Ryder Cup Friday: Why isn’t Keegan Bradley changing his plan? | Golf Channel Podcast

Ryder Cup Friday: Why isn’t Keegan Bradley changing his plan? | Golf Channel Podcast

Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lab. After day one of the 45th RDER Cup, Europe leads five and a half, the US 2 and a half. It is the biggest lead the Europeans have had on American soil since 2004. Rex, was this Europe playing lights out or was this Americans bad decisions and even worse play? I think two things and three things and maybe four things can be true. And and look, we’re going to wait until Monday to get on the couch and start picking things apart for whichever team ends up losing. And I think walking around property today, I think there’s plenty of reasons to start picking apart maybe Keegan Bradley’s decision. But as he just told me on live from as I did my live to tape with him that they have 75% of the RDER Cup to play and I’m willing to let it go. Like look, there’s plenty of things. You don’t think it’s getting laid early? Uh I do not. Like we have seen this before and look history and and you’re really good at this and my guess is you got a lot of numbers cranking around inside your head that you want to throw out about only five% of teams who fall five and a half two and a half come back to win. I’m sure there’s something along those lines. You just can’t wait to spit in my face. However, I do want to give the American team the benefit of doubt on this one and just let it play out. No, I mean I want to go straight to the Bryson Dshambo conversation that you and I had a heated conversation about last night because I think it was a mistake. I think it’s a mistake again to send him out pretty much in the exact same spot, different partner. He’ll have Cam Young alongside him, but I just not a very good Forsome’s player. And we can have a bigger debate about that. We can have a debate about the idea the golf course is set up wrong. We can have a debate that maybe you don’t send Colin Morawa and Harris English back out again because I can see statistically on paper why they matched up, but clearly they didn’t have anything today. However, the other part of your equation, yeah, Europe played lights out by and large when you look at it. Consider that Rory Maroy, Tommy Fleetwood, they played five under par. John Rom, Terrell Hatton, they were five under par for the day. That’s not even the best European pairing in the Forsomes this morning. That was Luther Goldberg, they were seven under par. Matt Fitzpatrick played lights out for a player who was one and seven previously in the Ryder Cup. the worst one loss percentage of any player in Ryder Cup history to perform at how he did easily by far the best player on Friday morning really set the tone for the Europeans and a bit of a surprise to be honest with you. I think you and I both called three to one in the morning for subsession and we’ll get into the afternoon fourball in a second. We were right. I don’t want to take a victory lap because I think we both didn’t have the right one or the right threes by and large. You and I thought for sure Scotty Sheffller and Russell Henley were going to be that magical pairing that we had all anticipated. But Scotty Shuffler clearly doesn’t have his game this weekend. The afternoon fourball session when the world number one who has been as dominant as he is doesn’t make a birdie until the 13th hole. Something’s wrong. I mean, there’s just so much to get into this. There’s a reason why it’s nicknamed the hindsight cup. Right. However, we did foreshadow some of the issues. Reason why it’s named a mini pod. Yes, exactly. Let’s first start with your insistence that Bryson Desambo was a is a poor selection for the forsomes uh session. In the morning Friday morning, Bryce Dambo was statistically the best player on the US side. That is indisputable. He was more than a stroke better according to data golf’s uh statistical rankings than any player. In the afternoon, guess what? He was number two. So Bryson Shambo is not the problem this week. Yes, his record is 0 and2. Yes, I think there’s probably going to be some question marks about who he has played with this week. He is 0 and2. He’s only played two matches. I do like the the I do like setting him out there in forsomes because he has been again the second best player at this point and they’re pairing him Keegan Bradley is on Saturday morning with Cameron Young who was clearly one of the breakout stars of the afternoon uh delivering with Justin Thomas a six and five victory in those afternoon four balls really played it inspired made five birdies I think that could potentially be a dynamic duo. This is something we had signaled early in the week. practice round pod grouping the entire week. All three practice round sessions for the Americans, Justin Thomas, Ben Griffin, Bryce Nambo, and Cameron Young. Not a huge surprise that that uh Keegan Bradley is going in this direction. That is the only change from Friday to Saturday. Other than that, Keegan Bradley’s running it back with the exact same threesome. And I asked the captain if his plan, which you talked a lot about, changed at all, if if at all after today’s action. He said not really. He was sticking with his