US Ryder Cup team selections (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***)

[golfortennis]

1 hour ago, One Putter said:

That movie really bothers me and i know it shouldn't. The A's pitching staff that year was extremely high level. But no the team was good because Billy Beane......found.....Scott Hatteburg? Ok....

 

Also they act like the A's won the series or something.

 

Movies always go for dramatics over reality(Friday Night Lights' Permian Panthers lost in the semifinals, not the finals, eg.), but the whole point of "Moneyball" was finding inefficiencies in the market and using them to their advantage.  This is a team that lost Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye from the previous season's lineup, and they had no money to pay for guys who would traditionally be considered replacements for them.

 

No, the A's didn't win a World Series in that era, but these are teams that won 91, 103, 102, and 96 games with payrolls of $32, $33, $40 and $50 million. For comparison's sake, the Yankees were $92 up to $152 million.  Those A's had no business being in the playoffs based on a)conventional wisdom and b)having players like Scott Hatteberg playing first base.  Don't forget as well, Tim Hudson was drafted in the 35th round, Barry Zito was drafted 3 times, and Mark Mulder was drafted in the 55th round coming out of high school.  The last two were first round picks after college, but the point is, a lot of other teams could have drafted them in many opportunities but didn't.  It was impressive what they did.  The Red Sox success a few years later was basically taking the Athletics model, but then adding the fact you can actually pay for the guys who really shine in the important areas.  BUt again, they were a top 5 payroll.

  

I think it was an apt comparison by whomever who first brought it up.  Picking Thomas is like the scouts looking for the "good face" IMO.

[golfortennis]

1 hour ago, Forged4ever said:

😂😂 I just got off of the phone with the former 2-Time Captain that I spoke of previously and he said almost this exact same thing😂😂!!

 

He said that while he really loves Keegan as a Player and person, as witnessed by his selecting Keegan as one of his three(3) captains' picks, he also said that Keegan is "an acquired taste," 😂😂

 

He also agrees on your pairing, lol

 

Oh, and he thinks that the only thing worse than Couples opening his mouth last month was the bull💩 excuse that Johnson gave for Couples opening his mouth.

 

He also thinks that 5 Co-Captains are two too many, though it's the Captain's choice. 

 

Have a Great Week Dutch👊

RP

 

The PGA of America brings in a ton of money from the Ryder Cup, and dammit, they are going to spend every cent!!

[grm24]

40 minutes ago, 3whacker said:

one other consideration that will be factored in when playing alternate shot: which brand of ball is played. Im sure when TW played you can bet they played the Nike ball..YJS and JT are both ProV1 guys...I think Brooks plays a Srixon, Cantlay is a ProV1(x) guy, Xander is a Chrome soft guy I think, Scottie is a ProV1, and Im not sure if Rickie is still playing a TP5, have no idea about the rest of the team

Golf balls by brand -

 

Brooks - Srixon

Burns, Xander - Callaway

Cantlay, Clark, Harman, Homa, Scottie, JT, YJS - Titleist

Rickie, Collin - TaylorMade

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by grm24

[j.b.newton]

3 hours ago, jimecherry said:

golf is a superstitious sport just ask anyone why they think a golf ball only has one birdie in it ;}

I must be getting a lot of bad batches - I can't seem to find one in many of these balls....

[Ferguson]

Justin Leonard would have been a better captain. 

 

 

[3whacker]

4 minutes ago, Ferguson said:

Justin Leonard would have been a better captain. 

 

 

any ideas on why he hasnt been under consideration or even as a vice captain, I always thought he and DLIII were friends

[Tiptx1122]

Talk about pressure on ZJ. What about JT as he better put up some good numbers or this will get talked about for years. Luke Donald should have put Sergio Garcia on since he has more RC points than anyone. 

[grm24]

10 minutes ago, Tiptx1122 said:

Talk about pressure on ZJ. What about JT as he better put up some good numbers or this will get talked about for years. Luke Donald should have put Sergio Garcia on since he has more RC points than anyone. 

