October 2, 2025 • 37 mins
Matt Cook explores Europe's Ryder Cup win and Luke Donald's impactful captaincy, dissecting the final score and U.S. team's issues. The episode discusses New York crowd dynamics, golf's elitist image, and Rory McIlroy's reactions to perceived hypocrisy. It examines broadcasters' focus, Donald's strategy, and the role of data in modern golf. Tommy Fleetwood's standout performance, U.S. team prep issues, and course setup blunders are highlighted. Celebrations of Team Europe and a look ahead to the 2027 Ryder Cup are included. The episode concludes with thoughts on Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods as potential captains, player performances, and sponsor acknowledgments.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Europe records its first Ryder Cup win on U.S.
(00:03):
soil since 1993.
The final score was Europe 15, USA 13.
It was a heck of a Ryder Cup from just being aweird Ryder Cup.
We came all the way back and almost pulled offthe epic comeback upset on that final day in
(00:23):
the singles matches.
We got dominated.
I mean, there's no other way to kind of put it.
Like, if I'm the Europeans, I don't bring onanother captain.
But remember, he wasn't even supposed to be theRyder Cup captain two years ago.
So for him to be thrust into that, it wassupposed to be Henrik Stenson who ended up
going to LIV Golf and then they were like,yeah, you can't be the captain of the Ryder Cup
(00:45):
team.
So they had Luke Donald step in and what a jobhe did.
And then on top of that, showing that he issuch a great captain.
Like, it was almost like if you've ever been ina golf match before and you just run into a
buzzsaw, the guy that just can't miss.
The guy that's making everything.
That's what the Europeans look like.
(01:06):
And it came as no surprise whatsoever to myselfas well as to Buttsy or to Brent that were on
the podcast last week for the Ryder Cup previewbecause guess what?
We called it.
We said the course setup was really going tofavor the Europeans.
The Europeans were the favorites heading intothis, we believe.
On paper, it's the first time that the Europeanteam really stacked up on paper just as good,
(01:32):
if not better, than the U.S.
team.
And we talked about how the crowds like,hopefully, the crowds would end up helping Team
USA, and it seemed like it backfired.
Welcome back, everybody, to Pull Hook Golf thepodcast.
I'm your host, Matt Cook.
And on today's episode, we have the Ryder Cuprecap for 2023.
(01:57):
And it was an interesting Ryder Cup, needlessto say.
But before we dive into today's episode and goover everything Ryder Cup and what took place,
breaking it down, and analyzing it.
I do want to give a shout-out to our sponsors,DevRel Golf.
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Let's get into today's episode, which is theRyder Cup recap.
(03:49):
And first off, folks, if you've been livingunder a rock and don't realize what happened at
the Ryder Cup, Europe records its first RyderCup win on U.S.
soil since 2012.
The final score was Europe 15, USA 13.
It was a heck of a Ryder Cup from just being aweird Ryder Cup in my opinion.
(04:12):
Europe dominated in the team matchups and wecame all the way back and almost pulled off the
epic comeback upset on that final day in thesingles matches because, man, we were down a
lot heading into that final day.
(04:33):
We got dominated.
I mean, there's no other way to kind of put it,but I related it this way.
I was talking with Brent Grant a lot during theRyder Cup.
We were texting back and forth, and he wassaying, ah, the U.S.
just, you know, they don't have the effortgoing into it, which some people, certainly you
could draw conclusions there and say, oh, theUSA team doesn't really care.
(04:57):
They didn't really practice hard heading intothis.
There's a lot of reports out there too aroundthat part of it that, and I'll get to that in a
little bit probably towards the end of thispodcast.
I'll talk a little bit about the reports of asto how the U.S.
team prepared or the lack thereof and how thatall turned out.
(05:19):
But to me, it wasn't an effort.
It wasn't that the Europeans wanted it more.
That's not what I saw.
I saw a lot of emotions coming out
of the U.S.
team too.
where a guy like Scottie Scheffler wasdevastated that he hadn't racked up a single
point throughout all the matches, all the teammatches, I should say.
(05:40):
And that was very devastating to the U.S.
team as well.
But it was almost like if you've ever been in agolf match before and you just run into a buzz
saw, the guy that just can't miss, the guythat's making everything, that's what the
Europeans looked like.
And it came as no surprise whatsoever to myselfas well as to Buttsy or to Brent who were on
(06:03):
the podcast last week for the Ryder Cup previewbecause guess what?
We called it.
We said the course setup was really going tofavor the Europeans.
The Europeans were the favorites heading intothis, we believe.
On paper, it's the first time that the Europeanteam really stacked up on paper just as good,
if not better, than the U.S.
team.
(06:24):
And we talked about how hopefully the crowdswould end up helping Team USA.
And it seemed like it backfired because in alot of ways, and I want to talk about this for
a minute, that around all the talk that the NewYork crowd went too far.
Like, I've heard the stuff that they weresaying.
Like, New York fans a lot of times areintelligent.
(06:45):
There's a few bad apples for sure that getthrough there.
And were they too much on Rory?
Yeah.
They crossed the line with Rory McIlroy.
But some of these others that you're hearing,like, some of them are jabs, like funny jabs.
Like Bobby McIntyre, go on Ozempic, or when areyou going on Ozempic?
Like, things like that, I don't know if that'scrossing the line for you.
(07:09):
But for me as a fan of witnessing that, like,would that be something I'd ever say to him?
No.
Absolutely not.
But it is something that was said out there.
Now there were some things about Rory with thecheating and everything, and his wife and kids
were out there, or at least his wife was outthere.
And she ended up getting a drink thrown on her.
Like, there was a whole bunch of stuff thatwent across a lot in my opinion.
(07:33):
And there's no place for that just in sports ingeneral.
I do not like the rhetoric and the commentaryaround the fact that golf needs to be held to
this higher standard than other sports.
No.
Sports in general need to be held to a higherstandard in my opinion.
And if it's taking place in basketball,baseball, football, whatever team sport, it's
(07:57):
probably gonna happen in golf as well.
Like, I hate the elitist mentality of golf.
Like, that's one of the things that I justabsolutely can't stand about this sport is that
it thinks it's better than everybody else, andit's not.
Like, I've played sports growing up, playedteam sports.
Like, if anything, you learn just as much, ifnot more in team sports than you do in an
(08:18):
individual sport like the game of golf.
Like, yes.
Are there, you know, ethics being taught?
Or is there a, I guess you could say, agentleman's side to this whole entire sport?
Absolutely.
Like, that is traditional golf.
And do I buy into that?
Sure.
(08:38):
Like, I love the fact that golf is a bit of amirror of life and that, you know, how you act
like you're in it on your own and how you actrepresents how you look out there on the golf
course.
The part that I just don't really buy into isthat it's better than everything else that's
out there, that you don't learn that in othersports, sportsmanship, things along those
(09:02):
lines.
It's just you gotta have a—and I shouldn't sayyou gotta have because that's not the point
that I'm trying to make.
It's just I feel like it's on the same level asall other sports when it comes to we just need
to see better out of fans.
I mean, you hear it all the time with LittleLeague games and so forth of getting the
(09:27):
parents getting in on the refs or umpires.
And it's just, yeah, a lot of these things needto change, but it's in the heat of the moment.
It's in sports.
It's about, like, that competitiveness thatcomes out.
And sometimes that competitiveness, even withfans, is ugly.