plan. And this goes back to Mike Tyson line. Everyone’s got a plan to get punched in the face and the United States team got punched in the face. They’re not they’re not by three on home soil and he’s not deviating from his plan. Isn’t that a little bit alarming to you? Didn’t sound like it. Let me go back to my other thing. First and foremost, there’s a reason why they don’t use strokes game in this event because it’s mass play and it’s really not a good equivalency. It just doesn’t work when it comes to this because there’s so many different variances when it comes to mass play. You give putts, you let your partner do this, you’re basing what you do on what the other team does. It’s not like playing a stroke play event. And I would argue the same thing about data golf. Fact of the matter is when you look at what Bryson D Shambo did, you go to the first TE and that was very much on brain standing on that first te. You and I were both down there and for him to just pound that drive down there. I think it was 43 yards short of the green to get the crowd excited. I mean that was cool. That’s exactly what Keegan Bradley was trying to do. But from that point on, he did not play a good golf. Number three, his his approach shot, I’m sorry, his T- shot bunker on the left hand side. Lost that hole. Number 12 is John Ram also in the bunker. Number 12. Well, we’re not we’re not debating John Rom right now. Number 12, his approach was left. They ended up going two down after he left Justin Thomas short-sided. I’ll skip ahead to number 15 where his drive was so far right. I think it was in the NBC hospitality suit and he left Justin Thomas with absolutely no approach to a brutal green. Justin Thomas hit the green. He did, but it was an absolute brutal approach that was what the rough, let’s estimate. The rough is 2 in long. estimate 40 ft to 50 ft long and left which left him an impossible putt down the hill. You and I were both standing there. Also, if you want to talk about putting in that entire match, he made three putts that were over five feet. Made only one putt over 10 feet. Look, he has lost with Tiger Woods, he has lost with Bill Mickelson, now he has lost with Justin Thomas. I would argue we can continue to send stars out with him and we can continue to see he is what his record says he is. In Forson’s play, he’s 03 and 0. That’s when captains feel comfortable even putting him out there. Many captains haven’t even felt comfortable doing that. So at this point, we have enough data to say he’s simply not a good Forson’s player. That’s the fact. I I honestly I just I disagree. You’re basing 66% of that on something that in 2018 when again he was a wildly different 2018, 2021 and 2019 he didn’t play for play in two. So captains in 2018 and 2019 saw something that they realized nope. He’s not a good Forsome player. They didn’t even send him out or they just had preconceived notions and didn’t want to alter their plans which today is proof that those plans came to fruition. They did not lose because of Bryson the Shambo today. Justin Thomas did not make anything and they also I think you also have to give credit to the Europeans. Sure. John Rom and Terrell Hatton are the second best pairing. Absolutely. John Rom has never lost in forums. He’s now 5-0 I believe in the forum session. Like that was a very tough ask. But Bryson Shambo is not the scapegoat. It was not wrong. I’m not saying both him and JT didn’t play well. I’m not going to make excuses for JT either, but I’m also not going to let you go into this revision revision revisionism hole because you’re simply wrong and you won’t admit it. The fact of the matter is he’s not a good forens player. I said this last night and I’ll say it again. Doesn’t make him a bad person. He’s a very good player. A lot of players don’t particularly like for play. It’s weird. It’s awkward. You’re leaving your partner in difficult positions. Four ball play. I’m sure on Sunday singles he’ll be fantastic. He’s not a good alternate shot partner. We have one example of him playing alternate shot in the last seven years. And what did he do? He was the best statistical player on Friday morning. Four years ago. Four years ago, Tiger didn’t even march him out. That t Tiger Woods saw something in him. No, that’s not right. That was 29. Steve Sher didn’t even march him out in alternate shot. He saw something that he didn’t like and didn’t do it. Two years before that, Tiger Woods in Australia didn’t even march him out. Didn’t even put him in that arena. There’s a reason for that. You’re ignoring it, but there’s a reason for that. Preconceived notion also players change. He is a wildly different play. He has four years. He has not changed. You tried that last night. He bears zero resemblance. Different golf, different body, different swing speed. It’s just over and over again. I would be very interested to see though, Rex, if Bryce Nambo ran it back with Scotty Shuffler. Keep in mind they were a very successful partnership uh in 2021 at Wistland Straits going 10 and one together. We’re not going to see it this week at least not in forsomes. Potentially if things go uh ary you may potentially see that in the afternoon. How about I think just the big stars overall Rex where you