2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National - Paris, France

[Killa]

On 10/2/2018 at 3:31 AM, Vinsk said:

 I kinda agree with Michael Breed today talking about the difficulty when you pair two 'Alpha' types together. I think players have historically played bad with Tiger because despite then being Alpha players (Reed, Mickelson) the bottom line is Tiger is the GOAT. So be alpha all you want but it's kinda difficult to do when you're paired with Tiger. However, players who are alpha that have the ability to take the beta role (Spieth) would fair better. Now this is only true if you've got a player who can do that and doesn't get caught up in the nerves of being with Tiger. Someone I think could play with Tiger and do well would be Pat Perez. He's an alpha personality but also can just do his thing and he respects how good Tiger is and would be enthusiastic about kicking someones tail with him on his team. Just some rambling I thought I'd throw out there.

In hindsight it might have been better to pair Tiger with Phil. He might be the only guy on the team that is guaranteed to not have any pressure from playing with Woods. 

[BCoggins]

What America needed was Cheech on most of the bags to break most players drivers. Can't understand why if you can hit a "stinger" as far as most can hit a driver, and you are hhaving trouble hitting the fairway with driver you don't change!

[ChrisP]

16 hours ago, JSGolf said:

DJ and Brooks going at it? Aren't/Weren't they best buds? And who pretty much told the media that Patrick was full of shit? Which team member could it have been??

My money is that JT or Rickie said Reed was full of it. 

[iacas]

If I had told you these two facts, what would you have predicted the score would have been?

• Only five of the twelve European players would have a winning record.
• Rory went 2-3. Poulter went 2-2. Rose went 2-2. Rahm went 1-2. Hatton went 1-2.

You'd have guessed that the U.S. would have won in a walk, given those facts… and yet:

• Paul Casey (1-1-1) didn't hurt them.
• Tommy Fleetwood (4-1-0) helped a bunch.
• Sergio Garcia (3-1-0) helped.
• Francesco Molinari (5-0-0) helped a ton.
• Alex Noren (2-1-0) helped.
• Thorbjorn Olesen (1-1-0) didn't hurt.
• Henrik Stenson (3-0-0) didn't lose, helped a lot.

[DeadMan]

51 minutes ago, iacas said:

If I had told you these two facts, what would you have predicted the score would have been?

• Only five of the twelve European players would have a winning record.
• Rory went 2-3. Poulter went 2-2. Rose went 2-2. Rahm went 1-2. Hatton went 1-2.

You'd have guessed that the U.S. would have won in a walk, given those facts… and yet:

• Paul Casey (1-1-1) didn't hurt them.
• Tommy Fleetwood (4-1-0) helped a bunch.
• Sergio Garcia (3-1-0) helped.
• Francesco Molinari (5-0-0) helped a ton.
• Alex Noren (2-1-0) helped. 
• Thorbjorn Olesen (1-1-0) didn't hurt.  
• Henrik Stenson (3-0-0) didn't lose, helped a lot.  

Yeah, you'd think the top players on the European team not having winning records would be a big deal. Then you look at the USA records and it's not much of a mystery. The US just sucked last week.

[rehmwa]

I know it felt that way, but what I remember is just an unnatural amount of putts to split or win that just burned the very edges of the cup - usually high side.  The difference between a seriously close/won tournament vs a blowout loss is so very tight.

(hitting fairways==> better or just more GIRs==>easier putts)

[3jacker]

Few would have believed that Sergio/Henrik would net 5 points between them last week when those picks were being scrutinized.  

There is no science to this. Even a currently "bad" player (like Sergio/Phil) is playing at a level very close to a currently "good" player.

On any given day, or group of days, anything can happen.

 

[ScouseJohnny]

On 10/2/2018 at 2:22 PM, rehmwa said:

“This means a lot to me,” Garcia said. “I have passed some of my heroes today-and Nick Faldo.”

The more I find about Sergio, the more of a fan I become.  This one is great.

He must be very proud of being Spain's third best golfer of modern times. It's not surprising he was feeling so ebullient.

Edited October 3, 2018 by ScouseJohnny

[NZ Golfer]

On 10/3/2018 at 3:19 AM, rehmwa said:

sure, but I don't think it's as simplistic than our typical monday morning quarterbacks are hypothesizing - but it does make a good discussion.