So it's not that I wasn't expected.
The Europeans handled it beautifully outsideof, I would say, you know, Shane Lowry and Rory
(09:53):
McIlroy, which people might be like, yeah, butthey're being heckled.
Like you can't have it both ways.
You can't be telling fans to shut the F up andthen turning around and saying, you know, we
expect more out of golfers and the things thatRory was saying.
And then Rory even afterwards in thecelebrations putting the European flag over
(10:16):
Bryson DeChambeau's name and yelling out to thecrowd.
So those types of things, they don't go hand inhand.
And I've seen it like, Paul Azinger talkedabout it on the Subpar Golf Podcast.
So I'm not the only one that has this opinionin regards to this.
Like, it is well documented, and, like, a lotof people are like, man, that's really
hypocritical of somebody like Rory McIlroy.
(10:37):
And, of course, the people that don't like RoryMcIlroy because he was the face of the PGA Tour
versus LIV Golf are obviously talking aboutRory in that way a little bit more negatively
too.
Like, oh, it comes out of both sides of hismouth and so forth.
Like, I get it.
I get where you're coming from.
But to me, like, he dealt with a lot offrustration and he gave it back.
(11:02):
So I don't really have a problem with Rorysaying the things that he did.
I do think afterwards, when he's trying to talkabout how, like, the fans need to be more
respectful, golf needs to be held to a higherstandard, blah blah blah.
Like, that's the part that I'm like, okay.
Now you're a hypocrite because you literallylowered that level in your responses to those.
(11:24):
Like, could you have just kept going along yourway without acknowledging it?
Absolutely.
But those things get to Rory McIlroy, and Iunderstand it.
He's a human being.
Right?
We're all human beings.
So does anybody want to be talked to like that?
No.
Absolutely not.
But it's a hostile environment.
And I don't think the comparison is to, oh, theU.S.
crowd versus the European crowd.
(11:44):
European crowds just do this.
It's like, in a lot of ways, it's the samestuff.
It's just U.S.
fans, especially like New Yorkers, they dotheir homework.
They do their research.
They come into these.
Like, I've heard of baseball games where, like,they know about somebody's childhood.
Like, going into Yankee Stadium, I saw a postby Chipper Jones, who is the famous infielder
(12:06):
for the Atlanta Braves.
And he's like, I would never allow my wife,family, or kids to come into Yankee Stadium
because I knew that they were gonna be sayingsome horrible things to me during a game.
Like, you just need to know that.
And that, in a lot of ways, like, that's a NewYork crowd getting under people's skins.
That's what makes New York in a lot of ways.
(12:28):
Like, a lot of people aren't gonna understandthis.
If you're not from New York, you don't get it.
But that is the home-field advantage a lot oftimes in New York.
Like I worked within virtual reality for MajorLeague Baseball, for the Major League Baseball
teams, not for Major League Baseball, butdealing with the Baltimore Orioles, for
instance, like they wanted fan noise.
(12:48):
They wanted heckling.
They wanted the stuff that was going to be saidduring the game to be in there when they go to
Yankee Stadium because their team always had atough time, especially when they had young
teams to go into Yankee Stadium and to actuallyperform.
They would always technically choke, and theywanted that preparation to be able to have
(13:11):
their team ready to go and be able to handlethat when they get in there.
So I get it from both sides of the spectrum.
Again, like me, personally, I think that therewere a lot of things that were said that did
cross the line just in sports in general.
Again, not a fan of holding golf to aninvisible higher standard.
(13:32):
I just don't buy it.
In the least, it's a competitive sport, andthis is a team sport for the Ryder Cup.
Alright.
Moving beyond the crowd because that took a lotof the attention away from the actual Ryder Cup
itself, in my opinion.
Like, you even had the broadcasters during theRyder Cup talking about it throughout, over and
(13:52):
over and over again.
It's like, alright.
Let's just move on.
Like, I was even thinking about muting the TVat a point.
I'm like, gosh.
They just keep bringing it up.
But Europe did what you have to do to shut themup.
They won, and they used it as motivation, whichis awesome.
Like, I love that.
Like, think of Michael Jordan in basketball asto how he would use anything he possibly could
(14:18):
as bulletin board material.
I also talked about how Luke Donald, on theother hand, had really prepared his team for
the New York crowd.
But in addition to that, all the little detailsthat he did leading up to the Ryder Cup with
just how they set up everything, the littleslogans, using "Excelsior" on their golf bags,
(14:43):
which is the New York state motto.
Like all these things that he did were thedifference makers in my opinion.
And he might go down as one of the greatest, ifnot the greatest, captain of a Ryder Cup team.
And remember, he wasn't even supposed to be theRyder Cup captain two years ago.
So for him to be thrust into that, it wassupposed to be Henrik Stenson who ended up
(15:06):
going to LIV Golf, and then they were like,yeah, you can't be the captain of the Ryder Cup
team.
So they had Luke Donald step in, and what a jobhe did.
And then on top of that, really showing that heis such a great captain.
Like, if I'm the Europeans, I don't bring onanother captain.
Like, I allow Luke Donald to run this thinguntil he loses.
(15:28):
Like, just like a coach.
Like, Luke, will you continue to do this?
I think he really thrives in that environmentand really enjoys it.
And then the European side, you've gotMolinari, which I believe it's Matteo who's the
stats guy.
And the entire stats portion, if you I forgetwho he went on with.
(15:50):
Oh, I think it was with No Laying Up.
He went on and was talking about these stats,and he knew who would play what holes when
they're going in alternate shot because of theshot patterns that they know basically all the
shot patterns.
They have it all marked down.
They have it all notated, and they know exactlywho's going where.
(16:13):
Then you got on the US side, Scottie Scheffler,and they're debating whether or not like at the
last minute, what, who should lead off now?
Am I the biggest data and analytics guy in theworld?
No.
I believe that there is some gut instinct thatcomes with playing sports that are the
intangibles that you can't really get from dataand analytics.
(16:34):
But when you're putting together a team andyou're putting together who should play
together and you're looking at alternate shot,like, those
things do matter.
The other side to this is that Tommy Fleetwoodon the European side, to me, he was the
difference maker.
Like, Tommy Fleetwood came into this, and
(16:55):
it was no surprise.
Dude had been playing so well at the end of theyear throughout the FedEx Cup and then
obviously winning the Tour Championship.
The dude was unbelievable.
So, like, shout out to him and his performance.
We have somebody on the US side that, in myopinion, was just as good, and we'll get to
that in a bit, which is pretty cool to see abreakout of a US player.
(17:18):
But Tommy Fleetwood, you've got the MVP for theRyder Cup for the European team.
All class.
Like, I love the class from Tommy Fleetwood.
Did he say a peep to the crowd the entire time?
No.
Just a great dude and absolutely loved it.
Now this is the part that gets interestingbecause to me, was there an issue with the U.S.
(17:43):
Ryder Cup team?
Was Keegan Bradley?
Did he do a good job as a captain?
The teams that he was putting out there, a lotof people were complaining about some of the
pairings that he put out there.
I don't have a problem with the pairings.
Like, I really don't.
At the end of the day, like, yeah, you can lookat some of the data around some of the pairings
(18:05):
and be like, that was a terrible decision.
Hindsight's always 20/20 with all of thatstuff.
So I don't have a problem with anything Keegandid.
Keegan went with what he believed was going toget them the best outcome.
