Our Ryder Cup recap content continues with Soly and TC interviewing European assistant captain and analytics guru Edoardo Molinari. We get into his first explorations into golf data and analytics during his own professional career, his experience helping Luke Donald form the partnerships that were so successful in Rome, how he viewed some of the decisions from the American team, the atmosphere in the team room after the heated ending to Saturday’s matches and a ton more.
All right TC is here with me uh he decided he wanted to be on this uh to make sure we put a book end on the on the full gloat Fest as we bring in our guest Ed wardo molari TC I’ll let you I’ll let you have the floor here to
Start if you guys want to have a little celebration of some kind as we go to kick this off I believe I’ve eaten as much of my words as I possibly can but I’m always happy to revisit listen you gota you gota win with class and uh that’s why we’re bringing Eduardo on
Because I I certainly can’t win with class uh and you know kind of someone who think has has had a a outsized impact on the European success Eduardo you know all the other captains said some of your statistical analysis and strategy and everything was was a big a
Big key to success a big key to putting putting the whole team together so from the bottom of my heart thank you thank you TC and thanks sry for having me it’s a pleasure being here uh now you’re too kind I think um you know I obviously helped a little bit but I
Have to say that um Luke was a MVP I think of the week he was unbelievable from from the first day he got the job all the way to you know Monday morning when we left Rome back home he was incredible and obviously the players were you know some
Of them were really outstanding and uh but we talk about it so some people on this podcast not going to name any names may have said some things after whistling straight such say you know the US has set up for a decade of dominance uh listen privately some of the members
Of the European team may have voiced some similar concerns but at what point for you did did the uh the momentum shift or when did it start to crystallize that Europe was gonna have a great chance uh to not only just beat the the Americans in Rome but also beat them pretty
Soundly um well I would say sometime after the Masters this year it’s where things started to to change dramatically like I I was was always um keeping an eye not only on my numbers but like on on data golf at the the live prediction and I think beginning of March we
Basically had very little chance I think it was like a 65% us and 20 something Europe 25 30 maybe less than 30% Europe and then all of a sudden this you know chances started to to shrink um but more than that it was like we had John winning the Masters we had
Fitzy winning the week after then Victor caught fire in the summer and all of a sudden with they thought oh here you know we might have a chance um and I think um I think some of the some of the players from Europe I mean it happens
Every four years I don’t know why it’s difficult to explain but like anytime there’s a rider Cup in Europe there’s always some European players that catches fire in the summer and and starts to play really well like it happened in Paris with Franchesco it happened this time with obviously Victor
Had the you know best summer of his life so far um I don’t know there there’s something there’s something different and uh even even you know a small thing that happened you know when Victor wins um when Victor won BMW I text him literally 10 minutes
After he won just because you know I work with him as well privately so I just text him saying well done congratul ations and he replied after an hour and all he said was Rome is going to be so much fun like he just won the biggest
Event of his career and he’s already thinking about Rome he just doesn’t give a [ __ ] about BMW about the felex about the playoffs he just wanted to be part of a winning Rider Cup team and I think that’s that says a lot was it about getting paid for the Ridder cup was that
What he was messaging about I’m sure that’s what it was no we have none of none of that actually I think I would say I I don’t know exactly what happened on on the US side but I would say 12 out of 12 guys in our team would happily pay a
Lot of money to be part of and uh you know on that topic I mean we had obviously olazabal as one of the vice captains and olazabal basically leaves and dies for the rder cup and he was telling us um some savy stories at night one evening and then eventually he
Almost started crying and we said you know Jose what’s what’s wrong and he said well you guys don’t realize how much this means to me because he said I would happily give one major back to be able to play in one more Rider cup and
We were like huh say that again and he said yeah yeah I would very happily give a major back to play one more Ridder cup and he’s like this is how much it means to him so it’s uh yeah Special gosh if this keeps accumulating I’m going to end up
Flipping to Europe like rooting for Europe like I can’t over man I can’t like it’s a mountain a mountain a mountain of evidence uh that’s get in at this point DC uh going back to kind of the the leadup to this Ridder cup like with with Henrik losing the captaincy Luke getting
Named the captain were you an assistant captain from the start or were or did Luke call your number after he got a pointed and say hey um well a bit of both because um I had spoken with Henrik when he was uh soon after he was named
