I don't think I would have expected the odds to fall that way.

I want some of that action. Who are people using for a book these days? The one I used a few years back stopped accepting accounts from the US.

AustinCountyAg said:

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JCA1 said:

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class of 03 said:

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One could argue that Ryder Cup hasn't been about the best players on each side of the pond playing against each other, ever. Captains get picks and grab who they want, not always who is playing best. Hell, Poulter played a ton over the years despite below average previous results in regular tour stops.

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Yeah. The goal has never been to take the 12 guys playing the best right this second. Fit has always played a role. And every time there are close calls and guys that were on the outside looking in and have a gripe. This year doesn't seem any different.

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all is true, but the fact that the LIV guys can only earn points through the majors and essentially being blackballed for consideration is wrong imo. It should be about USA vs Europe. Not PGAT vs European Tour. At least thats my opinion. Feel free to flame away PGAT fan boys

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But that's never been what it is. You have to be a member of the PGA of America (but not the PGAT) to qualify for the US team. That's why the LIV guys are eligible for the US team. The Euro team is run by the DP World Tour, so you have to be a DP member to be eligible. All of the Euro guys resigned their DP membership when they joined LIV. So they could not have been chosen regardless.

Now, I realize I'm a fan boy for pointing these basic rules out and you're the levelheaded one who is dismayed that every organization in golf didn't re-write their rules for an upstart competitor. Shocking behavior, I know. Don't know what to tell you, except it's a crazy world we live in.

But we've done this enough. No need to re-hash. DJ is the only guy on either side I think has a really strong complaint anyway.

JCA1 said:

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AustinCountyAg said:

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JCA1 said:

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class of 03 said:

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One could argue that Ryder Cup hasn't been about the best players on each side of the pond playing against each other, ever. Captains get picks and grab who they want, not always who is playing best. Hell, Poulter played a ton over the years despite below average previous results in regular tour stops.

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Yeah. The goal has never been to take the 12 guys playing the best right this second. Fit has always played a role. And every time there are close calls and guys that were on the outside looking in and have a gripe. This year doesn't seem any different.

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all is true, but the fact that the LIV guys can only earn points through the majors and essentially being blackballed for consideration is wrong imo. It should be about USA vs Europe. Not PGAT vs European Tour. At least thats my opinion. Feel free to flame away PGAT fan boys

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But that's never been what it is. You have to be a member of the PGA of America (but not the PGAT) to qualify for the US team. That's why the LIV guys are eligible for the US team. The Euro team is run by the DP World Tour, so you have to be a DP member to be eligible. All of the Euro guys resigned their DP membership when they joined LIV. So they could not have been chosen regardless.

Now, I realize I'm a fan boy for pointing these basic rules out and you're the levelheaded one who is dismayed that every organization in golf didn't re-write their rules for an upstart competitor. Shocking behavior, I know. Don't know what to tell you, except it's a crazy world we live in.

But we've done this enough. No need to re-hash. DJ is the only guy on either side I think has a really strong complaint anyway.

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feel better now?

My point is I believe any player in the USA and in Europe should get a fair shake at making the team. That isn't 100% the case right now.

If someone view the Ryder Cup as necessarily needing to be the 12 best USA vs 12 best Euros by some definition, and that it's somehow a lesser event if that's arguably not the case, to each their own.

This was always going to be an awkward Ryder Cup due to the meshing of the DP World Tour and Euro Ryder Cup governing body. Everyone on the Euro side who went to LIV knew that was the case.

IMO ZJ handled it about as well as he could have from the USA side. On one hand, it would have been poor form to deeply recruit a pool of players that the Euros don't have access to. For better or worse, the Ryder Cup at least attempts to maintain appearances as a gentlemen-spirited competition.

But the other hand, he didn't rule out the possibility of LIV guys qualifying via a criteria that was set before guys left for LIV in the first place. Brooks handled his business the right way when he left for LIV, then went out and earned a spot via his play at the majors. That door was open for DJ too, he just didn't perform as well as he needed to.

Bryson was never ever ever ever going to be on this team. It's weird that it was even a news story. But given his renewed outlook on golf/life and a potential reconciliation of the tours in the near future, I think he has a good shot to be back on the Bethpage team in 2025.

To me, it all kind of worked out anyway. If there's anything we've learned about Ryder Cups on Euro soil over the past 30 years, it's that simply grabbing the 12 best and crossing your fingers isn't a good strategy. We'll never take a team over there as good as the 2018 one, and that team got smoked.

As it stands today, IMO Bryson projects much better as a home Ryder Cupper than a road one.

*****

Moving onto the matches tomorrow, I couldn't be more excited.

Who goes out first on Friday morning is a big deal. Brooks in 2018, Tiger/JT in 2019, JT/Spieth in 2021, Xander/Cantlay in 2022. It's Scottie's turn to lead us out. And rightfully so. He's our best player and need him to play well this week.

Match 1: Rahm/Hatton vs Scheffler/Burns

Odds: Scheffler vs Rahm
Evens: Hatton vs Burns

I love this matchup. Looking at the course, it looks like the premium ball-striker in each group is going to take the odd holes. That means Scheffler and Rahm will be squaring off on No. 1 tee and the majority of the critical shots on the course. Love it.

I think ZJ knew Rahm would go out first for Europe and we wanted Scheffler opposite him. Since demolishing him in singles back in 2021, Scheffler has had Rahm's number whenever they've played together. It will be on both players minds' tomorrow.

Scheffler will need to perform because Hatton is (on paper) better than Burns. I think more than anything, Burns is Scheffler's partner to help get him into his comfort zone. Maybe it works. We'll see. My lean is that Europe takes this one but close to pick'em.