Now if you go back two years ago with ZachJohnson, I feel like the picks and then on top
(18:26):
of the picks, the pairings that there was a lotto be excited about with that.
And I feel like there were mistakes with thepairings.
Keegan, not so much.
I think he made good picks.
I think he put together good teams.
So you can argue with me on that.
I know I've seen some stuff out there about thepairings being the problem.
(18:47):
To us on this podcast.
Last week, we talked about it in detail aroundthe golf setup or the golf course setup and how
that was the biggest mistake.
Even Keegan Bradley in his post-con orpost-press conference afterwards goes into how,
yeah, the thing that he felt like he might havescrewed up was the course setup and that it
(19:09):
rained, became super soft, and it basicallybecame a putting contest to where the Europeans
are gonna win that.
Now if you look at strokes gained tee to green,the U.S.
dominated.
So why wouldn't you make the golf courseharder?
Grow out the rough, make the fairway smaller.
Like the Europeans were able to spray whereverthey wanted.
(19:30):
The rough was no factor whatsoever.
There are so many times where Jon Rahm hadsprayed the golf ball everywhere, and yet he's
sticking it on his approach shot out of therough.
That one, to me, is the big difference maker.
And it was something that I had talked to withBrent about, like I said, on text messages
(19:52):
going back and forth during the Ryder Cup.
It's like, yeah, we saw this one coming.
We were hoping that it was gonna be a lotcloser.
I did mention that if the U.S.
was going to win, it was gonna be a very closevictory for the U.S.
We're all very high on Team Europe.
We just felt like them coming in made a ton ofsense.
The big report that just recently came out isabout how the U.S.
(20:17):
team prepared.
And if these reports are accurate and that itis somebody coming out of the U.S. locker
locker room that's releasing this information,that's been around the team or was a part of
this and they want it to be known.
First of all, put your name to it.
Like the anonymous reports, I've never been abig fan of it.
(20:39):
Have had to do it when we were reporting on,you know, breaking LIV Golf news and stuff
along those lines with players that arepotentially signing and so forth and that did
sign.
We had to.
We couldn't add agents' names.
We couldn't talk about the people in the knowthat have that.
But with a situation like this, if you're goingto drop this type of information, put your name
(21:01):
on it.
Like, come out and just say, yes, I am X, Y,and Z person from the U.S.
squad, and I don't feel like our preparationwas very good heading into the tournament
because the report is that the Europeans played18 holes eight or nine times during the lead-up
(21:25):
to the Ryder Cup.
So they went over a week early.
They were playing the course all the time.
The U.S.
decided two weeks prior that everybody's gonnaplay in the Pro-Am except for Xander
Schauffele, who just had a kid and really hadbeen nursing injuries all year long.
They come over and they play a couple nine-holerounds and some matches to coincide with that,
(21:48):
but didn't even get in nearly half the amountof time that the Europeans did on the golf
course.
I mentioned this last week.
The greens at Bethpage are subtle.
The breaks are subtle.
You have to play it a lot in order to get thosesubtleties to it.
That did not happen, and clearly, the U.S.
team missed a lot of clutch putts.
(22:10):
Now is that just because they're not clutchputters?
No.
We have some of the best putters in the worldon the U.S.
team.
Like a Russell Henley, for instance, is aphenomenal putter.
We did not see those clutch putts dropping forthe U.S., and we did for Team Europe.
So if those reports are accurate that the U.S.
team barely played any practice rounds in thelead-up to the Ryder Cup, yeah.
(22:33):
People could be a little bit pissed off inregards to that.
And that would have been a fail from apreparation standpoint because it showed they
didn't always like, there's a lot of misreads,a lot of misreads by the U.S.
team.
Europe did not have those misreads on thegreens, which it's like, okay.
That all correlates to this report.
(22:54):
So I do think that, yeah, is there some legs tothis report?
Sure.
Sure could be.
I don't know for certain.
I haven't heard it.
I haven't really reached out to a lot of
people in regards to it.
But, again, I don't know.
Like, it all kinda matches up to what actuallytook place.
(23:15):
The last part that I will mention around all ofthis, well, one shout out to Team Europe and
they even did that Hey Donald clip.
That's pretty funny.
And, President Trump responded to it onTwitter.
He's like, yes, I'm watching.
Congratulations.
The, the part to me
(23:36):
that in addition to the U.S.
not preparing properly is what does this meanfor
2027 at I believe it's Adare Manor is the golfclub that they will be playing at.
Now Phil Mickelson has had some really poor hottakes, the one about Scottie Scheffler at the
(24:00):
beginning of
the year, how I don't think he's gonna winbefore the Ryder Cup and all this.
And then obviously we see the year that ScottieScheffler has had.
Not always been known for great takes, but thisone I actually enjoy from Phil Mickelson is his
suggestion of bringing in, like, a famousbasketball coach, like a Coach K, or like a
(24:27):
football coach, like Lou Holtz, which I don'tknow if Lou Holtz would be the right guy for
this.
But somebody who understands golf has ananalytics team, obviously, that is there as
well, that is helping out with some of thenumber side to it like Molinari did for the
European team.
But I kinda like that idea of bringing insomebody who's an actual leader of a team, team
(24:51):
sports, and can actually go in and provide somedirection, some motivation, and help them
understand what the team aspect really is andwhat that looks like.
I would love to know, like, what is, I thinkPhil Mickelson would be a very polarizing
(25:14):
captain.
I don't think it's feasible at this point withhow much damage has been done, the
relationships with guys and so forth that playon the PGA Tour.
I just don't think that Phil Mickelson as acaptain makes a whole lot of sense.
But in that same breath, like, who does?
(25:34):
Like, are we really going to see Tiger Woods bethe captain of the Ryder Cup team?
I did say that, man, if we've lost Bethpage andwe end up going international, that that was
the time that Tiger would step in, that there'sso much benefit to him being the captain and if
(25:58):
he wins.
If you lose on international soil, we did seeit was Zach Johnson because we had high
expectations for that team.
And then the picks were off.
Like, there were a lot of things that were donepoorly that he got a lot of the blame for.
We're, like, losing two in a row, there's notthat much at risk if you're Tiger Woods.
(26:25):
There's more to gain, I should say.
Like, there's still risk.
There's still, oh my gosh.
If you guys lose and if the U.S.
did lose, then but it's international soil.
Like, it's somewhat to be expected now thatwhen you go over to the other
countries, golf courses, and fans that you'renot expected to win.
(26:47):
So to me, Tiger Woods, there's so
much upside to him potentially doing this andbecoming the Ryder Cup captain that it just
makes a ton of sense in my opinion.
You might feel otherwise and you might have adifference of opinion about Tiger Woods, but a
lot of these guys look up to him.
I think he would just be a great
(27:08):
person to captain a team.
Now do I know if Tiger would be a good leaderin that situation or not?
I have no idea.
No idea whatsoever.
But, again, like, who else are you gonna get tobe
the captain of the team at this point?
(27:29):
Again, I like Phil's idea.
Bring in a coach, a U.S.
coach, somebody who's coached a USA Team.
Like, I love the idea of Coach K.
I thought that that was actually a greatsuggestion.
But before we jump off here, I do wanna give ashoutout to one guy on the U.S.
team that just stood above everybody else, andthat is Cameron Young.
(27:56):
Cameron Young from New York, father pro over atSleepy Hollow, and Cameron Young, whoo.
