2016 Ryder Cup Discussion Thread

[Scotsclaff]

Top ten finishes for Westwood and Fitzpatrick in Switzerland and Rory wins in Boston.

Euro boys on form.

[Golfingdad]

On 5/31/2016 at 2:55 PM, Chilli Dipper said:

One thing I know I'm not going to like about this Ryder Cup is the re-routing of holes. I had started to get excited about the 16th hole (a par-4 that juts into the lake) being set up as a drivable hole at a crucial time in the round...but then I read that it's not going to be the 16th hole at the Ryder Cup, but the 7th, because the PGA of America could fit more grandstands on the opposite side of the course. So much for drama.

Ha, I just read this and came in here to post about it.  http://www.golfdigest.com/story/why-the-hazeltine-you-recall-from-pgas-and-us-opens-got-re-routed?mbid=social_facebook

For a match play event, I don't really see the necessity to put corporate tents along the final few holes, because there are plenty of matches that don't even make it that far.  If I was a bigwig and wanted a perch that I could hang out in the whole time, I'd probably want it to be on 15, maybe 16, but not beyond that.

[natureboy]

Players talk about each others' strengths and weaknesses in match play:

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/ryder-cup-secrets-from-undercover-pros

[Scotsclaff]

8 hours ago, natureboy said:

Players talk about each others' strengths and weaknesses in match play:

http://www.golfdigest.com/story/ryder-cup-secrets-from-undercover-pros

Hazeltine will tell about their strengths and weakness,roll on.

[nevets88]

Strokes gained perspective of potential captain's picks.

 

[natureboy]

Mickelson on picks: http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/mickelson-us-has-real-game-plan-ryder-cup/?cid=twitter-gc-a-mickelson-us-has-real-game-plan-ryder-cup-091116

[Broke100Once]

Rich Beem should be a captain's pick, he's an experienced winner at Hazeltine.

[skeedawg]

Fowler, Kuchar and Holmes take 3 of the 4 available Captain's picks.

[imsys0042]

I personally don't like there being more than 2 captains picks.   They were a way to bring someone in who might help the team gel, even if other people were in better form ; or they were people who were peaking 1 - 2 months prior to the event and were not in the top ten.

IIRC the US side wanted more captains' picks to avoid people who had a lot of points but were in not so great form around the event.   Usually they got a lot of their points in the prior year.   That's a good and sound strategy.  However since points are awarded for the large part of two years you have to make do with what you get.   Having 1/3 of the team be selections is kind of crummy if you ask me.

Kuchar and Holmes seem pretty solid to me.   Fowler doesn't have a great match play record but he's enthusiastic.  

[CarlSpackler]

7 hours ago, Broke100Once said:

Rich Beem should be a captain's pick, he's an experienced winner at Hazeltine.

The Ryder Cup is VERY different. I don't see him with that RC fire. 

[ScouseJohnny]

I take it this is a memo to Bubba that highly individualistic loners aren't welcome in a team competition?

[DeadMan]

I'm fine with the Fowler pick (see Broadie's strokes gained table above). Kuchar is fine. I'm not sure I would pick him if I had a say, but he's also hard not pick because he's a solid golfer and apparently a good glue guy.

I do not like the Holmes pick. Yeah, he can drive the ball a mile, but Bubba can too, and he is a much better iron and short game player. Holmes is basically a poor-man's Bubba. I really hope he doesn't play alternate shot at all, because I would hate to be his partner and have to clean up his putting or short game. If he goes out there in singles and fourball only, then fine. He does have a pretty good birdie or better percentage (7th on tour this year), so he can be asset if used correctly. Hopefully that will actually happen.

It also annoys me that we're taking a bunch of veterans who have failed in this event over and over. One rookie on the team so far. What exactly is the point of the task force if we're going to take the same players over and over? Bleh.

I'm hoping that the final pick will be Gary Woodland. He got the semis (if I remember correctly) of the match play 2 years ago, and he's super intimidating on the course. He's built like a linebacker and his demeanor on the golf course is intimidating. Might be a good fight for match play.

[newtogolf]

21 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

I'm fine with the Fowler pick (see Broadie's strokes gained table above). Kuchar is fine. I'm not sure I would pick him if I had a say, but he's also hard not pick because he's a solid golfer and apparently a good glue guy.

