A spy at the 2018 Ryder Cup

[RogerTheFrench]

As I'll spend the all week at the Ryder Cup, I'll try to give you here some impressions or informations every day

TUESDAY : So here is a quick debrieff of this first day.

USA started from tee 1 at 9 :30, with Tiger, Phil, Reed, & Bryson Dechambeau.
Then Ricky, Justin, Jordan, & DJ.
Koeka, Finau, Bubba & Webb Simpson followed a little bit later.

Tiger was very smiling, and happy to share a few words with the crowd all along the day. He also played a very straight and very secure golf today. He used a lot his long irons from the tee, and touched a lot of fairways. That would be the key on this course.
But that was Patrick Reed who were the most impressive, and close to the flags today.

Behind them, it was a little more complicated for Jordan Spieth. But nothing to worried about too much. I was very impressed by DJ (first time « in real Â») : it's very strange to watch how he could play this course I'm used to play almost every week-end.

Same for Bubba. Best player on course today (with Patrick Reed). He was very abble to shape to ball like he wanted to do. He litteraly destroyed the course, and overpassed every obstacles. Koepka stuggled a bit at the beginning to find the right tempo, then it was juste « straight and long, straight and long Â»

You guys have a very very impressive team… I was expected a lot, but I think I was still under-estimating them.

Europe started from tee 10 at 10AM. Molinari & Noren were the only one playing good golf today. Rory was a bit inconsistent. He was playing with Jon Rahm : maybe they'll start together on Friday.

The others visited the rough all along the day. Especially Garcia….
 

I was surprised by the attitude on our side (I mean my side – EU ;-) ) : the americans were very concentrated and relax, like you need to do ; Europeans were joking like if it was an exhibition (Except for Poulter, who were very focused on his golf today)

As we were leaving the course area at the end of the day, I heard someone tell in the bus “well…Europe would need a miracle”.   
 

[perseveringgolfer]

thanks for the insight- some pics would be awesome if you can manage it.

 

#NotJealous

[StrokerAce]

wow... a dream tournament for me.  the course looks spectacular and both teams very very strong this year.  it should be quite close.

 

what's the weather like for the next few days?  Can the wind be a factor?

[MaxEntropy]

Great report! I'm very jealous.

 

Please update this as much as you can as the week progresses!

 

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[PMookie]

Gracias!

 

Oops!

 

I mean, merci!!!

 

 

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[PING Apologist #9]

Awesome espionage out there fellow Spy! Keep the info filtering in and l too would like to see some pics if possible. What distance do they have the course set to? Is there a hole out there that you think can be the pivotal one in which we should all watch out for? Are there any pending weather issues?

 

Continuez votre bon travail! À votre santé!

 

(no I don't know French...I cheated...)

[GeekingGolf]

Awesome report thanks for providing insight...wish I could be there with you

 

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[excourse]

Keep them coming. Your first hand perspective is greatly appreciated.

 

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[Kenny B]

Great job!!  It is interesting to hear your perspective rather than the GC analysts.  I'm looking forward to further reports... with pics!!

 

I've heard the the Ryder Cup is a difficult watch in person.  Everyone is crowed around a small group of players rather than spread out all over the course as in a tour event.  Are you following groups, or will you be camping at a hole and watch as players come through.  What's your strategy?

[GolfSpy_BNG]

This is some nice insight. I really wanted to go 2 years ago when it was in Minnesota but had family stuff come up. I look forward to reading and following along as the Ryder cup is one of my favorite events.

 

I just have one request. If you happen to hear some MORON yell baba booey, get in the hole, or mashed potatoes please slap the crap out of them!

 

 

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[RogerTheFrench]

Great job!!  It is interesting to hear your perspective rather than the GC analysts.  I'm looking forward to further reports... with pics!!

 

I've heard the the Ryder Cup is a difficult watch in person.  Everyone is crowed around a small group of players rather than spread out all over the course as in a tour event.  Are you following groups, or will you be camping at a hole and watch as players come through.  What's your strategy?

 

 

My strategy is always to follow groups. But I have some advantages compared to the crowd. I move very quickly between holes because I know perfectly the course, installations, short-cuts, good spots, etc. And I'm tall :-) 

Thus, you have to understand than most of the french public are not "golf specialists" like you are in the US or in the UK. So they only follow Tiger, Mickelson and Garcia : the 3 players they really know. So the crowd is massively behind them, and that gives you the opportunity to get close to the rest of the players.

But anyway I think it will be very complicated this week-end, especially on sunday. 

 

I'll do my second report tonight, and try to answer the other questions : meteo, course, impressions, pictures..

 

[Kanoito]

Thanks for the info!

Sergio... SMH...

[kardboard.kid]

LOVE IT! thanks for taking us with you.

 

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[RogerTheFrench]

Wednesday : practice day 2.

Very interesting what I saw today.