Unreal performance out of him.
And I know he had just won not that long ago.
Getting that first victory builds a lot ofconfidence, but his putting, he had fixed his
putting, and it showed because he made clutchputt after clutch putt.
(28:19):
The dude was phenomenal.
And I think we actually started to see hispersonality for the first time out there.
That fire because, otherwise, he's very stoic,very calm.
Like, a lot of people are just, like, that knowhim or, like, have been around him or just,
like, there's not a ton of personality there,which I think, you know, you could be reserved,
(28:43):
introvert, being a golfer, and you might notshow it all the time.
But seeing that competitive fire out of him andseeing him perform and being clutch, I think
the U.S.
has a guy now that you can count on when itcomes to the Ryder Cup.
You're picking Cameron Young, and that dude isyour stud.
That is your horse going into the next RyderCup.
(29:05):
And hopefully, it is not just because it wasBethpage Black that it was New York.
Like, I do think that his game translates sowell to match play type situations and just
being a great teammate as well because, dude,bombs it a mile, has good iron game, and now is
(29:25):
a good putter as well to coincide to that.
Like, he fixed his putting.
He just looked awesome out there.
So shout out Cameron Young.
You are by far the MVP of that U.S.
team.
And, yeah, love that.
He was a New Yorker too.
Scottie and Bryson,
as we wrap up this episode, I feel bad forScottie Scheffler.
(29:49):
Scottie Scheffler has not performed well inRyder Cups.
And I don't know if you guys see this or not,but to me, he's never been one that under the
clutch moments outside of certain instances.
I'm not saying that it's just a blanketstatement here.
(30:12):
But, like, when he was gonna get the record,when he was going to win the Masters for the
first time, there's just moments where ScottieScheffler and I, and, I mean, you can go back
and look and see there are a lot of thesemoments where, like, he still wins.
(30:32):
And you might not look at them and go, oh, man.
Like, that's a little chink in the armor.
That is something that he just hasn't figuredout yet.
And to me, there's a clutchness, and it'sdifferent with different types of pressure.
(30:53):
When he's very comfortable, he's got everythinggoing his way.
He is very, very good.
And you could say that he's clutch in thosemoments and wins golf tournaments, wins them by
a lot.
But there are other pressure moments whengetting records, when winning for the first
(31:14):
time a major championship, these differentthings.
Remember, he four-putted that final hole, andthat is a bugaboo in my opinion about Scottie
Scheffler is that he's one of these guys whosetalent is so dang, like, better than everybody
else that you can't quite see it with the nakedeye.
(31:35):
You have to understand it in order tounderstand that Scottie Scheffler struggles
in certain pressure situations.
And we see it at the Ryder Cup when this isbigger than him, it's for his country, and all
of
a sudden it's not just, you know, his usual ofhow do I even put this?
(32:01):
Because he's made golf secondary or actuallythird.
There's God, there's his family, and thenthere's golf.
And he made that point at the OpenChampionship.
I've talked about it numerous times on thispodcast.
I think that is a really powerful place to playfrom as it's not the most important thing in
the world to him.
The Ryder Cup kinda shifts that pressure, andit kinda elevates it to where it is bigger than
(32:27):
him.
But it's not like, it's something that heactually really cares about.
And that's why I don't think the effort side toit of saying that the U.S.
team doesn't care.
Like, Scottie Scheffler cares.
Like, that dude was crying.
He cried two years ago.
Like, Scottie Scheffler cares, but he mightcare a little bit too much, and that adds an
(32:49):
additional level of pressure that he's notcomfortable with.
And seeing when he needs to stick a wedge onthe last hole of his team match, and he shanks
one off to the right and misses the green.
That is not Scottie Scheffler.
(33:10):
FedEx Cup a couple years ago, shanking one out
of the bunker under pressure,
where he's about to win the FedEx Cup and thenloses it.
These are the areas that I'm like, man, ScottieScheffler does really, really well when it's
not the most important thing, when it issomething that he's comfortable in.
(33:31):
But then all of a sudden, Scottie Scheffler,under these situations.
And I feel for him because it's something thathe can figure out.
He can turn into a
strength.
And I do believe that he will eventually figureit out.
And I'm pulling for him because it sucks to seehim struggle in these Ryder Cups playing as a
(33:51):
team.
Bryson was not
much better.
So you LIV fans out there, for Bryson.
Bryson once again cares so much.
And usually Bryson, when he cares so much, hetends to perform well in match play.
You want Bryson DeChambeau.
Like, it was awesome to see him out thereinteracting with the fan base.
(34:13):
Like, yeah, he's that guy that you need in thisteam environment.
So but, again, a guy who
almost did not get a point the entire time, andhe played in almost every single match, if I'm
not mistaken.
Same with Scottie until the final day when hewon.
But Bryson and the gutsy performance.
But, again, I will not blame these two guys forthe lack of effort or the lack of caring.
(34:39):
These guys wanted it.
And it's unfortunate that,
they did not get it done.
I mean, again, running into a buzzsaw.
Europeans were better.
They made more clutch putts, and the U.S.
Team ran into a buzzsaw, in my opinion, in thetwo days leading up
to the finals.
(34:59):
Hell of an effort by
the U.S.
Team in individual matches, almost bringing itback, and I almost forgot to mention about
Viktor Hovland.
That rule has to change.
That is stupid.
That if
a guy on your team gets injured, it's anautomatic half.
That changed the entire dynamic of that finalday.
Shane Lowry wouldn't have won the cup for them.
(35:21):
The other two matches would have stillmattered.
I mean, we lost 15 to 13, so people will say,well, you still lost.
Doesn't matter about the half point.
You still would have
lost anyways.
The mindset and the difference when all of
a sudden the whole thing's over and done withand you can't win, you've lost even though
you're still playing versus grinding it out tothe end.
(35:44):
That's a big difference.
And in my opinion, it
would have been a pretty big like, I
I think it played a very big mental factor andwe might've seen a different result.
We'll never know.
But that rule has
to change.
That captain's agreement ahead of time that ifa player gets injured, has to withdraw, it's an
(36:05):
automatic half.
Tell you what, in
the words of Rory McIlroy, shut the fuck upbecause that is a
terrible, terrible agreement.
If you got an injured player, that's a loss.
Bottom line.
Screw that.
I hated that.
And when I heard about it, I'm like, that makesno sense whatsoever.
(36:27):
And it doesn't.
Like, everybody's been in uproar about it.
But, obviously, it did not change the outcome,and you can sit there and point at that.
But in my opinion, the mindset would have beendifferent, and we don't know what the outcome
would have been if that had been a full pointto the U.S.
Think about that.
(36:48):
Instead of a half point to the U.S., a fullpoint, that would have
been a lot more interesting on that Sunday.
Might have been the greatest comeback in RyderCup history.
We might have gotten screwed.
Who knows?
But that's all for today, folks.
I appreciate you jumping on to the Ryder Cuprecap.
(37:08):
And, yeah, until next time, which, there mightbe some announcements coming up in regards to
the live stream.
I don't know if we're going to be doing thatanymore for the remainder of the year.
Might restart in January, but, for the timebeing, just be on the lookout for any updates
(37:29):
there.
And we do want to give a thank you to oursponsors, Devereux Golf as well as Rokform.
At DevRoe Golf, you can use promo code pullhook golf 20 for 20% off your entire order and
then over at rockform.com.
