skydog

I feel pretty good about our lineup tomorrow until the last 4. I fully understand the need to front load our lineup or the rest is inconsequential but it sucks that Phil, Bubba and BDC are likely to be three losses in the last four matches. My guess is we win 4 of the first five matches and then it will come down to whether we can stay competitive and maybe go 2-2 in the last four.

Win, lose, or draw come Sunday- Furyk deserves a ton of criticism for this afternoon. The BDC/Phil pairing in foursomes is honestly one of the worst in RC history. Putting the guy who’s 192 out of 193 on tour in driving accuracy on a tight driving course along with an unproven rookie who tends to be over-emotional and likely to wilt under the pressure?? And the Bubba/Webb pairing? Are you kidding me? Short of furyk himself, they are two of the softest American RC players we’ve seen in the last two decades. Oh yea, and we benched the guy who has won 3 of the last 6 majors he’s played in and has been a rock in team events. Phil and BDC should not have been on this team and are likely going to cost us the cup. I would have taken a couple of grind it out bulldogs like Sneds and Kisner over them any day of the week.

I respectfully disagree with Tiger and you :/...and I guess the majority of the tour players. Yes Tiger has historically had a better work ethic than most everyone out there but I think in the history of the game he is also a top 3 talent of all time. Talent is a very subjective category but that’s just my take.

This is an absurd list. Anthony Kim??? And putting Bubba as more talented than Tiger? No. And DJ as way more talented than Tiger?? No again.

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.

I don’t disagree. I know Phil is good for the ‘team room’ aspect and I like watching him play in the event, but it will be an easily criticized pick if Phil doesn’t perform. I also hope that Phil has the self-awareness to suggest to Furyk that he only play in 3 matches as I think his age will catch up with him if he tries to play 2 rounds in one day.

From everything I had heard from media folks who at least think they’re in the know- Phil was basically a lock regardless as this is likely to be his swan song as a player in the event. I think the 63 made the optics of the pick easier, but short of him firing up 80s all summer, he was going to be picked regardless.

The No Laying Up podcast guys did an entertaining oral history of the RC this week from 1999-2016. I would suggest fans of the RC listen to it. It reminded listeners how dark of a period the US went through in the event for the better part of the past 20 years. I think there is plenty of blame to go around- for most of their primes, Tiger and Phil were never the leaders they needed to be for the US team and at times openly undermined the event with divisive/demoralizing behavior or words....especially in that really dark 2002-2006 stretch. US golf also went through an awkward phase from 2000-2008 where there was a serious dirth of young American talent for the team. At the end of the 2006 season, there was only 1 American tour player in his 20s to have a PGA tour victory- Ben Curtis....let that sink in for a minute. Fortunately for us, those dark years are now (hopefully) long behind us. Tiger and Phil are fully engaged in the event and US golf is stacked with young talent. Not to mention that small story that Tiger is playing damn good golf right now. This is setting up to be one hell of a RC.

I don’t debate any of this one bit....in fact I literally just said DJ has more talent than Jack did. Which is why I said his one major is underachieveing relative to his talent base regardless of the SOF. My point was that if we agree that DJ has more talent than the 2nd GOAT, than he is sure as hell underachieving. And for some reason you saw that as an in to downplay Jack via the SOF topic even though that had nothing to do with my point. Should he have 18 majors- heck no- but he should have a lot more than 1. Anyways....back on topic to whatever the perceived topic of this thread is.

Case in point of how I said this board likes to constantly downplay Jack’s accomplishments for some reason...even in a story that should do nothing but actually confirm how good Jack was. But ok sir.

Ok...no doubt. Strength of field doesn’t change whether you rise or wilt under pressure. Some people are clutch and some aren’t.

I would say DJ is more physically talented at the game than Jack was. The difference is the mental aspect- Jack was born with the clutch gene and DJ- more often than not- folds under pressure. Based solely on talent, DJ could/should have 5-7 majors right now.

If the most atheletic, physical ball striker of today’s generation is hitting a proV a little bit further than Jack hit the ball of 40 years ago, that’s not saying a whole heck of a lot and shouldn’t surprise anyone. I know this board constantly likes to diminish Jack- and that’s fine- but I don’t think this is the post to add to that thesis.

Fair point.

If this board is any indication- either 1.) y’all are cheap SOBs or 2.) ratings are going to be really low for this. I’m guessing it’s a bit of both 😁. Beyond the $ itself, the problem with PPV golf of any kind is that golf rounds are super long and they take place in the middle of the day- yes I know this is stating the obvious. But most ppv events take place at night and can serve as destination events for a group of buddies or a group watching at a sports bar. People (including me) are going to be hesitant to shell out money for a 5 hour event in the middle of the day that- if they are married/have kids- they probably won’t be able to watch much of anyways. I like the idea of this match and don’t mind paying to watch it...but it doesn’t fit with how most of us golf fans watch golf- intermittently on the weekends between family/work/life chores.

If It was 2008 and Tiger played like he did at Bellerive- he wins the tournament IMO. Tiger used to be able to win tournament fairly easily with his B game; I don’t think he can do that anymore against the fields that are out there. But what’s scary is that his B game now (which we saw at Bellerive) seems just as good as his B game of before. If he can continue to make improvements (mainly off the tee) I think his B+/A game is still good enough to consistently beat the best players of today. But that window will close in a few years so I hope he can make hay quickly. I’ll say he wins three times in 2019 with one major (British).

Tiger just shot a 64 in the final round of a major with his B game (A+ iron game and C- off the tee). Pretty damn impressive. It’s starting to look like Koepka might rack up a bunch of majors in a hurry. He’s DJ without the disappearing act DJ often pulls under pressure.

Nothing against the guy. But I think most of the golf/sports world would have preferred a different outcome today...

Pretty cool of Tiger to do a post round with Sands after that.

I can never remember one of those calls coming mid swing on the 72nd hole of a major.

Molinari playing spoiler to...pretty much every other story line which would be better. Bummer

Tiger not out of it yet. 7 under probably good enough for playoff at worst.

I’m glad no one is running away and hiding this afternoon. If the lead is -9 at the end of the day, then tomorrow should be a great day of golf. Would love to see Tiger make it happen tomorrow but would also be cool to see Spieth defend and continue to rack up majors.

That's not a Phil v Tiger thing. It's the fact that Tiger was in contention (tied for the lead?) and Phil is close to DFL. If Phil had done this while leading the tourney, then my guess is the firestorm would have far surpassed Tiger's. Anyways, I don't care much to argue this; this tournament and Phil's place in it is one to forget. The USGA lost this one.

I would say this isn’t the case- many folks at ESPN, fox, and TGC have been slamming him and calling for him to pull out of the tourney. I think it was an asinine move by Phil but the extent to which people don’t care ( I would say I don’t care -much) is because he’s close to dead last in the field. If he were in contention and did this, then yea, we’ve got a serious problem. But because he isn’t, I don’t think Phil is ‘doing damage to the game’, more so just doing damage to himself. He would be well served to WD.