By Stephen Hennessey
There’s a lot to dissect in the aftermath of Tiger Woods’ fifth Masters title, leaving golf fans with tons of reasons to celebrate the 15-time major champion’s accomplishments. One of the things likely not on the front of most people’s mind was that Tiger’s victory all but locked up a spot on the 2020 U.S. Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits.

Of course, even without a victory, a healthy Tiger would almost certainly get a captains’ pick, as he did in 2018 for the Matches at Le Golf National and 2010 at Celtic Manor. Tiger had been named vice-captain for Steve Stricker’s 2020 squad, but he has gone a long way toward eliminating the awkward conversation of having to convince his fellow captains he’s worth the pick. The Masters victory boosted Tiger up to No. 1 in the (very) early Ryder Cup points standings, freeing up all captains picks for Stricker.

Tiger—who also moved up to No. 6 in the world with his win—discussed earlier in the week that his goal was to be a playing captain on his 2019 Presidents Cup team, and Sunday locked up that possibility, as well, if Tiger’s healthy and willing to do it. Tiger will captain the U.S. team, along with his vice-captains Fred Couples, Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson, against Ernie Els’ International squad at Royal Melbourne this December. There hasn’t been a playing captain in the short history of the Presidents Cup, and Arnold Palmer was the last playing captain in the Ryder Cup in 1963 at Atlanta Athletic Club.

If Tiger were to tee it up in the 2020 Ryder Cup, it would be his ninth appearance in the biennial matches. Curiously, the United States has only come out victorious one of those nine tries (1999, The Country Club). Tiger also boasts a less than stellar record at the Ryder Cup, going 13-21-3 overall, but he is 4-2-2 in singles. One of his more forgettable singles matches came against his playing competitor on Sunday at Augusta National, Francesco Molinari, as the Italian earned the clinching half point for the Europeans at the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. Molinari teamed up with Tommy Fleetwood to defeat Tiger three times in 2018, too, in two four-ball matches (alongside Patrick Reed) and once in foursomes (with Bryson DeChambeau).

Perhaps a Molinari vs. Tiger rematch is in the cards at Whistling Straits. It’s too early to dream up those possibilities, but a healthy Tiger will have golf fans even more pumped for the 2020 Ryder Cup, and the 2019 Presidents Cup if Tiger plays on his own team, which seems like a true reality.

Here are the full Ryder Cup standings after the Masters, which you shouldn’t put too much stock in, as we still have seven more majors to be played until the Ryder Cup standings are locked in 2020. But it’s fun to look at:

1. Tiger Woods
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Kevin Kisner
4. Xander Schauffele
5. Brooks Koepka
6. Matt Kuchar
7. Jim Furyk
8. Webb Simpson
9. Tony Finau
10. Patrick Cantlay
11. Justin Thomas
12. Rickie Fowler
13. Bubba Watson
14. Brandt Snedeker
15. Aaron Wise
16. Keegan Bradley
17. Kevin Na
18. Phil Mickelson
19. Gary Woodland
20. Bryson DeChambeau
21. Patton Kizzire
22. Charles Howell III
23. Jordan Spieth
24. Patrick Reed
25. Kyle Stanley

The post Tiger Woods moves up to top spot in early Ryder Cup points standings with Masters victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

That being said, the T-shirt modification Poulter showcased on social media on Friday was savage even for him. It appears the 42-year-old got a hold of a pre-Ryder Cup American shirt, pleading for the Americans to “Beat Europe.” The problem with pre-Ryder Cup apparel is if your side loses, it’s tough to rock that gear with pride. Poulter took that problem into his own hands …

It’s ok folks I fixed the mistake. How does it look now ? ?????@RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/2i3uFRxyEr

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) December 7, 2018

Poulter even teed himself up with a tweet before he revised it…

Can anyone spot the mistake in this photo… ? ? @RyderCupEurope pic.twitter.com/jopZodybK2

— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) December 7, 2018

Pure savagery. Even American Ryder Cuppers Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka commented on Poulter’s post, respecting Poulter’s dig.

Even a diehard American Ryder Cup has to respect Poulter’s creativity. Or at least we think so. If Team USA edges Europe in Whistling Straits in 2020, we’re sure there are some American fans out there who will let Poulter hear about a European loss in similar fashion.

