2014 Ryder Cup

daveuk

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Comfortably Lomb said:
 
No. Between this and the President's Cup they have one of these things every year. They don't care because it's not special. For the Euros this is a chance to shine on the world stage. For the Americans it's an obligation. You want them to care? Ditch the President's Cup.
 
They used to care when they were winning. Now, not so much
 

RedOctober3829

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Comfortably Lomb said:
 
No. Between this and the President's Cup they have one of these things every year. They don't care because it's not special. For the Euros this is a chance to shine on the world stage. For the Americans it's an obligation. You want them to care? Ditch the President's Cup.
Does anybody care about the President's Cup?  I sure as hell don't.  The Ryder Cup is most definetly more special than the President's Cup. 
 
I just think that the US players don't care about it like the last generation did.  Maybe because they are now biannual losers.  Whatever the reason is, Europe knows they can beat the US no matter the situation.
 

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RedOctober3829 said:
Does anybody care about the President's Cup?  I sure as hell don't.  The Ryder Cup is most definetly more special than the President's Cup. 
 
I just think that the US players don't care about it like the last generation did.  Maybe because they are now biannual losers.  Whatever the reason is, Europe knows they can beat the US no matter the situation.
The President's Cup is a bullshit event, with a long history dating  all the way back to 1994.
 

BigMike

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Comfortably Lomb said:
 
No. Between this and the President's Cup they have one of these things every year. They don't care because it's not special. For the Euros this is a chance to shine on the world stage. For the Americans it's an obligation. You want them to care? Ditch the President's Cup.
 
 
 
 
I don't think anyone cares about the Presidents cup.  I don't even know that I have ever even seen a match in that one.  I am sure for the week the guys are playing in the event they careBut
 
I am not buying that the presidents cup has somehow made the Ryder's cup less important.  Guys fight for the spot on this team.  Tiger had absolutely no business playing at the end of this season, but he was out there wincing in pain on every shot because he wanted to get on this team.
 
Americans players absolutely care about the event.  Europe has just been better
 

Deathofthebambino

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I agree that the US players care about this event.  Nobody can tell me that Patrick Reed (who I personally don't care for) and Spieth and Fowler aren't out there fighting.  The problem is they just aren't as good, as a team, as Europe.  It seems like Europe is constantly in a better position, always in the fairway, always on the green, always putting for birdie, while the US is scrambling around for pars and halves.  This afternoon was just brutal to watch.  The US couldn't get anything going, and then Reed's miss on the bunny on 16 was just the perfect ending. 
 
I just looked up Furyk's record in Ryder Cup matches, and coming into this season, he's played 30 matches and his record is 9-17-4, and I honestly thought it was going to be much, much worse than that.  In fourball, he's 1-8-1 and he's 4-6-2 in foursomes.  He's 4-3-1 in singles.  He's fucking so hard to watch.  He made shots today that most 10 handicappers could have done better.  I feel like he singlehandedly destroys the US every two years, and he ruins the guy he gets paired with.  I hate his swing, I hate his face, I hate his game and I want him to never play in it again.  UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
 

RedOctober3829

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Singles Pairings
 
McDowell vs. Spieth
Stenson vs. Reed
McIlroy vs. Fowler
Rose vs. Mahan
Gallacher vs. Mickelson
Kaymer vs. Bubba
Bjorn vs. Kuchar
Garcia vs. Furyk
Poulter vs. Simpson
Donaldson vs. Bradley
Westwood vs. Walker
Dubuisson vs. Johnson
 

ivanvamp

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Deathofthebambino said:
I agree that the US players care about this event.  Nobody can tell me that Patrick Reed (who I personally don't care for) and Spieth and Fowler aren't out there fighting.  The problem is they just aren't as good, as a team, as Europe.  It seems like Europe is constantly in a better position, always in the fairway, always on the green, always putting for birdie, while the US is scrambling around for pars and halves.  This afternoon was just brutal to watch.  The US couldn't get anything going, and then Reed's miss on the bunny on 16 was just the perfect ending. 
 