Captain because he wanted me to take charge of this like analytics and stats side of things which I happily did and then a few weeks later Henri asked me if I wanted to be a vice captain on top of it because he said it would be easier
With the communication in the team and just being more involved you know behind the scenes which I was very happy with and then when you know everything happened in the summer then Luke was named captain and then he called me the very next morning I remember remember I
Was in the UK he was in uh back in Florida must have been like probably 5:00 a.m. for him and we just chatted for about half an hour 45 minutes I explained to him what I was doing for Henrik uh and I said if you want me to
Keep going great if not you can find someone else no problem at all and straight away he said no absolutely I want you to to keep going and to be a Vice Captain so I was very happy to to keep going with Luke and then your background just from an analytics
Perspective is it just something that you’ve gotten into naturally as your career progressed or or have you kind always had this I started Engineering in college in Italy so I always had a interest in numbers and stats and probabilities and all that that stuff uh and before turning pro I thought if I
Could keep stats about my game it would be very easy to understand where I need to improve where I’m good enough you know what what I can do better in my game so I develop my own kind of system to keep track of everything and then obviously initially it was very very
Simple and then it just became more and more complex and then at the end of 2019 just before covid hit a few guys on the European tour asked me if I could help them with stats analytics just understanding the game a bit better so
Then I was in a way lucky that uh covid hit because then during covid I was able to basically build a brand new platform I was doing all the coding and everything and then after Co the Fitzy was the first one that you know called
Me back and said you know if if it’s available to you know to other players than yourself I would like to to give it a go and start with it and he started using it he loved it he gave me a lot of good feedback and input on how to make
It better and better and then he started to talk very highly about me about what I was doing so more players came on board he started to play really well and then more players came on board and then it became uh it became quite a big thing
So I’m a huge fan of Strokes gain I’m a huge fan of analytics I’m couple part question here and saying I’m curious as to one what your data looks like compared to what we see publicly right I mean we you mentioned using data golf I use data golf somehow I thought the US
Was going to win somehow you thought Europe was going to win we’re looking at the same information I’m wondering how we got there but you’re you’re kind of uh there are I inherently I think there are some flaws in Strokes gained like talking about course difficulty and you
Know if you’re hitting more greens and regulation chances are you might be leaving yourself more difficult putts than people that are missing and can chip to uphill spots and all kinds of I I’m I’m kind of starting to fill in the blanks for you here but I’m wondering
What what are flaws and information that we see and how do you address that or do you address that in in kind of analytics that you do yeah so there’s a there’s a few missing things in in shotlink um I I would say the biggest one are you don’t
Know where the players are aiming both off the te and into the greens so if there’s a sometimes there’s a back left pin even when we watch on t TV there’s a back left pin and some players tiffs it and he’s probably he was probably going
Three four yards right and a few years short of it he actually pulled it and got lucky got away with it so that’s one thing that we track as well which you cannot see on shotlink obviously um other things is obvious well wi Direction and the main one would be the
Breaks on the pts uh where you miss the pts uh why you missed the P so did you miss a p because it was a bad stroke bad speed you read the line under R the line whatever it was so there’s like basically we get a lot of information
From shotlink and then we add additional layers depending what each player wants to wants to have wants to look at um and then yeah you put everything together you can you know some of the things we look at is uh for example I had a chat earlier this year with Victor hofland
And with his coach Joe mayo and Joe was saying I think there’s something wrong in Victor approach play and I said said to him well the only thing wrong is that Victor is just way too aggressive because basically his his dispersion is actually pretty small relative to his
Own targets but then he Fires at the pin pretty much every time he’s on The Fairway in position and in the long run he’s going to hit a few more shots close but then he’s also going to be short sided a lot more often and then on top
Of that his short game wasn’t exactly the best so he was leaving himself difficult up and downs with a bad Shore game it was just a a deadly combination and so you know that obviously Victor improved his his short game a lot but even now sometimes we just have a chat
And he says oh yeah I was trying to you know playing boring Golf and I remember before the well after the after the FedEx after the last round of the FedEx I think in the press conference he mentioned that he was just trying to play boring Golf and I was like almost
In tears like you know six months before he was like well if I have a seven Ison from the middle of the way and the flag is three from The Edge I’m just going straight at the pin and I’m like not sure that’s the best way but from a data