The post Ian Poulter daggers U.S. Ryder Cup team with savage T-shirt to rub in the European win in France appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Myers
After stiff-arming the field at the Hero World Challenge on Sunday, Jon Rahm completely opened up to reporters. But he had the most to say about another win involving tournament host Tiger Woods.

Sure, winning Tiger’s tournament meant to a lot to the Spaniard (Woods finished 17th in the 18-man field), but Rahm really went deep when asked about his Sunday victory over Woods at the recent Ryder Cup, which he called “the best moment of my career.” Rahm’s 2-and-1 win over Woods at Le Golf National helped seal the European win and moved the young star to tears. Here was his fantastic story about how he prepared for that singles match and why it evoked such an emotional celebration:

Great stuff, Jon. There was no crying after Sunday’s win, just “a couple jokes” from Tiger as he presented Rahm with his latest trophy. Having just turned 24 last month, Rahm is just beginning to collect hardware — and Ryder Cup points.

The post A candid Jon Rahm tells fantastic story about beating Tiger Woods at the Ryder Cup: “I started crying” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Almost immediately after the seven-point drubbing in France, the leadership within the U.S. team room started dissecting what went wrong—on the course and off it—according to assistant captain Davis Love III. That conversation hasn’t stopped in the ensuing weeks, either, with a series of debriefings taking place and a string of ongoing text messages exchanged.

“I dropped the ball on two or three things that could have helped, and I apologized to Jim,” Love told Golf Digest last week. “I should have seen some of those things coming.”

That’s overstating things a bit, but one of the responsibilities of Love, a veteran of eight Ryder Cups including his captaincy in 2012 and 2016, was letting Patrick Reed know that he wouldn’t be playing with Jordan Spieth, whom he’d compiled a 4-1-2 record with in two previous Ryder Cups.

Love informed Reed during the week that he would be paired with Tiger Woods, and Reed was indeed aware of that likelihood before the team even crossed the Atlantic.

Mike Ehrmann
Love says there were things he had could have done to help Furyk more in Paris.

But somehow it got lost on Reed, and the frustration of losing boiled over in his post-match comments to the New York Times in which he said he felt blindsided and called the decision-making process a “buddy system” that ignored the input of all but a few players. Since that story, Furyk and others have spoken to Reed to try and clear the air, among other conversations that have taken place.

RELATED: Patrick Reed is exactly what golf needs

Then there was the situation involving Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson at the European’s post-Cup celebration. Though Koepka repeatedly has said nothing happened, multiple sources (including Furyk in an interview with the Golf Channel) say some type of exchange took place, the nature of it centered around a third party.

Regardless, there has been cleaning up to do internally. “We all talked to one another in the week after and tried to decipher what came out compared to what actually happened,” said assistant captain Steve Stricker. “It’s sad we lost and unfortunate [that some things happened].”

Reed mostly talked around the question of the Ryder Cup when asked about it at last week’s WGC-HSBC Champions, his first tournament since Paris. “Ryder Cup was three, almost four weeks ago,” said Reed, who finished T-7 in his return to competition. “Right now I’m just trying to play great golf and finish off the year right. Because even though the PGA Tour season has now started, for the European Tour, it’s still going on. I’m a little bit behind Francesco [Molinari] in that, and I’m hoping to close that gap and have a chance to hopefully win the Race to Dubai.”

Adam Davy – PA Images
Furyk and Reed were all smiles during the practice rounds.

The U.S. team hopes to move on from the topic just as swiftly. It’s something that should be easier to do than in 2014 at Gleneagles, where Phil Mickelson used the Sunday team press conference to publicly voice his displeasure with captain Tom Watson for what he felt were a series of missteps that ultimately led to a complete overhaul of the U.S. Ryder Cup system.

While the Americans lost by a larger margin in France than in Scotland, don’t expect a back-to-the-drawing-board rebuild like we saw four years ago. The differences between then and now are significant. For one, Mickelson served as the voice of an entire team that had grown frustrated under Watson’s captaincy; for another, the makeup of the players who will be part of U.S. teams for the foreseeable future, and the culture between that group and future captains and assistants is more cohesive. And even with Reed’s rant, there have been plenty of teams with a lone wolf across all sports that found a way to be successful.

“What we did after ’14 was create a sort of USA Basketball mentality,” said Love, referring to, among other things, a continuity in leadership as well as a higher level of commitment. “We’re in this for the long haul.”