have Bryson going 0 and2 Scotty Sheffller going 0 and2 you have on the uh opposite side I would argue those are the two best players on the American side. On the opposite side, John Rom 2 and 0. Tommy Fleet with two and0. Rory Mroy 10 and one after just missing on the 18th green that potentially could have given them a full point and really would have made this a 6-2 lopsided affair after one day. I think you don’t want to make a lazy narrative of just oh the stars are playing better. You zoom out Europe stars are playing better than the American stars. And that goes through the narrative that we’ve had for basically two decades. Tiger Woods sub 500 record. Phil Mickelson sub 500 record. Jim Furick sub 500 record. Scotty Shuffler at this point the best player we have seen since Tiger Woods sub 500 record in the RDER Cup. At this point it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around it because I felt like after what happened in Rome that there was going to be something in Scotty Sheffller that figured it out this time around. I think in Rome you could have made excuses for the idea that he hadn’t played in four or five weeks since the tour championship and he had also just started working with Phil Kenyon. It’s also an away game. There are a lot of different reasons you can make excuses for Scotty Sheffller’s play. There aren’t any anymore. He’s comfortable now. He’s world number one now. He is supposed to lead this team. I think I said last night if the United States was going to have any chance, he needed to do something in the neighborhood of 5-0 or 4 and 0. Can’t do that now. That’s simply not going to happen. I’m not saying he can’t turn it around and still do something special for the American side, but that you talk about laying something on someone’s shoulders. I think when if you’re sitting in that team room and you’re looking around, certainly you’re going to look at Scotty Sheffler and what that US team needs out of him and be disappointed. You don’t want to lay it all on his shoulders. Like look, I I think but they but they clearly needed him to play well and he hasn’t. Absolutely. And I think there’s something to be said for maybe the pairings didn’t play out the way they did. You wouldn’t have never have put anyone other than Russell Henley based on their history in the President’s Cup together. That makes perfect sense. I’m not second guessing Ky Bradley on that one. But I’m certainly second guessing why you would set the golf course up as a birdief fest, which is weird because I don’t think Birdie Fest and Beth Paige Black have ever been uttered in the exact same sentence. And yet you look at what’s happening this week, it is. And that’s not the way Scotty Sheffller likes to play golf. Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. Shy Sheffller does not like Birdie Fest. you wanted to to maximize the advantage for these American players, I think you would set it up to be very similar to a US Open or really a stout PJ like we saw here in 2019. Look at the composition of the players that you have. Risambo, two-time US Open champion. Scotty Sheoffller has played well in the US Open. Russell Henley, a very precise, accurate player. JJ Spawn, K Morawa, Harris English, you can go Xander Schoffley has a phenomenal record in the US Open. You can go on and on. Instead, you have a situation where players are standing up on the tea. They’re never hitting anything less in driver on both the US and the European side. And all of a sudden, you look at the 2025 European team. On average, they’re a longer group than the Americans. For the first time in Ryder Cup history, so you have a John Rom swinging out of his shoes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen John Rom swing as hard as he is this week. That’s why I didn’t have an issue with Bryson playing in bowl sessions. That’s why I think John Rom if his stamina can stay up on Saturday if unless the advantage is too significant for the Europeans and they feel like they want to sit him on Saturday afternoon to rest him. I anticipate him continuing to play. Rory continuing to play. Raasmus Hogar like it just bombs away for these players. I’m with you. The golf course setup leaves a little bit to be desired. Yes, we got a lot of rain. Inch to an inch and a half. The greens are super super soft which makes slow and that’s a problem and slow as well. And so it makes even the misses in the rough that much easier to to to save yourself and salvage what had been a poor offline shot. And so I’m not loving the golf course setup this week. I think that may have backfired on Keegan Bradley. How about biggest disappointment for you this part? You take away Scott, you take away Bryson. Who has been the biggest disappointment to you at this point? Well, I have to say Keegan. And again, you have to let this play out. 75% still has to go. But we’ve talked endlessly about the golf course. If you really wanted to lean into what your team is good at, as I think you pointed out last night, Scotty Sheffler plays US Opens brilliantly. You have the reigning US Open champion on there on your team. You have a two-time US Open champion and Bryson Dshambo. Harris English plays his best golf in the US Open and we’re at a US Open venue and