I do not like the Holmes pick. Yeah, he can drive the ball a mile, but Bubba can too, and he is a much better iron and short game player. Holmes is basically a poor-man's Bubba. I really hope he doesn't play alternate shot at all, because I would hate to be his partner and have to clean up his putting or short game. If he goes out there in singles and fourball only, then fine. He does have a pretty good birdie or better percentage (7th on tour this year), so he can be asset if used correctly. Hopefully that will actually happen.

It also annoys me that we're taking a bunch of veterans who have failed in this event over and over. One rookie on the team so far. What exactly is the point of the task force if we're going to take the same players over and over? Bleh.

I'm hoping that the final pick will be Gary Woodland. He got the semis (if I remember correctly) of the match play 2 years ago, and he's super intimidating on the course. He's built like a linebacker and his demeanor on the golf course is intimidating. Might be a good fight for match play.

I could be wrong but I believe Kuchar was picked for his performance in the Olympics.  I am not a Holmes fan, I don't see him as a good team player and I agree he's a bad partner for alternate shot unless you want to cover up for someone that lacks distance but has a great short game.  I'd have preferred Bubba but it seems Bubba is not very popular with the guys already on the team, so maybe he needs to work on that.  

[CarlSpackler]

2 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

I could be wrong but I believe Kuchar was picked for his performance in the Olympics.  I am not a Holmes fan, I don't see him as a good team player and I agree he's a bad partner for alternate shot unless you want to cover up for someone that lacks distance but has a great short game.  I'd have preferred Bubba but it seems Bubba is not very popular with the guys already on the team, so maybe he needs to work on that.  

A guy I used to work with grew up down south and played junior golf with Bubba. Basically said he is a jerk and most other golfers don't like him. You don't need a poison pill on the team.

[Big C]

1 hour ago, DeadMan said:

I do not like the Holmes pick. Yeah, he can drive the ball a mile, but Bubba can too, and he is a much better iron and short game player. Holmes is basically a poor-man's Bubba. I really hope he doesn't play alternate shot at all, because I would hate to be his partner and have to clean up his putting or short game. If he goes out there in singles and fourball only, then fine. He does have a pretty good birdie or better percentage (7th on tour this year), so he can be asset if used correctly. Hopefully that will actually happen.

I'm guessing that's exactly what will happen. Holmes will play fourball on both days (probably paired with a steadier player like Kuchar or Zach), and will sit out foursomes. That's how he scratched out a 2-0-1 record in 2008 and Love will be smart enough not to mess with that formula. 

My guess is that it was an either/or proposition for JB and Bubba. You can't have 2 captains picks who are a liability in the same format, so JB's inclusion means that Bubba will be sitting this year out. 

[ScouseJohnny]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

it seems Bubba is not very popular with the guys already on the team, so maybe he needs to work on that.  

Some things are probably a lost cause.

In all seriousness though, this is a competition which allows the occasional (how to put this diplomatically?) "difficult personality" to thrive - think of Monty and Poulter. I could easily imagine Bubba, on his game, getting under a Euro player's skin. I'd have taken Bubba instead of Holmes.

[DeadMan]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

I'd have preferred Bubba but it seems Bubba is not very popular with the guys already on the team, so maybe he needs to work on that.  

Holmes is one of the slowest players on tour. I wonder how that plays into his relationship with other PGA Tour players. Fowler and DJ play pretty fast, so I'm sure they don't enjoy getting paired up with Holmes.

And, I mean, if you really want to avoid being a dysfunctional team, you're fighting a losing battle with DJ and Walker already on the team...

[newtogolf]

17 minutes ago, ScouseJohnny said:

Some things are probably a lost cause.

In all seriousness though, this is a competition which allows the occasional (how to put this diplomatically?) "difficult personality" to thrive - think of Monty and Poulter. I could easily imagine Bubba, on his game, getting under a Euro player's skin. I'd have taken Bubba instead of Holmes.

I know Americans don't like Poulter but I didn't know other Euro players didn't like him.  

7 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

Holmes is one of the slowest players on tour. I wonder how that plays into his relationship with other PGA Tour players. Fowler and DJ play pretty fast, so I'm sure they don't enjoy getting paired up with Holmes.

And, I mean, if you really want to avoid being a dysfunctional team, you're fighting a losing battle with DJ and Walker already on the team...

Yeah, Walker and DJ could be a bit awkward, guess they'll be no "How's the wife" questions.