I just looked up Furyk's record in Ryder Cup matches, and coming into this season, he's played 30 matches and his record is 9-17-4, and I honestly thought it was going to be much, much worse than that.  In fourball, he's 1-8-1 and he's 4-6-2 in foursomes.  He's 4-3-1 in singles.  He's fucking so hard to watch.  He made shots today that most 10 handicappers could have done better.  I feel like he singlehandedly destroys the US every two years, and he ruins the guy he gets paired with.  I hate his swing, I hate his face, I hate his game and I want him to never play in it again.  UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.
If he earns a a spot there's nothing you can do about it.

But, given the numbers you just laid out, maybe the key is to sit him in Friday and Saturday and just let him play his singles match on Sunday.
 

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Normally I'm not one to think intangibles make a difference, but one of the reasons I think the Europeans seem to play better in the Ryder Cup is the camaraderie they have.  Sure, some of the US guys are friends but I think when the Europeans come on the PGA tour its an us against them mentality, where as with the Americans its every man for himself.
 

BigMike

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ivanvamp said:
If he earns a a spot there's nothing you can do about it.

But, given the numbers you just laid out, maybe the key is to sit him in Friday and Saturday and just let him play his singles match on Sunday.
 
Or at the bare minimum sit him in fourball, he has been adequate in foursomes.
 
 
Rory vs RIckey,  in what is supposed to be a blind vs blind submission.    I don't buy it there was some collusion there to make sure they play each other on Sunday
 
Hard to find a pairing there where you feel the US has an advantage.    I guess if you look at the rankings,  Walker over Westwood, and Mickelsson over Gallacher are wide gaps
 
Funny there are a bunch where the US guy is probably 5 spots better in the world golf rankings,  but yet it feels like a huge Euro advantage right now
 

RedOctober3829

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Zomp said:
Normally I'm not one to think intangibles make a difference, but one of the reasons I think the Europeans seem to play better in the Ryder Cup is the camaraderie they have.  Sure, some of the US guys are friends but I think when the Europeans come on the PGA tour its an us against them mentality, where as with the Americans its every man for himself.
Exactly.  I feel like most of the US players are mercenaries who only care about their next paycheck.  This feeling would go a long ways in not having the same feelings about this event than the Europeans.  This group of Euros grew up on the memories of Seve, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, etc. that turned the tide of this event back in the 80's and early 90's.  They grew up wanting to emulate those guys and carry on the tradition of beating the USA.  What did this group of US players grow up wanting to do more?  Win majors or win the Ryder Cup?  I see guys like Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, and Keegan Bradley who fit the Euro mentality of embracing the competition and taking their games to new levels because they are playing for something bigger than individual accolades.  Spieth and Reed really showed me something the last 2 days.  You need guys that are outwardly confident about themselves and their games no matter how good or bad they are playing coming into the week.  Other players seem to play it as just another tournament on the schedule.  Sure, they'll get excited if they do well and be disappointed if they dont but at the end of the day it's just another event and they'll move onto the next one.  The European players point to this event as the most important event they play and they as a group step their games up.  Rory once felt it was just another event, but once he played in it he was introduced into the culture of how the Euros treat the event.  There isn't a player or a group of players playing for the US that can be considered as leaders in this sense.  Mickelson? Nope.  Woods? Hell no. 
 
Hopefully the younger guys will build the same chemistry and camradarie that this Euro group has.
 

bostonbeerbelly

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So I stayed away from news and this thread to watch the replay this afternoon. Finished up the morning round and they cut to a sports update for the day before showing the afternoon coverage. In that sports update they managed to tell me completely what happened in the afternoon pairings.  I couldn't believe what just happened, but I guess I should be thankful I didn't devote 3+ hours to this afternoon disaster. 
 

WayBackVazquez

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I'm actually optimistic about the future of the US team. Soon enough, Furyk and Phil will be gone. And Tiger will follow. I think Rickie, Reed, Spieth are going to make a good foundation for this team.
 

BigMike

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I am far from convinced that Patrick Reed will be a regular on the team at this point.   I think he had 2 top 10s in the 20 or so starts he made after winning in Florida,  and missed 8 cuts.
 
