2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National - Paris, France

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, Chris223 said:

Debating with you is absolutely pointless.

Damn facts backing my opinions!

Those results posted were the last nine events. Not the full year.

And he’s 40 spots or so ahead of Keegan in putting.

[mdl]

This reminds me very much of the argument around why short game is the key to all scoring.  You *expect* (unrealistically) to make all your 8 footers, get it within 4 feet from around the green every time, and hit the green with every wedge, and stick it close a lot of the time.  Those are incredibly unrealistic expectations (better than the best pros), but it's what a lot of golfers think they can do.

But amateur golfers can't even trick themselves into believing that every drive should go 280 and split the fairway, or that every 4i into a par 3 should be within 20 feet, so when they spray a bunch of drives and a couple long irons and cost themselves 6 strokes, they don't remember that with as much frustration as the 3-putt and the 3 missed up and downs from close, where at most they're losing 2.5 strokes.

Same here with Spieth.  Yeah, Spieth's had a bad year with the putter.  But you watch him play and feel like he's playing badly because he's one of the best in the world, and you expect (hope?) him to go out and play close to Tiger in his prime.  I think Schaufelle's going to be a great player for a long time.  I've got nothing against him.  But you only feel like he's playing better than Spieth because you didn't expect him to do anything, so the couple times he contended in a major event, you remembered how well he was playing. 

[Chris223]

No I think it’s because Spieth has gone from being “best putter in the world” to ranked worse than 130th.  Thats quite a drop.  And again, it’s not like Jordan just had a bad month or two, with the exception of a couple weeks here and there (of course he’s going to have those, he IS one of the best players in the world, I would never deny that being a big Spieth fan) he’s had a VERY bad year.  I’m standing by my opinion, his play this year does not give us the best chance to win in the Ryder Cup.  Heres to hoping he proves me wrong

24 minutes ago, iacas said:

Damn facts backing my opinions!

No, its you absolutely refusing to admit that Jordan has had a pretty awful year and I’m strictly talking about what game of his he’s gonna bring to the Ryder Cup... Jordan of old?  Or Jordan of 2018?

[iacas]

Chris, look at the facts.

Spieth is 6-2-1 against Keegan in the last 9 events. He’s ~40 spots higher than Keegan in putting.

If that’s a bad year, Keegan’s has been worse.

Jordan of 2018 > Keegan

[skydog]

Keegan would have been a disaster in the RC this year. First of all, the dude annoys the hell out of me with his cheesy intensity and secondly, he would be paired with Phil to try to re-create their Medinah dominance and inevitably, the two of them would fall flat on their face as neither is consistent enough to carry a team right now. Give me Spieth/Reed all day.

[MacDutch]

Keegan wins from Rose at the BMW and Rose is the number one of the world. So Keegan needs to be on the RC team. I would love it as I want to see the Euro’s win. 👹

Its like thinking Its a shame Wallace is not on the Euro’s team.

Edited September 11, 2018 by MacDutch

[Moxley]

1 hour ago, MacDutch said:

Keegan wins from Rose at the BMW and Rose is the number one of the world. So Keegan needs to be on the RC team. I would love it as I want to see the Euro’s win. 👹

Its like thinking Its a shame Wallace is not on the Euro’s team.

Not really, the argument for Wallace is that he has won 3 times this season , one very recently and another in June. He is low on points but climbing. It would have been a positive pick as opposed to Stenson & Casey ( injured and somewhat out of form) and Garcia (really out of form). Not picking him and selecting a guy who didn't make the PGA tour playoffs also sends out the message that there isn't any point to the European tour. 

 

There is obviously a case against Wallace too (streaky, weaker fields), but I don't you equate the argument for his selection to the somewhat absurd argument that Keegan Bradley ought to go instead of Spieth, one of the best players of his generation, based on one tournament.

[boogielicious]

3 hours ago, MacDutch said:

Keegan wins from Rose at the BMW and Rose is the number one of the world. So Keegan needs to be on the RC team. I would love it as I want to see the Euro’s win. 👹

Its like thinking Its a shame Wallace is not on the Euro’s team.

My worry about this thought process is a lot of times there is a let down after a big win. Keegan spent a lot of energy winning this week. It would not surprise me if he came in 30th in two weeks.

Ryder cup should be about consistent good performances through out the year. Finau got in because he was consistently near the top in a lot of events.

