Links Corner Forum

There's plenty of controversy over Justin Thomas being a captain's pick and I think rightly so, after reading this story (OWGR #24):

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/la ... ains-picks

I also question Rickie Fowler being chosen, world ranking of #25 at the moment. Is it just cronyism? Or does it comes down to "He's been there before, and experience is more important than recent achievement"?

All but over inside of 2 days......

Duck Hook wrote: ↑September 30th, 2023, 11:26 am All but over inside of 2 days......

Yeah. Good thing they took Thomas along because "he's good in the room" as the saying goes. This is a list of the top 26 players based on OWGR ranking. Red = automatic, Blue = captain's pick, and Green = available but not picked. Personally I would have picked Bradley and Finau over Thomas and Fowler (or even over Spieth). The bloom seems to be off those roses. But they had to take along their chums, and now they're paying the price. If Sunday goes badly for them, there will be lots of finger-pointing.

Looking at what players were available there I suppose it could've gone a lot of different ways. Didn't really understand Sam Burns either, but at least he is 1 and 1.

Looking at those rankings though you would think both Bradley and Young would be a bit disillusioned that four players below them in the rankings were selected.

Next time let Vince McMahon promote the game-tag team caddies.

That went well. In future, forget about whom you're pals with and just take the next 6 guys on the OWGR list, unless someone not in that group has two wins in his last four starts or something else extraordinary. I didn't actually get to see any of this; did Koepka do anything?

I only paid attention here and there, but he got 1.5 points from 3 matches. Koepka+Scheffler tied Rahm+Højgaard day 1 afternoon fourball and Koepka called Rahm childish afterwards for kicking something in frustration (dont know full context of that), Koepka+Scheffler broke some record of greatest loss vs Hovland+Åberg (9 down with 7 holes left) day 2 morning foursomes, leaving Scheffler in tears, and Koepka won singles vs Åberg (3 up with 2 holes left).

Adelade wrote: ↑October 2nd, 2023, 4:42 pm I only paid attention here and there, but he got 1.5 points from 3 matches. Koepka+Scheffler tied Rahm+Højgaard day 1 afternoon fourball and Koepka called Rahm childish afterwards for kicking something in frustration (dont know full context of that), Koepka+Scheffler broke some record of greatest loss vs Hovland+Åberg (9 down with 7 holes left) day 2 morning foursomes, leaving Scheffler in tears, and Koepka won singles vs Åberg (3 up with 2 holes left).

Thanks! I have to wonder what effect Koepka being there had on the team. I'm sure some of them weren't pleased to see him there, though they'll never say it, especially now, with a merger in the works. I never heard any more about that mysterious illness they had on Day 1, maybe just jet lag. I wonder if there's a difference with jet lag depending on whether you're traveling west to east (losing hours) or going the other way.

I can't believe for one second that Koepka's presence had any negative effect on team USA's morale. His selection would have been discussed ad nauseum, if there was the slightest doubt, he wouldn't have been picked, imo.

Duck Hook wrote: ↑October 3rd, 2023, 7:07 am I can't believe for one second that Koepka's presence had any negative effect on team USA's morale. His selection would have been discussed ad nauseum, if there was the slightest doubt, he wouldn't have been picked, imo.

Very likely. It was a political decision: "got to have at least ONE LIV guy on the team". Plus, he had the ranking -- but where will that be in 2 years if they don't fix the OWGR for LIV players?