The post Ryder Cup legend says Europe needs ‘volatile’ Rory McIlroy to upset U.S. appeared first on Golf.

The post Ryder Cup legend says Europe needs ‘volatile’ Rory McIlroy to upset U.S. appeared first on Golf.

With a long, successful history in Ryder Cups, Paul McGinley knows a thing or two about the biennial event. And the way McGinley sees it, there is one key to a European victory at Bethpage Black: for a “volatile” Rory McIlroy to show up to New York with his best game.

McGinley made the comments in a recent interview with BBC Sport, where he also discussed why he believes that McIlroy may never again rise to the World No. 1 ranking.

Paul McGinley talks Rory McIlroy’s lack of ‘consistency’

McGinley played on three European Ryder Cup teams, winning all three events. He then captained the European team to a lopsided victory in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland. That year, the U.S. team devolved into infighting over 65-year-old captain Tom Watson’s decisions.

At Bethpage, McGinley is occupying two distinct roles. He’ll be an NBC Sports analyst during the tournament, but he’s also acting as the strategic director for the European team.

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McIlroy is the best player on the European team without question. The World No. 2 completed the career Grand Slam in April with his first Masters win, adding three other victories in 2025.

But McIlroy also experienced a swoon in his play in the middle of the season. McGinley acknowledged that such inconsistency is a feature of McIlroy’s game, calling it “volatile.”

“Rory [McIlroy] has always been a volatile performer; his career has never been a straight line, there have been loads of dips and then he comes roaring back,” McGinley told BBC Sport.

He continued: “Rory is charismatic, dynamic in how he plays, a risk-taker and he draws people in because he plays in the Arnold Palmer style.”

McGinley also knows that the European team will need the world-beating McIlroy to show up at Bethpage to have any chance at an upset victory on American soil. But he also sounded confident that would be the case come next week.

“One of the things you can always say about Rory is when he has something in his sightline he generally achieves it and generally performs,” McGinley added.

McGinley questions if Rory McIlroy will ever be No. 1 again

While McGinley is not worried about McIlroy’s performance at an event he cares so much about, like the 2025 Ryder Cup, he also noted the big differences between McIlroy and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

Though McIlroy has reached the No. 1 ranking in the past, McGinley expressed doubt that he could overcome Scheffler, who is “more detailed and conservative in his approach,” for the top spot again.

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“It is no surprise Scheffler is leading the world rankings and will do,” McGinley said. “I don’t know if Rory will ever lead the world rankings again because he doesn’t have the consistency Scottie has.”

He continued: “Rory’s personality is in and out. He gets a flourish, he’s unbeatable and then he looks like he’s going to miss the cut and then he comes back again.”

Ultimately, McGinley argued that who wins this Ryder Cup will come down to if Europe’s top players like McIlroy can perform their best in front of vociferous crowds heavily biased toward the American team.

“You can have all the vibe, all the preparation, but can the players perform in a hostile environment – that is the question,” McGinley said. “Can our top players bring a massive haul of points, because you win the Ryder Cup with top players’ performance.”

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The post Bryson DeChambeau’s weakness? Brandel Chamblee has thoughts appeared first on Golf.

The post Bryson DeChambeau’s weakness? Brandel Chamblee has thoughts appeared first on Golf.

Bryson DeChambeau — esteemed golfing scientist, YouTube magnate and part-time superhero — can do things with a golf ball that no one else on the planet can match. Those skills have made him wildly successful at his craft. Fun to watch, too. He won the U.S. Amateur and NCAA individual in the same year. He won a U.S. Open, and then another, which count among his nine PGA Tour titles. In six of his last 10 major starts, he has finished 6th or better. On the LIV tour, which he joined in 2022, he has won three times and is the league’s undisputed best and most marketable talent, an accolade that presumably will earn him another nine-figure deal in the likely event that he re-ups with the deep-pocketed circuit.    

Thing is, DeChambeau (we’re fairly certain) isn’t Superman, and even if he is, even Superman wasn’t invincible. DeChambeau’s kryptonite? It comes around every July in the form of baked-out fairways, pot bunkers and salty sea breezes that wreak havoc on ballooning irons. The setting: the Open Championship. In seven Open starts, DeChambeau has just one top-10 finish (2022, St. Andrews); in those remaining six appearances he only once finished better than 51st and missed three cuts, including at last year’s Open at Royal Troon.  