[FinTurma]

2 hours ago, Moxley said:

Not really, the argument for Wallace is that he has won 3 times this season , one very recently and another in June. He is low on points but climbing. It would have been a positive pick as opposed to Stenson & Casey ( injured and somewhat out of form) and Garcia (really out of form). Not picking him and selecting a guy who didn't make the PGA tour playoffs also sends out the message that there isn't any point to the European tour. 

 

There is obviously a case against Wallace too (streaky, weaker fields), but I don't you equate the argument for his selection to the somewhat absurd argument that Keegan Bradley ought to go instead of Spieth, one of the best players of his generation, based on one tournament.

Agree, not the same argument. Wallace had a great season with 3 wins on the European Tour, Bradley came out of nowhere..

[DeadMan]

11 hours ago, Chris223 said:

No I think it’s because Spieth has gone from being “best putter in the world” to ranked worse than 130th.  Thats quite a drop.  And again, it’s not like Jordan just had a bad month or two, with the exception of a couple weeks here and there (of course he’s going to have those, he IS one of the best players in the world, I would never deny that being a big Spieth fan) he’s had a VERY bad year.  I’m standing by my opinion, his play this year does not give us the best chance to win in the Ryder Cup.  Heres to hoping he proves me wrong

Spieth has never been the best putter in the world. He's so good because he's a great iron player. Even in a down year this year, he was still 26th in strokes gained approaching the green. For comparison, Xander is 66th. Keegan is 2nd, which I'm actually very surprised by (of course, he's not a good putter, so that balances out). Spieth as a the best putter in the world is one of the worst storylines out there - it's wrong and doesn't show how good of a ballstriker he is.

Even with Spieth's down year, I find it hard to put anybody else above him. Just looking at strokes gained tee-to-green, Spieth is 22nd. Here are the American players ranked above Spieth that are not on the Ryder Cup team: Keegan Bradley, Patrick Cantlay, Luke List, Ryan Moore, and Gary Woodland. The only player on there I would make an argument for being in ahead of Spieth is Patrick Cantlay. Even that I don't feel strongly about, because Spieth still showed up reasonably well when it mattered most.

[lastings]

Oh boy.  We’re talking about Jordan Spieth vs. Keegan Bradley?  

1) outside of 1 week on the PGA tour, there is nothing in their finishes that supports this.

2) Spieth is just simply a more skilled golfer. He hasn’t had the best year, but that’s just luck.  These guys in every tournament are just all very good.  It wouldn’t take more than a handful of well placed rounds throughout the year to drastically change his tournament results (which are already much better than Keegan’s.). 

Sorry, but Jordan Spieth didn’t just wake up one day and become a worse golfer than Keegan Bradley.  

Edited September 11, 2018 by lastings

[Vinsk]

17 hours ago, Moxley said:

really, the argument for Wallace is that he has won 3 times this season

Keegan has won twice. He’d not be a good pick for Ryder Cup.

[Moxley]

5 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Keegan has won twice. He’d not be a good pick for Ryder Cup.

I agree on Keegan, but I wrote at least 4 additional reasons for picking Wallace.

[MacDutch]

11 minutes ago, Moxley said:

I agree on Keegan, but I wrote at least 4 additional reasons for picking Wallace.

So we agree on Keegan and not on Wallace.

[Moxley]

yep, that would be it. 

[Pretzel]

I think the reason people think of Spieth as the best putter out there and picture that as being the best part of his game is because for a year or two he made an unheard of amount of putts from long range. I believe @iacas even mentioned sometime during that run that he would likely eventually regress back towards the mean on tour, and that's what we've seen happen since because those long putts are great for strokes gained putting but nobody can consistently keep draining them year in and year out.

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

I think the reason people think of Spieth as the best putter out there and picture that as being the best part of his game is because for a year or two he made an unheard of amount of putts from long range. I believe @iacas even mentioned sometime during that run that he would likely eventually regress back towards the mean on tour, and that's what we've seen happen since because those long putts are great for strokes gained putting but nobody can consistently keep draining them year in and year out.

He was never very good at the short putts.

But yeah, he made a lot of 25 footers.

http://lowestscorewins.com/news/jordan-spieth-is-great-from-15-25-feet-and-it-doesnt-matter-at-all

I encourage everyone to read that article. It's not very long.

[SPJr]

Good 'ole Joe Dan Speef, da best pudder der eva was!