2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National - Paris, France

[iacas]

6 minutes ago, skydog said:

It’s not only about the captains but Furyk deserves his fair share of criticism here. Inevitably it’s the players that lost it but Furyk made some indefensible decisions along the way and for that he should be criticized.

Bullshit. His picks were applauded and Bjorn’s derided. Webb was a poor choice people thought. Garcia a poor choice. Stenson too.

He sat Phil after Phil’s bad round.  It’s not like he kept playing him.

The Euro players played better. US players didn’t. Simple as that.

Players play. Captains give speeches. That’s about it.

[Zeph]

Phil took US out of their misery. Congratulations Europe.

[skydog]

7 minutes ago, iacas said:

Bullshit. His picks were applauded and Bjorn’s derided. Webb was a poor choice people thought. Garcia a poor choice. Stenson too.

He sat Phil after Phil’s bad round.  It’s not like he kept playing him.

The Euro players played better. US players didn’t. Simple as that.

Players play. Captains give speeches. That’s about it.

Whatever, I would call BS on this mentaility but I’m not going to change your mind. Or I could say the same thing about swing coaches but I won’t go there. 

Furyk deserves some criticism here. The shitty play deserves most of it. Phil was a terrible/indefensible pick and nothing but a nostalgic throwaway of a potential asset for the team. 

[ChrisP]

So looking ahead to 2020, who are the captains?

US: Will be interesting to see if Stricker gets another look in 2020 since it's in Wisconsin. Phil or David Duval probably the favorites, though, to get the nod. Zach J still in prime so doubt he'll get looked at yet. 

Europe: Harrington the first guy that comes to mind. Possibly Jiminez or Paul Lawrie. But I think it'll be Paddy.

Edited September 30, 2018 by ChrisP

[Hazsa]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

Bullshit. His picks were applauded and Bjorn’s derided. Webb was a poor choice people thought. Garcia a poor choice. Stenson too.

He sat Phil after Phil’s bad round.  It’s not like he kept playing him.

The Euro players played better. US players didn’t. Simple as that.

Players play. Captains give speeches. That’s about it.

Bollocks. Mickelson in the foursomes was a ridiculous shout, Mickelson full stop was a terrible pick, TW too for that matter, but you go on burying your head in the sand. I’m sure TW’s terrible RC record is all down to his partners right?

I for one hope he plays all 5 matches next time 👍

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hazsa

[iacas]

18 minutes ago, skydog said:

Whatever, I would call BS on this mentaility but I’m not going to change your mind. Or I could say the same thing about swing coaches but I won’t go there. 

Your position on swing coaches is equally as laughable.

19 minutes ago, skydog said:

Furyk deserves some criticism here. The shitty play deserves most of it. Phil was a terrible/indefensible pick and nothing but a nostalgic throwaway of a potential asset for the team. 

Indefensible? He was tenth on the points list and would have automatically qualified in many previous years. 

Tenth.

And he’s been a key figure on the committee/task force.

7 minutes ago, Hazsa said:

Bollocks. Mickelson in the foursomes was a ridiculous shout, Mickelson full stop was a terrible pick, TW too for that matter, but you go on burying your head in the sand. I’m sure TW’s terrible RC record is all down to his partners right?

I for one hope he plays all 5 matches next time 👍

You lose all credibility when you say that Tiger Woods was a bad pick.

Nice job of after-the-fact opinion sharing fellas.

[Hardspoon]

51 minutes ago, skydog said:

It’s not only about the captains but Furyk deserves his fair share of criticism here. Inevitably it’s the players that lost it but Furyk made some indefensible decisions along the way and for that he should be criticized.

I guess that's part of the fun of the Ryder Cup for some people (second-guessing every decision), but nothing Furyk could have done after making his captain's picks would have impacted the outcome in any significant way.

48 minutes ago, ChrisP said:

Agree. The only decision I think he may catch some heat for is the Phil pick. Other than that, hindsight is 20/20 with his matchups and pairings. But most of the players didn’t have it this week and I don’t think changing things up or playing Webb more like Johnny said he should have done would have changed the final outcome. Europe was just better. They kicked our butt. 17.5 to 10.5 is a butt whooping that's on the whole team, not just a player or two. Plain and simple.

Exactly.

Regarding the Phil pick, I'm sure it's been mentioned in this thread, but that was NOT necessarily made in an effort to maximize the US chance of winning.  It was done partially because Phil has been a fixture at the Cup and this was probably the last year he could be even remotely defensible.  At its heart, the Ryder Cup is an exhibition...and "sentimental" picks are sometimes necessary.