Match 2: Aberg/Hovland vs Homa/Harman

Odds: Hovland vs Homa
Evens: Harman vs Aberg

Not many times I feel good about two RC rookies making their debut on the road, but I think Homa/Harman are equipped to handle it. I think their partnership could work like Spieth/Thomas at its best (Homa takes the hard shots, Harman scraps).

With that said, I'm scared of the Aberg/Hovland duo. Not just this year, but long into the future. Those ball-striking machines will excel in either format. Advantage Europe here.

Match 3: Lowry/Straka vs. Fowler/Morikawa

Odds: Lowry vs Morikawa
Evens: Straka vs Fowler

As much as I like the Aberg/Hovland pairing for Europe, I similarly like the Morikawa/Fowler pairing for USA. Fowler was the No. 11 player strokes gained tee-to-green on tour last year and he's the beta ball-striker in the group. That will be a challenge for Straka to keep up with.

Lowry/Straka seems like a duo that could potentially go on a heater. And if they do, that could be scary. But ultimately advantage USA in this one.

Match 4: McIlroy/Fleetwood vs Cantlay/Schauffele

Odds: McIlroy vs Cantlay
Evens: Fleetwood vs Schauffele

Honestly, either team could go either way in terms of odds/evens. All four guys are top 10 strokes gained tee to green. This is a ball-strikers dream foursomes match. Pick'em in every sense of the word.

I tend to lean Cantlay/Xander just cuz they've played together so much, but who knows.

Afternoon four ball:

IMO USA has a nice edge with JT/Spieth and Brooks/Clark going out rested in the afternoon. I think ZJ is going to angle to have at least one of those squads play Hojgaard or McIntyre's pairings (if not both).

I thought this was interesting, looking at recent form. If this picture works, below are strokes gained for the last 3 months for each pairing. US would appear to have the advantage in every match based on this data.




The other glaring thing I noticed is Macintyre appears to be an absolute liability for the Europeans. BY FAR the worst player from a strokes gained perspective.

Interesting post. Is there a way to specify that to SG tee-to-green only?

Depending on how the matches are shaping up, I think it's possible McIntyre doesn't play til singles. With that said, he'll probly ball out and go 3-0 lol.

It's very likely that both Robert and Nicolai for Team Europe will not play more than 4 matches combined in this Ryder Cup. However, it wouldn't surprise me to see Rahm, Rory and Viktor play all 5 matches this weekend in hopes that those 3 players can garner around 10 of Team Europe's point total.

Data Golf has that information here, but for the entire year. Their Ryder Cup page with the teams only has total strokes gained.

https://datagolf.com/performance-table

HeyAbbott said:

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It's very likely that both Robert and Nicolai for Team Europe will not play more than 4 matches combined in this Ryder Cup. However, it wouldn't surprise me to see Rahm, Rory and Viktor play all 5 matches this weekend in hopes that those 3 players can garner around 10 of Team Europe's point total.

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That is going to be interesting. The talk is, between the hills and the heat, this is gonna be a tough walk and 5 matches is asking a lot. But the Euros are very top heavy and probably need their big dogs to do it.

I love the Scheffler/Burns combo. Scottie can bomb it, so if it's in the fairway and closer, that helps negate Burns's ball striking challenges. Short putt or long putt doesn't matter, Scottie can't make either consistently. Just gotta hope he rolls a few in.

But when Scottie puts an iron close, he gets Burns to finish off the putt for him instead of having to do it himself.

Buck Compton said:

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I love the Scheffler/Burns combo. Scottie can bomb it, so if it's in the fairway and closer, that helps negate Burns's ball striking challenges. Short putt or long putt doesn't matter, Scottie can't make either consistently. Just gotta hope he rolls a few in.

But when Scottie puts an iron close, he gets Burns to finish off the putt for him instead of having to do it himself.

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It's definitely an interesting combo that has potential to be awesome. Just need to see it play out.

4 am alarm set

LFG!!! I guess working from home on Fridays with no wife and kids has it's advantages. Aiming to stay up a couple hours but I won't be surprised if I stay up all night.

This is already hard to watch. I mean, there are a total of eight golf balls in play and we have missed what feels like half of the shots hit so far.

Sheffler has GOT to figure that putter out. Amazed it's been an issue for him as long as it has.

Boy, Europe just throwing darts. Some pretty ugly golf on our side, especially from Morikawa & Fowler. Not sure if I want to go to bed or start drinking.

Morning looks bleak. What a beating

When Scheffler and Cantlay are chunking irons from the middle of the fairway, it's gonna be a rough morning.

Holes won is something like 20-6 Europe at this point...good grief.

Euros about to make history as they are about to close out their first 4-0 win of Friday morning matches.

Also got to be near some kind of record of overall domination. 2 4up wins..and probably a 3up and 2up at worst.

It's over.

Sitting spieth and JT and brooks - this is what happens.

Dagger by TommyLad

Pignorant said:

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It's over.

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No it's not, but a crap start..yes.

0-4 after 1. Wow.

I mean...it was WAY worse than 4-0. Some really good shots and putts by Europe and just plain bad golf by USA. Lousy short game/putting.

We can't putt

The good guys look BAD to start

That grandstand set up on the first tee is awesome.

Fans are having fun for sure.

Its remarkable how much the US always puckers and Europe steps up in the Ryder Cup.

Scuffler starting right where he left off... terrible golf.

CyclingAg82 said:

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Pignorant said:

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It's over.

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No it's not, but a crap start..yes.

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Tell me the last time we won in Europe. Then couple that with getting swept in the morning matches. It's over.