Set perspective does I guess two bar question does does the DP World Tour run off of shotlink as well or is it a modified we have a similar system which is called IMG Arena uh which is basically the same is a little bit less accurate on the greens
So then most of the times the players will edit their um their pting distances but everything is is basically the same information yeah and then so then on that front you’re basically importing two different data sets for a lot of your players versus versus on the US
Side they’re just they just have data set because it’s coming yeah exactly so it’s uh I mean it’s very similar to what data golf does we just do it a little bit more in depth uh and then you have to adjust as they do for like strength
Of field and stuff like that because when you compare you know someone gaining two shots on the field in europeo is not the same as someone gain two shots on the field that any PG would event yeah so so’s made that very clear to us over the last few years good to
Hear validation of that nobody’s arguing with me anymore all of a sudden but no no I it’s it’s very you know it’s one of the things that sometimes have an argument with the people saying oh the war ranking points we should get more war ranking points in Europe and it’s
Like well when you look at the strength of field is it’s perfect the way it is now it’s we’ve been you know we’ve been we’ve been spoiled for many many years to be honest because we were playing some events in the in the Middle East in
The beginning of the year where we would have three of the top five players in the world and the winner get 50 points man I thought this would feel better getting the validation on this this was this was a campaign of mine for years and I thought this validation
Would feel better than it does but go uh going into into the rider cup and I guess again multipart question here but how do you as your your team is starting to take shape you probably have an idea of who some of the captain’s picks are but I would guess even up till
The last month or so the last couple picks were not you know finalized finalized but as you’re you know assembling those last picks looking at the profile of your team are you starting to think about how you’re going to set this course up is that like part
Of the decision of taking uh lve goar and Nikolai hoard going into saying like all right this coincides with hey we just took a visit there or we’re going to take a visit there and players don’t like the rough we’re going to end up cutting the rough down do they these
Guys fit that profile that’s a pretty iterative process but when did that start and kind of when did you guys start thinking about how you want to set up the course and matching the team to that that’s like six questions in one I I I this is how my brain works with the
Ryder Cup Ed wardo I I I I have to brain dump on you so start with ludig ludig was always gonna be a pick come on I mean he ludig is um obviously ludig uh he came to play the last last two events in Europe and he finished top five in
Czech and I would say even after C before he won in cran he was probably nailed on in team he didn’t know and he played with Nico Couer and myself in cran the first two day the first two rounds the last counting event and we thought right
We’re gonna play with him and put him under some pressure and he was five under through six on day one missing two 10 Footers in the first six holes and I looked at n col say walking off the six green and I said Nico I think he’s a bit
Uncomfortable this morning we need to give him a chat uh so no I mean ludig was crazy but um going back to the to the core setup is something that we started looking at more than a year ago uh obviously you know out of the 12 players you know
Probably six or seven already a year before unless something dramatic happens like an injury or a sudden loss of form so we had our six seven guys and we also knew six seven guys from the US team uh so then you start you know looking at possible options for the Coretta based
On those guys which are most likely the guys that would play more matches as well like you know someone like Rory John Victor not only you know they’re in the rider cup but they’re not going to play two or three matches they’re going to play four or five most likely so then we
Started to you know have a look at that and then we had like again similar to data go we had like percentages of the players making the team so you have like a weighted average for the whole team where someone like you know ludig maybe
A year ago he was at 5% of making the team and someone like Rory was at 99% of making the team so then you create a profile for the US a profile for Europe and all of a sudden magic happens and we find out that we were slightly better
Outside 175 yards which is the magic number so then we started um well that I think that was one of the the biggest things we tried to make it a a driving contest and a and like a mid long iron contest I mean Rory almost spilled the
Beans a month before because obvious he talked with Luke he talked with myself and he said oh yeah if it’s a if it’s a driving and mid Ison contest we have a good chance and we thought no not now he told me that and I was like is he
Messing with me like is he is he trying me to get me to float this information so they can flip it on us is this gamesmanship here no it was accurate the funny thing is the other day when I was flying here to Madrid I sent a small