That's r o k f o r m.
Pull hook twenty twenty five for 20% off.
Thank you, everybody.
Peace out.
A-Town down.
Europe records its first Ryder Cup win on U.S.
(00:03):
soil since 1993.
The final score was Europe 15, USA 13.
It was a heck of a Ryder Cup from just being aweird Ryder Cup.
We came all the way back and almost pulled offthe epic comeback upset on that final day in
(00:23):
the singles matches.
We got dominated.
I mean, there's no other way to kind of put it.
Like, if I'm the Europeans, I don't bring onanother captain.
But remember, he wasn't even supposed to be theRyder Cup captain two years ago.
So for him to be thrust into that, it wassupposed to be Henrik Stenson who ended up
going to LIV Golf and then they were like,yeah, you can't be the captain of the Ryder Cup
(00:45):
team.
So they had Luke Donald step in and what a jobhe did.
And then on top of that, showing that he issuch a great captain.
Like, it was almost like if you've ever been ina golf match before and you just run into a
buzzsaw, the guy that just can't miss.
The guy that's making everything.
That's what the Europeans look like.
(01:06):
And it came as no surprise whatsoever to myselfas well as to Buttsy or to Brent that were on
the podcast last week for the Ryder Cup previewbecause guess what?
We called it.
We said the course setup was really going tofavor the Europeans.
The Europeans were the favorites heading intothis, we believe.
On paper, it's the first time that the Europeanteam really stacked up on paper just as good,
(01:32):
if not better, than the U.S.
team.
And we talked about how the crowds like,hopefully, the crowds would end up helping Team
USA, and it seemed like it backfired.
Welcome back, everybody, to Pull Hook Golf thepodcast.
I'm your host, Matt Cook.
And on today's episode, we have the Ryder Cuprecap for 2023.
(01:57):
And it was an interesting Ryder Cup, needlessto say.
But before we dive into today's episode and goover everything Ryder Cup and what took place,
breaking it down, and analyzing it.
I do want to give a shout-out to our sponsors,DevRel Golf.
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This is from their old school collection.
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And then folks, Rockform, which you see thelittle speaker here over my shoulder.
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putting it up onto your golf cart.
No.
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(03:05):
to the golf cart as well.
It pumps.
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I'm always utilizing the magnet.
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And basically, when I'm working out, I justattach it to anything metal and attach my phone
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Let's get into today's episode, which is theRyder Cup recap.
(03:49):
And first off, folks, if you've been livingunder a rock and don't realize what happened at
the Ryder Cup, Europe records its first RyderCup win on U.S.
soil since 2012.
The final score was Europe 15, USA 13.
It was a heck of a Ryder Cup from just being aweird Ryder Cup in my opinion.
(04:12):
Europe dominated in the team matchups and wecame all the way back and almost pulled off the
epic comeback upset on that final day in thesingles matches because, man, we were down a
lot heading into that final day.
(04:33):
We got dominated.
I mean, there's no other way to kind of put it,but I related it this way.
I was talking with Brent Grant a lot during theRyder Cup.
We were texting back and forth, and he wassaying, ah, the U.S.
just, you know, they don't have the effortgoing into it, which some people, certainly you
could draw conclusions there and say, oh, theUSA team doesn't really care.
(04:57):
They didn't really practice hard heading intothis.
There's a lot of reports out there too aroundthat part of it that, and I'll get to that in a
little bit probably towards the end of thispodcast.
I'll talk a little bit about the reports of asto how the U.S.
team prepared or the lack thereof and how thatall turned out.
(05:19):
But to me, it wasn't an effort.
It wasn't that the Europeans wanted it more.
That's not what I saw.
I saw a lot of emotions coming out
of the U.S.
team too.
where a guy like Scottie Scheffler wasdevastated that he hadn't racked up a single
point throughout all the matches, all the teammatches, I should say.
(05:40):
And that was very devastating to the U.S.
team as well.
But it was almost like if you've ever been in agolf match before and you just run into a buzz
saw, the guy that just can't miss, the guythat's making everything, that's what the
Europeans looked like.
And it came as no surprise whatsoever to myselfas well as to Buttsy or to Brent who were on
(06:03):
the podcast last week for the Ryder Cup previewbecause guess what?
We called it.
We said the course setup was really going tofavor the Europeans.
The Europeans were the favorites heading intothis, we believe.
On paper, it's the first time that the Europeanteam really stacked up on paper just as good,
if not better, than the U.S.
team.
(06:24):
And we talked about how hopefully the crowdswould end up helping Team USA.
And it seemed like it backfired because in alot of ways, and I want to talk about this for
a minute, that around all the talk that the NewYork crowd went too far.
Like, I've heard the stuff that they weresaying.
Like, New York fans a lot of times areintelligent.
(06:45):
There's a few bad apples for sure that getthrough there.
And were they too much on Rory?
Yeah.
They crossed the line with Rory McIlroy.
But some of these others that you're hearing,like, some of them are jabs, like funny jabs.
Like Bobby McIntyre, go on Ozempic, or when areyou going on Ozempic?
Like, things like that, I don't know if that'scrossing the line for you.
(07:09):
But for me as a fan of witnessing that, like,would that be something I'd ever say to him?
No.
Absolutely not.
But it is something that was said out there.
Now there were some things about Rory with thecheating and everything, and his wife and kids
were out there, or at least his wife was outthere.
And she ended up getting a drink thrown on her.
Like, there was a whole bunch of stuff thatwent across a lot in my opinion.
(07:33):
And there's no place for that just in sports ingeneral.
I do not like the rhetoric and the commentaryaround the fact that golf needs to be held to
this higher standard than other sports.
No.
Sports in general need to be held to a higherstandard in my opinion.
And if it's taking place in basketball,baseball, football, whatever team sport, it's
(07:57):
probably gonna happen in golf as well.
Like, I hate the elitist mentality of golf.
Like, that's one of the things that I justabsolutely can't stand about this sport is that
it thinks it's better than everybody else, andit's not.
Like, I've played sports growing up, playedteam sports.
Like, if anything, you learn just as much, ifnot more in team sports than you do in an
(08:18):
individual sport like the game of golf.
Like, yes.
Are there, you know, ethics being taught?
Or is there a, I guess you could say, agentleman's side to this whole entire sport?
Absolutely.
Like, that is traditional golf.
And do I buy into that?
Sure.
(08:38):
Like, I love the fact that golf is a bit of amirror of life and that, you know, how you act
like you're in it on your own and how you actrepresents how you look out there on the golf
course.
The part that I just don't really buy into isthat it's better than everything else that's
out there, that you don't learn that in othersports, sportsmanship, things along those
(09:02):
lines.
It's just you gotta have a—and I shouldn't sayyou gotta have because that's not the point
that I'm trying to make.
It's just I feel like it's on the same level asall other sports when it comes to we just need
to see better out of fans.
I mean, you hear it all the time with LittleLeague games and so forth of getting the
(09:27):
parents getting in on the refs or umpires.
And it's just, yeah, a lot of these things needto change, but it's in the heat of the moment.
It's in sports.
It's about, like, that competitiveness thatcomes out.
And sometimes that competitiveness, even withfans, is ugly.
So it's not that I wasn't expected.
The Europeans handled it beautifully outsideof, I would say, you know, Shane Lowry and Rory
(09:53):
McIlroy, which people might be like, yeah, butthey're being heckled.
