Padraig Harrington | How to be a Ryder Cup captain | Europe are better than USA … on paper

Joe is joined by Padraig Harrington to look ahead to next week’s Ryder Cup showdown between Europe and America.
Padraig explains why he thinks Luke Donald’s side are stronger on paper and also delves into the duties that make the captaincy a difficult proposition.
The hostile ‘New York’ crowd and the big advantage the home team gets in setting up the course are on the menu too before Padraig gives his final prediction.

Now, welcome along. RDER Cup is uh upon us. Ryder Cup week certainly will be upon us very soon. It will be on Sky Sports, who also sponsor our football show uh commentary as well. And we thought, who better to talk to than Podrick Carrington, who has played in six of them and was captain obviously the last time team Europe were in the US. So, without further ado, Padre Carrington, welcome back to the show. Last time I was talking to you, Rory Maroy just won the Grand Slam. Rick. Yeah, it was a big a big time in golf and Irish golf. Uh yeah, amazing times. But now we’ve moved on to something new, the Ryder Cup. We sure have. By the way, belated the congratulations because this summer senior open at Sunningale. Only five players, as you would know, only five players in history have won the Open and the Senior Open. That was in July. And in June, you won the US Senior Open in Colorado. Uh seven straight pars on the way in to win by a single shot. So, two senior majors in a summer. That’s no bad thing. Even you, I hope, are allowing yourself a certain pat in the back there. That feels good. I am. I I I’ve been a little bit erratic this year, but I I won the big ones. Uh, which is nice. I won the important ones. You know, wouldn’t be me without saying that I messed up at the PJ uh from a like an in like I was so comfortable with five holes to play and I messed it up. So coming back and winning the two certainly uh means it’s a very good year. Yeah. When I heard you say at Sunningale you were struggling with your swing. I thought he’s definitely going to win now. That was one of the more Podrick Harington things I’ve ever heard. Oh no. It’s terrible. It’s awful. I do. I was panicking a lot that week with my swing. H I hit some real big wides uh in the middle of the summer and uh yeah I was I was doing at Sunnydale very much in practice a couple of times early in the tournament. So, uh, it had me on edge all the time, which I am better, as you said, when I’m on edge. Uh, that PJ I alluded to, I lost purely because I’m relaxed. I’m definitely a better person when I’m all hyped up and and and a bit of fear in me h keeps me uh focused. Well, then I suppose natural segue. I presume if you follow that logic, you were pretty good with your opening t-shot and writer cups down the years, were you? Yeah. You know, I have to go back all the way back to the Walker Cup in ‘ 91. Uh Paul Mcinley smartly let me hit the T-shot off the first tea in Port Marik which is a nightmare t-shot. 2,000 people standing on your left and the the the sea on the right. Yeah, I hit that down the middle. I couldn’t see the ball by the time I went to to hit it and consciously had to tell myself to pull the trigger which is not ideal. H but it worked and it gave me a lot of confidence. So in the RDER Cups pretty similar except for in Brookline in in 2004 I h snap hooked it off the first te against Jay Hass like right onto a bush had to basically concede the hole. So that’s a pretty embarrassing start. H I stood up on the next to hole and probably hit the best t-shot of my life h around the corner and and you know from there I went on to win the match. So, you know, sometimes, yeah, you got you can’t read too much into individual shots. And if a player who’s really playing well, we often see that they they hit some bad shots, but it they seem to be bulletproof. H a player who’s who’s not playing well, he hits an average shot and he sees that as the first cousin of his game falling apart. So it’s it’s a lot to do with confidence, how things are going, attitude, uh how you your perception of individual shots, which you know, and as I said, your perception could be totally out, but that’s that’s the nature of the game. Rder Cup 2025 is so eagerly anticipated on paper, neutral venue on paper. Which team is better? Which 12 are better for you? Oh, Europe is better team. Yeah, Europe is definitely a better team on paper, but that’s at a neutral venue. I think uh the US are going into this one without whether it’s the changing of the guard for them, but they’re they’re not going in there with the same intimidation of players. you know, they don’t have a Dustin Johnson, you know, they don’t have a Brooks Kepka, they don’t have Jordan Speed, don’t have Patrick Reed, you know, these guys are big names, big stars, and even after their game, you know, players would struggle to beat them because of, you know, their stature in the game. H they’re going in with some fine players, new players, but they don’t hold the same uh, you know, command as the first T- box. uh you know and that’s that’s a bit I think the European players are more household names in in many ways but obviously the US have still have some very top players and they have a lot of good players in the team but they just