Added Stricker: “We didn’t see [Reed and Spieth not playing together] as an issue while we were there, and it’s unfortunate it came out the way it did. But Jim did an unbelievable job, and he was up front [with Reed and Tiger] and [Reed] handled it great at the time. But I don’t think it will be an issue going forward. I think going forward we’ll stay the track.”

The U.S. won’t have to wait until the next Ryder Cup two years from now at Whistling Straits, when Stricker is expected to be the captain, to find out. In just over a year the Americans will travel to Australia to play the Presidents Cup. Many of the same players who were in France will be in Oz, and Woods will be the captain.

FRANCK FIFE
While disappointed with the loss, don’t expect the U.S. to make major changes ahead of 2020.

Though the U.S. has been wildly successful in that event against the International team compared to the Ryder Cup against Europe, losing just once in the 12 meetings, the message remains the same in the months leading up to it, according to Love.

“We’ve done a massively better job communicating,” he said. “But we still have to get a lot better. My advice to Tiger: Keep ramping up the conversation.”

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By John Feinstein
When the United States hammered Europe 17-11 in the 2016 Ryder Cup matches at Hazeltine Golf Club, the European team had nothing but good things to say about the Americans.

“I went home and watched a replay on television,” Rory McIlroy said later. “As I watched I realised they did to us what we had done to them over the years: they made every clutch putt. They deserved to win. They were better than us that weekend.”

On Sunday night, when the matches were over, the Europeans trooped into the American team room to toast their victory and to thank them for being hospitable hosts. There were warm speeches and handshakes and hugs all around.

Then the Euros returned to their own team room and presented a poster signed by all of them to Darren Clarke, their captain, as thanks for all the work he’d done to try to help them win. They then serenaded him with the “Ole,” song as a fond farewell to his captaincy.

When the U.S. Ryder Cup Committee—the group formerly known as the Ryder Cup “Task Force”—next meets, here’s an item they should add to their agenda: teach the Americans to learn how to deal with defeat.

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Europe beat the U.S. in Paris eight days ago by an almost identical score—17 and ½ to 10 and ½–as the Americans margin at Hazeltine. U.S. Captain Jim Furyk handled the post-match press conference beautifully, giving credit to the European captain Thomas Bjorn; to the European players and saying his team had given him everything he could possibly have asked of them.

“They just outplayed us,” he said. “They were the better team and Thomas was the better captain.”

“No he wasn’t,” Rickie Fowler piped up—almost unnoticed.

Fowler wasn’t being un-gracious at that moment, he was standing up for Furyk. But from there, it all went downhill, the Americans taking a bad situation and making it worse.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

It began when Patrick Reed told the New York Times’s Karen Crouse that Furyk had ‘blind-sided,’ him by not pairing him with Jordan Spieth after he and Spieth had played together seven times as a team in 2014 and 2016. He added that one of the reasons Furyk paired Spieth with Justin Thomas and not with him was because Spieth didn’t like Reed.

Spieth and Thomas are pals; Spieth and Reed are not. Spieth and Thomas went 3-1 as a team. Furyk paired Reed with Tiger Woods, no doubt hoping that Reed’s on-his-sleeve emotions would energise Woods. It didn’t work at all—both played poorly—but one could understand Furyk’s thinking.

Then came the story that good friends Dustin Johnson and Brooke Koepka had gotten into it at the Sunday night victory party. Wild rumours floated about what had led to the fight, followed by a denial from Koepka. Apparently there WAS some kind of a dust-up but no punches were ever thrown—which would allow Koepka to say honestly that the notion that there was a fight was ‘made up.’

And then Phil Mickelson—as always—opened his mouth. After going out of his way to praise Furyk in the post-match press conference, Mickelson decided to put down the golf course setup at Le Golf National.

The fairways were too narrow to hold tee shots hit more than 300 yards, he said. The rough was “virtually unplayable,” he added and said he wouldn’t waste his time in future playing on golf courses with this sort of setup.

Reading Mickelson’s comments, I almost laughed out loud. During my research for, “The First Major,” my book on the 2016 Ryder Cup, I asked Mickelson a few weeks after it was over about a comment Justin Rose had made about how easy the course setup had been at Hazeltine—particularly on Sunday.

