A few years ago, foolish trying to curry the favor while interviewing Bernhard longer, I said, “What did Hal Sutton think, linking Tiger and Phil?”
During the Ryder Cup 2004, in Oakland Hills, the European captain was longer, Sutton was the American captain and Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were the two best and most famous golfers in the world. They were not famous friends. On the first day, Sutton sent that duo twice, morning session and after lunch, she first hit them in a better ball and third in the afternoon alternative shot game. They lost both times.
Assume that the Bernhard voice here. The Monotone, the authority: “You only say that because it did not work.”
Accurate.
In all of Fandom, the two are easiest places to make some serious second vulture, changes when your starter goes well through six and Ryder Cup combinations. Everywhere in Golf, ordinary fans cannot understand why the American captain, Keegan Bradley, Harris English and Collin Morikawa shoot alternative on Friday morning. Does that seem like a natural combination? Which man is going to take a match and what starting liquid is taking? They were trounded by a powerhouse European team, Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy. Then Bradley held the team together on Saturday morning.
“We arrived here this week with a plan and the players were prepared for that plan,” said Bradley Friday night. “We stick to that plan.”
That comes right from the Tiger Woods Playbook, which Woods did as captain of the American team at the 2019 President Cup in Royal Melbourne. On Saturday morning, as fate would have, they pulled Fleetwood-Mac again. Again, the Europeans won without sweating. Two simple points on their way to the 14.5 they are looking for.
Second violation is the great sport of Fandom because it is so easy. We all have our instinctive feelings about what is logical and what is not. Would you really like to link Mickelson and Woods if they were hardly on speaking conditions?
Perhaps you think, when making two-man teams, one of the players should be the natural leader, so one player gives the example and the other player tries to fulfill this. Big Brother-Kid-Broer. Who is the big brother in the English-Morikawa? English is 36 and Morikawa is 28. Morikawa has won two Majors, English has not won one. So who is who?
Maybe you think An Of the two players, in a certain two-man team, a kind of simple charisma must have, in the interest of fan involvement and calming nerves on Down-Fairway walks. Where is the charisma in the English-Morikawa team? Who among them can offer the explosive photos that turn a team event into a team event? Where is the necessary passion?
If you have 12 golfers in your team, you can make 132 teams with two men (say the Mathematics Majors). There are 132 permutations. Stat Mavens on a website called Data Golf has discovered a formula to analyze all 132 American teams based on recent performance. The Morikawa-English team is in 132nd place. Death last. Both players made the team on points. Both are golfers of world class. But neither of them delivered must-watch moments this year. Harris plays a title prov1. Morikawa plays a Taylormade TP5. Does that really matter? Who knows. It must be something.
I realize that this sounds hard. Bradley certainly had his reasons to put together these two great players in alternative Scot, aka foursomes, the first time. It didn’t work. The players wanted to prove their captain correctly on day 2. Groundhog Day.
Second violation is simple. It is a right of Fandom. These words can be typed for only one reason: the Harris English-Collin Morikawa alternative shot combination, such as the couples of Phil Mickelson-Tiger Woods, did not work. You can say that when the score cards are delivered. Yet Bernhard’s insight lives. It is alive and well and will be forever.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments on michael.bamberger@golf.com.
#Ryder #Cup #Guessing #simple #dont #work