It seems than Furyk has a strict "preparation programm” and all the players stick with it. Let me explain:

Yesterday, it was “free golf”. I mean than every players were using their own weapons, their own strategy, their own shots…trying to learn from the course, to enjoy it, and to get a lot of confidence.
But today, it was different. All day I've seen your guys played secure, with long irons from most of the tees, and trying to keep the ball very low on every shots…low draws, ¾ punched-wedges, short grip on irons to control the ball, etc…exactly like if there was a lot of wind (but conditions were exactly the same than yesterday).

That's interesting because wind can be a key factor here. There is always wind on this course (even when there is not in Paris). For the moment, wind is quite calm, but they say it could be strong on Friday. That could change a bit the strategy to adopt.
This year at the French Open (European Tour), Alex Noren manage to win by changing it's strategy to be sure to touch every fairway on Sunday.  Clearly that is something you wanted to test before.

Also, yesterday US players spent a lot on time on greens at each hole to putt from anywhere to every direction. Today, there were more focused on working around the green, chipping in every position, testing lob-shots in the rough, discussing which side of the green they should miss…

Furik's plan is clear. I think he knows he have the best players, and he wants to make sure they'll be ready to face any conditions.

One word about the course now.
It's a difficult course (we used to consider it as the most difficult in France), but the hardest part are the 4 last holes. To be honest, I'm surprised by the fact than rough are not as big as I thought they would be.  I already played this course with a much more higher rough, and I was thinking the course would be prepared “against USA strengths”
But this rough is still a problem, because sometimes it is “normal”, sometimes it has a very high “density”, so players are sometimes surprised by the way the ball comes out (or not)

See you tomorrow. I'll take some pics.

[tony@CIC]

My strategy is always to follow groups. But I have some advantages compared to the crowd. I move very quickly between holes because I know perfectly the course, installations, short-cuts, good spots, etc. And I'm tall :-)

Thus, you have to understand than most of the french public are not "golf specialists" like you are in the US or in the UK. So they only follow Tiger, Mickelson and Garcia : the 3 players they really know. So the crowd is massively behind them, and that gives you the opportunity to get close to the rest of the players.

But anyway I think it will be very complicated this week-end, especially on sunday.

 

I'll do my second report tonight, and try to answer the other questions : meteo, course, impressions, pictures..

 

Thank you for the detailed report. Your input will not only be much appreciated but better than the news feeds we get!

 

 

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[Steve2100]

What an awesome post roger! I'll look forward to reading them each day!

 

 

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[RoverRick]

Roger, thanks so much for your thoughts, I just found this, but it will be the first thing I look for in the morning.

 

I will also say, that I speak a little of 4 languages, not counting English, but your English is awesome. Probably better than mine.

 

 

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[revkev]

Wonderful report - enjoy the event!

 

 

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[Rickp]

thanks for the insight- some pics would be awesome if you can manage it.

 

#NotJealous

2nd that on the pics

 

 

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[808nation]

Thank you for your insight, your time, and sharing your thoughts on the Ryder Cup. Must be pretty awesome to see some amazing golf from the top players in the world first hand...lucky spy. Looking forward to reading more of your reporting. Have fun as well

 

#PowerToThePlayer

[RogerTheFrench]

Thursday : last practice day & opening ceremony

 

What a beautiful day. Warm and very sunny. Perfect conditions for playing golf, perfect conditions for enjoying the show.

 

Things became very serious today. Clearly we feel now how much we are close to the competition.

 

First, the crowd doubled compared to Tuesday & Wednesday. The public is not only French: people from all across Europe arrived today, and the first US supporters too. And so, the atmosphere changed and became much much... much more noisy.

And I can tell you, there is already a lot of « tension » between the European Supporters and Patrick Reed. I was watching the first tee shot of all US players this morning. Patrick Reed was in the last group with Tiger, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. When Reed arrived at the 1st tee, some parts of the crowd were « hostile », so he decided to provoke a bit by asking people « to boo louder ». You can imagine than people react by making huge noise so he couldn't play. After a few minutes of massive noise, he decided to engage anyway while the crowd were still yelling at loud. Perfect shot, right in the middle of the fairway. Patrick Reed turned himself face to the public, and make another provocative sign to the public. People around me were literally « enraged »... It's gonna be very intense tomorrow. It was about 45000 people today, and they will be even more tomorrow.

 

Secondly, things changed because both teams played very seriously today, like if the competition already started. They all play 9 holes (some of them played in foursome like Reed & Woods, so people who wait 2 hours at the first tee to see Tiger's swing very closely were very disappointed). I personally spent more time today following the Europeans. Especially Rory/Olesen (both played very good golf today) and Molinari/Poulter (not a very good day for Poults, but I strongly believe he will be playing 4 balls with Molinari tomorrow afternoon). But the best players were behind them, especially Rose, Stenson, and Fleetwood made a great job today (it was harder for Rahm). In the last group, it was still very difficult for Garcia (like previous days). Honestly from a fan perspective, I'm happy to have Sergio in the team, but I don't think he will play a lot. He will be our « joker » if we are loosing, and looking for someone who can « mentally change things ». But I was surprised, in a very good way by Paul Casey. He's very long, et he played very aggressive. He could be an asset.