yet somehow a version of the Bob Ho Classic has broken out and it doesn’t make any sense. That’s going to come back a little bit. I think you might want to question the pairings a little bit. And this is this isn’t even hindsight. I think we heard this even before what happened today about the possibility of Harris English and Colin Morawa playing together. Yeah, statistically it adds up on paper, but Colin Morawa’s not playing very well right now. I will say I think Xander Shofflay was a very pleasant surprise. Yep. For the US side because in my mind he was the biggest question mark going into that and he and Patrick Hantlay were he and Patrick Hantlay. Patrick Hantlay looked phenomenal particularly in that afternoon four balls going toe-to-toe with Roy Mray. The two of those players combined for 10 birdies in the four balls match ended up in a tie. I’m with you. You say it looks good on paper. I think it look it sounds good in theory. We have a accurate player and K Morawa both his driving and his approach play. Then you pair that up with with her with Harris English’s putting like that sounds driving as well. Yeah. However, Data Golf, this is this is not a misprint. Data Golf crunched 132 potential possibilities for partnerships, sort of ranking them which would be the best potential partnerships. There’s 132 combinations. Any guesses where Harris English and Ky Morau ranked out of 132? I think something closer to 133. 132 indeed. They were the worst possible pairing. They lost five and four to Roy and Tommy Fleetwood who again they were they were five under in alternate shot. I’m not discounting that at all. However, they are running them back. The exact same duo, which the data analytics is saying this is a very, very bad idea. They’re going off at match to a rematch. It’s hard to imagine you would see anything different. And on Saturday morning, and this is going to be a much different podcast tomorrow night if things don’t play out a little bit better for the United States team. You have your knives out. Uh, I don’t even know if not quite knives out. Again, you have to wait till Monday morning. The smoke’s completely clear to start questioning this. To circle back around to your other question, I would say to a certain degree the crowds were a disappointment and not necessarily because of the crowds. They really didn’t have anything to cheer about. I think someone someone on our staff was saying, well, what’s going on? It’s quiet out there. What’s wrong with the crowd? Was United States team didn’t give them much to cheer about. The crowds were there and they were loud and according to Brandle Sham believe they were vulgar. And I certainly heard plenty of things around the golf course today that you kind of cringe a little bit. I will give the European tour credit. They never broke stride. They never like Roy Mroy on the first T. Roy did flip off a fan on 11. Sure. And Roy Mroy on the first T. I don’t know if I can say this. Well, they were chanting something on the first te that was wildly offensive and even shocked me a little bit and he just rolled with it. What’s it rhyme with? Um, play you. Oh, yep. Yep. Got it. I don’t know. You guys are gonna have to figure that one out. Sorry. It’s a It’s a family podcast. I apologize. But I think by and large all of them pretty much stuck with the idea. I actually heard some clever stuff. I think the one I heard that was the best. We’re not going to do this. We can sit and do this all night long. Matthew Fitzpatrick was asked from the from the crowd. Matt, the junior rider cup finished yesterday. Thought it was great. It was of course Matt Fitzpatrick got the last laugh. Yes. After absolutely stunting on them alongside Luke Oberg going five and three. Uh I was not disappointed by the fans. Like I thought it was absolute scenes out there. It was a It was a great atmosphere. It was a lot of people. It was really, really cool. However, if you’re Europe, what what do you want to do? You want to start fast to take the home crowd out of it. Mission accomplished. I do worry a little bit because I heard the exact same things that you heard today. I do worry about it because there was this sort of perception that, oh, you know, if the Americans are disappointing, I think the fans are are going to turn on the Americans and start rooting for the Europeans. That’s not going to happen. I think if anything the fans are going to become even more entrenched and become even more vitriolic towards the Europeans. It could be a very hostile atmosphere. I did not hear any uh any any sort of jeering or booing or uh sounds right as the Europeans were pulling back the club which I think uh on 18 when Rory was about to finish up 800 800 years of oppression. Rory 800 years. Yes, that was right with a very interesting sky Irish accent, I must say. That was right before he pulled back the club. I do worry you could potentially have a scenario over the weekend where it does interfere. It does become when a player is trying to hit a shot. I think that would be very very unfortunate if it pans out. Now, you and I had a quick anecdote I want to get to before we go out here. So, right as the last match was marching to the 15th TE and then the other matches were finished, it was