I love what a proper Englishman Rose is. You know he's celebrating with beef Wellington and port tonight.

CapCityAg89 said:

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Rosie is just so ****ing likeable.

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He was great in Full Swing.

I followed Rose at the Colonial several years ago. His caddy carried tons of balls. After every green, Rose would find a kid or two and give them a ball.

I'm a Fowler fan, but picking him feels wrong. Makes me nervous if he continues to play well, because the rest of the options aren't really reaching out and grabbing the spot.

In the end, I think the tie goes to the guy that is best friends with the best player in the world, but I wouldn't pick Burns. He's a great putter, but players that lean on great putting to make up for mediocre ball striking tend to be pretty volatile. I'm still high on McNealy. He reminds me of a young Russel Henley (just longer). Really solid T2G, good putter, and I think he could be a good foursomes partner for a lot of guys.

Bradley obviously having the best season, but I just don't like the playing captain idea. I think it's too much pressure.

Positivelyag512 said:

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Scottie
X Man
JJ
RUSS
BRYSON
JT
COLIN
English
Griffin
Burns (Scottie's Best Friend)
Keegan
Gotterup, (Sneaky Pick)

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Okay Burns, Keegan and Gotterup drop off…

Cauley, dark Horse
Young, solidified
Fowler, but got to prove it at BMW

Bubble:
Cantlay
Burns

Current standings -

1. Scottie
2. J.J.
3. Xander
4. Henley
5. Bryson
6. English

7. JT
8. Morikawa
9. Griffin
10. Bradley
11. McNealy
12. Novak
- - - -
13. Harman
14. Cam Young
15. Cantlay
16. Burns
17. Clark
18. Glover
19. Berger

I think the 1st 9 are pretty much a given at this point. For 2 of the last 3, I'd lean Cam Young (for his recent play and ties to Bethpage) and Cantlay (while not in top form, his prior Ryder Cup play gets him the benefit of the doubt). Not sure what to do with the last spot. I think I'm out on Keegan as a player. If he was playing great, OK, but his form just isn't good enough for both the captaincy and playing. Think I might lean McNealy to get some new blood in there.

I agree with your 1-11 picks but now think it might be Burns for the last spot especially since 2 rookies are likely. Kinda would like to see Berger make a charge this week and put himself up there. Always liked his attitude.

98Ag99Grad said:

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I agree with your 1-11 picks but now think it might be Burns for the last spot especially since 2 rookies are likely. Kinda would like to see Berger make a charge this week and put himself up there. Always liked his attitude.

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It's definitely a tough call, as there are about 6 guys you could make a case for the final 3 spots. Wouldn't surprise me if Burns got the call.

But if Burns doesn't make the team, wonder if we got a sneak preview yesterday with Scottie and JJ playing together?

aggiegolfer2012 said:

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I'm a Fowler fan, but picking him feels wrong. Makes me nervous if he continues to play well, because the rest of the options aren't really reaching out and grabbing the spot.

In the end, I think the tie goes to the guy that is best friends with the best player in the world, but I wouldn't pick Burns. He's a great putter, but players that lean on great putting to make up for mediocre ball striking tend to be pretty volatile. I'm still high on McNealy. He reminds me of a young Russel Henley (just longer). Really solid T2G, good putter, and I think he could be a good foursomes partner for a lot of guys.

Bradley obviously having the best season, but I just don't like the playing captain idea. I think it's too much pressure.

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Good analysis. I agree with the general notion that two tournaments shouldn't decide who gets the last spot. But given how close the five guys you listed are, I think it will inevitably come down to who plays best the next couple weeks.

If things look in two weeks exactly like they look now, I would probably use a process of elimination to start. Keegan should only play if he's clearly one of the top 12. He's not. Cross him off. Fowler feels kinda "too little too late". Cross him off too.

That leaves Burns, McNealy and Novak. I can see the case for any of them. I wouldn't imagine we see any of them play foursomes. So really we're just talking about two four ball matches + singles. I can get behind your McNealy pick there.