Then I assisted to the opening ceremony. I really appreciated it. Furik made a very emotional speech, then of course all the fans had plenty of time to make some noise for Tiger. With the presentation of the players of each team grows the intensity of fan's support. Both sides are trying to make more noise than the other, and to put pressure on the opponent. Very fun.

The truth is I'm honestly very tired already after these 3 all days, but so excited that I'm'sure to be up at 5:00 AM tomorrow :-)

Last point, about foursome teams tomorrow. I strongly believe Koepka-Finau is the « unbeatable team ». They play just perfect golf for the last 3 days (long & straight), and they seem totally NOT affected by pressure at all. Obviously we all saw Koepka won 3 Majors with almost no pressure on Sunday... And Finau seems in the same mental disposition.

Team 2, and 3 : You have two superstar (DJ and Justin Thomas) who will be helping Ricky and Spieth to find their best golf. Of course, team 4 is the other « unbeatable team ». Woods and Reed, fire and light are associated. I can not imagine the noise and the crowd behind this team tomorrow.

I think Thomas Bjorn chose another strategy by putting together one « long hitter », and one « precision player » in each team : like Rory (long)&Olesen or Fleetwood (long)&Molinari, like Rahm (long) &Rose (Rose is precise and long anyway), and of course Casey (long) with Hatton. He also made the choice to keep « Wheapons «  for the afternoon and not launch all his best players the first early morning. Risky but smart.


Notes for myself concerning players: Fleetwood & Rahm would be key players. If they play like rookies, we have zero chance. If they play like true PGA stars, everything is possible.

Notes for myself concerning the course: be careful to hole number 13. It is not supposed to be a hard one, but rough is very dense on the left, and water comes fast on the right. There will be some accidents there. Number 14, par 5, hard for many of them to touch the green in two. But they almost all gonna try. I bet they all chose the driver, and give their best shot. Could be spectacular. 

[excourse]

I'm not surprised to hear that about Reed. Heck, he has a lot of haters on this side of the pond.

 

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[Kenny B]

I have always liked Casey; lots of talent but not sure about how he will handle pressure down the stretch.  His tendency is to fold.  Hatton is an explosion waiting to happen.  If they can control themselves, that match could be close.  If Hatton starts getting upset, it could be a blowout.

[fixyurdivot]

On paper the USA Team is ranked higher, but they're not playing at home field and the Ryder Cup history has shown world rankings to be of little reflection of play in this format. 

 

 

But, I thought Furyk's speech was a little better than Bjorn's and that will be the deciding factor in America retaining the cup. 

 

[MaxEntropy]

Time for me to sign off the internet for a few days so I can avoid spoilers. Live isn't really an option.

 

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[Gyro25]

Thank you for the updates, any additional ones and pictures would be great. Hoping I can find a way to watch whole at work tomorrow

 

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[Kanoito]

We are going live in 3... 2... 1...

[perseveringgolfer]

RogerTheFrench, tell us what you will be wearing when there (wear something distinctive on your head) and we can look out for you from the extensive coverage.

 

Even better, hold up a My Golf Spy sign 

[fozcycle]

Thanks for the updates Roger. I hope you have an enjoyable week.

 

 

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[RogerTheFrench]

Friday : Competition Day 1

 

What a long day.
I woke up at 4:30AM and arrived to the National Golf Course at 6:00AM to get a good spot for Tee#1. But there were already about 20000 crazy people waiting in line to enter golf facilities, and I spend almost 2H to get in.

I don't know how, but I finally managed to find “a small view” from a little hill (not very good), about 50 yards from the back-tees. They told us 60 000 people were standing here, when Koepka/Finau Rose/Rahm arrived. That was quite impressive.

It was colder than yesterday, but the wind stayed calm (it was a bit stronger this afternoon).

Here are some pictures (yesterday and today's pictures)

It was an amazing experience – Ryder Cup in just a totally unique event.
At some point I was worried than it could be too easy for Americans, but Molinari & Fleetwood kept our head out of water. 3/1 is totally different from 4/0 like 2 years ago. And I was confident than our “big guys”, who used to play together in Ryder Cup (like Rose/Stenson or Poulter/McIlroy) could fill the gap in the afternoon. But I think Americans give away these “afternoon matches”, especially Fowler (maybe tired?) and of course Phil & DeChambeau.
Maybe you like DeChambeau, but I think he doesn't have the skills to play “European golf” (not good enough from rough around the green). From my point of view, he will have a hard week here. But I might be wrong: so many people criticize this guy, and I guess he already proved many times we are all wrong about him.

I think Furyk should use again and again Koepka & Finau. Especially Koepka.
Like I said yesterday, they played excellent golf from the beginning of this week, and it was honestly quite a performance to defeat Rose/Rahm. I think it was the best game today, in term of golf performance. Koepka just missed a few putts at the beginning, and Finau was a bit nervous, but then they played at a very high level.

 

Anyway, Europe leads 5 to 3. I saw Thomas Bjorn spoke to Rory after his lost this morning (Rory was clearly mentally affected). Our captain probably chose the right words. I think Furyk's words tonight would be very important too.