Golfers Thread

[lichtie23]

1 minute ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

The fact I wouldn't be on any of them tomorrow says it all. Half the team with a chance of ending up pointless. Poulter has an unbeaten singles record to protect so maybe he'll be motivated enough to sneak something I suppose. 

A half if he’s lucky 

[Angus_Don]

Just put them out tomorrow in alphabetical order......you never know it might work.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Angus_Don

[Mark Connolly]

12 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

In the modern era I wonder what the record is for players getting zero points in a Ryder Cup match. We currently have McIlroy, Westwood, Fitzpatrick, Poulter, Wiesberger and Casey I think. Happy to be corrected on this.

Michael King and Des Smith at the Greenbrier in 1979

Eamonn Darcey and Peter Oosterhuis at Walton Heath in 1981

Gordon J Brand, Bernard Gallacher, and Sandy Lyle at PGA National in 1983

Faldo (LOL) at the Belfry in 1985

Ken Brown at Muirfield Village in 1987

Bernhard Langer at the Belfry in 1989

Mark James, Barry Lane and Costantino Rocca at the Belfry in 1993

Coltart, Van de Velde and Sandelin all got 0 at Brookline in 1999 (although they only played in the singles)

Peter Hansen at Medinah in 2012

Stephen Gallacher at Gleneagles in 2014

Fitzpatrick, Westwood, Willett and Sullivan at Hazeltine in 2016.

In true P&B style, that's the list of #zeropointers

Edited September 25, 2021 by Mark Connolly

[Distant Doonhamer]

Coltart, Van de Velde and Sandelin all got 0 at Brookline although they only played in the singles
Peter Hansen at Medinah
Stephen Gallacher at Gleneagles
Fitzpatrick, Westwood, Willett and Sullivan at Hazeltine

Yep. To be fair to Coltart he played one Ryder Cup match against a top of his game Tiger Woods and unsurprisingly lost that match. It’s bizarre and reflects poorly on Mark James that 3 players didn’t play at all until the singles.
Gallacher also lost to Mickelson despite being from memory 3 or 4 under through 14 holes. Tough to make a case for any of this year’s team so far.

[Mark Connolly]

Matt Fitzpatrick has now played four matches across 2 Ryder Cups for a total of 0 points

[alta-pete]

A wee bit unfair on Weisberger I think. Can’t be expected to win from straight out the trap.

But Poulter, McIlrory etc, perfectly fair.  How much you blame them or the captain is the debate. 

[sparky88]

Will soon be hearing some guff about there being problems with togetherness in the European team.

[Distant Doonhamer]

A wee bit unfair on Weisberger I think. Can’t be expected to win from straight out the trap.
But Poulter, McIlrory etc, perfectly fair.  How much you blame them or the captain is the debate. 

I’m not really blaming people. Just an observation that it’s quite something for a team of 12 to have 6 players who have contributed zero points when they’ve all lost played a minimum of 2 matches and some of them 3 matches. Obviously in a pairs format their results are interlinked bit it’s piss poor nonetheless.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

12 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

Yep. To be fair to Coltart he played one Ryder Cup match against a top of his game Tiger Woods and unsurprisingly lost that match. It’s bizarre and reflects poorly on Mark James that 3 players didn’t play at all the nail the singles.
Gallacher also lost to Mickelson despite being from memory 3 or 4 years uder through 14 holes. Tough to make a case for any of this year’s team so far.

I think he sat 4 players until Sunday. Paul Lawrie won his match though.

[Distant Doonhamer]

I think he sat 4 players until Sunday. Paul Lawrie won his match though.

That’s even more bizarre as a strategy. Great stat though.

[peasy23]

Will soon be hearing some guff about there being problems with togetherness in the European team.

Don't think so tbh, they've just been outgunned by a better team.

Rahm is no 1 on the OWGR, Hovland is 14th, 10 of the US team are in between them.

There were a lot of players I feared for coming into this and sadly it's turned out be well founded. Hovland has been a disappointment tbh, thought he would have played much better than he has done. I'm not surprised at Poulter, Fitzpatrick, Rory and Westwood playing poorly, it's what they have been doing most of the year.

Talking on Sky about top loading the singles.

After Rahm, Garcia and Lowry (and maybe Hatton?), who goes next?