7 minutes ago, iacas said:

Indefensible? He was tenth on the points list and would have automatically qualified in many previous years. 

Plus this - wasn't like he was some total bum.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hardspoon

[JonMA1]

32 minutes ago, iacas said:

The Euro players played better. US players didn’t. Simple as that.

Players play. Captains give speeches. That’s about it.

^^^^ Absolutely. 

I do not understand the importance and scramble to find some underlying reason after a loss. The European players were simply better.

Congrats to their fans here on the site. 

[Hazsa]

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

And he’s been a key figure on the committee/task force.

You lose all credibility when you say that Tiger Woods was a bad pick.

Nice job of after-the-fact opinion sharing fellas.

Ok 👍

Enjoyed the RC. Hope we can mount a challenge in 2 years. Biggest problem for away teams of late seems to be making the singles with any realistic chance of victory.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hazsa

[skydog]

18 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

Nice job of after-the-fact opinion sharing fellas.

And nice job of misrepresenting my opinion chief. I have said the Phil pick was a terrible one from the onset. Nothing after the fact about it.

And as for him being tenth in points- he hasn’t shown any form since the Spring and he is literally second to last on tour in driving accuracy...for a tight driving course, he was an indefensible pick for anything short of nostalgia. 

This isn’t about searching around for whom to blame. We played terrible and likely would have lost regardless. But Furyk deserves some of the blame.

[Zeph]

Tiger usually gets in automatically, but it's strange saying he's a bad pick. He doesn't have the best record, but in singles he's done pretty good, although I believe some wins have come after the RC was decided. He's played well this year and won the week before. He got some unlucky pairings and didn't play his best either. A commentator said he hadn't seen Tiger smile all week. He really didn't seem to enjoy being there and I agree that he doesn't excel in team competitions like he does as an individual. If he stays healthy he will likely be part of it next time too.

[Patch]

Didn't watch it, but it went as I expected. I made a prop bet a couple months ago, and will collect on that later today. Not much winnings, but a win is a win. 

[ChrisP]

9 minutes ago, Zeph said:

Tiger usually gets in automatically, but it's strange saying he's a bad pick. He doesn't have the best record, but in singles he's done pretty good, although I believe some wins have come after the RC was decided. He's played well this year and won the week before. He got some unlucky pairings and didn't play his best either. A commentator said he hadn't seen Tiger smile all week. He really didn't seem to enjoy being there and I agree that he doesn't excel in team competitions like he does as an individual. If he stays healthy he will likely be part of it next time too.

Agree. He was the biggest no-brainer pick of anyone. That being said, he had a huge week last week and I'm sure it took a lot out of him to finally get that W, and then he had to turn around on a short week, travel across the world and play 72 holes in 3 days. It's a large task for anyone, especially someone in their 40s. If anyone noticed, Rose didn't play all that great, either, this week after winning the Fed Ex Cup.

I think Furyk would have ideally liked to have sat Tiger Saturday afternoon to rest for Sunday, but there were so many Americans not playing well and they were desperate for points, and he felt like he prolly was depending Tiger to get something rolling in that afternoon match. But he just never did. 

[Big C]

I was critical of some of Furyk's decisions before they backfired. Primarily putting Phil out in foursomes vs. fourball - but also running back the Woods/Reed pairing for a second time on Saturday. I thought those were both terrible decisions before they went south.

That said, captain decision making had no impact on this outcome. Europe outplayed the US in all facets and was a well deserving winner. Kudos to the European team.

[lastings]

Welp.  

I guess my biggest takeaway here is anyone that thinks the home field advantage is not a massive bonus is out of their mind.  

Distance advantages can obviously be mitigated or exaggerated.  Fans, vibe, course knowledge, pride all weighs in. 

This sucks, but, good for Europe.  They certainly earned it. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by lastings

[Zeph]

You didn't see a lot of drivers out there. A combination of shorter holes, narrower fairways and penalizing rough. Being 30-40 yards closer in the rough wasn't necessarily a good thing at this course. You often saw them just having to hack something out of there and hope for the best. Being in the fairway was a big deal, and the longest hitters did maybe not get their potential out.

[Chris223]

5 hours ago, HJJ003 said:

Spieth is getting routed...and Phil was one putt way from being 3 back after 4. 

He is an abomination in singles matches.  0-6 now

[lastings]

1 minute ago, Chris223 said:

He is an abomination in singles matches.  0-6 now

Why?  Seriously.  Too much talent to get obliterated like that. 

I think JT needs to take him out all winter long and just play matchplay every day against him, until he learns how to win.