2027 Ryder Cup

[iacas]

Wow, so Europe named Luke for a third term.

Luke Donald named 2027 European Ryder Cup Captain

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Luke Donald named 2027 European Ryder Cup Captain

Who will the U.S. name? I hope not Tiger Woods.

[boogielicious]

I hope the European fans don’t try to outdo the asinine behavior at Bethpage.  That was an embarrassment.

[PatrickMurtha]

Now that we’re hearing that Jim Furyk has been tapped for a second captaincy, I have a genuine question that I don’t have an answer to. Why has my avatar David Toms never gotten a captaincy of anything? Has he ever even been a vice-captain? He’s a major winner with ten other Top Tens in majors. Senior major winner, too. Played on three Ryder Cup teams and four Presidents Cup teams. Is there bad blood here or something? 🤔

Edited April 24 by PatrickMurtha

[GolfLug]

2 hours ago, PatrickMurtha said:

Now that we’re hearing that Jim Furyk has been tapped for a second captaincy, I have a genuine question that I don’t have an answer to. Why has my avatar David Toms never gotten a captaincy of anything? Has he ever even been a vice-captain? He’s a major winner with ten other Top Tens in majors. Senior major winner, too. Played on three Ryder Cup teams and four Presidents Cup teams. Is there bad blood here or something? 🤔

I think he was at some point (5-6 cups ago) but DL III beat him to it and then at some point it was too late. If I had a vote, he would still get it.

[saevel25]

Jim Furyk To Get Tough To Win Ryder Cup Back | Golf Monthly

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Jim Furyk says he will pick the "toughest" and "grittiest" players he can as he looks to solve the "glaring problem" preventing the USA from winning the Ryder Cup

Yea, I am not a fan of the toughness talk. I do think the idea of closers might matter more. Tiger Woods, probably had the most grit of any player in history, has a losing record at the Ryder Cup. He was just not good in team formats. 

I do think US needs to fix their team formats. It seems to be a historical problem. Do people over in Europe grow up playing team format golf more often? I don't get why they tend to succeed in that format. I am not sure it is a toughness question. I think toughness matters more in singles matches, where you are on your own island having to win. 

 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

11 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Jim Furyk To Get Tough To Win Ryder Cup Back | Golf Monthly

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Jim Furyk says he will pick the "toughest" and "grittiest" players he can as he looks to solve the "glaring problem" preventing the USA from winning the Ryder Cup

Yea, I am not a fan of the toughness talk. I do think the idea of closers might matter more. Tiger Woods, probably had the most grit of any player in history, has a losing record at the Ryder Cup. He was just not good in team formats. 

I do think US needs to fix their team formats. It seems to be a historical problem. Do people over in Europe grow up playing team format golf more often? I don't get why they tend to succeed in that format. I am not sure it is a toughness question. I think toughness matters more in singles matches, where you are on your own island having to win. 

Tiger has a good singles record, but not a good pairs record. My own personal theory on that is he's hard to play with. If you play with him in either format and lose, it's going to be your fault. "How could you not win playing with the best ever?" kind of thing. That ups the pressure that's already pretty insane and makes you play worse. At the same time, Tiger's a bit of a control freak. He hates not having the wheel and in foursomes play, he has to give that up for half the shots. So he doesn't play very well and his partner doesn't play very well. The Euros are much better (it seems) at giving up that control and playing against him has the effect of reducing the pressure a little because if you lose, well, he's the best ever so it's hardly surprising. All of which shifts the balance a little against Tiger and so his record isn't great. 

I also don't think the US captains did a great job partnering him off. Putting him with Phil is maybe one of the worst decisions in team golf history. I think he needed someone who was happy to play second fiddle. Was steady. Kind of person who shoots 68-71 a lot and less 63 or 76 type player. Not sure that was ever going to be an easy thing to do mind you. 

As to your other questions, a friend of mine went to a dinner that Padraig Harrington spoke at. What Paddy said is that on the European Tour (as it was then), the players would go and stay at the same place and get together, have dinner, enjoy each other's company and get along. Then in the US, everyone would go to their hotel, order room service and basically barely talk to each other. His theory was that the camaraderie meant much more cohesiveness and people being happy to play for each other and with each other. 