don’t have that stature that like a a Dustin Johnson or or Brooks Kepka brings to the first team. Yeah, it’s not too often that you’d say that about the two respective teams on paper. Yeah. Well, obviously we’ve we’ve got this same 12 names going anyway if if one would if the Hogard brothers changed. But yeah, our team is is is not is is a consistent team over the last couple of years. They seem to be playing great. A lot of them are coming into good form at the end of the year. There’s a mixture of form coming into the end year, I would say. H So, you know, but definitely household names, big brands in the game of golf, people you tune in to watch. The US definitely having a change in regard. You know, Scotty is dominating so much in the States that it’s nearly reducing what everybody else can do. So people like Mau aren’t his biggest star because Scott, he’s just winning so often. And Rory, you know, when when you have two guys dominating and winning so many tournaments, you know, what’s left for everybody else. Did you approve of Luke Donald going again as captain? Yeah, I think that was it was the only choice. Uh, you know, he’s done such a great job the first time. I was surprised he wanted to go again. You know, a winning captain is a great thing. H he’s putting it all on the line. And sure, if he wins again, it will be the greatest captain of all time. No doubt about it. Erh but he’s put it he has put it out there you know you know he’s put himself you know needlessly he could have walked away as a winning captain now he’s put himself out there on put his neck on the line in many ways and uh you know fair play to him he’s definitely the man for the job obviously we we have a bit of a ch changing at the moment and you know without the live players being captains there there wasn’t a lot of people who could step into it. I I’m a big fan of giving the job to many people. I’m you know I think it’s an honor to be Ryder Cup captain and I think everybody who has served the European tour well should get that honor but in this particular circumstances Luke was definitely the man for the job there was no one else and you know he’s he’s worked tirelessly towards it h you know he’s in an ideal part of his career where he can focus on this and and I do believe you know I know it’s a cliche he’s left no stone unturned he he’s going to be trying everything possible and a few new things uh to counteract this home crowd. Well, we’ll come to that in a second. Um, you honestly could have given me 15 to 20 guesses at who the next US Rder Cup captain would have been a couple of years ago. Keegan Bradley would not have come out of my mouth. This is so left field. What’s your read on this? Why have they gone this way? Uh, well, one thing they’ve gone this way because he’s PGA champion and it’s it’s selected by the PGA of America. It’s got nothing to do with the the I assume the players might have a little say in it, but nothing to do with the PJ tour. Let’s say it’s a PJ of America thing. H he’s a good man for the job. He he is a very I I was if he took the captivity and played, he wasn’t the right man for the job because he meant he didn’t understand what the job was. The fact that he didn’t decide he decided to opt out of not picking himself and playing because he is one of the top 12 players in the US at the moment. The fact that he opted out does says say say he knows what what’s well he he has a good idea what to expect and h is a tough character. Why they didn’t pick him going into Rome, I don’t know. This this is a person you don’t want to go against on the first te. He can shoot any score you like. He can get in your face. He’s he’s a little bit upsetting to play against with all the waggles and the the the mannerisms. He’s a like ideal match player and I if he can bring that to the captaincy h you know he’s a tough character. I think uh you know he’s slightly different to Luke as in Luke can be underrated because he’s quiet. I think Keegan is underrated at times. Uh I I don’t know why he’s underrated so much at times. Why they didn’t pick him the last time. H but as a captain I think he he brings a lot a lot of fight to him. He he’s not he’s prepared to stand up for himself. That’s for sure. And we’ll see what happens. As I said a lot will be revealed during the matches. H you know it’s hard to know. I’ve seen some very strong characters go in as captain and then become soft, you know, be nice too nice and and you know, you’ve seen some nice players win as captain and they’re they’re tough as nails. So, it’s just you kind of have to wait and see. Yeah, the American team in particular feels like a very um delicate ecosystem, you know, like even when Stricker won a couple of years ago, the nicest thing anyone said about him, I mean, I’m I’m I’m kind of paraphrasing, but was like, “Oh, he just left us alone.” You know, Brooks kept he just didn’t make me go to meetings. If I wanted to go to the gym, I went to the gym. He left me alone and let me just get on with it. So, there’s that aspect of the Americans. And then I mean two years ago really a lot of them arrived rusty hadn’t played enough beforehand. I know they’ve they’ve Bradley has managed to get them out and play weekend just gone by. So he’s addressed that. But even you think of Capgate. I mean whatever was going on we now know they weren’t paid then and now they’re all getting half a million dollars. 