One small problem. Garcia is not eligible to be on the European RC team since he resigned his ET/DP Tour membership.

Edited August 30, 2023 by grm24

[Tiptx1122]

I did not know that? Interesting is it because he just wants to be home more as he has a young family now.Good for him

Edited August 30, 2023 by Tiptx1122

[jdl]

So much angst over 1, maybe 2 picks. 

 

[grm24]

1 minute ago, Tiptx1122 said:

Interesting is it because he just wants to be home more as he has a young family now.

Another reason.

[LBB]

9 minutes ago, Tiptx1122 said:

Talk about pressure on ZJ. What about JT as he better put up some good numbers or this will get talked about for years. Luke Donald should have put Sergio Garcia on since he has more RC points than anyone. 

If JT goes 0-4, it will get talked about on golfwrx for years, win or lose for the US.

 

For the mainstream media, I think they have endorsed JT as a pick (he is a more recognizable name/face which should mean slightly better ratings), so I don't think they'll bring it up so much if the US wins.  If the US loses with JT performing poorly, I'm sure the media will turn on ZJ and throw him under the bus for any chance they can to make a headline.

[Tiptx1122]

Sounds pretty accurate

[Dutch1008]

2 hours ago, Golferpaul said:

Birdie percent is a useless stat.  Look back about 10 years when Tiger and Phil had very high birdie percents but neither could play well in the RC.

 

Birdies add excitement, but you still have to beat the other team.  If you are a birdie leader but way down on the scoring average list, the rest of your game must be crap.  As of today, JT is 33rd in birdies which is OK but not great.  But he is 66th in scoring.  so he has on average four good holes per round and several bad holes.

 

I'll take a better scoring average over a better birdie average every day.

You don't think Tiger and Phil had very low scoring averages? Phil is a good comp as he can be as high risk, high reward as JT. I don't recall Tiger ever being known as high risk. Tiger was the absolute king of scratching out par w/ his C game. 

 

Further, I love Tiger and Phil but those two are the poster children for the stereotypical ego-centric, individualistic American. Phil has always been 100% about Phil and Tiger didn't give a damn about anything but himself until his world fell apart and his body broke down. Those two are examples 1a and 1b on why the Captain should think about team building, not just talent.   

[getitdaily]

6 hours ago, 3whacker said:

Enough of the bickering over team selection....its over and done, and not a darn thing we can do about it, lets talk pairings

I figure Donald will go with Foursomes in the morning session since that is traditionally the US weak point

So If I am ZJ here is who I throw out there

 

Xander- Cantlay

Rickie- Homa

Brooks- Scottie

YJS- JT

 

I follow it in the afternoon with

 

Harman- Clark

Burns- Scottie

Brooks- Morikawa

Cantlay- Schauffle

Why not keep xander and cantlay together for the afternoon? Why swap xander with shauffele?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

😁

[getitdaily]

49 minutes ago, grm24 said:

Golf balls by brand -

 

Brooks - Srixon

Burns, Xander - Callaway

Cantlay, Clark, Harman, Homa, Scottie, JT, YJS - Titleist

Rickie, Collin - TaylorMade

 

Koepka played a prov1 for so long that he may as well be in the titleist camp

[Dutch1008]

1 hour ago, golfortennis said:

I think it was an apt comparison by whomever who first brought it up.  Picking Thomas is like the scouts looking for the "good face" IMO.

Great post but I'd push back on your conclusion. Cameron Young would be the "good face" pick. JT could arguably be the David Justice signing. Great track record but not the player he used to be. Brought in to provide experience, leadership, and LH power. JT was brought in for experience, leadership, and prior success w/ Spieth. 😉 

 

 

[Dutch1008]

15 minutes ago, LBB said:

If JT goes 0-4, it will get talked about on golfwrx for years, win or lose for the US.

I don't think there is any chance that JT goes 0-4. He simply won't get the opportunity. The US team is too deep. They don't have to play him. If they start w/ foursomes, I think JT/JS go out in session one. If they lose, JT is probably sitting session two. If they lose and he looks bad, JT may sit until singles. Worse case scenario is JT going 0-3. 

