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  • Davis makes 3 of his 4 Ryder Cup picks

livegolf

Na has managed to somehow overcome his mid-swing turret syndrome in recent years and become a fairly consistent competitor, but I'm not sure that achievement alone would qualify him for Ryder Cup consideration. Hard to justify picking a player whose last win came 5 years ago in what was essentially an also-ran event.

I do however appreciate your thoughts about Berger. He continues flying under the radar but has shown a lot of potential despite not getting much of the limelight and fanfare he probably deserves. His win earlier this year in the St. Jude with Stricker, Mickelson and Koepka chasing him was solid enough to overtake Fowler in the consideration department imo.

    Don't really care for the Fowler pick but he's in so I hope he does well. Would have preferred to see Ryan Moore get a shot. Or Thomas, or Berger. Still one more pick left so we'll see.

    Davis is playing it safe. Not taking any chances with young and inexperienced guys being he lost as captain before. I like all 4 picks. I also think Bubba gets the 4th spot. He's number 7 in the world and on the cover of Golf Magazine this month wearing the red, white and blue. Seems preordained.

      Sneakylong

      Ultimately I too believe Bubba will be the fourth. I don't think Davis will look beyond either him or Furyk.

        Although this rumor is making the rounds on the internet, I'm not buying it. I think to do something as epically idiotic as that would turn off a lot of diehard Ryder Cup fans, because at that point it would be fairly evident that Love values tv ratings above all else, and the event would lose an enormous amount of legitimacy.

        A friend of mine posted a similar article on FB, saying it would be awesome if Woods got picked. I agreed with him, in part anyway. It would be awesome.

        For Europe, that is.

        Ole, Ole Ole Ole, Ole, Ole....

        It'd be funny if he got picked and Love pulled a Mark James and sat him until singles play 😉

        P.s. no way he gets picked.

          ode

          I agree obviously. But then again - it just goes right along with the troubling narrative that has defined the manner in which the US side approaches this event. Looking back throughout the past 15 years of this competition, going back to 2001 - our captains have most always chosen "experience" over current talent.

          For the life of me - I can't understand why... we have such a longstanding history in recent years of getting our asses kicked in this event that we pretty much expect to lose. Why would a captain prefer a "veteran" with a history of losing, not to mention when there are younger players who have clearly outplayed those veterans?

          What on earth is the captain trying to accomplish? Even last time around - Watson stepped on his dick by sitting a hot team. Why? Ego. My team, my rules, don't like it - tough $hit. We saw how that worked... it was embarrassing.

          If Love picks Woods, it wouldn't entirely shock me. That's what we do - we figure out a way to lose and then we follow that plan accordingly, especially if it involves picking older players over younger players. It's almost like the captain goes into his annual checkup with his physician 6 months prior to the event, and unbeknownst to him - his personal physician has European Ryder Cup leanings... "well, we found this and I need you to take these 1000mg dumbass pills, three times per day. Come back and see me in 7 months."

          They are just dumbasses. To even hear rumors that Woods is being remotely entertained as a pick just removes any doubt that these captains are just outright dumbasses. If Davis picks him, he would make Hal Sutton's year... "The World needed it, Tiger needed it, Phil needed it." Suddenly, Sutton doesn't appear to be the biggest dumbass of the bunch.


          • ode likes this.

            Why not lose with the same guys that we always lose with. What could possibly go wrong? Fowler's next Ryder Cup match win will be his first. I would like to see Ryan Moore, Justin Thomas or Na get a chance instead of the same old..same old.

              GLFTPS Preach on, brother! Last year Fowler played really well. Had the Ryder Cup been last year, I would definitely have wanted him on the team. This year, not so much.

              Ryan Moore is pretty steady; he doesn't win much, but he's in the hunt a lot. I think he would be a great choice.

                  GLFTPS

                  So much for that fantabulous Ryder Cup committee! They've dotted all of their t's and crossed all of their i's - that special bunch of experts.

                  I'm no fortune teller, but I'm putting the odds on Bubba being the 4th and final pick. Davis invited him to join 6 other players from the team to play a Ryder Cup practice round at Hazeltine this weekend. Or I'll put it this way - if he's not picked - that's one helluva bitchslap after giving him the warm fuzzies like that.

                    8 days later

                    From the "those who refuse to learn from history are destined to repeat it" files...

                    Johnny Miller thinks that this is the worst European Ryder Cup team he's seen in a long time. He didn't just go out on the limb, but decided to jump up and down on it in his followup: "I can see the US not only winning, but winning by like 5 points."

                    Davis seems to agree. "We don't have to do anything superhuman. This is the best golf team, maybe, ever assembled."