300 of which goes to charity. But still like that’s that’s wrong. There’s there’s there’s just something wrong with the team environment of all that’s happening. So he actually has a job on his hands here to sort these guys out. Yeah, there there might be as many big egos in the team this time round. Uh I think the problem you have with the US compared to Europe. So if if you go into a a a European team room, obviously everybody’s playing for Europe. I think L Luke has moved that on to everybody playing for their country in Europe because, you know, there wouldn’t be as an affinity with the European tour now because most of the players are playing in the PJ tour. But when they’re in the team room, they don’t have to be the number one European. they can be the number one Swede, the number one uh you know I’m trying to think of this one number one Spanish player. You can be the number one from your country and that’s ego enough. Whereas in the States US team room, everybody’s always competing to be the number one US guy. There’s always two or three guys fighting for that position in the team room, you know, to be the number one for sponsors to go to the biggest brand, whatever it is. Whereas in Europe, you know, I could go into the team room at one time, I’m the number one Irish. There you go. There’s no no ego there. So or my ego is addressed, let’s say. So the US have had that problem over the years. Like simply like you look when Phil and Tiger was in the team room, Tiger’s clearly the number one player, but Phil wants to be the leader and wants to do the talking. How can he stand up and tell Tiger what to do? Tiger didn’t want to do it. Tiger was very much of the Brooks Kepta mode early on in his career. H for sure, where he just wanted to do his own thing and wanted to do his practice and wanted to go to the gym. H you know, didn’t want to be involved in all that stuff. It has changed now, but back in the day, that’s for sure. So, their egos are much harder to manage. Maybe this year, you know, with the likes of, you know, a few more rookies in the team, you know, the likes of Ben Griffin, Sam Burns, surely they’re not going to, you know, they’re going to be a little bit more order to their team who who is Scotty is clearly number one. Nobody’s fighting with him. So, maybe everybody will fall into line in the US a lot better. Uh, but we’ve always had that advantage in Europe that we didn’t have to I didn’t necessarily have to compete with Lee West for who’s the best player in the team because Lee is number one English, I’m number one Irish. That’s fine sort of way that you know it’s always been like that in Europe. Okay. Interesting. Um, having done it and obviously having played in six of them. Where are you on the importance of the captaincy? Because it’s often much debated around Rder Cups. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s very important. it’s turned into being if it’s going to be a close match, the captaincy and and is is crucial. It makes all the difference. Clearly, if you have a better team h and you hold the puts, you win. But, you know, outside of that, the captain has a huge important role to play what he says and does. And we’ve we’ve seen this over the years, you know, Europe has gathered and the US now because they’ve they’ve learned from Europe, they’ve gathered what’s worked over the years, put it together, and you know, most teams won’t be doing anything that doesn’t work anymore. you know, years ago. For example, I used to play with Paul Mcinley in the in in the RDER Cup because we were both Irish. It was a bizarre appearing considering how consistent he is. Tree and I’d be a little bit erratic. We were just not a good combination. Uh things little things like that have changed in in the game. The mistakes have been made over the years. That is just the way it is. And you know you a captain has to make a mistake for the ne you pretty much so for the next captain to learn from what we’ve seen is Europe was always been first to move on those things and have learned from those mistakes quickly but the US have followed suit now the US have seen this and they do the exact same things as Europe. So, you know, a simple thing you if you’re going to pick somebody, you got to think about picking them. Will he play Friday morning and will he play five matches? You don’t pick somebody to leave him out and play him in the singles. You you must play everybody before the singles. And ideally, you wouldn’t play anybody four times before the singles. That doesn’t that’s a luxury that doesn’t happen too often. But those are things we’ve learned over the years that even our best if it’s anybody who plays four I think anybody who plays four matches into the singles they like have a 30 something or maybe 40% win rate and that’s the very best player in your team when it comes to the singles. So you’re trying not to do there’s loads of things that’s been learned over the years. As I said Luke has a few new things to counteract the the away crowds but essentially you know it’s gathered up all the good stuff over the years. everything that’s worked, apply that. Try and avoid any of the mistakes. Uh but as