But the US will always have good young talent.   at the same time, there is a lot of pretty young talent on that Euro team as well
 

fletcherpost

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Monty, love him or hate him, is never boring. Yesterday on the Golf Chanel he said some interesting things about the Europe Team. I'm gonna paraphrase and summarise from memory. He said the caddies basically rule the locker room/club house, they set the tone, the vibe, they keep it light with jokes and banter and they keep it intense. He said the Ryder CUp team is 24 people plus captain and vice captains. He included the 12 caddies.
 
The impression I got is there is no ego problems. There's a lot of support, from caddies and senior players> Monty said that Seve's influence is still there in the clubhouse. What he brought to the team as a captain and player, they still draw from that. He said that on the way to the first tee, they pass through a tunnell that has picutres of key players throughout Ryder Cup history. The last player as you walk through it is Seve. He said a lot of players Touch Seve as they pass through...much like Liverpool players touch the 'This is Anfield' sign/crest on the way to taking the field.
 
Also, and someone touched on this. When Rory got stick a few years ago for kinda dissing the cup, what did his fellow players do...they all wore curly Rory wigs on the first tee of practice as a joke. Also Rory was kinda being mentored by G-Mac. Westwood is mentoring Donaldson, G-Mac is now mentoring Dubuisson, Westwood was mentored by Faldo...and so on and so on.
 
Intangibles are only intangible until you begin to quanify...like the GB cycling team and their Marginal Gains, which i think is now the accepted sporting model...the European team are aware of the little things as well as the big things. Two years ago, European players talked of how there were tears in the locker room, the night before the singles...cos Olazabal made such a moving and passionate speech. Stuff like that matters...if it inspires people to dig deep, focus more...delve into the marginala spects of their performance capability.  World Rankings...especially in such a mercurial sport as golf are of little value really. The nature of the Ryder Cup qualification is that these players will tend to be relatively highly ranked or will have pedigree.
 
I wonder if the President's Cup detracts from the prestige of the Ryder Cup. I too have never watched a single hole...much like i skipped the Dunhill Cup and that, got canned. The Ryder Cup has history, the crowds sound different from the first morning session on the Friday right through to the close on Sunday. It's a unique event in sport. I'd hate to see the US team, back off from cfaring about it, just cos they're not doing do well. Or maybe even when they were winnng they didn't care much.
 

doldmoose34

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Interesting Fletch, the Ryder cup has so much history and tradition behind it, Presidents Cup is marketing creation of the PGA tour to keep the rest of the world players happy. I. Couldn't give two shits about the presidents, meanwhile I've been up watching the past two days at 4:30 am

At the tailgate before the BC / CSU game yesterday we had people watching the afternoon shit show on my iPhone, you don't see that in anything other then the majors
 

johnmd20

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EUR leads 3, US leads 2, one is tied. Not good so far. Obviously the US needs a miracle but it would be nice if today was worth watching.
 

fletcherpost

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I think it's gonna be close. If the US can avoid more than two blowout losses and keep it close, the pressure will get to the European team. Just like it did to the US team two years ago. Golf is tough when it's meant to be easy.
 

johnmd20

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fletcherpost said:
I think it's gonna be close. If the US can avoid more than two blowout losses and keep it close, the pressure will get to the European team. Just like it did to the US team two years ago. Golf is tough when it's meant to be easy.
 
I think it's asking a lot for it to be close. Europe already has one win in Rory. 
 

johnmd20

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Zomp said:
I NOW FUCKING LOVE PATRICK REED
 
Yeah, that shush was awesome. Aggressively awesome. 20 year old Jordan Spieth getting it done. We need a few blowouts early to set the tone. Rory hasn't helped but that is a lost cause. Get 'em in two years Rickie.
 

fletcherpost

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It's still close. I was looking at the singles scoring ffor Valderama, which i rmember watching. Europe had a huge lead going in and got murdered in the singles and won by a single point. If the matches are close, i think it favours the underdog. 
 

inJacobyWeTrust

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johnmd20 said:
20 year old Jordan Spieth is putting like me. That's not a compliment. Awful situation right now.
 
I was just thinking, when I was 20 I was grinding out crisp 79s in irrelevant college tourneys.  He's playing Sunday singles at the Ryder Cup.
 
I can't even imagine the pressure he's feeling, especially after missing a few putts.
 

johnmd20

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Bubba Watson is officially my least favorite golfer in the world at this point. Right behind him is Webb Simpson.