                    Alright. Fair enough. After all - we are the absolute best at assembling "the best" year after year after year. So this isn't new news to anyone, especially the European players. What gets lost in all the self-induced hype, however, is that during the past 17 years - the Europeans are clearly the best at "disassembling" the best and sending them home with tears streaming down their cheeks and their heads tucked between their asses, wondering WTF happened yet again.

                    I mean, this last-minute Ryder Cup bravado is simply what we do best... we hand out those miniature American flags and throw our pep rallies, we now even have an official task force to make sure we've not forgotten anything important, like making sure the wives/girlfriends have already started working on putting together team-building activity schedules each evening for their hubbies, making sure everybody is getting along with each other and happy with the pairings, and we can't forget the inspirational speeches and the motivational music playlists! Gotta have that attitude, boys, to go along with those beautifully-designed patriotic golf bags and playing apparel! Damn, let's just go straight to trophy presentation Sunday evening already and be done with it, we're gonna kick some Euro ass!

                    And what do the Europeans do? They ain't worried about team building, they ain't worried about needing to be distracted after the matches each evening, they've never once complained about their team apparel being outlandishly bland compared to their opponents.' They just show up, have a good time and play some golf, without the theatrics, without the hoopla, without sensationalism and bravado. They just show up, have fun and play golf.

                    And that's why you'd never, ever see Paul McGinley (or whoever their captain is) fabricating this enormous, theatrical drama with revealing his 4th and final pick during the halftime show between Arsenal and Tottenham in European football Premier League action.

                    But the idiots in charge of the US team - this is what we do. We build this up and make it so goddamned important that by the time the first matches roll around Friday morning - we have no other choice but to puke our guts up.

                    The script continues to get worse and worse, you'd think we would've learned our lesson by now.

                    "The best golf team assembled, maybe ever" and "They could win by like 5 points"..... way to go, guys. Way to f**ing go!

                    Not smart by dl3 with the comments. I think he,s painting himself in a corner with the way hes going about it....if Chapell wins and he doesn't pick him, well he looks bad....if DJ wins you have 4 guys basically in the same boat, Berger, Thomas, Chapell and Moore with a decent to good showing, making the tour championship and performing well. In this scenario,, I suspect be picks bubba andyou'll get a collective eye roll if he does this. It really appears to me he does not want to pick bubba or any of these guys. If he really feels the way be feels about the team being that good, then be should have made a pick already...imo he is putting unnecessary pressure on the last pick.

                    The Euros DO have the weakest team on paper in many, many years. They have a bunch of rookies , are innexperienced and their experienced players have not done well lately. I think this hurts them, especially if things are close in matches.

                    Can't argue with DL picks, and for the last player, lots of options for a guy who will likely only play 2 matches all week. I suspect he goes with a long hitting, experienced player .

                    Being born and having lived in Europe, I side with the Euros in this one but have to agree with JM, could be a very one sided win for the US on home turf, but you never know, the Euros always seem to galvanize in this event and surprise. Should be fun

                    Here is a fun thing to debate. I saw on another forum there is talk that DLIII may pick Tiger as his fourth pick. He has played with Woods and thinks he is really playing well. I can't believe that there is any credibility to this rumor, but it does make for interesting banter about it.

                      letthebigdogshunt

                      If he is stupid enough to make that pick, well, I can't imagine how he could show his face on the PGA ever again! Win or lose!

                      And what a slap in the face of ALL the players that played this season. Esp. Ryan Moore....who should be the obvious pick.

                      But, he did pick Fowler, so nothing further would surprise me.

                        Congrats to Moore....been knocking on the door and finally gets his due. Can't wait to see the first pairings and the competition to begin.

                        Moore was a no-brainer. I mean, I guess Davis could've done the unthinkable and picked someone else (like Bubba, or worse - Tiger) but I think Moore forced his hand with the way he played this week. Felt bad for Kevin Chappell, hard to fathom that he's yet to win a single tournament on tour, and he had a golden opportunity today. He's had a great season nonetheless.

                        So... 9 of the 12 players were in the field this week for the Tour Championship. Those 9 Ryder Cuppers collectively shot 1-under for the tournament. Take away Ryan Moore's 12-under 2nd place finish, and that suddenly doesn't make this team sound like "perhaps the best team ever assembled."

                        This is what happens however when you create a situation where you're basically requiring the players from the Ryder Cup team to commit to 4 tournaments in a 5-week stretch, which obviously the FedEx playoffs essentially do. And the kicker is that they're not getting any time to rest this week, as it's straight ahead to the Ryder Cup starting Friday.

                        Hopefully these guys can shake off the burnout between now and Friday, because the quality of golf overall really wasn't overly impressive, except for maybe one or two guys.

                        Dustin Johnson looked like a defeated golfer today, despite a $10 million payoff at stake. It had nothing to do with pressure, and everything to do with just being burned out.

                          PA-PLAYA Moore was a no-brainer.

                          Recently he is hot and injury free. Watson might have injury issue not known to public.