we all know, uh when your hits the fan, who knows what’s going to happen. You scramble. And so like um Ed Eduardo Molinari is almost talked about as like a savant at this stage, you know? He just goes into a dark room with all the numbers and comes out with the magic combinations. So like I I Yeah, I I mean I I I get certain things. cuz I get, you know, if if the par threes are all oddnumbered and you have the best par three player in the world, you can orchestrate things so he’s playing into most of the par threes or maybe you par fives and and and there’s certain kind of they’re they’re real basics. I’d say 20 years ago guys figured those ones out. What’s an example of a cutting edge stat that in 2021 for instance you’re happy to reveal now that you thought ooh that’s interesting we’ll use that cuz people are fascinated by whether this is all just um you know the captains and vice captains talking up their role and is actually a bit of BS or whether it’s real uh when it comes to picking the teams picking your players you could discount all the average all the there so there’s pressure rounds during the year so that’s probably one of the big ones that that when it comes to picking your your whoever you’re picking who has played well in the majors essentially and on Sundays when they’re in contention. So somebody shooting 65 to finish fifth on a Sunday that round is discarded. We don’t care about that. We want somebody who’s shooting 68 on a Sunday when they were around the lead and under pressure. So that that so things like that would be one of the things coming into the tournament. Obviously the basics of years ago, who’s a forces player, who’s a a four ball player. Force players are normally the ones who are consistent. Four ball players are the ones who make more birdies. But what we kind of learned now is it’s not it’s more styles of play. So you want to make sure that for years if if you’re playing with Phil Mix and Phil is going to miss greens and get up and down. Well, if he’s playing foromes, the guy he’s playing with got to be able to get up and down. you know, he’s got to be comfortable hitting those chip shots from all weird and wonderful places. So that that would be pretty standard. I think nowadays, yeah, you know, they look at the difference who’s a good short putter and will likely have more good short puts, who’s a good long putter, who’s a good iron player, who’s a good par three player, who’s long, who makes lots of birdies. Uh, and then still the traditional of, you know, who’s a leader, who’s prepared to be the, and this I I I certainly I remember I played with Luke Donald in in 2010 and we were a terrible partnership. Neither of us were the leader in the group. You know, it needed to be more clear-cut. I played with Ross Fisher the same week and, you know, I was the boss and I told Ross what to do and Ross believed everything I said and played unbelievable. So, you know, we we’ve but we’ve seen that before. We saw that with Sevy and David Guilford back in the day. So it that’s not new, but these are the things you got to look out for in your team. Uh you’re trying to pair there’s a lot that goes into those pairings. Uh and it it really isn’t. But again, probably the most interesting stat for me in in Ryder Cup. Pretty much everybody who plays badly plays well in the next round. It’s really weird. So if you guy goes out and plays bad, he doesn’t have any time to practice yet he plays well in the next round. That’s a very common trait that very rarely do people pay badly two rounds in a row. Right. Uh you said there and the other key tenant is not repeating mistakes. So kind of unfair question, but Luke Donald rings you and says, “What mistakes did you make in 21 that I shouldn’t repeat?” Luke was there, but he wants your he wants your opinion. Oh, well, we’ve we’ve chatted about it uh two years ago. We did chat about it coming into this one, but we we chatted about it and he was there in 20 uh 21 with me. So, and before h and there was nobody more stronger advocate for Luke having the job after seeing what he did as a vice captain. I thought he was his opinions and thoughtfulness is very good. Uh yeah, what mistakes do we make? I’m I’m I’m not sure. I you know I’ve I’ve erased it from my mind if that’s the case. You know, as I said, yeah, it’s really I’m not not even thinking there was if you know what I mean. I’m sure people would, you know, everybody would second guess it. One of the big second guesses which I I’ve I’ve quite enjoyed in the last couple of days is the amount of people said, “Oh, why didn’t they keep a spot for Wentworth, you know, for the winner at Wentworth or you know, Alex Norin’s come into great form.” Well, I got heavily criticized for keeping the spots open onto the end of Wentworth. H So, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. So, uh you know, that’s very much when I look back at my own, yeah, I’m not sure what myself and Luke took from that. I know we did have the conversation. Uh, and yeah, I’m sure if he felt there was a few mistakes, he probably didn’t tell me. Uh, so obviously the home advantage aspect to this event feels greater than ever. Um, the setting up of the course to suit your team is just a huge huge advantage. Uh, can you give us a sense really of what kind