Cool project to be a part of! We have Bethpage Black totally decked out with the full Ryder Cup treatment. Next week is going to be a blast.

Yeah, find the best non-Scottie pairing for Henley and Spaun, then give Scheffler the other and I think that makes up four of the foursomes pairings. You'd think Cantlay and Xander for at least one of the other, gotta see what Xander is like form wise after having a child. Probably find a spot for Morikawa here with English. Sleeper team of Young and Bryson, just because Young is the only player on the team playing the same ball as Bryson and I don't think you want to mess with Bryson's equipment.

JT was pretty bad on the weekend, he was also out of contention. Stats weren't great, but weren't bad the first two rounds. Looking through his rounds on data golf and it's the same story, 2-3 atrocious drives a round derails him. Still made plenty of birdies, so just plug him in for fourball and singles. Don't want to see him in foursomes.

Feeling better about the team as it gets closer.

Deluxe said:

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Glad we didn't snub Griffin

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Except he can't be out there during Foursomes because nobody wants to play a Maxfli ball

A) I don't think it's that bad of a ball
B) You don't have to play the same ball every hole so the player hitting the approach has the ball he's used to. So as long as you have somebody that can stand the Maxfli off the tee, it's not a big deal for most of the guys. Apparently some players will tee up a different ball and the spin will go crazy and they'll be 20-30 yards shorter so it doesn't work (heard Luke Donald talking about this with maybe Ludvig and a certain ball), but I bet they can find someone who can make it work off the tee.

Bryson is just an a different animal with equipment, I don't know that I'd risk him being able to adapt great off the tee and putting with a different ball. Seems crazy to say putting, but go watch some of his stuff on how he picks balls and marks them to putt, seems insane but it's how his brain works.

aggiegolfer2012 said:

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Yeah, find the best non-Scottie pairing for Henley and Spaun, then give Scheffler the other and I think that makes up four of the foursomes pairings. You'd think Cantlay and Xander for at least one of the other, gotta see what Xander is like form wise after having a child. Probably find a spot for Morikawa here with English. Sleeper team of Young and Bryson, just because Young is the only player on the team playing the same ball as Bryson and I don't think you want to mess with Bryson's equipment.

JT was pretty bad on the weekend, he was also out of contention. Stats weren't great, but weren't bad the first two rounds. Looking through his rounds on data golf and it's the same story, 2-3 atrocious drives a round derails him. Still made plenty of birdies, so just plug him in for fourball and singles. Don't want to see him in foursomes.

Feeling better about the team as it gets closer.

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I'm feeling pretty good about the team too. Could make the case that Europe has a slight edge at the top but I think that will be offset by our strength at the bottom + home crowd + setup control.

Good point about Bryson and his golf ball. I guess if he's going to play foursomes, it would likely have to be with Cam?

I'll be interested to see how Keegan weighs form vs pedigree in setting up our foursomes lineup. Ideally we'd want JT, Xander and Morikawa out there. Traditionally great iron players and guys who aren't afraid of hitting opposite the Euro big guns in that setting. But we've got other guys who are playing better.

Keegan said the lineup is pretty much set, which indicates that how a player's form looks next week won't impact the pairings. But it would be interesting to see how we adjust if, say, Xander showed up looking like Spieth did in 2023.

Would really like a Spaun/Bryson pairing from a game standpoint if the ball issue isn't as big as I think it is. Would make three of those morning pairings easy to set imo.

Scottie/Henley
Bryson/Spaun
Xander/Cantlay

That puts your 6 best ball strikers on the course quick.

If a book would set odds for Griffin/JT being the first team out Friday afternoon, I'd bet a decent amount of money on that.

I like the concept of JT/Griffin off first on Friday afternoon, especially if JT isn't playing foursomes (which I agree he may not be suited for at the moment).

Was previously thinking that Bryson might be good in that slot too. Rile up the NYC afternoon crowd. I guess it depends on whether or not we send him out in foursomes.

Not having Bryson in the first parring off would be a terrible decision.

You want to get a fired up crowd unhinged, have Bryson's crazy ass hit the first ball 800 yards.

I admittedly didn't calculate in Bryson's newfound fame since the last time he played in one of these. I did have him playing in the morning in my head, so first off would be a quick turnaround.

How Keegan uses Bryson in these matches is going to be super interesting. He's up there on the tier with Rahm, McIlroy and Scottie as the best players in the event. He's the third best tee to green player in the world, you want him out there for foursomes, but it seems like there are more variables to finding him the right partner than with those other guys.

He's one of the best on the team, so I put him put there early and often. I do not overthink his partner. Just pair him with a decently long dude and let it fly. If he just doesn't have it, then bench as needed. But that's a Saturday or Saturday afternoon decision

Bryson and Scottie should play all 5 sessions. Sitting them shouldn't even be in consideration. It's such a bad idea, it shouldn't have even crossed Kegans mind.

Agree that Bryson and Scottie have to play all 5 matches. Would consider having Xander and Spaun be available to play at least 4 matches. Hope that Cantlay and JT can bring their A game to Bethpage Black.

A lot of videos of the European team at Bethpage. When do the US guys get there?

Good question. From what I understand, the Euros just spent a day or two at Bethpage and are heading back to their US home bases until Sunday. Not sure if the US guys plan to take a field trip this week.

I think Keegan had stated there were no plans for the US Team to play the course beforehand. He basically had a hand in the set-up so probably not a huge deal. Most of the Euros also played the the nice courses in the area- National Golf Links, Shinnekok, etc.

Deluxe said:

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Good question. From what I understand, the Euros just spent a day or two at Bethpage and are heading back to their US home bases until Sunday. Not sure if the US guys plan to take a field trip this week.

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Now we need to announce the surprise Old Course-inspired reverse routing.