Sure.
The "we are going to get destroyed" was mostly a tongue in cheek reaction to Webb Simpson being named a Vice Captain. It mostly boils down to not liking Webb, I've never been a fan. He comes across as an entitled brat. I think Vice Captains are largely useless, and they end up with like 6 of them and 12 actual players, so I don't think it's make or break but I do think there are some warning signs here. First, Webb's track record in Ryder Cup's is not great. He's played in three, went 4-4-1, but the team is 0-3. In one of his appearances, he called Watson and begged his way onto the team. Secondly, they appointed Bradley as the captain and have sold it as an outside the box hire and signaled a change in the way they are going to do things. To me, Webb seems like a status quo type pick for VC where everyone who has played on a team gets a turn at VC and eventually captain. I don't think it's a needle moving pick, also decision but I also don't see the first order of business for Bradley being to get Webb in the room.
As for Bethpage...I just don't think it's an interesting venue for pro golf. It's long, narrow and has deep rough. I don't think it sets up well for exciting golf. The championships that have been played there have largely been duds. Tiger in 02 was mostly a runaway, 09 US Open was a Lucas Glover/Ricky Barnes showdown and the 09 PGA was basivally over by Friday afternoon with Koepka going up by 7. Miss the fairway, chop out, try to get up and down from 100 yards on repeat. It's kind of similar to Torrey Pines, minus the handful of holes at Torrey along the cliffs with a ocean view. The biggest selling point is the crowd and atmosphere, which will be fantastic and will have the Euro's crying and invoking Brookline before the tournament even starts. Maybe they can set it up radically different but I don't think "hard" courses are good fits for match play. I want to see shot making, birdies and bogeys at every turn and I don't think Bethpage provides that. From a shot making perspective, long, narrow and deep rough basically means it's going to be bomb and gauge and I think it's going to be a lot pars and bogeys. Maybe I'm wrong about the set up but even the two regular PGA Tour tournaments they've held there have been tougher than the typical PGA Tour set up. And bomb and gauge will benefit the US more than Europe so I'm sure they'll lean into it. That's great for winning, maybe not so great for the product. I've said it before but my ideal US Ryder Cup venue is TPC Scottsdale. I'd throw in TPC Sawgrass as well. Stadium coures that are built to hold a ton of fans and have awesome closing stretches where anything can happen.
