Greetings!
Friday morning lede: Is the Presidents Cup actually going to be … interesting this year?
Saturday morning lede: It might not be, but definitely in a different way than we thought!
Friday was a disaster. Let’s get right into it.
Name drops today: C Bez, Y2K, Fred Couples, Jon Rahm, Abe Ancer and Bethpage.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Ship Sticks, which will not leave your clubs on the plane like the U.S. team appeared to have done on Friday at Medinah.
Ship Sticks takes the stress out of travel logistics for golf and travel gear (no word yet on whether they have the ability to take the stress out of a team room staring at their first loss since Bill Clinton was president of the United States).
But you can skip pulling your bulky bag or clubs through the airport and enjoy more of your trip—whether teeing off on arrival or heading straight to the resort.
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And now, onto the news.
Nothing spoils a dog like too much yellow mustard.
1. Friday at the Presidents Cup — where the U.S. got swept and is now down 7-3 — reminded me of this incredible Darren Rovell tweet that has been memed for a full decade now.
As a fan of the U.S. team at these events, Friday’s matches were a travesty. As a fan of sports intrigue, content, consequential things happening and an actually interesting Presidents Cup?
They absolutely could not have gone any better than they did.
2. Where do we even begin? The No. 1 player in the world seems like a good place to start. Scottie was dialed early and hit three nasty approaches in the first seven holes from …
202 yards —> 3 feet
69 yards —> 4 feet
187 yards —> 7 feet
But he and Burns made exactly 0 birdies on the back nine and got closed out in the most gut-wrenching way imaginable: Watching Nick Taylor get up and down from 148 yards and then seeing Burns’ 18-foot birdie power lip the left side.
Scottie is now … this is kind of unbelievable … 1-8-0 in alternate shot at Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups. That’s one total point in nine matches.
He’s lost …
9 and 7 😬
5 and 3
4 and 3
2 down
2 and 1
1 down (3x)
I believe that is hitting for the cycle in alternate shot losses. He has as many 9 and 7 losses as he has wins. And the worst part is, I have no idea what there is to be done about it.
3. Surely the other matches went better? No. Wrong. They went worse.
JT and Cam Young made [triple checks notes] two bogeys and no birdies through the first 15 holes and then got closed out on a 30-footer by someone (C Bez) who has two top 10s this calendar year (Myrtle Beach and Puerto Rico). Sure.
And even that duo may have been better than Cantlay and Xander, who hit some of the worst shots I’ve ever seen hit in a team competition. Cantlay left an approach from 70 yards a full 50 feet short at one point, and Xander missed a 5-footer to lose the match.
Perfect ending to a miserable day. No notes.
4. The lone bright spot for the U.S. was Wyndham Clark — of all people — who wasn’t even on last year’s Ryder Cup team and had exactly zero top 10s at the halfway point of the PGA Tour season. He is the overall leader in strokes gained for the event thus far and pretty clearly the U.S.’ best player.
And he lost his match after Collin Morikawa missed his own 5-footer on No. 17 and then flew the green on 18 when they needed to make birdie. That duo got matched up against the only pairing that played better than they did on Friday (per Data Golf). Of course.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,056 of them) and includes an alternate shot stat for the ages, some quotes I’m not loving out of the U.S. camp about pairings and a theory I have about the U.S. in these events in general.
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