DeChambeau’s bugaboo surfaced this week on a conference call with Golf Channel’s excellent “Live From” crew: Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley. When a reporter asked the analysts whether they’d seen anything in DeChambeau’s game that made them think that next week’s Open at Royal Portrush might better suit DeChambeau, Chamblee, speaking first, said:

“I would say no, not as it relates to the Open. His only top 10 came at St. Andrews, which is understandable — the fairways are 150 yards wide. He missed the cut here in 2019. He was a different player. That was pre-Covid. Since he’s come out of Covid, he’s certainly transformed his game, but it’s just so important to have control on the fairway at Portrush.”

DeChambeau can, of course, still put golf courses in chokeholds. But in recent years he has employed less of the hammer-and-hack approach that won him the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Or, at least, he said he has. “I’m a little more strategic more often than not,” he said several days before he won the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. “I’m not such a risk-taker. I do take risks. I love taking being risks. But there are times for it. I feel like as time has gone on, I realize when that time is and when essentially not to go for it, when it doesn’t make any sense.”

That’s a difficult claim to fact check. DeChambeau still murders the ball; his LIV-leading average driving distance this season is 331 yards, and he also led the category in 2023 and ’24. So it’s not like he’s now hitting 4-irons off of every tee. But if DeChambeau says he’s playing a more conservative brand of golf, who are we to doubt him?  

Chamblee continued on the particular challenges that links golf pose to DeChambeau’s game: “You don’t see him working his ball flight down as much. I don’t see him hitting as many left-to-right shots when there’s hard right-to-left wind. If you can’t fight the crosswind, you’re very limited on what you can do coming into the green, especially if there’s a hole location on the windward side. It just requires a lot of nuance and savoir-faire, just playing an Open Championship under windy conditions, and especially so, I would argue, at Portrush.”

Savoir-faire, as in know-how, as in knowing how to flight your ball, a skill that, when the wind blows at the Open, isn’t a nice-to-have but a necessity.

That’s not just Chamblee preaching from on high. DeChambeau echoed a similar sentiment about his own game before last year’s Open. Speaking of his iron play, DeChambeau said: “For me it’s going to be about controlling that height through just length of backstroke for me this week. It’s going to be tough. It’s always tough, right to left into the wind, left to right into the wind, and down. It’s very diabolical, and just trying to keep it low underneath the wind is key for me this week.”

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DeChambeau also cited the rollout on his titanic drives as a “difficult challenge” on fairways that could double as runways. “I wouldn’t say it’s a problem; it’s a challenge.”

DeChambeau shot 76-75 and missed the cut by three.

Back on the call, the topic of DeChambeau’s iron play had piqued Lerner’s attention. Morphing into host mode, he asked Chamblee and McGinley a provocative question: Does DeChambeau need to “figure out how to be a more nuanced and polished iron player before you would consider him a truly great all-around player?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Chamblee said. “If he has any chance of being the player he wants to be, he’s got to improve his iron play. That is certainly a weakness of his. It is the weakest aspect of his game, and it is part of the game that matters the most.”

LIV statistics are limited so it’s hard to know exactly how DeChambeau’s iron play stacks up against his peers. But he has hit 70.78% of his greens in reg this season (7th best on LIV), which more or less matches his greens-in-reg percentage in each of his previous two LIV seasons. Also, for what it’s worth, in each of his last three U.S. Open and PGA Championship starts, DeChambeau has picked up strokes on the field in SG: Approach the Green. Yes, we’re dealing with a small sample set here, but it’s still evidence that if DeChambeau’s iron play isn’t elite, it’s still sound.

Then McGinley weighed in.   

“I would echo what Brandel said,” he began. “I think the high ball flight doesn’t play into his strengths. He struggles to knock the ball down and play three-quarter shots. Again, that’s not a strength. He struggles to hit the ball left to right with his irons, that’s not a strength.” McGinley added, “Certainly with the strong crosswinds last year at Royal Troon, Bryson was left wanting.”

But, McGinley allowed, the forecast looks good for next week, and Portrush isn’t the brute that some other Open sites can be. And, yes, Bryson is still Bryson.

“A lot of us have been wrong over how consistently he’s competed in these major championships, especially considering he’s not flying at full power in terms of his limitations with his iron play and finds himself in contention four of the last six major championships,” McGinley said. “With benign weather conditions in terms of wind and not the heavy crosswinds you had last year at Royal Troon, maybe this is an exam that will suit Bryson better.”

The test begins Thursday.

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The post ‘A dangerous precedent’: Brandel Chamblee has response for Morikawa call-out appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘A dangerous precedent’: Brandel Chamblee has response for Morikawa call-out appeared first on Golf.

Brandel Chamblee says Collin Morikawa’s act not to talk to the media after last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational was setting “a dangerous precedent” for himself, and hinted at a sense of entitlement. 