Report to look like a after postmatch analysis and of all the shots we gain over the US 92% were either off the te or between 175 and 225 yards to the pin wow so I thought we P better I thought we chip better I thought and but actually the you know the biggest
Difference was literally from the tea all the way to 175 which is what a validation yeah I mean we expect it to be better I would have never guessed we were going to gain so much on that distance range but I guess we just you
Know at the end of the day we our guys play some unbelievable golf especially our top guys were like in top form and I mean when you think that John Rory and Victor they won 10 and a half points out of 14 matches and they never played
Together once so that’s that’s a lot yeah so so from a setup perspective how do you take those learnings or those kind of hey this is our general theme we want to make sure that they’re hitting are you looking at whole distances are you pinching certain things in yeah
There’s a few things we played the obviously we played the Italian Open there three times so every year we were trying to change the height of the rough maybe change a couple of te’s and then we were looking at where the players were gaining most of their shots and
When we played in May this year so six well four four month ago at the end of the week we had to look at the numbers and all of a sudden all the players that played well they gained most of their shots outside 175 yards so we thought
All right this is this is the setup we want and so we tried to replicate that the problem is in the summer in Rome it can be very hot so we just asked the green keepers not to cut anything down until we went for the practice trip and
We went for the practice and it was way over the top like the Ra was I have some pictures where the Ra was like knee high uh literally just off the Fairway but it was I mean it was never going to be like that at the rder cup it’s just that you
Know we wanted to have a look I mean you can always cut it down you cannot make it grow in two weeks was horrified I played it two days after the Italian Open finish think like we made the trip over specifically to’ be like we want to
See tournament condition is as close as it’ll be to the rider cup it’s one of the most miserable golf experiences I’ve ever had I mean it was horrible I mean I mean my legs were rashy at the end from all the the tall grass that I was in the
Whole time and yeah it it played so completely differently when Once Ryder Cup time came around I mean the Ryder Cup obviously there was there was a lot of rough but it was like it wasn’t it wasn’t nothing like Paris where it was just a hack out like you could still hit
The green um if you had like a short mid Ison um but yeah so on a team perspective were you trying to find other players like find Captain’s picks that would sort of because you’ve got a good idea that hey this is how we want to do it we got a
Bunch you know the majority of the team at this point has they’re going to gain Strokes with long irons they’re good off the tea that sort of thing are you going out and trying to identify Captain picks combination yeah it was a combination of a few things I
Would say we were obviously looking for ideally that kind of player uh then the other thing is we had a lot of very good forsome players we didn’t have a lot of for ball players so like obviously ludig Nikolai hoard even Bob McIntyre to some extent he’s
Good in for bows and not so good in fors so we were trying to make sure that we had enough options for both formats uh we were looking at whoever was playing best in the last few month so someone like se straa he was having a great great summer of golf uh both
Nikolai and ludvig they played extremely well from you know middle of August onwards so it was a combination of of things but obviously yeah you look at a bunch of different stuff you you mentioned guys being good for forams and good for fourball what what makes those
Profiles fit I I’ve I I cannot dive any harder into the Ridder cup and I still don’t think I have any understanding of how you identify who those guys are in your mind how how do you identify who’s good at fors and who’s good at fourball
Um again so four balls is basically just making birdies so whoever is making the most number of birdies is is good in four balls and then we had a little not secret but you know something that I’m not going to disclose to make sure that we can you
Know two players that can make the same number of birdies but then you want to kind of mix them up a little bit so and then in in forom it’s a bit more complex so uh I started to kind of develop a system where basically we could have
Let’s say Rory playing with Tommy and then Rory will hit the t-shirt on the first we know exactly how many times he’s going to hit the Fairway and how far it’s going to be so then from there Tomy is going to hit the second shot and we know he’s like dispersion and strokes
Gain from each distance range how many times does he hit it inside 10 feet and then Ro hits the poth and then you just keep going they basically play you make them play 18 holes on a kind of a simulation and then you get an expected
Score and then you flip them so all of a sudden Tommy hits the first and Ry hits the second shot at the first and then you do the same for all possible combinations and we could do it I mean we looked at I think we were looking at like 25 30
Players and and you know all of a sudden you had some players that were very good in forom for different reasons like one player could be very good because he hits a lot of Fairways one player could be very good because on I don’t know even Halles it’s