of um aspects to Beth Page? it’ll suddenly suit the Americans now and and I suppose maybe more importantly say the Europeans don’t win here and say this home away thing continues are we going to have to get to a point pretty soon where it’s neutral setup where like the it undermines the event a little bit if if this run continues no look I’ve I’ve said that all along a neutral setup would be great it’s never going to well might happen in a 100 years time it ain’t happening now because this just adds drama to the situation it’s brilliant having the home away It was very important for Europe to have the home advantage over the years. Now Europe has got stronger. You know, you could start advocating for a neutral setup and maybe maybe not a neutral venue, but the actual setup being neutral. So for Beth Paige Black, everybody who’s watched the US Opens, the USPGA there will remember this is a beast of a golf course. Won’t be like that at all this week. They’ve widened the fairways. They’ve opened it up as much as they can. So essentially this is turning into what the US love is a big long golf course with very fast greens and lots of birdies. Yeah. Whereas Europe will always go for a more strategic golf course very tight heavy rough you know limiting the more teeth green good play pars the Americans want birdies. So it it’s not the bet page that we have watched over the years. It will be a yeah a lot more birdies and a lot more free flowing and a lot more well there always is drivers there because it’s a big course but it will certainly seem to suit big hitters and and and birdie makers. Interesting because I remember even you know it’s always been thus even in um Hazel team when Clark was the captain Justin Rose said afterwards the pin placements were like a proam like middle of every green. Should the Europeans I mean given that they’re playing American Well, I have to I have to stop you there. Sorry. The the home captain has nothing to do with the pin place. Yeah, but I I don’t know. No, nothing whatsoever. Do you think there’s ever a little bit of undue influence? No. You know, ah that’s conspiracy theories from 30 years ago. Not anymore. Okay. No, no. I I think you will find with I was there obviously in Hazeline. They they set the greens up very softish and fast. Now I don’t again they don’t necessarily have to they have a you could say we want the green slow or fast certainly that that that kind of happens you can encourage them you can’t tell them the pin positions you can’t say I want all the pins in the left or I want easy pin positions but the fringes were wide so that meant even if you put a pin tight it doesn’t you know if you got three yards of fringe on top of your three yards off the left say on a pin that really is six yards. So, I think a lot of that happened in Hazeline and and and maybe that, you know, maybe the US the US PGA who set it up are aware that they want the birdie fest. You know, they could that could be in there that, you know, they want lots of birdies for TV. I can guarantee in Europe the home referees. Now, there’s two of them set up, one from the US and one from Europe, but the golf course is set up to be as tough as it can be and the greens to be slow in Europe. So, there is the influence, but the pin position is not. No. Okay, fair enough. It’s a funny thing though, like there shouldn’t be any great difference between the two sets of players, should there? I mean, like, it’s getting it’s getting more closer. Like, you know, there wasn’t there wasn’t a Europeanbased player who made the team this year. So, really, they’re all US players playing, you know, and and that’s going to be a problem with the Ryder Cup down the road. If if everybody goes to American college and then comes out and plays straight onto the PJ tour, they’re never going to have the chip on the shoulder that guys who started in Europe always looking over at the US and believing they have everything and they, you know, wanting that. So, you know, if you went to a regular European tour event, every guy is practicing on that range to get to the PJ tour. Whereas, if you went to the PJ tour, there’s not a lot of people practicing on the range because they all believe they’ve arrived. They’re there. interesting. So, you know, there is a chip in the shoulder with a regular European, but you know, there’s less and less of those guys, you know, getting to it. You know, they move over there, but eventually that that’s the rivalry can be lessened. And I know Lucas worked very strongly on that and and as I said, it’s moved away necessarily from playing for the DP World Tour, the European tour. It’s now, which I played for. I absolutely played for the European tour. I had a serious chip in my shoulder about us being the country cousins. I wanted to play for Europe, whereas now he’s got the players playing for their countries and nationality and the and Europe as a whole. You referenced it, I think, a few times about the atmosphere over there and it’ll be a New York crowd, so it’ll be viciferous. And uh Luke Donald’s trying new things. The virtual reality headsets have caught the imagination. So, um the players will wear these all week and the headsets will say mean things to them and this will harden them to the occasion. Uh, personally, the thought