Paul McGinley, meanwhile, seconded the latter point, then had a thought on players’ interaction with reporters in general.

“It’s not all about smiley faces and everybody winning,” he said. 

The comments, said Friday on Golf Channel, continued a back-and-forth between Morikawa and Golf Channel analysts Chamblee and McGinley, and longtime pro Rocco Mediate. It was sparked last Sunday, when Morikawa bypassed talking to the media after finishing second at the Arnold Palmer, which drew the ire of Chamblee and McGinley, also former players, and Mediate — and their thoughts led to an unprompted reply by Morikawa on Friday after his Players Championship second round.

“I just want to add one more thing. I might bite my tongue after saying this, but to the Brandel Chamblees, to the Paul McGinleys, to the Rocco Mediates of the world, I don’t regret anything I said. You know, it might have been a little bit harsh that I don’t owe anyone, but I don’t owe anyone.

“I respect the fans. I’m very thankful for them. I’m grateful. It makes me emotional, but it’s just — it hurts to hear people say this, and especially you guys, because I finished the round and I went to go sign for 10 minutes, 15 minutes for all the people after. Not a single person from media went to go follow me because, I don’t know. But that’s me.

“So for people to be calling me out is — it’s interesting. It just, it doesn’t show anything. I mean, look, I get what you guys are saying. But I was there. I was signing for every single person right after the round, whether they wanted it or not. I finished second. They could care less. But yeah, I’m going to leave it at that, all right? So thank you, guys.”

On Friday night, Morikawa’s comments were shown on Golf Channel, and Chamblee and McGinley were asked to respond. 

“It’s interesting that he called myself and Paul and Rocco about it,” Chamblee said. “It wasn’t us. He didn’t say no to us. He said no to the fans. He said no to the sponsors. Saying no to the PGA Tour. He’s saying no to his fellow players who do these interviews.” 

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The analyst singled out Jack Nicklaus and Nancy Lopez as players who talked after defeats. 

“Everybody’s tuned in and engaged,” Chamblee said on Golf Channel. “Golf’s never been better. We’re all in. The purses are ungodly high and there’s a sense that there’s an entitlement, that they don’t owe anybody anything. And he voiced what a lot of people suspected too many Tour players felt.

“It’s not true of all of them. A lot of them are great with the media and give us these interviews afterwards. But it sets a dangerous precedent. And if he really does feel that way, that’s fine, it’s his opinion. I have mine. He has his. But I think he’ll regret it if he carries on turning down the media after he loses because he’s so good, he’s going to have many more painful losses. He’s going to have many more wins, too, but it’s just part of the game.”

McGinley furthered the “entitlement” thought, saying that it’s “a view from a lot of the public.” 

“So it’s a word of caution to the players more than anything else that, you know, don’t come out and say something like, I don’t owe anybody anything because that does not sound good,” he said on Golf Channel. “Maybe it was a wrong choice of words, but don’t say anything like that. 

“It doesn’t sound right and it’s not what the public want to hear because ultimately, at the end of the day, the public are the ones paying higher prices to come to events. The public are the ones being denied all the best players coming together more regularly in terms of the top events as the product of golf has become diluted. And the media is a prism for all of that.”

McGinley also named a player. 

“Probably the most memorable interview that I can remember in professional golf was one from loss, not victory,” he said. “And it was Rory McIlroy in a Ryder Cup in Whistling Straits, when he jumped up at the end of, you know, a poor performance from Europe up there. And that’s raw emotion and it humanized Rory and it humanized golfers. And even though it’s a hard thing to do, it’s a very, very positive outlook for professional golfers.

“It’s not all about smiley faces and everybody winning. There’s got to be give and take for everybody.”

Notably, McIlroy did not talk to reporters last year after finishing runner-up at the U.S. Open. 

As for Morikawa, he started Saturday’s third round of the Players Championship two back of the lead. 

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The post After Paul Azinger split, NBC Golf is trying out a new lead analyst appeared first on Golf.

The post After Paul Azinger split, NBC Golf is trying out a new lead analyst appeared first on Golf.

Paul Azinger is no longer NBC Golf’s lead analyst, but could a new Paul be on the way?

Paul McGinley, the former pro golfer and longtime voice for both Golf Channel and Sky Sports, will fill in for Azinger’s spot in the lead chair at this week’s Hero World Challenge, according to a report from the Irish Independent’s Brian Keogh. McGinley will be on the call alongside the usual NBC Golf team, a tryout in the lead slot overlapping with Tiger Woods’ return to the sport. NBC subsequently confirmed McGinley’s temporary call-up to GOLF.com, but cautioned the network has not yet made any permanent decisions on who will fill the lead chair.

