Tripp on GC says he thinks Tiger and Rickie will be a pairing in foursomes and DJ/Koepka in fourball. Euopean pairing to watch for is Molinari and Casey in foursomes and Fleetwood/Poulter in fourball.
I’ll meet you in the middle and say ‘easier’.Captain America is easy to root for at the Ryder Cup.
If I was Reed I wouldn’t want that anchor as my partner either. He literally carried Spieth in Saturday Fourball last time.FWIW, on a NLU Ryder Cup preview podcast a week or two ago, their informed speculation was that the US pods would look something like:
Tiger, JT, Spieth, Reed
Phil, Rickie, DJ, Finau
Brooks, Bryson, Webb, Bubba (island of misfit toys pod here)
It wasn’t 100%, but the majority of pairs did come from the pods at Hazeltine. Those groupings spread out the 3 rookies. There’s been Tiger/JT chatter recently, and obviously the Tiger/Bryson pairing has been speculated on since it became obvious both were going to make the team, but we’ll see. The earlier chatter was that Tiger/Reed could be a thing so they could break up Spieth/Reed and get Spieth with JT. Despite the success, Spieth and Reed don’t seem to want to play together again.
The middle pod seems straight forward. Phil/Rickie, DJ/Finau.
Brooks/DJ seems like a pairing that would make sense, but the idea is that he doesn’t give a shit who he plays with, so can handle some of the tougher guys to play with. Maybe they go Bryson/Brooks and then Webb/Bubba who have played together in the past.
We’ll find out if these pods are accurate in the next few days.
Yeah, I’m trying to figure out how to make this work. I think best case is hope for it to be a blowout and then i can root for Poulter, Rose, Stenson and Rory to be matched up and crush them in meaningless matches on Sunday? I guess if they keep them out of foursomes it could work too, it that’s a lot of weight on the other guy in fourball.Is it possible to root for individual guys to fail miserably, but for the team to win? If so, that's where I'm at.
I call bull on this and would like to see the stats. Rickie is a really good putter, so any disadvantage of him putting four feet past would be made up for by him making putts. I don't think he burns it by the hole any more than any other player. He wouldn't leave DJ 4 feet past all day, that is absurd.If I was Reed I wouldn’t want that anchor as my partner either. He literally carried Spieth in Saturday Fourball last time.
The other really interesting thing from that episode is that the critical part of the pairings in Foursomes is putting styles. You wouldn’t want to pair a guy like Rickie and DJ together, because Rickie attacks the hole and has no problem with a 3-4 foot comebacker but DJ likes to die it in the hole. So if Rickie left him with 4 foot comebackers all day in foursomes it’d be no bueno. I never thought of it that way and thought it was interesting.
I don’t know why they call them “pods” instead of groups (probably to make it sound more important than it is) but it is something Azinger takes credit for coming up with when he captained the winning ‘08 team. The idea is that the pairings come from the practice groups. Keep the small groups together, let the players build chemistry with their practice partners, and then the foursome and four ball pairings would come from the “pods.” The US used to get killed in the team matches, this system got them back on track. DLIII sort of used at Medinah and Hazeltine, but there were some cross over group pairings. Watson didn’t use it at the 2014 disaster.Whats with the term pods? Is the idea that the players playing together in the practice rounds will only team with the 3 guys theyre playing with? So like, Tiger will only play with Bryson, Phil, or Reed?
My thoughts exactly.I don't understand splitting up Reed and Spieth at all, and likewise cannot think of a good reason why Tiger and Phil should be in the same group. I am concerned Furyk's getting a little too cute here.
I agree, but the players basically run everything now - especially Phil. If he wants to play with Tiger, it's going to happen. Plus, Phil will probably use it to cross-promote their own Thanksgiving event. (and I used to really like Phil, but he's getting annoying).I don't understand splitting up Reed and Spieth at all, and likewise cannot think of a good reason why Tiger and Phil should be in the same group. I am concerned Furyk's getting a little too cute here.
I don't want a Tiger/Phil pairing near an alternate shot match but I could possibly live with it in best ball as they could afford to be very aggressive and hunt for birdies on their own balls. They weren't in the same "pod" together but wouldn't a pairing of Rickie and Bryson be very good in alternate shot? Both are accurate and long off the tee. Given the tight fairways, I hope Furyk mixes together straight and long hitters off the tee.I don't understand splitting up Reed and Spieth at all, and likewise cannot think of a good reason why Tiger and Phil should be in the same group. I am concerned Furyk's getting a little too cute here.
NLU podcast I listened to last week said it’s pretty much a given that Tiger only plays once a day. We’ll see if that plays out or not, but I’m not sure it’s smart for him to try to pull 36 on any given day and have it work out well.I don't want a Tiger/Phil pairing near an alternate shot match but I could possibly live with it in best ball as they could afford to be very aggressive and hunt for birdies on their own balls. They weren't in the same "pod" together but wouldn't a pairing of Rickie and Bryson be very good in alternate shot? Both are accurate and long off the tee. Given the tight fairways, I hope Furyk mixes together straight and long hitters off the tee.
Out of those groups from this morning here's what I'd see for the morning matches. Tiger/Reed, Speith/Thomas, DJ/Fowler, Finau/Koepka. Sitting would be Phil, DeChambeau, Webb Simpson, and Bubba Watson. Afternoon could be Tiger/Bryson, DJ/Koepka(cross-grouping but this is a dream best ball pairing IMO), Rickie/Phil, Simpson/Reed. I think Simpson's even keel approach would complement Reed's out of control temperment. I don't see Bubba playing the first day. Anyone else see it differently?