For a home cup, I'm a little more lenient about who I trust. If it was a road cup, I might lean Burns. Just don't want him anywhere near a foursomes match haha. Especially not with Scottie.

Agree with your picks 1-11 but not sure about McNealy on the team though.

I loved Keegan as president simply because we've had a bunch of analytical guys recently and he's definitely a passion guy. I'd like to see what "rah rah, let's kick their ass" does as opposed to "the numbers indicate Bob and Joe should play together in the 3rd slot".

That means as a player, he should be out.

With that said, if he's NOT captain, I'd say pick him 10 out of 10 this year.

It's an every year thing, but looking at Europe, they're so lucky this isn't a 16 man event and that they only have to play 8 guys the first four sessions. Every year they have a solid 8-10, then a huge drop off.

If there was a JV Ryder Cup every two years of the 13-24 ranked guys on each side, USA would dominate.

It's just day 1, but none of them played well last week either (Cam Young ended up doing okay).
Does anybody want these last 1-2 spots?

I don't really care how well guys do this week or next. Keegan is the only guy that could prove himself if he were to do something next week at East Lake.

I'm rolling with Young, Novak and probably Cantlay.

I think Cantlay might be the most undervalued member of the team right now.
Admittedly a bad season in the majors. But outside of that he has only finished outside the top 15 in TOUR events once since the start of April.
It's not the Cantlay we are used to, but it's way more consistent week to week than guys like Novak, Young or Keegan.

Patty Ice brings the fire.

Sam Burns trying to keep his name alive.

At what point does Morikawa play his way off the team?

He's not going to.
We aren't leaving him off just like the Euros aren't going to leave off Lowry. Some guys have built up enough trust equity that a couple bad months aren't going to erase.

He's playing bad, is on like his 4th caddie of the summer, and played poorly in the last Ryder cup.

Who would you pick over him?

cb1919 said:

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Sam Burns trying to keep his name alive.

At what point does Morikawa play his way off the team?

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Seems like he's doing a very good job of that this week (BMW). No way Keegan trusts him in any matches at this point. He can't find a caddie he can play with and can't score right now.

JT, Morikawa and Xander are all playing poor golf.

One of these is Novak, the other is Morikawa. For one, these results prove he deserves a spot on the team. For the other, a player who has proven the last 4-5 years he's one of the best players in the world, it's a bad sign and we should leave him at home.

The leaderboard of the BMW looks like a who's who of European Ryder Cup players. These guys are really good.

aggiegolfer2012 said:

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Who would you pick over him?

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At this point, I'm taking McNealy over Colin. Cantlay is playing steady enough that I think he should be in.

Barring any last minute surprises, the automatic Top 6 will be Scottie, JJ, Xander, Henley, Bryson and English. For the captain's picks, I would go with Thomas, Moriikawa, Griffin, Young, Cantlay and Burns. Bradley hasn't been playing that well since his win back in June at the Travelers and I don't think it would be a good idea to have a playing captain for Team USA unless he was one of our automatic Top 6 players. For Bethpage Black, Team USA already will have at least 3 rookies that have never played at the Ryder Cup and I think we need some experience and best opportunities for pairing matchups.

If they pick Burns, it better not be just to pair with Scheffler. That really hasn't worked out too well. He did well with Henley at the Pres Cup and should be open to playing with anyone.

For Team USA to have a chance to win, Scottie, JJ, Bryson and probably Xander will have to play at least 4 matches each as our team depth is a bit of concern. Team Europe has several guys playing good golf this entire year and over the past 2 months.

No way does Bradley do it, but I would put Patrick Reed on the team. He has an attitude that would help and he is playing pretty good.

This event is a lot different without the staggered start next week. Gotta wonder what the interest level is from guys that are for sure around next week if they didn't get off to a hot start. Outside of money, there's no real incentive to grind to move up a few spots.

If we were playing the Ryder Cup at Augusta National, I would have Reed on the team given his track record there. Reed's record in the majors outside of The Masters over the past couple of years has been underwhelming.

As Rickie fan who also doesn't want Rickie on the Ryder Cup. These last few holes have been a roller coaster

Want to see him do well, just not well enough to generate RC momentum.