Last week, NBC confirmed that Azinger’s contract was not renewed after five years as lead golf analyst for the network, a decision that Azinger called both “surprising and disappointing.” While Azinger was a well-liked figure by many within NBC, his departure wasn’t completely surprising. The longtime broadcaster had been a polarizing figure during his time at NBC, where his analysis was often criticized for over-generalizing or running counter to easily accessible statistics or information.

Though McGinley’s fill-in role does not come with any long-term promises, it would not be a surprise if the Hero provided some clues as to the long-term future of the NBC broadcast. At least year’s Hero, NBC officially hired Smylie Kaufman and Brad Faxon, the two names who replaced long-time broadcasters Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch, whose contracts were not renewed upon the completion of 2022.

Of course, NBC could wait to announce a full-time replacement for Azinger, but the network is not afforded the luxury of a lengthy job search. Its 2024 PGA Tour coverage begins in just a few weeks’ time at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and continues with a host of early-season tournaments that are critical to season-long viewership data. In other words, it is in everyone’s best interest to have a replacement announced sooner rather than later.

McGinley, a legendary Ryder Cupper and Dublin native, is an interesting fit as a lead analyst next to play-by-play man Dan Hicks. He is a popular figure among players and production folks in roles for Sky and NBC, and his extensive experience with both live tournament coverage and studio work would make him a safe choice from a workload standpoint. Though he has not worked as a lead analyst before, his role on Sky’s more Socratic broadcasts makes him at least fairly well-versed in the expectations of the role. At 56 years old, he would also mark a continuation of NBC Golf’s youth movement and provide the network with a fitting counterpart for CBS’s Trevor Immelman, who is fresh off a brilliant first season next to Jim Nantz.

As an analyst, McGinley is sharp and opinionated, his forthrightness and golf IQ serving as two of his biggest strengths. It should come as no surprise to learn that he remains deeply embedded with the European golf contingent, maintaining close relationships with many of the continent’s biggest players. In his U.S.-based work, he has earned plaudits for his preparation and research; his banter with Brandel Chamblee on Golf Channel’s Live From has produced some of the sport’s most compelling studio television over the past several years. (One needn’t look much further than McGinley’s skewering on TPC Sawgrass’ 17th hole for proof.)

Irrespective of whom NBC hires for the lead chair, the network finds itself in a key moment for its golf coverage, which has faced mounting criticism in recent years for falling behind its counterparts at CBS. NBC has had just two lead analysts in the past 35 years — Azinger for the last five, and Johnny Miller for the three decades preceding him. The next hire will help to shape the tone and voice of the network’s coverage as it nears the midpoint of a nine-year, multi-billion-dollar rights agreement with the PGA Tour.

While McGinley won’t unravel any of those trends at the Hero, he will have the chance to make a compelling case for his worthiness in the role. Considering that scores of golf fans are likely to tune in to see the return of Woods to tournament golf, McGinley won’t just be speaking to his bosses.

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The post Insider on Ryder Cup controversy: No one is taking money and ‘running off into sunset’ appeared first on Golf.

The post Insider on Ryder Cup controversy: No one is taking money and ‘running off into sunset’ appeared first on Golf.

Ryder Cup players shouldn’t be paid to play, Paul McGinley says. 

And certainly not just the Americans. 

The former Cup captain and player was speaking this week on the Five Clubs podcast, and you can — and should — listen to the entire episode here. Of course, just days earlier, compensation was discussed perhaps just as often at the biennial event as the biennial event itself. 

Though not new, the topic started in earnest last Saturday, when Sky Sports reporter Jamie Weir shared that Patrick Cantlay was wanting to get paid, that he was refusing to wear a hat in protest, and that the U.S. locker room was fractured. From there, the subject snowballed. The report was denied. Fans at Marco Simone, the host site, mockingly waved hats. A day later, Stefan Schauffele, the father of American Xander Schauffele, spoke at length about it all to GOLF’s Dylan Dethier, saying at one point: “They can donate all proceeds after opening the books to a charity of our joint choice, and then we will happily play for free. Please print that.”

And in the time since, the conversation has continued. Notably, the governing bodies of the event — the PGA of America on the U.S. side, and the DP World Tour on the European side — collect millions from the Ryder Cup and distribute the cash to their various events and programs, with players given charitable donations of $200,000 each. (It’s here where you should read another wonderfully reported story, by GOLF’s Jessica Marksbury, on Ryder Cup money.) 