2-1-1 is pretty damned good. They’ve won 5 points in 7 matches in the Ryder Cup and 4.5 points in 5 matches in the Presidents Cup. I just don’t see how you can break that up. It’s the most successful team in American team play history.I think the Reed/Spieth stuff boils down to the fact that they don't want to play with each other and they weren't exactly great last time. They got smoked in fourball on Friday, blew a big foursomes lead on Saturday morning, and realistically should have lost fourball Saturday if Reed wasn't superhuman during that match. They were 2-1-1 in team play in Hazeltine, and should have been at least 1-1-2.
Sounds like a good listen, but again, if Tiger and Phil are saying ‘we want to play together’ how do you act like a parent and say ‘no, you’re too competitive to do that’? Tiger and Phil in 2018 aren’t Tiger and Phil in 2005 (or whenever) throwing slights about inferior equipment and shit like that. Both seem to know their place and tasted some humility that age brings. I’d friggin love to see them together.Paul Azinger was on Shane Bacon's Clubhouse podcast this week and he went pretty deep talking about how he set up the pairings and groups when he was captain. He took initial inspiration from how the Europeans would play people from the same countries together. Then he realized the biggest part of being a captain was managing personalities both in setting up the pairings and groups, and also in how he would encourage players (taking a business staff development approach). He said you should never put ultra-competitive players like Tiger and Phil together because they would never want to share things with each other. He also said the groups gave him the flexibility to switch up the pairings, without surprising the players about with whom they were playing.
Combine that with some of his own Ryder Cup stories from playing, and it was an excellent listen.
Totally agree. They don't have that same competitiveness or animosity as they did 15 years ago. And you don't see that either with so many of the younger guys like Spieth, Rickie, and JT, so that gives Furyk some more flexibility in setting up the groups.Sounds like a good listen, but again, if Tiger and Phil are saying ‘we want to play together’ how do you act like a parent and say ‘no, you’re too competitive to do that’? Tiger and Phil in 2018 aren’t Tiger and Phil in 2005 (or whenever) throwing slights about inferior equipment and shit like that. Both seem to know their place and tasted some humility that age brings. I’d friggin love to see them together.
Hmm. I thought the person had an accent that wasn’t American. I could absolutely be wrong.I haven’t seen the clip yet, but on Twitter people were saying the reporter was Rick Reilly. Weird.
This is the exchange between Reilly and JT. Reilly is a weird, weird dude.Hmm. I thought the person had an accent that wasn’t American. I could absolutely be wrong.
Where everyone else is now...The Athletic.I had no idea Rick Reilly was still alive. Who does he write his dumb articles for now?
I prefer to just assume that Rick Reilly is dumb.Could he possibly be asserting that someone other than JT's dad is his biological father?
Yes he is a club pro and so is his grandfather.Isn't JT's dad a golf pro and not a writer?
The guys on Sirius golf channel this morning were saying that not only do they expect to see Spieth and Reed together, but that they should be leading off the event on Friday morning and should play all 4 matches together barring a blowout loss. They agree with you that Phil and DeChambeau would be a great pairing because they both think the game the same way.The practice groups were:
JT, Spieth, Tiger, Reed
Phil, Bryson, Bubba, Webb
Brooks, Finau, DJ, Rickie
So if you want to read into it, the pairs that stayed together:
JT/Spieth
Tiger/Reed
Phil/Bryson
Bubba/Webb
Brooks/Finau
DJ/Rickie
The only sure thing in there is probably Bubba and Webb, but the other duo’s do make some sense and could be pairings we see. Phil and Bryson could be interesting, they’d probably pair reasonably well. Bryson can keep the ball in play off the tee and Phil geeks out with the analytical stuff too.
I think on Spieth/Reed, they can send them out as a foursomes pairing and then break them up for four ball. Foursomes is the tougher one to match guys up, so leaving together a pair that has had success (1-1-2...should be 2-1-1 if not for the 4 up with 6 to play meltdown against Sergio and RCB) would make sense. Then they can send Reed out with Tiger in four ball and Spieth with his buddy JT.
If Tiger only plays 1 match a day, I’d keep him in four ball. He was #1 in strokes gained approach, let him hit stingers off the tee all day and then fire in at every flag instead of only hitting half the approach shots. The driver has been a lot better since he tweaked the shaft and loft, but this place doesn’t require driver off the tee. Maybe the JT pairing that had been talked about would work out, Tiger can put those stingers in play and then free up JT to be more aggressive with the big stick.
I don’t think Reilly’s the kind of guy to to tha to someone like JT. Probably just some really dumb joke about some guest column his dad has written or is going to write or something.Could he possibly be asserting that someone other than JT's dad is his biological father?
Rick Reilly and poor attempt at humor?!?!?! Never!Apparently Mike Thomas is writing updates and insights in Paris for the Courier Journal all week, and it was a poor attempt at humor regarding that.
Well in four-ball you can do both, but it'll definitely be interesting in foursomes. I think the US is going to get crushed in the team events this year and will need a comeback in singles. The course setup is the main reason, but also I am not sure that they'll roll out the right guys. Phil is playing like shit, Bryson is exhausted and a head case, Bubba is sick and playing like shit, Tiger is traditionally a bad team player, Spieth's putting has been not great this year. It will really depend on who Furyk leans heavily on this year and I don't have faith that he'll sit veterans like Phil and Bubba in place of the young guns.The guys on Sirius golf channel this morning were saying that not only do they expect to see Spieth and Reed together, but that they should be leading off the event on Friday morning and should play all 4 matches together barring a blowout loss. They agree with you that Phil and DeChambeau would be a great pairing because they both think the game the same way.
I wonder how the US players will attack the golf course. It's a tight course and they say the rough has been grown thick to discourage the long US hitters from hitting driver off the tee. Will they come out being aggressive and try to outmuscle the course by hitting driver or will they go more 3 wood/irons off the tee and sacrifice distance for accuracy?