[bscinstnct]

US is doomed

 

ZJ be like

 

 

[Golferpaul]

28 minutes ago, Dutch1008 said:

I don't think there is any chance that JT goes 0-4. He simply won't get the opportunity. The US team is too deep. They don't have to play him. If they start w/ foursomes, I think JT/JS go out in session one. If they lose, JT is probably sitting session two. If they lose and he looks bad, JT may sit until singles. Worse case scenario is JT going 0-3. 

The last player we had go 0 - 4 - 0 was Tiger in 2018.  So yes, it is a possibility.  But I agree with you that if JT starts out 0-2 he will be on the bench until Sunday.

[golfortennis]

41 minutes ago, Dutch1008 said:

Great post but I'd push back on your conclusion. Cameron Young would be the "good face" pick. JT could arguably be the David Justice signing. Great track record but not the player he used to be. Brought in to provide experience, leadership, and LH power. JT was brought in for experience, leadership, and prior success w/ Spieth. 😉 

 

 

 

And he is such a hot commodity that another team is paying him a lot of money to play against them!

[Hawkeye77]

8 hours ago, SatchelRuaz said:

 

No offense to Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin or Mark O'Meara, great US players and great men, but they didn't even play the same game guys play on tour now. I'm certain they would tell you that. Being able to relate to players in some form is a huge factor. Zach is still out on tour with these guys. And everyone else that has captained the team recently at least saw the game transform toward the tail end of their career. 

 

The fact is, the guys who have been vice captains recently, when the tide has turned, are most suited to captain the squad, regardless of age. Freddie and now Stewart Cink are likely in line as well. Larry Nelson, Hale Irwin and Mark O'Meara will likely never be captains. They should've gotten that call years ago and didn't, but the past is the past. You can't right that wrong now. I do think you'll see O'Meara as a vice when Tiger gets the call. 

Bet you $100 Tiger does not have O’Meara as a Vice Captain. 

[Hawkeye77]

59 minutes ago, bscinstnct said:

US is doomed

 

ZJ be like

 

 

It’s not like he picked Raymond!!

[Hawkeye77]

7 hours ago, tatertot said:

Can they lose on the front 9 in match play?

 

Haha, Stephen Ames can attest to early in the back 9!

[Hawkeye77]

No time to read all this. Maybe Justin is being rewarded for loyalty and if Koepka is on, let him be the “counter”

and yes, all the other guys were loyal as well but still ….. 

 

I don’t give a rip who is on or off, Captain made his choices, sharpen the grooves and get after it!

[Dutch1008]

1 hour ago, Golferpaul said:

The last player we had go 0 - 4 - 0 was Tiger in 2018.  So yes, it is a possibility.  But I agree with you that if JT starts out 0-2 he will be on the bench until Sunday.

Well sure, it's technically possible that JT goes 0-5. I just don't think there is even a remote chance of that happening. We're not talking about a roster w/ 51 y/o Jay Haas on the team. There is plenty enough talent for JT to sit a few sessions if he's struggling.  

[grm24]

21 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

No time to read all this. Maybe Justin is being rewarded for loyalty and if Koepka is on, let him be the “counter”

and yes, all the other guys were loyal as well but still ….. 

 

I don’t give a rip who is on or off, Captain made his choices, sharpen the grooves and get after it!

JL just walked away from announcing and is in his rookie year on the Champions Tour. Perhaps he is simply not ready or interested at this time.

[baitdragger]

2 hours ago, LBB said:

If JT goes 0-4, it will get talked about on golfwrx for years, win or lose for the US.

 

 

It will be right above or below the thread “When will Rickie ever win again?”

[Louis_Posture]

7 hours ago, Dutch1008 said:

https://www.rydercup.com/eu-rankings

 

Thomas Pieters is 65th

Thank you for the  information.

[Naptime]

I don't think JT played well enough this year to skip over other players to choose him.