Important to P very well so like he could be a great force some player uh just for example ludig was great because he’s obviously unbelievable of the te and then if he was playing even you could hide a little bit his weakness with is which is his approach play so
All of a sudden him playing with Victor you’re basically giving Victor 10 yards longer of the T as many Fairways as as Victor hits and then you got Victor hitting a club less into the greens which is like he’s deadly from 160 and then from 150 is even worse so in theory
There’s good Force players for a particular golf course that doesn’t necessarily translate to the next one and if there’s a rerouting of any kind of that golf course it might also be a different equation right like for President’s Cup I know you’re not involved with that but Quail Hollow they
Rerouted a bunch of holes and 18th became the 15th which was an odd hole versus even like that might play a factor not somebody is a good for fit yes he won’t he wanton shift massively but it it can definitely shift a little bit the odds and and the numbers yeah
And then you know I think the the important thing there is especially for forom but even for balls is that you want to have I mean it’s not only on data you want to have players that like to play with each other and like to spend time with each other even CES that
Like to hang out with each other um you know personality is fit so you know if someone is someone that likes to talk a lot and the other guy just wants to stay quiet I mean if you notice I think it was very noticeable in person but I
Think even on TV like our guys they walked together a lot they were like hugging each other on the first te they were speaking a lot with each other they were just trying to be as close as possible to each other and sometimes you would see pictures of you know two
Americans on the tea just you know two feet two feet from each other just looking and looking up uh it was just a bit of a different vibe that’s the ey test yeah that’s where I I I still can’t I I walk away from every one of these
And be like okay this is why Europe wins this is why Europe wins and I still you’ve played in you’ve played in a Ridder cup like you you’ve been here for this how does that team environment translate to playing better golf like why is that right I mean I I
Can see it in my own eyes I still struggle to explain uh why that is though uh that’s difficult to put into words I think you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself uh you see like the especially the top guys in the team they I mean they they literally
Live for the rid cup like even someone like Rory on the Monday night he gave uh you know we just had a bit of a chat after dinner with the whole team and you know the players Vice captains and and Luke and Rory was trying to explain what
The rer cup means to him and at the end of it he was almost in tears he was almost like he was so like ready for it and and he just wanted it so badly and I told him on on the Sunday after we one I I bumped into
Him on 18 when we were waiting for Shane to finish and I said I just couldn’t believe how much this means to you because obviously you you know you still have the Masters to win you still have you want to win Majors you want I thought you wanted to win mostly majors
And he said this is you know this year this is the thing that I wanted the most which you know from someone like him is like it’s powerful so I think as a you know when you’re a rookie in that team room and you see someone like that that
Is so motivated to play well it just inspires you to play better Golf and then the other thing as well I think is that again guys like Rory John I mean if you if you walked in the team room any day of the week it look like John and
Rory were best mates with Bob and Nikolai and they probably saw each other two times before the week but it was literally you know having dinner together and you know Bob was sitting at the table or would go there and have a chat and and it’s like it’s difficult to
See I promise this next question is not about sour grapes I promise this is not okay but I’m going to float this by you if I’m looking back at past Rider cups going back to 2006 home team blowout 2008 home team blowout 2010 very close you were part of that Rider Cup 2012
Obviously very close but home team was blowing them out before miraculous final day 2014 home team blowout 2016 home team blowout 2018 home team blowout 2021 home team blowout 2023 home team blowout you see what I’m getting at here you’ve talked a little bit about some of the
You know we haven’t actually gotten into some of the details of of what you’ve done with course setup I understand there’s a little something about bunker rakes in there which I want to pick your brain about too but it are we past did you the US was a little stronger from uh
Are you grinning here is you know what I’m talking about or not that uh we were the US was Stronger from Fairway bunker so that they were r a little bit wider with wider grooves is that accurate uh no you’re close but not okay close but
No there okay well anyways is it Pas time for to give to give some of these advantages that that come through course setup back to something more neutral if we want to have a close competition is it t and again I thought the setup was totally fair and fun it promoted a fun
Style of golf I did not think France promoted a fun style the golf but this was fun and entertaining golf so I’m fine with that and it’s not sour grapes the US does the same thing that’s that’s all to say like are we better off with a
