2019 Presidents Cup

I love watching golf and I love match play, so I'm enjoying this. But I find myself not giving two shits about who wins. This really is nothing at all like the Ryder Cup.
Absolutely agree. (It doesn't help that the US team is generally unlikeable.)

I've suggested this before, but I'll suggest it again: in my ideal golfing world, there would be four Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup teams, and both events would be played every year - concurrently at the same venue - with the loser of the Ryder Cup being relegated to the Presidents Cup and the winner of the Presidents Cup being promoted to the Ryder Cup. With the UK about to leave the European Union, the timing is perfect to split up the dominant European team into "Europe" and "Great Britain", or "Great Britain and Ireland" as it used to be. Or given that one of the main issues with the Presidents Cup is that many of the "International" team members have nothing in common with one another and no real reason to cohere as a team, maybe even add a third competition and expand to six teams - USA, GB&I, Europe, Commonwealth (Aus/NZ/SA/Canada etc.), Asia and Latin America - with promotion and relegation from each tier each year. (I'd probably rotate the venue at first on a five-year cycle: 2 US, 1 GB, 1 Europe, 1 other.) This structure would parallel the new Davis Cup format in tennis by bringing all the top players in the world together in one place every year to play meaningful international team golf with real stakes on the line, and give every golfer around the world no matter where they're from a tangible motivation to want to qualify for and be a part of the best show in golf, on teams which all have a real identity. And instead of having the first few days feature only 4-5 fourball/foursomes matches at once, you'd now double or triple that by having multiple events at the same place, and lead up to a finale with 24 or 36 singles matches on the course and more utterly compelling matchplay golf in one day than you can possibly imagine. What's not to like?
 
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By the by, I was lucky enough to play the West Course at Royal Melbourne back in 2003, and watching the front nine playing as hard and fast as it currently is gives me goosebumps. But because they're playing the Composite Course - I think it's 12 holes from the West and 6 from the East - I'm kinda losing my bearings as they move to the back nine. (My companion that day and I tried to walk around all of the holes from the East Course that are part of the Composite after we were done with our round, but that led to an incident which is as close as I've ever come to getting forcibly removed from a famous course.)
 

cshea

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Karain got the heave-ho. Reed’s swing coach will be on his bag today. Missed opportunity for Justine to reprise her caddie role.

The Reed camp and the tour have handled this (going back to last week) about as poorly as possible. The entire Reed camp is so unlikable.
 

RedOctober3829

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Karain got the heave-ho. Reed’s swing coach will be on his bag today. Missed opportunity for Justine to reprise her caddie role.

The Reed camp and the tour have handled this (going back to last week) about as poorly as possible. The entire Reed camp is so unlikable.
I honestly hope he plays terrible enough to not qualify for next year. No captain will pick him. Currently not in top 12
 

Average Reds

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Karain got the heave-ho. Reed’s swing coach will be on his bag today. Missed opportunity for Justine to reprise her caddie role.

The Reed camp and the tour have handled this (going back to last week) about as poorly as possible. The entire Reed camp is so unlikable.
I think "the Reed camp" consists of Justine, her brother and his coach. Not a lot of options for our boy Pat.
 

johnmd20

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In the professional golfer realm, excluding literal tragedies, you probably couldn't have a worse 8 days than Patrick Reed has had. What a debacle and a disgrace. He's a bad man.

My view is that he'll never recover from this. If you know of Patrick Reed, you HATE him. If you don't know of him, you're lucky.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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In the professional golfer realm, excluding literal tragedies, you probably couldn't have a worse 8 days than Patrick Reed has had. What a debacle and a disgrace. He's a bad man.

My view is that he'll never recover from this. If you know of Patrick Reed, you HATE him. If you don't know of him, you're lucky.
And sadly, we'll still have to see him at Augusta every year for the rest of our lives....
 

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In the professional golfer realm, excluding literal tragedies, you probably couldn't have a worse 8 days than Patrick Reed has had. What a debacle and a disgrace. He's a bad man.

My view is that he'll never recover from this. If you know of Patrick Reed, you HATE him. If you don't know of him, you're lucky.
Never recover how? It's not like he's had any popularity to lose. He's been a known cheater since college. He doesn't talk to his family. No one wants to play with him in group competitions. Honestly, I don't think these 8 days move the needle at all in the shallow, vile, little world he inhabits.
 

( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)

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In the professional golfer realm, excluding literal tragedies, you probably couldn't have a worse 8 days than Patrick Reed has had. What a debacle and a disgrace. He's a bad man.

My view is that he'll never recover from this. If you know of Patrick Reed, you HATE him. If you don't know of him, you're lucky.
I think a lot of people are hoping he sticks around for a long time. Golf needs a villain. It makes it more fun. Yes it’s still be fun without someone to root against but this era where all the top guys are buddy buddy with each other or when a group of them stay in the same house for the British Open is kind of lame.

Tiger in his heyday sort of filled the villain role by being an over the top competitor and loner while kicking the crap out of everyone. Everyone rooted for him for good reason unlike how everyone will root against Reed so it’ll be different. But at least we will have one guy that’s not from some sort of cookie cutter design to root against.

it’d also be hilarious to watch people losing their minds if Reed ever wins another major. Him actually having the career that people desperately want a guy like Rickie Fowler to have would be funny.
 

Zupcic Fan

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I don’t like Patrick Reed for all the obvious reasons. But come on. A drunken idiot with two beers in his hand comes up to him and starts cursing him out from a few feet away. I don’t blame him or his caddy one bit. I blame security.
 

cshea

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A lot of red on the board with multiple hole leads. Feels like the big ones for the Internationals are Im/Woodland and Bryson/Hadwin.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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The Internationals winning is probably better for the event. They need to be competitive to buildup a legitimate rivalry.
I've been thinking about this and I think you're right. If this event is ever going to rise in stature, the U.S. can't play like absolute shit for a day and a half and still end up winning easily. Which they very well might do.
 

cshea

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I've been thinking about this and I think you're right. If this event is ever going to rise in stature, the U.S. can't play like absolute shit for a day and a half and still end up winning easily. Which they very well might do.
The Internationals need some bad guys too. These guys are too likeable, they need to find a Poulter and Sergio.
 

MuzzyField

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I'm watching hockey and following the golf scores until the early games are over, is there a reason the final group is so far behind, or is the problem slow posting by ESPN.com?

Edit: I'm shocked! It was ESPN... the final group just completed three holes at once. Impressive!
 

cshea

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“Six feet out, the match was over.” Tremendous.

He would win a shitload, that’s for sure. He can be creative and pull off all the shots. No bomb and gauge.