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

9 minutes ago, Distant Doonhamer said:

That’s even more bizarre as a strategy. Great stat though.

Actually talking out my arse Lawrie played all 5 rounds.

7 guys played 5 rounds. Ole and Harrington split the fourballs and singles.

[The Moonster]

17 hours ago, lichtie23 said:

I’d be absolutely delighted to be within 4 heading into the singles 

 

[The Moonster]

35 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Matt Fitzpatrick has now played four matches across 2 Ryder Cups for a total of 0 points

He's apparently flushing it this week though

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Anyway no one is going to f**k a Ryder Cup like Mark James again.

Picked Coltart as a captiain pick and didn't let him play.

[Binos]

22 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

Don't think so tbh, they've just been outgunned by a better team.

Rahm is no 1 on the OWGR, Hovland is 14th, 10 of the US team are in between them.

There were a lot of players I feared for coming into this and sadly it's turned out be well founded. Hovland has been a disappointment tbh, thought he would have played much better than he has done. I'm not surprised at Poulter, Fitzpatrick, Rory and Westwood playing poorly, it's what they have been doing most of the year.

Talking on Sky about top loading the singles.

After Rahm, Garcia and Lowry (and maybe Hatton?), who goes next?

They've always got better players 

But we come together in pairs better 

Not this week 

[Binos]

2 minutes ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

Anyway no one is going to f**k a Ryder Cup like Mark James again.

Picked Coltart as a captiain pick and didn't let him play.

Harrington well on way to eclipsing that 

[peasy23]

They've always got better players 
But we come together in pairs better 
Not this week 

Purely on world rankings, this is the best they have ever been in comparison to the Europeans since rankings began. Europe have almost always got the better of them in pairs, and in foursomes especially, but they have also never played a Ryder Cup with so many players in the team out of form.

[Jim McLean's Ghost]

Just now, Binos said:

Harrington well on way to eclipsing that 

Harrington doesn't have the players. I don't think there is any captain that could bridge the gap between talent/form of these two teams.

Even his picks aren't that bad. Garcia has been one of the best. Lowry showed something this afternoon. Poulter obviously not great but if he didn't pick him and it was going this badly everyone would be criticisng him for missing the Poulter spark.

 

James directed his own downfall with his 3 untested rookies going out 3,4 and 5 on the Sunday. They all got whipped and the yanks built from that momentum.

[Skyline Drifter]

4 hours ago, peasy23 said:

Don't think so tbh, they've just been outgunned by a better team.

Rahm is no 1 on the OWGR, Hovland is 14th, 10 of the US team are in between them.

There were a lot of players I feared for coming into this and sadly it's turned out be well founded. Hovland has been a disappointment tbh, thought he would have played much better than he has done. I'm not surprised at Poulter, Fitzpatrick, Rory and Westwood playing poorly, it's what they have been doing most of the year.

Talking on Sky about top loading the singles.

After Rahm, Garcia and Lowry (and maybe Hatton?), who goes next?

I'm not a massive golf watcher. I was working through most of Fridays games. It was on in the background but I only paid attention to the back 9 of the fourballs. Didnt see any of the foursomes and only half of the fourballs with us being at Inverness today. Heard on several occasions commentators talk about how well Hovland has played, 'going to be a huge star' etc. I havent seen him hit a shot yet a decent scratch golfer at your local club might not hit and all I've noticed him do is miss putts badly. 

I never thought Harrington likely to be an inspiring captain. He's no Seve or Olly and he has been too loyal to McIlroy in particular but he's had little chance with the hand dealt. Its easy to nitpick over the wildcards and its easy to be wise now about it being a match too far for Poulter but the picks were pretty obvious and very few wouldnt have picked Poulter a week ago. He hasnt been good but saddled with McIlroy as a partner he had no energy to feed off either. The debate was really Lowry or Rose. The gap in these teams wouldnt be solved by Justin Rose! 

At the end of the day this American team is MILES better than Europe. Morikawa is going to dominate golf for years probably. For all the rights and wrongs of a qualification process that got Westwood and Fitzpatrick in, there arent half a dozen European golfers sitting at home who would have made a massive difference. Would McIntyre have done better than Westwood? Almost certainly, but we're 6 pts down and the only reason its that close is Rahm. 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Skyline Drifter