Rose made it clear that the setup wasn’t the reason the U.S. had won, but said, “you would think with 24 of the world’s best golfers out there, they would want to challenge us at least a little bit.”

Mickelson shot 63 on Sunday—as did his singles opponent Sergio Garcia, in a match that was halved.

When I asked Mickelson about Rose’s comment, he practically shouted the answer: “It’s called home course advantage!” he said. “We’re better putters than they are so why shouldn’t we set the golf course up to give our guys a lot of birdie chance? My answer to that would be, ‘Deal with it boys.’”

If Europe had a Mickelson on its team, he no doubt would say something like this: “We’re better drivers of the golf ball than they are; we handle rough better than they do, so why wouldn’t we have narrow fairways and high rough? Deal with it Phil.”

Mickelson was awful in Paris. He and Bryson DeChambeau were hammered in a foursomes match on Friday afternoon, 5 & 4 by Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren. Mickelson played so poorly that Furyk sat him out all day Saturday—the same thing Tom Watson had done in 2014 after playing Mickelson twice on Friday, a move that helped led to Mickelson’s attack of his captain on Sunday evening at Gleneagles.

Mickelson played a little better in singles on Sunday against Francesco Molinari, but his Ryder Cup ended when his tee shot on the 16th found water and he conceded the match on the tee.

The water was apparently unplayable too.

In non-Ryder Cup events, Mickelson has been a gracious loser for almost his entire career. But losing the Ryder Cup seems to bring out the worst in him. In 2004, when he and Woods lost twice while paired together by captain Hal Sutton, he blamed the loss on not having enough time to prepare for playing with Woods’s golf ball in alternate shot. That didn’t explain, of course, their loss in better ball. Twelve years later, he threw Sutton under the bus at a Hazeltine press conference, using that pairing as an example of a captain not giving players enough time to ‘prepare,’ for playing together.

Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images

In 2012, after the American meltdown at Medinah, Mickelson and the entire American team failed to go to the European team room for the traditional toast to the winners. Captain Davis Love III went alone to congratulate the Europeans.

And then came the infamous attack on Watson in 2014, which most people now excuse Mickelson for because it led to the “Task Force,” which had solved all future Ryder Cup issues. Because the players had been given more input, they were never going to lose again.

Until Paris.

There’s no shame in losing the Ryder Cup. After Hazeltine, McIlroy commented that he hated losing, but still loved the week because he loved the camaraderie of the Ryder Cup—on both sides. Garcia said virtually the same thing.

If you look closely at what the Task Force did after the 2014 matches it really came down to this: It recommended copying everything Europe had been doing for years in terms of selecting captains and vice-captains and took the selection of the captain out of the hands of the PGA President and put it into the hands of the players.

All good.

Now, the Americans need to copy Europe one more time and learn how to lose with grace, dignity and class. Being bad losers is the one aspect of the Ryder Cup the Americans seem—sadly—to have mastered.

The post The one Ryder Cup skill the U.S. has yet to master appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Sam Weinman
In July a popular tweet circulated contrasting Tiger Woods at the British Open in 2002 and at the event 16 years later. The sharpest difference was not the fit of Woods’ trousers or the height of his follow-through, but that most spectators at Carnoustie sought to experience the world’s most famous golfer through the lens of their cell phone cameras.

2002 ? 2018

How watching Tiger has changed post-smartphone. pic.twitter.com/CGZd0kQpBM

— Jamie Kennedy (@jamierkennedy) August 8, 2018

What made for a cute meme over the summer takes on a darker meaning now when considering the account of Corine Remande, the 49-year-old Ryder Cup spectator who was struck in the eye by an errant Brooks Koepka drive and has lost sight in her right eye. In an interview with Agence France-Presse last week, Remande said when she was writhing on the ground moments after being hit, fans around her didn’t rush to help her but instead merely took pictures.

“Before being moved, in a big mess, I was afraid of being trampled because Tiger Woods was coming and the crowd was growing around us,” Remande said. “What shocked me too was that the spectators were taking pictures of me, but no one was calling for help.”

Pictures from that day do show several people assisting Remande once Koepka reached her, while others are still taking pictures.

Jamie Squire

Remande says she is suing the event for not giving sufficient warning when Koepka’s ball was struck. Officials have refuted those claims by saying they yelled warning when the ball was struck, and that tickets explicitly warned of risk.

