Greetings to everyone who is already thinking about the Ryder Cup. I have some goodies for you, specifically you, today.
Name drops today: Packy McCormick, James Dodson, Ben James, Michael Scott, Arnold Palmer, Jamie Kennedy and Nick Saban.
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And now, onto the news.
1. I spent an hour on Tuesday morning on the still-a-year-away Ryder Cup press conference with Jim Furyk and Luke Donald listening to them field questions from both in-person media as well as those of us on Zoom. Some mini-takeaways.
1. I like to give the Euros a hard time for being quite proud of the way they do things. Then I hear Luke Donald speak, and realize they probably aren’t proud enough. They stumbled into the Nick Saban of Ryder Cup captains. I do not understand how he’s able to be such a calming presence but also so inspirational at the same time. I want him to be my business coach.
2. Furyk calling the U.S. alternate shot struggles “not an aberration” and saying things needed to change and that he was changing them was good.
However, I want long-term change not just one-captain change. This is part of the problem on the U.S. side across Presidents and Ryder Cups. No continuity which leads to one-off (but not wholesale) change.
3. Furyk talking about being on the same page as PGA of America CEO, Terry Clark, was good. I’ve heard great things about Clark as someone who doesn’t care about how things have always been done but cares a lot about how they can be done better in the future. Watch this space.
2. Furyk also gave this quote on the U.S. struggles …
I would say, one, as captains, we need to do a better job, not only put the folks into good pairings in good positions but I don't think we are preparing for those matches in a proper way.
I will promise you, we will be prepared. I'm going to ask this team to do more than any other United States team has in the past. We'll be prepared. We'll be ready to go in that format, and hopefully we can showcase our talent. We have too much depth to have that poor record in alternate shot.
Jim Furyk
He referenced an Ireland trip next summer multiple times and seemed adamant about putting in more prep work than the U.S. has put in historically (which, who knows how much that is).
This is a good step and gives me confidence in Furyk as captain (of course, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 17 times, not sure who the shame falls on).
The first step is admitting you have a problem, and throughout the presser Donald insinuated that Furyk’s more veteran approach — he’s the first repeat U.S. captain since Davis Love III in 2016 — feels different than in recent years for the U.S. side.
This is good if you’re a United States fan, though I have thought the same thing many times in recent Ryder Cups. Ultimately, I hope Furyk instills two things (and that they get carried into future team events).
BYOJ (Bring Your Own Juice) — They have not done this on the road since … Reed and Spieth at Gleneagles (?), and they’ve gotten torched early because of it. I’m not sure how you do it other than sending JT out four times on Friday morning.
Big team, little me — The Americans constantly propose the idea that they need to remember who they are as individuals. I think this is backwards and have said so constantly. Forget who you are and only worry about the good of the team.
If Furyk prepares appropriately, leans on course fit and is able to implement those two things above, the U.S. has a shot.
3. Shortly after the presser, we recorded a podcast talking about some of this, giving our category picks for “most off-the-radar possibility” on each side, biggest storyline with 11.5 months to go and so on.
Jamie Kennedy (follow him on Twitter) and I put together the teams we think will represent both sides (him for the Euros, me for the Americans). Again, this is a prediction of who will be there. Not who we think should. And surely — with 11 months to go — nothing will be incorrect.
Oh wait, something already is incorrect. I forgot about Collin Morikawa. In my defense, Morikawa can be forgettable. But I did not mean to forget him. So I had to issue a short mea culpa and re-upload the pod. Here’s my team … in order of confidence that each guy will be on it.
Scottie
Cam
Cantlay
Xander
Koivun (come at me)
Gotterup
Burns
Wyndham
Morikawa
JT
Gerard
Ben James
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