Uncle Mo is on Team Europe’s side.
The two years since have been, without hyperbole, probably the craziest stretch in professional golf’s history.
The War of the Tours added an element of chaos to both team’s ecosystems.
For the Europeans, it hastened an inevitable changing of the guard.
This year’s European team will feature at least four Ryder Cup rookies.
Koepka played fine that week, going 2-2.
He looked the happiest he’d been on the golf course in years.
Johnson authored a historic performance.
But DeChambeau’s polarizing nature makes him an easier guy to skip over.
DeChambeau and DJ are unlikely to make the team.
So are three other members from that U.S. team.
Daniel Berger hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since June 2022.
That’s exactly what’s happened for the European side.
Rory McIlroy is, according to Data Golf, playing the best of anyone on the planet.
Jon Rahm’s the reigning Masters champion, finished runner-up at the Open Championship and the No.
3 player in the world.
Tommy Fleetwood’s had perhaps his best season on the PGA Tour.
Tyrrell Hatton qualified for the Tour Championship without a win this season on the strength of seven top-10s.
Sepp Straka has a win this season and finished second in the most recent major championship.
Shane Lowry missed out on the FedEx playoffs but is not out of form by any means.
The Europeans have nine shoe-ins playing good golf.
By my count, 10 Americans are highly likely to make the team.
Clark, Harman and Homa will be Ryder Cup rookies.
Clark and Harman, especially, were not even in the Ryder Cup picture two years ago.
Koepka should get a captain’s pick.
If he doesn’t, it’ll do damage to the competition as a whole.
Jordan Spieth’s making it.
So is Cameron Young, at least according to loose-lipped assistant captain Fred Couples.
My money’s on Thomas and Fowler.
But odds are, this being a two-year process, that Johnson’s mind is already made up.
Clark has gone five straight starts without a top 10 since his U.S. Open triumph.
Young has not been nearly as consistent in his sophomore year as he was during his rookie season.
Morikawa has one top-10 in his last 12 starts.
Spieth is still feast or famine.
Then there’s Thomas, who failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Now, the Americans are still favored going into Marco Simone, at least by Vegas' estimation.
They have the deeper side 1-12.
But at the very top, it’s the Europeans who are playing better golf at this very moment.
Of Data Golf’s top eight players, three are American and four are European.
All the sudden, the U.S. winning their first Ryder Cup in 30 years looks anything but certain.
Ryder Cup predictions
All the cool kids are doing them.
Still, Kim dreamed of returning to the United States and playing on the PGA Tour.
He’s well on his way.
Kim’s not there yet, but he’s close.
“Call it a resurrection, I guess,” Kim said of his finishing flourish.
“Honestly, just keep my foot down and young, just venture to win every week.
Yeah, definitely give it my all until the last putt falls.”
A gambling-induced headache
Golf, in so many ways, is the perfect sport to gamble on.
You get four days' worth of entertainment from one bet.
Enough time between shots for live odds to update.
Eighteen individual holes to bet on.
The PGA Tour, to its credit, has leaned into gambling in recent years.
They have umpteen official betting partners.
Many players have inked endorsement deals with sportsbooks.
Ponte Vedra knows full well the attention that wagering can bring to the sport.
There is, however, a flip-side.
Golf allows its spectators to be closer than any other sport.
Or, for purposes of this conversation, to shout things in their face.
“There’s just not.
There’s no switch that we can flick that can preclude anyone from yelling.
There are things we can do from a security standpoint to beef things up, to enhance surveillance.
It’s a valid point.
But it happened this past week at the BMW Championship to Max Homa.
I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is the one thing Im worried about.
I dont know what he had to lose.
He got kicked out probably, and we were the last group.
Zero tolerance at all.
But if there is, that incentive structure needs to be removed.
But odds are it’s just drunk people yelling drunk things.
They’d yell something else if it wasn’t about a bet.
Might there be more of it with gambling legalized?
But people have been betting with illegal books or with each other at tournaments for ages.
One isolated incident does not mean there is some widespread problem.
On to the next.
A star is born in Denver
Tiger Woods and Nick Dunlap.
As far as golfers to win the U.S.
Junior Amateur and the U.S.
Amateur, it’s just them two.
Dunlap began his match-play run with a 1-up victory over Sargent in a marquee round-of-64 bout.
Dunlap was a second-team All-American in his debut season in Tuscaloosa and finished the year as the No.
16 player in the country.
Both Fitzpatrick brothers finished runner-up in events across the pond this past week.
The younger Fitzpatrick is up to a career-high No.
177 in the world.
Matt is world No.
Luke redshirted his first year at the University of Florida.
Ian was beaming with pride all week.
Lee Westwood’s son, Samuel, also teed it up but missed the cut.
Ian Poulter finished solo second, seven shots behind winner Andy Ogletree.
Until next week,
Dan