of a week having that stuff pumped into my ears, I wouldn’t go that route. I’d be trying to focus on the positives and build up a wall of positivity, but each to their own. Uh, your thoughts on that and how bad was the crowd in Whistling Straits. So, we got to understand with Beth Page and the New York crowd, if the Americans don’t get off to a good start, they’re going to get the abuse. So the only way this Europe will get the abuse to start off with, they’ll get the abuse if the matches are tight. But if Europe can get a lead, they’ll get on the back of their own players. That’s what they do with their teams. So the New York crowd is a tough crowd full stop. So if Europe can get to a good start, get out there early, get a lead and and keep that lead, it could really really not just quieten the crowds, but turn the crowds. As regards the players, you know, I will say at W Straits, like I was told stories from fans who wouldn’t cheer because they were being abused if the fan like we had so few fans, but they said they kept their mouth shut eventually because they were just getting abused for cheering. So yes, the crowds were nice towards nicer towards the end in the whistle straits because they had won easily, but you know, the match wasn’t tight. in bet page. If the match is tight, it’s going to be really tough what what people say and do. Now, the interesting thing is most of the people who are saying and doing this thing, if you met them on the street, they’re grand people. They’re nice people. They have a few beers in them on the day and they get carried away. So, nobody is coming over the fences. That is the one thing the players have to understand. This is golf. There’s nobody coming over the fences. They’re well safe and protected. There’s no harm no matter what’s is said or done. So it doesn’t matter how abusive they are. It’s only worse. That’s all it will be. The second thing is you know and this would be for me would be the issue. What if things happen during a shot prior to the shot in the shot which actually could destro put a player off as he’s playing that is an unknown like I know myself I’m very peculiar as you would know but for example over the years if somebody took a picture of me I would get not a picture would click their phone you know oh that’s I get put off for it but then they illegalized that you can use your phones and it no longer puts me off so I was being put off by somebody breaking the rules, not by what actually was happening. So again, if players on these VR headsets can help this, if players can get their head around that what the people are saying and doing doesn’t necessarily reflect them, doesn’t you know, you know, you kind of have to put it in a in a category. You know, if they were at a soccer match, they would hear the same and worse, and they wouldn’t they’d be sitting there. They might be doing it themselves, but they’d be laughing at other people doing it or, you know, kind of. So, it probably, you know, they I think the VR headsets could be a good thing to condition them. I think Dovich has been brought in to talk to them about how to deal with the hostile crowds and and nobody knows better than him like in the end of the day. So, you know, it it really dealing is very important. And I know one of the things I wanted at my one was you know when players and their whole and remember it’s the families it’s more it’s not just the players it’s the families that can can get abused and that simmer is behind the scenes. So, one of the things I made sure with mine was I said, “Look, anybody with wives or families or physios or trainers or whatever it is is getting abused. Bring it to us. Tell us about it. Don’t be telling your other wives or other friends because then that becomes a little bit of a a a group of four or five people thinking it’s terrible. Don’t go to your friend. Go to us and we’ll deal with it.” So, they have an outlet to get rid of it because they need an outlet. You got to say, you know, you’re not going to keep it yourself, but they need the right outlet so they can express it and get rid of it and we can do something about it. And the wrong outlet would be to have it amongst a few wives and then it goes to their players and everybody’s getting upset about it and you you in one comment has dragged three players into it rather than staying with the with the with the one physio and player or whatever. So I I think I think Luke is doing everything right about this. He’s he’s preconditioning to it. I’m sure you’ll have, you know, everybody not warned, but they’re in a position that they have somebody to talk to, somebody to get rid of it, somebody to and and then there’s plenty of security and and that can deal with it. Uh, and you know, as I said, you can have a zero tolerance, but I think half the people would be kicked out if there’s a zero tolerance for it. So, but but I think if you do kick out the, you know, anybody who says anything that crosses the line, the main abusers, all of a sudden other people will stop being uh crude anyway and and and and you know, crossing the line, there’s nowhere for that. But we all want to write a cup with tension in it. We, you know, this is why it’s such a good event. H So, you know, it’s not a question of of everybody being out there and