Closer to a neutral setup so you can’t exacerbate the weaknesses of the other team in the in the spirit of having a close more close competitions in this event yeah I would say so um I think something has been done already because up until I think Hazelton the home team
Could pick the pins and they could pick the t’s and now that’s not the case anymore so now both teams they get the five pins that are going to use at the beginning the week they don’t tell you which pins is singles which pins is four
SS but at least you know the five pins and they tell you let’s say on the eighth hole we could move the T one t up on certain days on the 16th hole we could move we might move the te back uh so I think part of it has uh has been
Taken away already um to be honest I don’t know I mean it’s I I think yes score setup is definitely an advant vage but I think there’s a lot of other things like the crowds you know even I think in Rome the crowds were very respectful but they
Were also very loud and I think there’s something again when when you’re playing in front of a crowd that kind of loves you you it’s almost like you cannot wait to make a p and just celebrate and just get them going and as a as an away team
When the home team starts to get off to a good start and then the crowds are behind us it just becomes was a very very long week so yes score setup I think it’s there’s something to it um and I and I mean they could make it completely neutral where you know the
Home team can go there practice do whatever you want but you know you don’t have you don’t have a say in the height of the ra or the width of the Fairway or the speed of the greens or the r in the bankers but well that’s kind of my point is
There’s enough home field advantage I think with all the things you just mentioned that do you need the course setup on top of that right and maybe it’s on somebody’s got to do it first right just going to keep trading off no one wants to be the first one to do to
To sacrifice that Advantage we can try a b page and see what happens I mean it’s also something too where the Americans are about to dig up Hazel te and basically create the place in their in their image a little bit right you know it’s hard to pick your
Pick what it’s going to be like six however many years in though you know I to say it’s it’s still a long time away so it’s a it’s a tricky exercise but yeah how much did you communicate with guys prior and collaborate with them on
Hey you know this is who you may play with this is who and how much did you collaborate with the DP World Tour as far as you know with the pairing that you mentioned at Kon or yeah so all the WW worth stuff yeah so DP World Tour has
Been was always been has always been very good with us so this is something I didn’t know before being a Vice Captain but once you’re a Vice Captain you basically choose the two players you play with all the every week until the rder cup for the first two days so I
Mean if you notice in the last so I was named captain in May 22 and in the last 14 month I only ever played with European players every single week Thursday Friday every week uh so I think it’s it’s not so much to see how they play but it’s more like
To get to know them a little bit more spend some time with them uh we organize like countless number of dinners you know even like in Scotland we had a massive dinner but we did it a lot of times uh and I think just playing with
Them again it makes them a bit more comfortable if they happen to be in the r Cup team they just know someone a little bit better especially for the European guys because you have to imagine that some of these guys that play mostly in Europe again they’ve only seen John and Ry and
And those guys two three four times in their life uh I mean we and another thing that Luke did and he was very good with it I think he was at the PGA definitely the PGA maybe even at US Open he organized practice rounds between Rory with some of the guys and
Then John with some other of the guys especially with the guys coming from Europe because I mean John John and Ro they don’t need to play with each other but like John and someone like Nikolai hoard or roran Nikolai or rasos whoever even players that might not be in the
Team this time but they might be in the team in two years time so we’re just trying to you know build it very much in the long run how does you know looking just at Rory as an example because he’s played in so many Ridder cups at this point I I
Don’t know what’s going to come out at your guys Camp is he going to play with you know a rookie torbjorn olison or is he going to show up and play with Tommy Fleetwood who’s been one of the best European uh Ridder cupers at Le obviously was in Paris how do how does
It get decided like all right John ROM you’re going to be playing with Nikolai hoard the rookie here and Rory you’re going to be kind of paired with another Top Gun this go around how does that all come about and what are those conversations like yeah so it’s uh I
Think that was the the the most fun part of the rider cup of my rider cup um and also the most difficult one uh because obviously we started looking at the data and making sure we were looking at what were the best POS possible pairings and the worst possible ones that you just
Want to avoid then Luke especially he talked to the players and basically asked them who would you like to play with who you wouldn’t like to play with and I have to say we’re quite lucky because of our 12 guys I think maybe only one or two they said oh I don’t