County golf matches in the UK tend to be foursomes and singles and a lot of Euro tour players will have been through the county system on their way up. Hard to picture how you can change that. The US is just more individualist and Europe is more inclusive. Just the way that they are.

[PatrickMurtha]

10 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

As to your other questions, a friend of mine went to a dinner that Padraig Harrington spoke at. What Paddy said is that on the European Tour (as it was then), the players would go and stay at the same place and get together, have dinner, enjoy each other's company and get along. Then in the US, everyone would go to their hotel, order room service and basically barely talk to each other. His theory was that the camaraderie meant much more cohesiveness and people being happy to play for each other and with each other. 

County golf matches in the UK tend to be foursomes and singles and a lot of Euro tour players will have been through the county system on their way up. Hard to picture how you can change that. The US is just more individualist and Europe is more inclusive. Just the way that they are.

This makes all kinds of sense. Look at an exception on the US side: Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are a renowned Ryder and Presidents Cup pairing, and they DO socialize together, are the best of friends in fact. 

[saevel25]

7 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

Tiger has a good singles record, but not a good pairs record. My own personal theory on that is he's hard to play with. If you play with him in either format and lose, it's going to be your fault. "How could you not win playing with the best ever?" kind of thing.

I could see that being the stress of the playing partner. I would be interested to see a deep dive into how he performed. 

8 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

The Euros are much better (it seems) at giving up that control and playing against him has the effect of reducing the pressure a little because if you lose, well, he's the best ever so it's hardly surprising. All of which shifts the balance a little against Tiger and so his record isn't great. 

I do wonder the difference in record of best ball versus alt shot. In alt shot, you basically are taking 50% of his impact and adding in 50% of another golfers impact. So naturally, his total effective strength would be less. 

14 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

As to your other questions, a friend of mine went to a dinner that Padraig Harrington spoke at. What Paddy said is that on the European Tour (as it was then), the players would go and stay at the same place and get together, have dinner, enjoy each other's company and get along. Then in the US, everyone would go to their hotel, order room service and basically barely talk to each other. His theory was that the camaraderie meant much more cohesiveness and people being happy to play for each other and with each other. 

County golf matches in the UK tend to be foursomes and singles and a lot of Euro tour players will have been through the county system on their way up. Hard to picture how you can change that. The US is just more individualist and Europe is more inclusive. Just the way that they are.

That could be the case. 

I think it might be more due to the style of golf they grew up playing. If in the UK, foursomes is more common, then that is an advantage. In the USA, I don't think foursomes or even best ball is common at the high school or collegiate level. It is more match play and stroke play. Maybe the PGA Tour should petition the NCAA to change their formats to include more Alt Shot. 

 

[Ty_Webb]

26 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I think it might be more due to the style of golf they grew up playing. If in the UK, foursomes is more common, then that is an advantage. In the USA, I don't think foursomes or even best ball is common at the high school or collegiate level. It is more match play and stroke play. Maybe the PGA Tour should petition the NCAA to change their formats to include more Alt Shot. 

 

There is a lot more match play played in the UK. One of the reasons for that is the different golf model over there. Here in the US, people either play public courses at a dollar cost per round or pay astronomical membership fees to belong to a private club. Even then a lot of the privates still have significant per round costs through caddies/carts. In the UK, most people belong to a club, the cost of which for a year is broadly similar to a month or two worth in the US. When your cost to play the round you're playing is basically $0, it's a lot easier to accept hitting half the shots in alt shot or picking up once you're out of a hole in matchplay. If you've paid $80-100 for the round you're playing, it's a big ask to hit only half the shots. Consequently matchplay is much more common over there and alt shot is also. There are some clubs (Royal St George's and Muirfield for a couple of famous examples), which are basically two ball courses. If four of you want to play there you have no choice but to play foursomes. Can you imagine that being accepted in the US?