being choir boys. It has to have some some cheering for your home team. Uh I I you know I never want anybody to cheer against anybody for a bad shot, but I would think that you should cheer so loudly for your home team that it creates an atmosphere uh around the golf course. I suppose ultimately 12 individuals will have to handle this in their own way. Like there is possibly an argument that somebody like Shane who can run hot can ride that wave of well you’ve just said this to me f you watch this shot now probably it can go too far then and and it becomes a distraction to but but certain players might actually react kind of getting their their back up maybe doesn’t hurt their golf or maybe you think you can’t play good golf hot I don’t know you’re just bringing it to mind I I was walking with Rory and Hazeline and uh somebody said something pretty abusive to uh in the crowd a couple of times I think. So they said it at the crosswalk. So he he went across went into the ropes to go after him and I’m standing behind him thinking all I’m thinking is if he goes in there I have to go in there and the two of us are going to be throwing handbags for I was really it was one of those ones you know your your friend is doing the posturing and you’re you’re behind them thinking oh no just does just somehow back out of this quietly but yeah that was that was a yeah we don’t want to see any of that but look yeah I know what you as regards players can play well. I I think that’s like having an angry emotion. We’ve seen people get angry on the golf course. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. So the key here is if I was down in a match, I’d love somebody to shout something bad at me and make me angry because I’m losing the match. I want things to change. If I’m up in a match, I don’t want to change my anything in the match at that stage. I want to keep the emotions the exact same. So, you know, the that’s the same with getting angry on the golf course. It can work, but it’s not within your control. So, I wouldn’t be recommending it. I wouldn’t be relying on it. Uh, you know, I I think they’re doing the right thing. They’re trying to to get prepared for desensitized to it and and that’s really that’s the only thing. But remember as regards and this will be interesting to see I know my rider cup experiences in the states have always been very good because there’s a vast like half the crowd following me would be of Irish heritage all the time. So nobody ever says anything to me. There’s you know there’s so many home fans watching. So Shane should be okay. Like there wouldn’t be an issue with that. and and I think they’re saying that there’s 20% of the tickets have been sold internationally, but obviously of the other 80% how many of them are are a European nationality or supporting European who who bought up those other 88%. So there should be a fair crowd as I said it shouldn’t be like Whistler Straits that’s dominated by one side. You should have a a fair European support and and that’s important. you don’t want you, you know. So, I I I I think I think they’re doing the right job. I think they have it covered or or at least they’ve done everything they can. Two last questions. The last one will be who you think will win. Before that, of your six RDER Cups, uh your favorite match that you played in and why. Uh I’ve had a lot of good ones. I I had some great ones with with Paul. H you know, we beat Tiger. We Monty as well beating Tiger and Phil. Uh probably go I would probably go all the way back to my my my very first one in 99. Uh when I won that match on in Brooklyn, I thought it was to win the Ryder Cup. You know, the crowd had all swelled at my match for the last five holes. H everybody was telling Mark that his match was the one. He needed it. Uh, and when I won it, you know, in my head, I hadn’t watched leaderboards, but I got it that Jose was three three up or something like that. So, my match was the one. H, and I played it like it was. It was as so exciting. Uh, the drama of it, the thrill of it, the the atmosphere. So, I would have to go for my my first singles in Brooklyn. And then it was all taken away. I got about five minutes of it. did a quick interview, ran down to the ran I probably glided down to the 17 green, sat down, everybody congratulate me and Justin Leonard hold the put just like that. It was taken away so quick. I guess that’s that’s what we want on Sunday is is that kind of drama. Uh so you mix it all up, home advantage, Europeans as strong next to the Americans as they’ve ever been on paper. Who do you think wins? We know what your heart says, but who do you really think when your head’s on here? Who do you think wins? I think Europe wins. I really do think Europe wins. I don’t think the US have the intimidation factor. H I definitely think they will have to handle the crowds, but I think Europe is in form used to this. I think Luke has always proved himself to be a very uh smart golfer, gets the most out of everything, and I think he will do it again. Okay, very good. Uh, listen, thank you so much for your time. It’s great to get your thoughts and all that, Podrick. I’m sure you’ll be um feet up next week watching. Thanks, Al. Appreciate it. I will watch every shot. I’m looking forward to it. Yeah. Cheers.