Want to play with this guy or this guy so we that we basically had no no constraints no obligations on that side because if if you have all of a sudden if you have a few guys that say I don’t want to play with him I don’t want to
Play with him I don’t want to play with him then it just you know all your options start to shrink very quickly and then um the other thing we looked at we wanted to have everyone playing on Friday so we needed to find the spot for
Everyone in the team so that was a conscious decision going into the week well beforehand like hey we we definitely want everybody to play Friday and is that just because you want to get everybody’s feet where you want them to be comfortable yeah I think doesn’t really matter I mean it’s difficult to
Judge someone just on the practice rounds or on the weeks before because I mean rup is such a different animal to any any other golf tournament you want to see how they play how they react in that environment and I think having everyone on the course on the first day
If someone wasn’t comfortable or was playing particularly bad then you can see them on the second day but if you don’t play them on Friday then you don’t know how they’re going to react on Saturday so you trying to guess on Saturday which you don’t want to do and
I think that was a yeah the the original idea of this was Thomas Bjorn uh I remember having dinner with him and Luke in Ireland so like a month before and he s he strongly suggested that everyone should be on the course at least once on
On Friday and I think in in hindsight it was a it was a great idea so then you have that and then um and then you start asking the guys and then all of a sudden you start looking at your possible so obviously you know Rory John Victor are
Going to play 36 on day one and then you start finding partners for them you don’t want to we didn’t want to pair them together to avoid the you know the Tiger Field situation at Oakland Hills um I mean 18 Hall in match play pretty much anyone can beat anyone and
If you put them together and you lose that point it’s like you almost lose two points yeah um so again you try and split them and then you start and and find Partners we look at the ball situation which is obviously very very tricky in forom again you have some guys
Like you know we asked John we said John what you know is there do you have any preference for golf ball for and he was ah just give me 10 balls on the Range I hit shots with tran I’ll be fine with it I can play it in h like
Thanks is isn’t that reduced though as well with the new CU can’t you put any ball in play on any te that you want from the start of each hole like don’t need to do all anymore yeah yes but then again if someone hits it in the half and
You lay up then you have to hit with the wrong ball and then other guys were like I remember uh there was one guy in particular who I’m not going to name him but there was one guy that was uh switching balls just before right a a
Couple of weeks before uh so that was a bit of an issue a headache and then at Wentworth we asked ludig if he could hit a few shots with this ball and all of a sudden lud say lud driver numbers are you know two two six spin launching at
12 and the ball was launch that ball was launching at 12 and spinning 38 39 so all of a sudden L was losing 35 yards of the te so we said right this is not an option um so you have yeah I mean even even if they can switch ball at some
When the ball is so dramatically different to what you’re playing then that’s not an option anymore um and so you know you look at all the possible combination and constraints and then eventually we wanted to start fast so we decided to go basically all out in the
Morning and just you know put our best four four best pairings out in the morning which paid off pretty good I would say um and then yeah and then obviously you just keep going how much did it change up like versus what you thought it was going to be on satday Saturday
How much did you you know based on how people played or surprises or anything like that yeah basically on on Friday we had a we had the plan basically set in stone uh the weekend of Ireland so two weeks before two and a half weeks before
Uh and we just had a couple of options in case player a is not playing great we can swap him and in case player B is not playing great we can and still have everyone on on the course on on Friday which was the the big concern uh and then for
Saturday we well Luke was very keen on on making sure that maybe John was rested for Sunday singles because the whistling straights he played five matches and he said he was very tired on Sunday um so if we had the option to rest someone John was always going to be
The first one of our big players to to rest and that’s that’s what happened on Saturday um and then again Saturday I mean after Friday started the morning was always going to be exactly the same just we just switched the order a little bit and then in the afternoon obviously
John rested we had a couple of different pairings that we could kind of switch with each other uh so it wasn’t I I have to say I mean we had to hand in the pairings at 11:00 a.m. for the afternoon session and it just took us we always
Met at like 1015 45 minutes before with Luke and the other Vice Captain in in a corner on the golf course and and it was every time it was like a five minute discussion and it was it was pretty easy and the same thing at night like you
Know when they finish I think we had an hour from when they finish playing before we could hand in the the before we had to hand in the the pings for the next morning and it literally took us five minutes on Friday night uh so everything I I the great thing with Luke