Like you can't have it both ways.
You can't be telling fans to shut the F up andthen turning around and saying, you know, we
expect more out of golfers and the things thatRory was saying.
And then Rory even afterwards in thecelebrations putting the European flag over
(10:16):
Bryson DeChambeau's name and yelling out to thecrowd.
So those types of things, they don't go hand inhand.
And I've seen it like, Paul Azinger talkedabout it on the Subpar Golf Podcast.
So I'm not the only one that has this opinionin regards to this.
Like, it is well documented, and, like, a lotof people are like, man, that's really
hypocritical of somebody like Rory McIlroy.
(10:37):
And, of course, the people that don't like RoryMcIlroy because he was the face of the PGA Tour
versus LIV Golf are obviously talking aboutRory in that way a little bit more negatively
too.
Like, oh, it comes out of both sides of hismouth and so forth.
Like, I get it.
I get where you're coming from.
But to me, like, he dealt with a lot offrustration and he gave it back.
(11:02):
So I don't really have a problem with Rorysaying the things that he did.
I do think afterwards, when he's trying to talkabout how, like, the fans need to be more
respectful, golf needs to be held to a higherstandard, blah blah blah.
Like, that's the part that I'm like, okay.
Now you're a hypocrite because you literallylowered that level in your responses to those.
(11:24):
Like, could you have just kept going along yourway without acknowledging it?
Absolutely.
But those things get to Rory McIlroy, and Iunderstand it.
He's a human being.
Right?
We're all human beings.
So does anybody want to be talked to like that?
No.
Absolutely not.
But it's a hostile environment.
And I don't think the comparison is to, oh, theU.S.
crowd versus the European crowd.
(11:44):
European crowds just do this.
It's like, in a lot of ways, it's the samestuff.
It's just U.S.
fans, especially like New Yorkers, they dotheir homework.
They do their research.
They come into these.
Like, I've heard of baseball games where, like,they know about somebody's childhood.
Like, going into Yankee Stadium, I saw a postby Chipper Jones, who is the famous infielder
(12:06):
for the Atlanta Braves.
And he's like, I would never allow my wife,family, or kids to come into Yankee Stadium
because I knew that they were gonna be sayingsome horrible things to me during a game.
Like, you just need to know that.
And that, in a lot of ways, like, that's a NewYork crowd getting under people's skins.
That's what makes New York in a lot of ways.
(12:28):
Like, a lot of people aren't gonna understandthis.
If you're not from New York, you don't get it.
But that is the home-field advantage a lot oftimes in New York.
Like I worked within virtual reality for MajorLeague Baseball, for the Major League Baseball
teams, not for Major League Baseball, butdealing with the Baltimore Orioles, for
instance, like they wanted fan noise.
(12:48):
They wanted heckling.
They wanted the stuff that was going to be saidduring the game to be in there when they go to
Yankee Stadium because their team always had atough time, especially when they had young
teams to go into Yankee Stadium and to actuallyperform.
They would always technically choke, and theywanted that preparation to be able to have
(13:11):
their team ready to go and be able to handlethat when they get in there.
So I get it from both sides of the spectrum.
Again, like me, personally, I think that therewere a lot of things that were said that did
cross the line just in sports in general.
Again, not a fan of holding golf to aninvisible higher standard.
(13:32):
I just don't buy it.
In the least, it's a competitive sport, andthis is a team sport for the Ryder Cup.
Alright.
Moving beyond the crowd because that took a lotof the attention away from the actual Ryder Cup
itself, in my opinion.
Like, you even had the broadcasters during theRyder Cup talking about it throughout, over and
(13:52):
over and over again.
It's like, alright.
Let's just move on.
Like, I was even thinking about muting the TVat a point.
I'm like, gosh.
They just keep bringing it up.
But Europe did what you have to do to shut themup.
They won, and they used it as motivation, whichis awesome.
Like, I love that.
Like, think of Michael Jordan in basketball asto how he would use anything he possibly could
(14:18):
as bulletin board material.
I also talked about how Luke Donald, on theother hand, had really prepared his team for
the New York crowd.
But in addition to that, all the little detailsthat he did leading up to the Ryder Cup with
just how they set up everything, the littleslogans, using "Excelsior" on their golf bags,
(14:43):
which is the New York state motto.
Like all these things that he did were thedifference makers in my opinion.
And he might go down as one of the greatest, ifnot the greatest, captain of a Ryder Cup team.
And remember, he wasn't even supposed to be theRyder Cup captain two years ago.
So for him to be thrust into that, it wassupposed to be Henrik Stenson who ended up
(15:06):
going to LIV Golf, and then they were like,yeah, you can't be the captain of the Ryder Cup
team.
So they had Luke Donald step in, and what a jobhe did.
And then on top of that, really showing that heis such a great captain.
Like, if I'm the Europeans, I don't bring onanother captain.
Like, I allow Luke Donald to run this thinguntil he loses.
(15:28):
Like, just like a coach.
Like, Luke, will you continue to do this?
I think he really thrives in that environmentand really enjoys it.
And then the European side, you've gotMolinari, which I believe it's Matteo who's the
stats guy.
And the entire stats portion, if you I forgetwho he went on with.
(15:50):
Oh, I think it was with No Laying Up.
He went on and was talking about these stats,and he knew who would play what holes when
they're going in alternate shot because of theshot patterns that they know basically all the
shot patterns.
They have it all marked down.
They have it all notated, and they know exactlywho's going where.
(16:13):
Then you got on the US side, Scottie Scheffler,and they're debating whether or not like at the
last minute, what, who should lead off now?
Am I the biggest data and analytics guy in theworld?
No.
I believe that there is some gut instinct thatcomes with playing sports that are the
intangibles that you can't really get from dataand analytics.
(16:34):
But when you're putting together a team andyou're putting together who should play
together and you're looking at alternate shot,like, those
things do matter.
The other side to this is that Tommy Fleetwoodon the European side, to me, he was the
difference maker.
Like, Tommy Fleetwood came into this, and
(16:55):
it was no surprise.
Dude had been playing so well at the end of theyear throughout the FedEx Cup and then
obviously winning the Tour Championship.
The dude was unbelievable.
So, like, shout out to him and his performance.
We have somebody on the US side that, in myopinion, was just as good, and we'll get to
that in a bit, which is pretty cool to see abreakout of a US player.
(17:18):
But Tommy Fleetwood, you've got the MVP for theRyder Cup for the European team.
All class.
Like, I love the class from Tommy Fleetwood.
Did he say a peep to the crowd the entire time?
No.
Just a great dude and absolutely loved it.
Now this is the part that gets interestingbecause to me, was there an issue with the U.S.
(17:43):
Ryder Cup team?
Was Keegan Bradley?
Did he do a good job as a captain?
The teams that he was putting out there, a lotof people were complaining about some of the
pairings that he put out there.
I don't have a problem with the pairings.
Like, I really don't.
At the end of the day, like, yeah, you can lookat some of the data around some of the pairings
(18:05):
and be like, that was a terrible decision.
Hindsight's always 20/20 with all of thatstuff.
So I don't have a problem with anything Keegandid.
Keegan went with what he believed was going toget them the best outcome.
Now if you go back two years ago with ZachJohnson, I feel like the picks and then on top
(18:26):
of the picks, the pairings that there was a lotto be excited about with that.