I think Fleetwood's hair is descended directly from Sampson's and THAT explains it

 

I guess the team members are passionate about winning......

I would contend that our most successful players are the ones with little 'publicly displayed' (ie. cosmetic vs real internal) passion and even less ego - Tony and Webb and Justin.  They are more 'fit in' kind of guys, rather than super stars  (i'm stretching it a little with Justin maybe, but he seems to put the ego aside better than most)

I agree if team USA had left the Big hitters with the HUGE egos at home and brought along some more accurate players it would have been a much closer competition ..but that's not the USA way ... Instead  taking the BIGGEST hitters and the BEST in the world GOLFERS ever teamed together >> it worked at home ?? on the wide fairways, short roughs of home ... 

Oh no we lost again ....

If team USA doesn't change tack it will be another 27yrs of losing away from home

 

[howellhandmade]

39 minutes ago, NZ Golfer said:

I agree if team USA had left the Big hitters with the HUGE egos at home and brought along some more accurate players it would have been a much closer competition ..but that's not the USA way ... Instead  taking the BIGGEST hitters and the BEST in the world GOLFERS ever teamed together >> it worked at home ?? on the wide fairways, short roughs of home ... 

Oh no we lost again ....

If team USA doesn't change tack it will be another 27yrs of losing away from home

 

There is a classic management mistake known as "hoping for A while rewarding for B." As you note, we hope that our players will perform well on one type of course, while we select them based on their performances on a very different type of course. We hope that they will be rested and sharp for the Ryder Cup, while we dangle 10 million in front of them to give their peak effort in the weeks immediately prior. We know that RC comes down to putting, and we know that the RC greens will be on the slow side. We hope that our players will putt well on this sort of greens that they hardly ever see, while immediately before they leave we have them playing for 10 mil on greens that stimp 13 or 14. We hope they will adjust and not miss on the high side, over and over.

 

The US game, especially the tour, is largely set up to reward distance, even at the expense of control. We create a game that selects for long hitters, then complain that the ball goes too far, and wonder that our stars, who largely couldn't be bothered to scout the European course, can't adapt. One can hardly blame the players for focusing on the home game; that's where the riches are. Hoping for A, rewarding for B . . .  No worries, next time it will be the game they've trained for.

[howellhandmade]

And what was the deal with Tiger wearing rain pants on Sunday? Did the team issue pants not fit?

[lastings]

1 hour ago, howellhandmade said:

And what was the deal with Tiger wearing rain pants on Sunday? Did the team issue pants not fit?

Yeah, Saturday too.  

[3jacker]

The pinstriped pants should have been covered.
Though Phil was probably delighted.

[iacas]

Le sigh:

[Patch]

On 10/3/2018 at 5:14 PM, NZ Golfer said:

I agree if team USA had left the Big hitters with the HUGE egos at home and brought along some more accurate players it would have been a much closer competition ..but that's not the USA way ... Instead  taking the BIGGEST hitters and the BEST in the world GOLFERS ever teamed together >> it worked at home ?? on the wide fairways, short roughs of home ... 

Oh no we lost again ....

If team USA doesn't change tack it will be another 27yrs of losing away from home

 

I just read that little tid bit, where Mickelson blamed the course make up for their (his) poor showing. Fairways were too narrow for 300+ yard hitters, with rough that was impossible to play out of. He did however, give the Euro team credits for their win. 

[lastings]

On 10/3/2018 at 7:14 PM, NZ Golfer said:

I agree if team USA had left the Big hitters with the HUGE egos at home and brought along some more accurate players it would have been a much closer competition ..but that's not the USA way ... Instead  taking the BIGGEST hitters and the BEST in the world GOLFERS ever teamed together >> it worked at home ?? on the wide fairways, short roughs of home ... 

Oh no we lost again ....

If team USA doesn't change tack it will be another 27yrs of losing away from home

 

Justin Thomas is arguably our longest hitter.  His length did seem to hinder his game out there.  Played quite well, actually. 

[iacas]

18 minutes ago, lastings said:

Justin Thomas is arguably our longest hitter.

?

Per pound maybe.

[lastings]

38 minutes ago, iacas said:

?

Per pound maybe.

Sorry, let me rephrase.  Justin Thomas is one of the longest hitters on tour.