Then there’s McGinley. He played in four Ryder Cups for the Europeans. In his first, in 2002, he clinched the Cup with a 10-footer on the 18th hole. He captained a winning side, in 2014. 

And on the Five Clubs podcast, host Gary Williams asked him this:

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“The whiff of compensation, it’s not new. You can go back to the late ’90s, obviously [Mark] O’Meara, [David] Duval. Do you think compensation will be part of the story at least on the American side by 2025? And do you think the Europeans will absolutely pass on the idea of getting paid?”

Over the next three-plus minutes, McGinley answered. 

No, the Americans alone should not be paid, he said.  

“I think both teams will have — there’s a lot to be negotiated in the next six months on both sides,” McGinley said. “And it would be unfair if the American team were going to be paid and we were not. So I think there needs to be a proper place found, negotiations with all 24 players and organizations involved. Not everybody is going to be happy. Whether that’s collectively not being paid, whether that’s collectively all being paid or whether that’s a bit of both — a nominal fee for everybody or whatever the case may be, I don’t know. … The heads of both organizations have a lot of work to do in the next six months. We need to get to a common ground in all of this. Because you can’t just have one team do it and get paid a lot and then the other team not.”

McGinley then continued. 

No player should be paid at the Ryder Cup, he said.   

“Personally, I hope it gets to a place where neither team is paid because I think the money that top professional golfers earn at the moment is huge on so many different levels,” McGinley said on the podcast. “They’re all set up for life, no matter what. Once you make a Ryder Cup standard nowadays, you’re set up for life anyway, whether it be through your pension fund or whether it be in the prize money you’ve earned. I think for one tournament every two years it would be great to give back. 

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“On the European side, the DP World Tour needs the revenue from the Ryder Cup. So it’s helping all of the guys who are coming through. It’s putting events on the Challenge Tour. It’s putting on decent prize funds on the DP World Tour. And that’s really important for us. It’s a lifeline for us. And on the American side, it’s the 28,000 PGA pros around America and giving money to them so that they can bring young boys and girls into the game and create the future Patrick Cantlays or future Justin Thomases or whatever. A huge amount of investment goes back into it. 

“So I think both sides are honorable in terms of what they’re trying to do with the revenues that come in. It’s not like some rich private equity company is taking the money and running off into the sunset and giving it to shareholders. This is money that’s going back on both sides back into the game. It’s going back into the ecosystem on both sides that has churned out these players in the first place. So I think for one tournament every two years, with all the money that’s in the game at the moment and so crass the amount of money that is put to the front in the conversations around golf, I think it would be a wonderful narrative for the future of the Ryder Cup if it was not about money and it was about the 24 players being representative, helping both ecosystems that made them who they are.”

Editor’s note: To listen to the entire podcast with McGinley, please click here.  

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The post Tee box moves? Clever notes? How Europe dominated Ryder Cup, according to insider appeared first on Golf.

The post Tee box moves? Clever notes? How Europe dominated Ryder Cup, according to insider appeared first on Golf.

Paul McGinley pauses. He is offering deeeeep insight into why the European Ryder Cup team doesn’t just win at home, it annihilates its American counterpart. But he wants to make something clear: 

Those thumpings come mostly on one side of the Atlantic. 

“I think it’s fair to say from both sides, certainly from a European side, we have not nailed a template away from home,” McGinley said this week on the Five Clubs podcast. “We have a lot of work to do. As much as we’ve nailed a home template, we have a lot of work to do in saying, OK, that was that; that home template does not necessarily work away from home. We got a different set of criteria we have to put in place, and there’s different dynamics in play and we’re going to have to dream it up for what is an away template. 

“So that is a challenge.”

And he’s right: The Europeans haven’t won in the U.S. since 2012. Of course, the former Ryder Cup player and captain also says this because that home template is damn near a masterpiece. If you’re a fan, of either the Euros or the Americans, you know its output well. No wins by the Americans in Europe since 1993. Seven-straight victories by the Europeans. The latest came Sunday, 16.5-11.5, at Marco Simone in Italy. 

It’s impressive. But maybe the process to get there is more so. The system is more than just getting hot once every four years. It’s smart. It’s thoughtful. It’s calculated.

It won the Ryder Cup last week.

Below are four parts of it. During the Five Clubs podcast — which you can and should listen to in full here — McGinley went into intimate detail on all of them with host Gary Williams. 

‘Our players know the golf course’

As noted above, the Ryder Cup was played this year at Marco Simone. Five years ago, it was held at Le Golf National in France. 

And both are hosts of DP World Tour events — the French Open has been held at Le Golf National consecutively since 2002, while Marco Simone has hosted the Italian Open since 2021.