And I feel like there were mistakes with thepairings.
Keegan, not so much.
I think he made good picks.
I think he put together good teams.
So you can argue with me on that.
I know I've seen some stuff out there about thepairings being the problem.
(18:47):
To us on this podcast.
Last week, we talked about it in detail aroundthe golf setup or the golf course setup and how
that was the biggest mistake.
Even Keegan Bradley in his post-con orpost-press conference afterwards goes into how,
yeah, the thing that he felt like he might havescrewed up was the course setup and that it
(19:09):
rained, became super soft, and it basicallybecame a putting contest to where the Europeans
are gonna win that.
Now if you look at strokes gained tee to green,the U.S.
dominated.
So why wouldn't you make the golf courseharder?
Grow out the rough, make the fairway smaller.
Like the Europeans were able to spray whereverthey wanted.
(19:30):
The rough was no factor whatsoever.
There are so many times where Jon Rahm hadsprayed the golf ball everywhere, and yet he's
sticking it on his approach shot out of therough.
That one, to me, is the big difference maker.
And it was something that I had talked to withBrent about, like I said, on text messages
(19:52):
going back and forth during the Ryder Cup.
It's like, yeah, we saw this one coming.
We were hoping that it was gonna be a lotcloser.
I did mention that if the U.S.
was going to win, it was gonna be a very closevictory for the U.S.
We're all very high on Team Europe.
We just felt like them coming in made a ton ofsense.
The big report that just recently came out isabout how the U.S.
(20:17):
team prepared.
And if these reports are accurate and that itis somebody coming out of the U.S. locker
locker room that's releasing this information,that's been around the team or was a part of
this and they want it to be known.
First of all, put your name to it.
Like the anonymous reports, I've never been abig fan of it.
(20:39):
Have had to do it when we were reporting on,you know, breaking LIV Golf news and stuff
along those lines with players that arepotentially signing and so forth and that did
sign.
We had to.
We couldn't add agents' names.
We couldn't talk about the people in the knowthat have that.
But with a situation like this, if you're goingto drop this type of information, put your name
(21:01):
on it.
Like, come out and just say, yes, I am X, Y,and Z person from the U.S.
squad, and I don't feel like our preparationwas very good heading into the tournament
because the report is that the Europeans played18 holes eight or nine times during the lead-up
(21:25):
to the Ryder Cup.
So they went over a week early.
They were playing the course all the time.
The U.S.
decided two weeks prior that everybody's gonnaplay in the Pro-Am except for Xander
Schauffele, who just had a kid and really hadbeen nursing injuries all year long.
They come over and they play a couple nine-holerounds and some matches to coincide with that,
(21:48):
but didn't even get in nearly half the amountof time that the Europeans did on the golf
course.
I mentioned this last week.
The greens at Bethpage are subtle.
The breaks are subtle.
You have to play it a lot in order to get thosesubtleties to it.
That did not happen, and clearly, the U.S.
team missed a lot of clutch putts.
(22:10):
Now is that just because they're not clutchputters?
No.
We have some of the best putters in the worldon the U.S.
team.
Like a Russell Henley, for instance, is aphenomenal putter.
We did not see those clutch putts dropping forthe U.S., and we did for Team Europe.
So if those reports are accurate that the U.S.
team barely played any practice rounds in thelead-up to the Ryder Cup, yeah.
(22:33):
People could be a little bit pissed off inregards to that.
And that would have been a fail from apreparation standpoint because it showed they
didn't always like, there's a lot of misreads,a lot of misreads by the U.S.
team.
Europe did not have those misreads on thegreens, which it's like, okay.
That all correlates to this report.
(22:54):
So I do think that, yeah, is there some legs tothis report?
Sure.
Sure could be.
I don't know for certain.
I haven't heard it.
I haven't really reached out to a lot of
people in regards to it.
But, again, I don't know.
Like, it all kinda matches up to what actuallytook place.
(23:15):
The last part that I will mention around all ofthis, well, one shout out to Team Europe and
they even did that Hey Donald clip.
That's pretty funny.
And, President Trump responded to it onTwitter.
He's like, yes, I'm watching.
Congratulations.
The, the part to me
(23:36):
that in addition to the U.S.
not preparing properly is what does this meanfor
2027 at I believe it's Adare Manor is the golfclub that they will be playing at.
Now Phil Mickelson has had some really poor hottakes, the one about Scottie Scheffler at the
(24:00):
beginning of
the year, how I don't think he's gonna winbefore the Ryder Cup and all this.
And then obviously we see the year that ScottieScheffler has had.
Not always been known for great takes, but thisone I actually enjoy from Phil Mickelson is his
suggestion of bringing in, like, a famousbasketball coach, like a Coach K, or like a
(24:27):
football coach, like Lou Holtz, which I don'tknow if Lou Holtz would be the right guy for
this.
But somebody who understands golf has ananalytics team, obviously, that is there as
well, that is helping out with some of thenumber side to it like Molinari did for the
European team.
But I kinda like that idea of bringing insomebody who's an actual leader of a team, team
(24:51):
sports, and can actually go in and provide somedirection, some motivation, and help them
understand what the team aspect really is andwhat that looks like.
I would love to know, like, what is, I thinkPhil Mickelson would be a very polarizing
(25:14):
captain.
I don't think it's feasible at this point withhow much damage has been done, the
relationships with guys and so forth that playon the PGA Tour.
I just don't think that Phil Mickelson as acaptain makes a whole lot of sense.
But in that same breath, like, who does?
(25:34):
Like, are we really going to see Tiger Woods bethe captain of the Ryder Cup team?
I did say that, man, if we've lost Bethpage andwe end up going international, that that was
the time that Tiger would step in, that there'sso much benefit to him being the captain and if
(25:58):
he wins.
If you lose on international soil, we did seeit was Zach Johnson because we had high
expectations for that team.
And then the picks were off.
Like, there were a lot of things that were donepoorly that he got a lot of the blame for.
We're, like, losing two in a row, there's notthat much at risk if you're Tiger Woods.
(26:25):
There's more to gain, I should say.
Like, there's still risk.
There's still, oh my gosh.
If you guys lose and if the U.S.
did lose, then but it's international soil.
Like, it's somewhat to be expected now thatwhen you go over to the other
countries, golf courses, and fans that you'renot expected to win.
(26:47):
So to me, Tiger Woods, there's so
much upside to him potentially doing this andbecoming the Ryder Cup captain that it just
makes a ton of sense in my opinion.
You might feel otherwise and you might have adifference of opinion about Tiger Woods, but a
lot of these guys look up to him.
I think he would just be a great
(27:08):
person to captain a team.
Now do I know if Tiger would be a good leaderin that situation or not?
I have no idea.
No idea whatsoever.
But, again, like, who else are you gonna get tobe
the captain of the team at this point?
(27:29):
Again, I like Phil's idea.
Bring in a coach, a U.S.
coach, somebody who's coached a USA Team.
Like, I love the idea of Coach K.
I thought that that was actually a greatsuggestion.
But before we jump off here, I do wanna give ashoutout to one guy on the U.S.
team that just stood above everybody else, andthat is Cameron Young.
(27:56):
Cameron Young from New York, father pro over atSleepy Hollow, and Cameron Young, whoo.
Unreal performance out of him.
And I know he had just won not that long ago.
Getting that first victory builds a lot ofconfidence, but his putting, he had fixed his
putting, and it showed because he made clutchputt after clutch putt.
