s nothing flashy about Simpson to make people fall in love with him and of all the years watching him I haven’t seen a ton of emotion…until this weekend. Webb was a spark the US desperately needed and I am fully ok with saying I was wrong about him. Well done, sir.

The Bad: DJ, Speith (post Friday), Tiger, Bryson and Fowler

I have no clue what is happening in DJ’s personal life but something was off with him all weekend. DJ has never been a super emotional dude on the course. He could be -8 or +8 and you wouldn’t know the difference but this weekend was a special type of meh. Going back and forth with putters and putting grips was maddening to me and I assume he wasn’t thrilled either. Not sure the Ryder Cup is the place to tinker but hey, what do I know.

Jordan made every putt he looked at Friday and then reverted back to the Jordan we have seen all year. I’ve seen wool sweaters that look more comfy than Jordan standing over a golf ball in 2018.  Leading up to the event I said he was a liability going in and for the most part that was true. I understand you have to take him and for the record I would have taken him too.

I don’t have to write anything about Tiger. Pictures say 1000 words.

Bryson’s performance was another easy one to predict. Kid is special and he will be ready for big stages one day but his head space isn’t there yet.  Refer back to Saturday’s afternoon round with Tiger.  Molinari makes his only mistake of the weekend and hit his tee ball left and wet on 1 at Le Golf National leaving the door wide open for him and Tiger to go 1up and get some big momentum that we had desperately needed. Instead, Bryson follows Frankie’s water ball with one of his own. The match was over before anyone even had a ball in play.

Can you remember a single shot from any of Fowler’s matches? I can’t. I love Rickie but at points I forgot he was out there this weekend. Just kinda bleh. Bout it.

 

The Ugly: Phil, Bubba’s elbow dapping, accuracy, and what the RC means for team USA

Earlier this year Phil said that he wanted to play in 2 more Ryder Cups.  I’ll go on record now that if he’s on the team as anything other than a Vice Captain in 2020 I’ll join the 80% and just watch football all weekend. His knowledge and experience in a mentoring roll can be useful but his game just doesn’t qualify anymore. We are LOADED with young American talent coming up through the PGA and by 2020 it’ll be time to show the world. This also goes for Tiger. Tiger got me interested in golf and nobody has been a bigger believer in him and his comeback but unless he’s winning majors in 2020 I think his time served should end as well as a RC player.

Plain and simple if Bubba was took sick to shake hands on Friday then Furyk should have benched him all day. The biggest L of the week wasn’t losing the actual cup it was having to watch him dap nubs on every hole like Lt. Dan. Onward.

Driving accuracy wasn’t really talked about coming into the RC but it’s a hot topic now.  We saw a course set up to rip your soul out if you missed the fairway and the American’s looked like swiss cheese by Sunday.  Bjorn did an amazing job by knowing the strengths of his team and setting the course accordingly.  Team Europe hammered the fairways all weekend and the final result depicted it.  The course got a lot of love from old school golf experts (Miller, Chamblee, Faldo, etc) and they all agreed on something for the first time since I started following the game.  PGA courses are way longer than most on the EuroPGA tour but accuracy really is not emphasized. I saw tweets all weekend that said whoever captains the Americans in 2020 (Stricker) should set up Whistling Straits to play 8000 yards every round. I know it’s a joke but they have the property to do it up there. Either way, in big events you should be punished for missing fairways and that’s exactly what we saw.

A disturbing trend that I saw this weekend was lack of emotion from damn near everyone on our roster excluding those I’ve already mentioned.  Sure, home course advantage is real but we looked stuck in the mud in just about every round. These images of Poulter and his kid pretty much say it all. IT JUST MEANS MORE TO THE EUROPEANS 

I’ll sign off with this. Our RC system is flawed IMO. The PGA needs to select the Captain and let him assemble his staff per usual but then let said staff pick 12. I hate the points system. For example, Bubba plays well in the same 4 tourneys every year on the same 4 courses that fit his eye and accumulates enough points qualify. The PGA believes in who they select so let whoever it is Herb Brooks the selection process and take the 12 best guys he and his staff believe can win. That being said, this would have been my team

1. JT
2. DJ
3. Brooks
4. Finau
5. Xander
6. Jordan
7. Kyle Stanley
8. Webb
9. Rickie
10. Tiger
11. Kisner
12. Bryson

The hardest person for me to leave off would have been Keegan Bradley. Nobody was hotter in the FedEx than him and he’s accurate off the tee. Fight me.

Until next time,

Andrew