The familiarity is a benefit, McGinley said on the podcast. 

“I think a big advantage is we know the golf course, our players know the golf course,” he said. “You know, that French Open, I’ve been playing there since 1992 on that French Open golf course. Every one of the players in France had had a top 10 finish or better in the French Open over those years. I think six or seven of our players had played the last couple of Italian Opens around there. So we were used to it. We were ready for the golf course, the golf course was to our advantage, and it was tailored that way by the use of statistics.”

As for the American side? 

Two years ago, the Ryder Cup was played at Whistling Straits, and two years from now, it will be played at Bethpage Black. The last events at each were major championships — Whistling Straits hosted the 2015 PGA Championship, while Bethpage hosted the 2019 PGA. 

‘We were a better team statistically than America collectively at around the 200- to 240-yard mark’

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Both sides tailor their courses. In 2018, for example, as Golf Digest’s Luke Kerr-Dineen excellently described here, the Europeans pushed gallery ropes on the fairways farther to the left and right — so the long-hitting but inaccurate Americans would not have the luxury of trampled-down rough, should they go astray off the tee.   

But according to McGinley on the podcast, the adjustment this year featured tee boxes. 

“One of the things that was very clear — I said it on TV and I don’t want to give too much away — but we were a better team statistically than America collectively at around the 200- to 240-yard mark,” he said. “America was very good with wedges in their hands; anything from kind of 100 yards to 135, America was much better than us. 

“So setting up the golf course, it’s not about just tailoring rough — everyone thinks it’s about pinching in the fairways and that kind of thing; it’s not. What we did is we took three par-4s and we made them drivable par-4s. Three par-4s that were drives and wedges, which would have been a strength for America, and we actually moved the tee boxes up and we made them 300 yards or 330 yards and obviously that’s where our strength was going to be. 

“So that’s when I talk about tailoring the golf course, there were clever ways just to put the odds a little bit in our favor, without losing the integrity of the golf course.”

The holes were likely the par-4 5th, the par-4 11th, the par-4 16th and potentially the par-4 6th. During the singles matches on Sunday, the yardages of those holes were 276 yards, 301 yards, 277 yards and 348 yards — whereas during the Italian Open in May, the yardages of those holes were 376 yards, 329 yards, 303 yards and 381 yards. 

‘The best way of getting the answers to stuff is to distill it down to something smaller’ 

The Europeans, we had heard at points during the week, were greeted by emotional messages. Rory McIlroy, for example, admitted he broke down. 

All of it was planned, McGinley said on the podcast. His explanation here is lengthy, but good. 

“That’s all kind of a part of our template,” he said. “Some things that are very, very complex — whatever it may be, in business or whatever — the best way of getting the answers to stuff is to distill it down to something smaller. And I had a view very clearly and it comes from my background in Ireland. In Ireland, we got 32 counties, like you have states in America, and they’re very, very small; we’ve only got, between north and south, we’ve got six million people total in population. And Gaelic football in Ireland is a big, big deal. And it’s an amateur sport. You get 80,000 people at the games, from quarterfinals onward, and 30-, 40,000 at the other games. But the big thing is, you can only play for the county you’re born in. So there’s no transfers, and if you happen to be Tom Brady and you happen to be born in a county that’s not very good, well, unfortunately, that’s tough luck — you’re never going to be the Tom Brady of Gaelic football. 

“So I took that idea and what I did was I wanted to put that in a European context. We’re here not just representing a blue flag. I wanted to distill it down because everybody, one thing that we’re all united in, we’re very, very proud of where we come from. We’re very, very proud of our roots. And when you touch somebody’s heart, a good way to do it is through where they’re from. Most of us have got great experiences of growing up — the little town or village that we’re from, the aunties, the uncles that are still living there, the friends you went to school with, the girlfriends we used to have, all of those things that happened and bloomed out of that little town or village you’re from. I wanted to bring the players back to that place in their minds. 

“As much as we’re representing this blue flag of Europe, we’re also individuals and we all come from different places. So what I spent a lot of time on, whether it be tailoring the rooms or big communication with the players about representation, not of Europe as a whole, but on the town, the village, the people that you represent, that they would all be tuning in or watching around the pub in Ireland or watching at home, proud of you, and everytime they come on, they’re going to be watching you. … It’s something about igniting the heart. 