Remande, however, says she does not hold Koepka accountable. “I am just angry about the organization and all the marshals,” she added.

Koepka, whose Ryder Cup experience was more eventful than most, has offered apologies both in a press conference last week and on social media.

“I’m heartbroken, and all messed up inside,” Koepka said at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. “It’s sad, and I really am torn up about it. She’s not going to be able to see out of her eye ever again. All because I hit a golf ball. This is definitely the one shot in my career that I am going to regret.”

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By Alex Myers
The splitting up of the Patrick Reed/Jordan Spieth partnership was one of the biggest storylines during (and after) the 2018 Ryder Cup. But there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be talking about it at all if not for Tom Watson. In 2014, it was Watson who first partnered the two young stars at Gleneagles. The U.S. lost that week, but it appeared it found a formidable duo for the next couple decades. So much for that.

In any event, Watson was kind enough to join the Golf Digest Podcast this week from the Berenberg Gary Player Invitational at GlenArbor in Bedford, N.Y. to discuss why he originally paired Reed and Spieth. The eight-time major champ also offered his thoughts on Team USA’s latest Ryder Cup loss, relived his memorable run at Turnberry in 2009, and told us why a victory you don’t remember was actually the most important win of his legendary career.

Also, Ryan Herrington, Keely Levins, and Joel Beall joined me to discuss what went wrong for the U.S. in France and all the ensuing drama. Please have a listen:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/ryder-cup-wrap-up-with-tom-watson

The post Tom Watson on the Ryder Cup, why he partnered Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, and the (surprising) most important win of his life appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
An ugly scene on Friday morning at the Ryder Cup, when a woman in the gallery at Le Golf National was hit in the face with a tee shot from Brooks Koepka, has taken a grim turn. Corine Remande, a 49-year-old from Egypt, told Agence France-Presse that she has lost sight in her right eye as a result of the accident.

“It happened so fast, I didn’t feel any pain when I was hit,” Remande told the press agency. “I didn’t feel like the ball had struck my eye and then I felt the blood start to pour.”

The result, she said, was a fracture in the right eye-socket and damage directly to the eye, which doctors, according to Remande, could not repair.

Remande was in the gallery on the par-4 6th hole during the morning four-ball session, when Koepka, paired with Tony Finau in the first match, pulled his drive. Koepka and others on the tee yelled to alert spectators of the errant shot, but with the massive galleries in attendance (an estimated 50,000 spectators on Friday), the warning cries may well have been for naught.

Koepka at first was unaware that anyone was hit until he got closer to his ball. Once there, he saw volunteers attending to Remande, covering her face to contain the bleeding. Koepka was visibly shaken by what happened, apologizing to Remande and signing a golf glove for her as he tried to check on her condition.

“You feel terrible for them,” Koepka said later on Friday. “You know exactly how they are feeling, especially when you’ve got to go over there and apologise, because they are in pain, usually bleeding, and then to hit her in the face is not—you don’t want to hit anybody in the face, especially not a woman, and it’s not a good feeling.”

Remande said that she is considering taking legal action against tournament organizers to help cover her medical costs. In the AFP story, she criticized officials for not making contact with her after the incident and claimed there was no warning from officials that an ball was coming toward the gallery.

On Tuesday, the tournament released a statement: “It is distressing to hear that someone might suffer long term consequences from a ball strike.

“The spectator hit by a ball at the sixth hole during Friday’s play was treated by first responders immediately and taken to hospital. We have been in communication with the family involved, starting with the immediate on-course treatment and thereafter to provide support, helping with the logistics of repatriation, including providing a transfer for the family from Paris to Lyon. We will continue to offer support for as long as necessary.

“Ball strikes are an occasional hazard for spectators but this kind of incident is extremely rare. We can confirm that ‘fore’ was shouted several times but also appreciate how hard it can be to know when and where every ball is struck if you are in the crowd. We are hugely sympathetic and will do everything we can to support the spectator, insofar as that is possible under very difficult circumstances.”

UPDATE, Tues., 10/2, 3:15 p.m.

Upon learning about Remande’s worsened condition, Koepka commented about the accident on his Instagram account:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Brooks Koepka (@bkoepka) on Oct 2, 2018 at 12:12pm PDT

The post Ryder Cup spectator hit by errant Brooks Koepka tee shot says she’s lost sight in right eye appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.