(28:19):
The dude was phenomenal.
And I think we actually started to see hispersonality for the first time out there.
That fire because, otherwise, he's very stoic,very calm.
Like, a lot of people are just, like, that knowhim or, like, have been around him or just,
like, there's not a ton of personality there,which I think, you know, you could be reserved,
(28:43):
introvert, being a golfer, and you might notshow it all the time.
But seeing that competitive fire out of him andseeing him perform and being clutch, I think
the U.S.
has a guy now that you can count on when itcomes to the Ryder Cup.
You're picking Cameron Young, and that dude isyour stud.
That is your horse going into the next RyderCup.
(29:05):
And hopefully, it is not just because it wasBethpage Black that it was New York.
Like, I do think that his game translates sowell to match play type situations and just
being a great teammate as well because, dude,bombs it a mile, has good iron game, and now is
(29:25):
a good putter as well to coincide to that.
Like, he fixed his putting.
He just looked awesome out there.
So shout out Cameron Young.
You are by far the MVP of that U.S.
team.
And, yeah, love that.
He was a New Yorker too.
Scottie and Bryson,
as we wrap up this episode, I feel bad forScottie Scheffler.
(29:49):
Scottie Scheffler has not performed well inRyder Cups.
And I don't know if you guys see this or not,but to me, he's never been one that under the
clutch moments outside of certain instances.
I'm not saying that it's just a blanketstatement here.
(30:12):
But, like, when he was gonna get the record,when he was going to win the Masters for the
first time, there's just moments where ScottieScheffler and I, and, I mean, you can go back
and look and see there are a lot of thesemoments where, like, he still wins.
(30:32):
And you might not look at them and go, oh, man.
Like, that's a little chink in the armor.
That is something that he just hasn't figuredout yet.
And to me, there's a clutchness, and it'sdifferent with different types of pressure.
(30:53):
When he's very comfortable, he's got everythinggoing his way.
He is very, very good.
And you could say that he's clutch in thosemoments and wins golf tournaments, wins them by
a lot.
But there are other pressure moments whengetting records, when winning for the first
(31:14):
time a major championship, these differentthings.
Remember, he four-putted that final hole, andthat is a bugaboo in my opinion about Scottie
Scheffler is that he's one of these guys whosetalent is so dang, like, better than everybody
else that you can't quite see it with the nakedeye.
(31:35):
You have to understand it in order tounderstand that Scottie Scheffler struggles
in certain pressure situations.
And we see it at the Ryder Cup when this isbigger than him, it's for his country, and all
of
a sudden it's not just, you know, his usual ofhow do I even put this?
(32:01):
Because he's made golf secondary or actuallythird.
There's God, there's his family, and thenthere's golf.
And he made that point at the OpenChampionship.
I've talked about it numerous times on thispodcast.
I think that is a really powerful place to playfrom as it's not the most important thing in
the world to him.
The Ryder Cup kinda shifts that pressure, andit kinda elevates it to where it is bigger than
(32:27):
him.
But it's not like, it's something that heactually really cares about.
And that's why I don't think the effort side toit of saying that the U.S.
team doesn't care.
Like, Scottie Scheffler cares.
Like, that dude was crying.
He cried two years ago.
Like, Scottie Scheffler cares, but he mightcare a little bit too much, and that adds an
(32:49):
additional level of pressure that he's notcomfortable with.
And seeing when he needs to stick a wedge onthe last hole of his team match, and he shanks
one off to the right and misses the green.
That is not Scottie Scheffler.
(33:10):
FedEx Cup a couple years ago, shanking one out
of the bunker under pressure,
where he's about to win the FedEx Cup and thenloses it.
These are the areas that I'm like, man, ScottieScheffler does really, really well when it's
not the most important thing, when it issomething that he's comfortable in.
(33:31):
But then all of a sudden, Scottie Scheffler,under these situations.
And I feel for him because it's something thathe can figure out.
He can turn into a
strength.
And I do believe that he will eventually figureit out.
And I'm pulling for him because it sucks to seehim struggle in these Ryder Cups playing as a
(33:51):
team.
Bryson was not
much better.
So you LIV fans out there, for Bryson.
Bryson once again cares so much.
And usually Bryson, when he cares so much, hetends to perform well in match play.
You want Bryson DeChambeau.
Like, it was awesome to see him out thereinteracting with the fan base.
(34:13):
Like, yeah, he's that guy that you need in thisteam environment.
So but, again, a guy who
almost did not get a point the entire time, andhe played in almost every single match, if I'm
not mistaken.
Same with Scottie until the final day when hewon.
But Bryson and the gutsy performance.
But, again, I will not blame these two guys forthe lack of effort or the lack of caring.
(34:39):
These guys wanted it.
And it's unfortunate that,
they did not get it done.
I mean, again, running into a buzzsaw.
Europeans were better.
They made more clutch putts, and the U.S.
Team ran into a buzzsaw, in my opinion, in thetwo days leading up
to the finals.
(34:59):
Hell of an effort by
the U.S.
Team in individual matches, almost bringing itback, and I almost forgot to mention about
Viktor Hovland.
That rule has to change.
That is stupid.
That if
a guy on your team gets injured, it's anautomatic half.
That changed the entire dynamic of that finalday.
Shane Lowry wouldn't have won the cup for them.
(35:21):
The other two matches would have stillmattered.
I mean, we lost 15 to 13, so people will say,well, you still lost.
Doesn't matter about the half point.
You still would have
lost anyways.
The mindset and the difference when all of
a sudden the whole thing's over and done withand you can't win, you've lost even though
you're still playing versus grinding it out tothe end.
(35:44):
That's a big difference.
And in my opinion, it
would have been a pretty big like, I
I think it played a very big mental factor andwe might've seen a different result.
We'll never know.
But that rule has
to change.
That captain's agreement ahead of time that ifa player gets injured, has to withdraw, it's an
(36:05):
automatic half.
Tell you what, in
the words of Rory McIlroy, shut the fuck upbecause that is a
terrible, terrible agreement.
If you got an injured player, that's a loss.
Bottom line.
Screw that.
I hated that.
And when I heard about it, I'm like, that makesno sense whatsoever.
(36:27):
And it doesn't.
Like, everybody's been in uproar about it.
But, obviously, it did not change the outcome,and you can sit there and point at that.
But in my opinion, the mindset would have beendifferent, and we don't know what the outcome
would have been if that had been a full pointto the U.S.
Think about that.
(36:48):
Instead of a half point to the U.S., a fullpoint, that would have
been a lot more interesting on that Sunday.
Might have been the greatest comeback in RyderCup history.
We might have gotten screwed.
Who knows?
But that's all for today, folks.
I appreciate you jumping on to the Ryder Cuprecap.
(37:08):
And, yeah, until next time, which, there mightbe some announcements coming up in regards to
the live stream.
I don't know if we're going to be doing thatanymore for the remainder of the year.
Might restart in January, but, for the timebeing, just be on the lookout for any updates
(37:29):
there.
And we do want to give a thank you to oursponsors, Devereux Golf as well as Rokform.
At DevRoe Golf, you can use promo code pullhook golf 20 for 20% off your entire order and
then over at rockform.com.
That's r o k f o r m.
Pull hook twenty twenty five for 20% off.
Thank you, everybody.
Peace out.
A-Town down.
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