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“I’m really a believer when players and sports people are inspired and they’re playing from the heart, they go to a higher level than if they’re playing from their head or they’re told to do something. When it comes through their heart and they have an emotional investment in something or representation in something, magic happens. So that’s what I used and I think Luke [Donald] took it to another level, a better level, in terms of doing that this year. He made some personal videos of people that were important to each player and he sent it to them in a video and they all watched it privately in their rooms and I think that really ignited a lot of them. I heard Jon Rahm talking about a lot of tears when he watched that video because it was — as much you’re there, Jon Rahm, representing the blue flag and the DP World Tour and all that goes with it, we get that, but to really ignite these players, I really feel you got to do it through their heart and the best way to do it is from their loved ones, in particular.”

‘You kind of forget, oh, by the way, I was playing rubbish’

Then there are the players themselves.  

On the podcast, McGinley said the Europeans have a culture. To best describe it, he talked of his 2002 Ryder Cup appearance. 

This is again lengthy, but excellent. 

“I think we’ve been blessed with great people carrying on the mantle and establishing a culture within the team, a code of behavior within the team. I’m not talking about captains here; I’m talking about players,” he said. “So you look at the hand-off. The top players are so important in a Ryder Cup team, not just in terms of the haul of points that you need from top players. They set the culture of the team. Because when I came into my first Ryder Cup environment, in 2002, I wasn’t coming in on a lot of form because 9/11 happened the year before; I’d gone from sixth on the money list to 35th on the money list; I wasn’t having a great year. I was worried going into this Ryder Cup, like how am I going to get through this huge event not on my game and slipping 30 places down the Order of Merit? … And when I walked into that team environment, I walked into a culture. I walked into a culture and a code of behavior. And an excitement. And a sense of fun, a sense of adventure that oozed out of the top players. 

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“I’m talking about Sergio [Garcia], I’m talking about Lee Westwood, I’m talking about [Jose Maria] Olazabal, I’m talking about Bernhard Langer, I’m talking about Ian Woosnam. Those were the top players on that team in 2002 — Colin Montgomerie. And you sat in the first meeting and you looked around, and they were so excited and they had not an aggressive determination, but a sense of adventure and relishing of the challenge that was ahead. And it takes my mood as a rookie going in a little bit worried, to raises it up. And then you get on the golf course. And the banter starts. You get a bit of fun. You kind of lose yourself. You kind of forget, oh, by the way, I was playing rubbish the last few weeks. Now my game is in really good shape. And your mood changes. 

“So that’s just one example. Then that moves. You look at what happened here this time. So those people — Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam — move away and then other players come, the Westwoods and the Garcias come to the front, and the Darren Clarkes come to the front. Now they’re starting to carry on that legacy and that culture, and culture is a code of behavior and it’s an environment within the team. And then you move on. 

“The Rory McIlroys, the Jon Rahms and the Viktor Hovlands have talked a lot this week that one of the advantages this week that they didn’t appreciate was the fact that because those LIV players were not there, those big characters that have carried the mantle, and because they weren’t there, it kind of forced them to step up and be those soldiers and be those people that were establishing the culture. And they seemed to relish it. It’s kind of handed down through the top players in particular. Because culture does not start from the bottom players up. It starts from the top players down. The captain has to oversee that and coordinate that and embellish it.

“I think that’s what we’re blessed with.”

Editor’s note: To listen to the entire podcast with McGinley, please click here.            

The post Tee box moves? Clever notes? How Europe dominated Ryder Cup, according to insider appeared first on Golf.

The post How Ryder Cup players’ drinking habits have changed, says ex-captain appeared first on Golf.

The post How Ryder Cup players’ drinking habits have changed, says ex-captain appeared first on Golf.

Much has changed in the golf world over the past two years, thanks to the feud-turned-merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. But the pro game is completely unrecognizable to what it was like 15 years ago. At least that’s the opinion of former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley.

Appearing on Golf Channel’s “GOLF Today,” McGinley dished on his view of the current Ryder Cup landscape with hosts Damon Hack and Eamon Lynch.

His primary contention? Pro golf isn’t “fun” anymore. One sign of that decline in McGinley’s eyes is the lack of alcohol consumption among teammates at the Ryder Cup.

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“Back in our day, there was quite a bit of alcohol consumed,” McGinley said, “even during Ryder Cups.”

The example he used was his own experience as a vice captain at the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales. That year, the European team walloped the Americans over the first four sessions of the competition and headed into the final singles matches with a three-point lead.

According to McGinley, he and his fellow European team members and staff downed an impressive volume of wine the night before the singles matches.

“I remember one of the backroom staff telling us on a Saturday night … we had consumed 72 bottles of wine already on Saturday night,” McGinley said on GOLF Today, “and they had to go and re-order.”

“It’s not like we were getting drunk every night — far from it,” McGinley continued. “But everyone would have had one, two, maybe three glasses of wine at night and it was normal. And nine, 10 out of the 12 players would do that.”

