Ryder Cup 2020 [Official Thread!]

The cup was already lost by end of play Saturday, the singles match might have mattered to him, no one can argue against that, and winning reduced the margin of defeat, but fullstop, the pressure was off, he was freed to do what he often does, play well when there is less pressure and expectation.

Listening to Lawrence Donegan on the Last Word yesterday evening, Mcillroy had the worst score of any player competing in this years RC, he was 17 shots worse than Rahm apparently over the same sessions played.

And as for the last bit, this is a discussion forum, and I replied to someone else who was discussing Mcilroy, if you want you post about any of the other 23 players or captains, I’ll reply.

Keano was doing a bit of trolling, not much point in flagging a MOD though. If you feel I took a dig at Mcilroy, surely his play deserved it. If you don’t like it, just ignore it. As for not liking him, I don’t know him, I really don’t think that much about his personality, but I do think he lets himself down regularly on course, so I’m not sure why you, or Keano feel qualified to tell me who I like or don’t like. Both of you are attacking the poster instead of the post.

There seems to be a cohort who get very touchy about criticism of Mcilroy, even though he often deserves it. I’ve never understood why that is, it just derails threads.

its amazing the passions this event arouses given it is in effect a novelty event that really doesnt figure when the balance sheet on a players career is being compiled.I know Monty ,Poulter et al were Ryder cup legends but does anyone really believe Tiger's career was diminished by a less than stellar Ryder cup career.Lowry & Rorys tearful reaction to this years event were in my view way over the top .I think Koepka's indifference to the event is much more realistic ,now I accept it can make for great TV and some players get caught up in tension etc but it really IMO should not be high on any pro golfers wishlist as I would imagine later in life they will re assess its importance.

And McGinley saying bring back the Seve or Asian trophy as prep event. He is in dreamland. You might get 1 or 2 guys go but reality it is a waste of time.

Shane saying biggest week in his career. He might mean it but how could he pick this exhibition event over his Irish Open, The Open and WGC wins?

No doubt about that but biggest week in his career. If anyone here had achieved what he has we wouldn't say that

You can see all the scoring on the Ryder Cup website.

https://www.rydercup.com/scoring

McIlroy was 3 under for his singles round, Schauffele was 1 under.

Yes Poulter did play well despite all the criticism.

He was 5 under for the singles and made 4 birdies in the Fourballs, McIlroy left him down in the Foursomes.

It is a two (or more) day event with qualifying rounds so he did qualify to compete later today (it is currently 10 a.m. Pacific time) ... sometimes these long drive events are shown live on golf channel but this one was not picked up so they were just giving updates on Golf Central. I think I saw a maximum drive of 408 yards by Bryson. He is keeping it in the grid a bit more often than some of those guys. The event is at Mesquite Nevada about an hour outside Las Vegas and the elevation there is probably worth 20-25 yards (it is not all that elevated, maybe 600 meters above sea level). It looked like the guys were hitting with a fairly good tailwind too. Not sure what the top qualifying drives were but Bryson was not the overall leader.

This raises an interesting question in general. This trend towards 350 yard drives on pro tours -- there are dangers involved in that, golf balls coming out of the sky in places where nobody is on alert, such as spectator concession areas or adjacent golf holes. Multiply the risk factor by ten for the average non-professional golf course if we get more recreational players able to do this sort of thing. Already where I play I am seeing evidence of 320 yard drives from guys who probably have very little "game" otherwise so you could assume maybe they don't always hit these very straight either.

It's only a matter of time until there's serious injury or worse at a pro golf event. What if Bryson or someone imitating him goes way off the line of the fairway (as we saw on the weekend) and hits a low screamer by mistake? It would be instant death at that speed. Also I fear for the integrity of many of our established courses if this trend picks up, of course there will be pushback like building high netting to discourage various novelty shots and eventually tall trees closing in on the teeing grounds, but the whole thing seems like a bit of a freak show to me.

Koepka blinded a woman with a stray drive at the Ryder Cup in 2018 also. Now to be fair, it wasn’t that far offline and all four players shouted fore and pointed if I remember correctly. The problem with the big events is there’s so much going on that people won’t hear a shout of fore from 300+ yards away.

Y E Yang nearly killed me in Mt Juliet in 2004. He boned a 3 iron into the long par 5 5th and overshot the green. He shouted fore but with the wind blowing that day I never heard it and it whizzed past my head.

The trend in driver distance is pretty flat, the odd person bucks the trend, I mean it has gone up maybe 10 - 15 yards despite all the club 'Advancements' in the last 20 years

Not many club golfers are hitting it that far and most that hit long, say 280 those are carry numbers, if you get it over 300 downhill and downwind come into play

By the time the ball has gotten past 200 the speed it is going has tapered off massively, for most it is just falling at that point

Golf balls having been going offline since the game began, and at a pro level landing in spectator areas on loads of occasions and thankfully the numbers of injuries are very low, you can be unlucky like that woman who lost an eye at the french open.