Hypothetical Ryder Cup 2020

[Grizzly]

So, hypothetically the Ryder Cup could go ahead at Whistling Straits in late September, but behind closed doors.

Lets say that the resumption of Professional golf was only a few weeks before, so there is no points system to fill places, so it is agreed that the Captains will get 12 picks each.

Who would you all select for your Team Europe? I'm trying to work mine out now...

 

[Jacko_G]

Rory says NO!

However I would love a closed doors Ryder Cup to enjoy the golf without the horrendous fan behaviour. As I've consistently said for years football chanting at golf is just wrong and an embarrassment to the sport. Drunken idiots yelling and swearing during golf shots.

Utterly ridiculous and pathetic.

 

[IanM]

We have to let the Yanks win or they won't play anymore. Mind you, Trump picked himself, and beat Rory 10 & 8! You heard it hear first.

 

[Grizzly]

Nah, Trump is still wrapped up in his International Summit match with Kim Jong Un - they've been all square for the last two thousand holes after each making one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine aces and an albatross 2 a piece when the 600 yard par 5 was playing into the wind.

 

[Orikoru]

Rory
Rahm
Fleetwood
Rose
Molinari
Lowry
Hatton
Casey
Stenson
Hovland
Garcia
Poulter I guess?

 

[Imurg]

Rory
Rahm
Rose
Fleetwood
Hatton
Fitzpatrick
Weisberger
Stenson
Lowry
Casey
Westwood
Garcia or Molinari.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Rory
Rahm
Rose
Fleetwood
Hatton
Fitzpatrick
Weisberger
Hovland
Lowry
Casey
Willet
Garcia

 

[Solidthreeputt]

Rory
Rahm
Weisberger
Lowry
Hatton
Fleetwood

At this point in the exercise I have realised how utterly uninspired i am bu this team. At a course where the playing field is probably more level than normal, we are at a bit of a low ebb in terms of form/talent. Worrying!

 

[Wolf]

Rory
Rahm
Rose
Fleetwood
Hatton
Fitzpatrick
Weisberger
Hovland
Lowry
Casey
Willet
Garcia
Poulter
Molinari

Though to be honest I think I'd like to see the Yanks win just to make it more of challenge as they don't seem as bothered by losing it

 

[Imurg]

Rory
Rahm
Rose
Fleetwood
Hatton
Fitzpatrick
Weisberger
Hovland
Lowry
Casey
Willet
Garcia
Poulter
Molinari

Though to be honest I think I'd like to see the Yanks win just to make it more of challenge as they don't seem as bothered by losing it

Playing 14 a side now are we...

 

[Wolf]

Playing 14 a side now are we...

?
I was meant to put Poulter and Molinari as vice captains. Need some buggy drivers ?

 

[Grizzly]

I checked online.

So, the Top 12 in World Rankings would be:

McIlroy
Rahm
Fleetwood
Rose
Lowry
Hatton
Casey
Fitzpatrick
Wiesberger
Molinari
Westwood
Stenson

Interesting of itself - but a factor to begin with would have to be that at least two of that list were in really poor form before the game paused - and a couple more were not far ahead.

Just outside that 12 but still inside the world's top 50, we have:
Willett
Garcia
Perez
Wallace
Cabrera Bello
McDowell

With Hovland at 57 and Poulter at 58. Capped last time, Eddie Pepperell is at 65, but Alex Noren is outside the top one hundred and Thorbjorn Olesson is not currently playing. If we were very left field, Robert MacIntyre, Thomas Pieters and Mike Lorenzo-Vera are in the low 70s...

 

[Lord Tyrion]

One of the things to look for in these selections is we need players used to bombing it on US courses. We need to make sure all of our team have the type of game to suit the course they have chosen. Sounds obvious but the US did not learn when they chose Mickelson last time around. That may mean not picking the top 12 in ranking terms but those who suit Whistling Straits.

Grizzly, great shout regarding looking at someone like MacIntyre. It may be a tournament too soon for him but we need to be thinking like that.

 

[MendieGK]

One of the things to look for in these selections is we need players used to bombing it on US courses. We need to make sure all of our team have the type of game to suit the course they have chosen. Sounds obvious but the US did not learn when they chose Mickelson last time around. That may mean not picking the top 12 in ranking terms but those who suit Whistling Straits.

Grizzly, great shout regarding looking at someone like MacIntyre. It may be a tournament too soon for him but we need to be thinking like that.

Whistling straits is as close to being a european course as you are ever going to get. End of September it starts to cool down in Wisconsin and will be chilly early morning, and it can get windy round there.

Personally I don’t get this sentiment of setting courses up to suit the yanks anymore, because they all play the same tour. Rahm and Rory play exactly the same game as Brooks and DJ for example

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Whistling straits is as close to being a european course as you are ever going to get. End of September it starts to cool down in Wisconsin and will be chilly early morning, and it can get windy round there.

Personally I don’t get this sentiment of setting courses up to suit the yanks anymore, because they all play the same tour. Rahm and Rory play exactly the same game as Brooks and DJ for example

I think the gap between styles is reducing but it is still there. You are spot on about Rory and Rahm but not all of the Europeans play that type of game.

The set up in Paris was quite particular and it seemed to work pretty effectively there still.

 

[Grizzly]

I think there are always going to be players who are not suited to the particular course - Mickelson, with his obsession with hitting everything as hard as he possibly can come whatever may, is an extreme example of this. In general though, the point with Paris was not that the course was somehow unsuited to skills that the American team possessed, so much as that that American team stubbornly refused to recognise that the approach they were taking of bomb and gouge was not working.

 

[MendieGK]

I think there are always going to be players who are not suited to the particular course - Mickelson, with his obsession with hitting everything as hard as he possibly can come whatever may, is an extreme example of this. In general though, the point with Paris was not that the course was somehow unsuited to skills that the American team possessed, so much as that that American team stubbornly refused to recognise that the approach they were taking of bomb and gouge was not working.

Similar to what happened in the presidents cup.

Only tiger played the course as it should be played whereas the rest of the world listened to Els planning and advice.

Only on Sunday in the Singles, did the talent of the yanks finally come on top

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Can players do bomb and gouge if they simply don't have the tools? I'm thinking about the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick who has openly admitted he can not compete in certain tournaments due to lack of comparative length off the tee. Whilst the likes of DJ and Koepka can rein it in if required, can others add length, gouge the ball with brute force if they are not built for it or their technique collapses when trying?

I'm not being funny about this, I'm interested from a technical point of view. My thoughts are it is not really feasible but I'm happy to hear otherwise.

 

[Grizzly]

Can players do bomb and gouge if they simply don't have the tools? I'm thinking about the likes of Matt Fitzpatrick who has openly admitted he can not compete in certain tournaments due to lack of comparative length off the tee. Whilst the likes of DJ and Koepka can rein it in if required, can others add length, gouge the ball with brute force if they are not built for it or their technique collapses when trying?

I'm not being funny about this, I'm interested from a technical point of view. My thoughts are it is not really feasible but I'm happy to hear otherwise.

I'd have said not - there are very few stories of players trying to fight their natural games who went on to win and lots of stories of people who tried to make those changes and went to poop (cf Donald, Kaymer just off the top of my head).