very tense. Things clearly weren’t going the United States way on Q almost Air Force One. the president was here today. Again, please don’t start with the politics. We don’t care. It’s just a fact. The president was here today. President Donald Trump was here today. Uh but right on Q as they were marching to the 15th T, Air Force One made a very low passover and it was really interesting and everyone’s kind of going nuts. The best part about it though, you and I were standing just off to the side and Luke Donald walked by us with a smile on his face and he he had to acknowledge that’s cool. That was really cool. You guys got me on that one. I I can’t match that one. That one’s cool. First time a sitting president has attended the Rotic Cup. Very cool. Uh I’m not sure if you ask the 50,000 fans who attended had to go through the very extensive TSA type screening if they thought it was cool. Also the logistics issues of getting to the shuttles also an issue but that is a topic for another day. Let’s go real quick. What do you think the score of the Saturday morning force is again be Bryson and Cameron Young versus Lud Vic Oberg and Matt Fitzpatrick in the first match. Second match Harris English. Kyle Marawa versus Rory and Tommy Fleetwood as we just discussed. Xander Schoffley, Patrick Kentley, the lone duo that won a point for the Americans on Friday morning going up against the heralded duo of John Rom and Terrell Hatton. And the final spot, Russell Henley and Scotty Shuffler once again going up against Robert McIntyre and Victor Havlin who are losers on Friday morning. How do you see the foresome session on Saturday morning playing out? You could sit and study that, but the only way to come away with the only takeaway you can do is you have to run a bat. It’s gonna be one and three again Europeans way or 3-1 Europeans way and and actually I think the one that I guessed yesterday is actually going to come through. I think Scotty Sheffller and Russell Henley are going to figure something out. Also, I would argue right now Bob McIntyre and Victor Havlin are probably the weakest of those forome pairings. I mean, I guess we I can get proven wrong really quickly tomorrow, but I don’t see I can’t talk my way through another scenario that the United States can somehow claw back in that format. And I made the argument yesterday that if the United States falls one and three behind, Keegan Bradley’s probably okay with that because he knows that, okay, we can fight our way out of that. The big the bigger issue will be if they do go one and three again tomorrow morning, they have to have a much better afternoon. That goes without saying. If Yeah. I mean, if they go one one and three in the morning, you’re potentially going to have some really tired players of Bryson Desambo, Scotty Sheffler who have to go out in the afternoon. Otherwise, this thing could potentially be over before you get into Sunday. I see a split two to two. Okay, in this forum sessions, I do like the Bryson Cam Young as we’ve discussed. He would probably be betting on history that Matt Fitzpatrick would not sustain the perform day over day. I know he’s been trending well over the past couple. I also see uh as you do that Russell Hemley Scotty Shaft bouncing back against two iron players who really struggled on Friday morning and Victor Hofflin and Bob McIntyre. All right, that is going to do it for this edition of the Gochill podcast with Rex and Lab. You guys know the drill.golf akaolfj.com. I have a bunch of stuff on the site breaking down the morning session, afternoon session, a story on Rory story on Keegan Bradley refusing to deviate from his plan and much much more. Talk to you guys on Saturday night after the uh second day.

In this edition, the guys, live from Bethpage Black, break down all of the relevant storylines from the first day of the Ryder Cup, from Bryson DeChambeau’s performance to Europe’s big stars to Keegan Bradley barely tweaking his Day 2 lineup. #Golf #RyderCup #GolfChannel

Chapters:
(0:00) What’s the bigger story: Europe storming out to a lead or the Americans faltering?
(4:00) Bryson went 0-2, but they’re sending him out in foursomes again. Surprised?
(9:00) Europe’s big stars look good. The Americans’ big stars? Not so much.
(13:00 Why isn’t Keegan Bradley significantly altering his Day 2 plan?
(18:30) How the Saturday morning foursomes will play out

» Subscribe to Golf Channel: https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1
» For the latest news around golf: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf

Welcome to Golf Channel’s official YouTube channel. We are the #1 destination for everything golf – 24/7. Find golf instruction tips, sneak peeks to our original series, news and tournament coverage. We are part of the NBC Sports Group.

Discover what else Golf Channel has to offer:
Live Coverage on Peacock: https://peacocktv.smart.link/v82e9dl56
Live Scores: http://bit.ly/GCScores
TV Schedule: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/schedule
Instructional Tips: https://www.golfpass.com/learn
Golf Course Reviews: http://bit.ly/GCCourseReviews

Ryder Cup Friday: Why isn’t Keegan Bradley changing his plan? | Golf Channel Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1