When McGinley took over the captain role in 2014, he noticed a change among the pros.

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“I was amazed even when I was captain in 2014, nobody drank. I mean, nobody,” McGinley said. “I wasn’t like, ‘It’s a Ryder Cup, I’m not going to drink.’ It was a case of, ‘No, I’m not drinking, I don’t drink when I play. It’s not even a question.'”

The 56-year-old with four-career DP World Tour wins suggested that the lack of alcohol consumption, in addition to the fact that pros don’t travel together as they used to and make many millions of dollars more on the course, have combined to drastically reduce “camaraderie” among the players, implying that the change has negatively impacted the European team’s success in the Ryder Cup.

Although, if we take the 2010 event as an example, as McGinley did, the facts suggest that the European team’s early celebration did not help them on the course. After starting the final session with a three-point lead, the Europeans watched as the Americans made a furious charge in singles matches.

While Team Europe still prevailed, their winning margin was sliced from three to one, with Europe reclaiming the Ryder Cup, 14.5 to 13.5.

With McGinley in the captain’s chair at the 2014 Ryder Cup (and far less booze downed), Europe trounced the U.S. 16.5-11.5.

The post How Ryder Cup players’ drinking habits have changed, says ex-captain appeared first on Golf.

The post Trevor Immelman reveals the ‘crap’ he’s heard — and an analyst’s apology appeared first on Golf.

The post Trevor Immelman reveals the ‘crap’ he’s heard — and an analyst’s apology appeared first on Golf.

Trevor Immelman has heard the suggestions. 

“Blow this thing up,” he said. 

“They got to change the format.”

“They got to cut the points.”

“We got to bring the women golfers in.”

“I’ve had to listen to that crap for two years now,” Immelman said.  

Now one prominent analyst has apologized, he also said. 

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On his podcast this week, longtime instructor Claude Harmon III said that Paul McGinley had joined the chorus in offering ideas to improve the Presidents Cup, after the Immelman-captained International team lost to the Americans last Sunday for the 12th time in 14 playings of the event. The comments, Harmon said, came Sunday night on Golf Channel’s Live From show.  

On Monday, Immelman said he got a text. 

“I appreciate the fact that they may be trying to think outside of the box,” he said on the Son of a Butch podcast. “But they need to come up with something else. And I hope Paul doesn’t get offended by me saying this, but he texted me on Monday. And he apologized for saying that on Live From. 

“Because he realized what playing for the shield means to us. What having the opportunity to compete in the Presidents Cup against the Americans means to us. And he realized that, and he realized that his take was incorrect and he texted me to apologize. And I thanked him for having the guts to text me and to apologize and I thanked him for realizing how much that event means to us.”

Of course, Immelman is going to defend himself and his team. And both Immelman and Harmon understood the point; when you go 1-12-1, as the Internationals have, and are without key players because of their play in LIV Golf, as the Internationals are, folks start to workshop. 

But on the podcast, Immelman said that’s off base. 

He also sees a path under the status quo. 

“I find it disrespectful on all accounts, to be extremely honest with you,” he said. “I find it disrespectful to us as international golfers that are professional athletes that compete at the highest level week in and week out. We’re not scrubs. Are we as strong as the Americans? Doesn’t quite look like it right now. Have they kicked our butts in this event? They sure have. But there’s been some close calls. And so I find it disrespectful to us. 

“I find it equally disrespectful to the women golfers. And here’s why. I don’t think women golfers need men to make them and their competitions relevant. Their competitions are already relevant. I sit down and watch every single shot of the Solheim Cup. Every single shot. It’s one of my favorite times of the year when that event goes on. I watched the U.S. Women’s Open. I watched the Women’s British Open a few weeks ago when South African Ashleigh Buhai came down the stretch, almost coughed it up and won in the playoff at Muirfield, matching Ernie Els’ win at the Open at Muirfield. Women don’t need men to make them relevant in sport. My family and I were glued to the TV when Serena Williams played her last match at the U.S. Open. She’s one of the greatest athletes to ever walk on the planet. So I find it disrespectful on all accounts when people come with that opinion.”

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So how can the Internationals close the gap?

Immelman has a thought. 

“Let’s leave the Presidents Cup and the International team alone, for now,” he said on the podcast. “And let us compete. And allow youngsters from Thailand and China and Japan and Korea and Australia and South Africa and Canada and all over South America, allow them to grow up with this as their goal, to be able to compete on this level. 

“Because we are eventually going to win this event, I promise you.”

You can listen to the entire interview — which you should! — below.

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