Is that he’s and I’m I’m quite similar like he’s very well organized he he likes to think about a lot of different options and possibilities well ahead so even with the players like there was a feeling a general feeling that everything was very well managed everything was it was calm it was there
Was a reason behind everything and I think as a player it just puts you in in a good place H how do you determine the order specifically for the team portions right are you trying to avoid certain American pairing are you trying to match up with certain pairings are you trying
To guess what they’re doing at all or how do you come up with who goes out first second third fourth I don’t want to sound too oh come on no no no no no I can tell you no I I don’t want to sound too too cocky but I
Remember telling Luke on I want to say Wednesday I said Luke I have a feeling CLE and Su are gonna be last forsome and Scotty and S burs are going to be first for so having said that John was always going to be our first forsome with Tel
And then we said all right we send Rory and Tommy out last because we felt we felt if you could beat Scotty and sber that’s a big point to to get and if you could beat Patrick and Sanders that’s a massive point to get so we we
Literally tried to get those two and we got them and we beat them both and and yeah it was it was a dream start but yeah it’s uh and then same thing like I I they probably they guess the same like it’s it’s always the first and the last four SS of
The first session are always very very strong so it was always going to be either or and then uh and then obviously they arested uh jtn speed and I could bet a lot of I don’t bet but I could bet a lot of money that JT and speed was going to
Be first four balls out in the afternoon and they got Victor and Trel so I mean it’s I I think there’s there’s a bit of a guessing game but you can kind of predict what’s what’s going to happen and then I think you know most people
Could see JN going out first in the singles versus Scotty that that was almost a gimme uh and then after that it becomes a bit more I think when you’re when you’re behind in the singles you want to front load like put all your players strong players out first hoping to at
Least get to the end of it um and and that’s pretty much what they did you’re muted TC okay sorry uh my son just got home from from school he was yelling outside um so for singles you basically said hey we want to have a pretty well
Balanced yeah I mean for singles the thing is so the US were always going to put their strong players out first first three four players were going to be their best play their player playing the best and you could hide like John Rory and those guys and get them easier
Matches but all of a sudden if you lose the first four and then it happens that John or Rory lose a game then you’re losing five or six games already so I think the best way it’s always to kind especially when you’re ahead to try and
Cover them up and make all the matches as close as possible and then eventually you’re going to get points somewhere like it’s if it’s all B very balanced matches it’s very difficult that you’re going to lose four in a row so that’s what we any big surprises that that the Americans sent
Out where you’re just like man I did not see that coming or I did not see that team or I did not see that you know that pairing going out first I I was uh I with all with all the respect because I’m I’m a big Jordan Speed fan but I
Thought the way he played in four balls on Friday afternoon I was a little surprised to see him going out in Forums on Saturday morning but then again I I only you know I only saw him playing 18 holes that afternoon so maybe he was playing great and then he just didn’t
Play well that afternoon uh obviously he didn’t play very well on on Saturday morning either but you know I think it’s too easy to to judge someone from the other side of the fence and and you know you never know the full side of the story so it’s any any pairings that you
Would have like want like you were shocked that you didn’t see from them you’re like hey man like thought these two guys Yeah Yeah from the US like man I thought these two guys would have would have played beautifully well obviously JT always played with Jordan I thought JT was
Going to get at least a game with Ricky because obviously I know they’re good friends and it seems like they you know they they they do their parings a little bit more based on on like friendships and then people they get along with but you know I think I think rii wasn’t you
Know from from everything I’ve heard I’ve spoken with rii and he seemed okay but from what I’ve heard he wasn’t feeling great so maybe you know they would have liked to play him a bit more and they couldn’t I don’t know that’s what that we I mean we spent Friday
Night on the show being like I don’t know who the eight guys are on the US right now I mean they had such a bad showing on that first day and who knows what the health situation was I’m curious total hypothetical here but I mean the JT Captain’s pick was a huge
Controversy in the US a huge debate for the majority of the year how would you have looked at that if you were a US team captain of some way of obviously the short-term form not very good at all uh not a ton of signs of it turning
Around yet a player that I think was written in pen as being on this team and almost could have had as bad of a season as possible and still made the team it just was a a huge debate of hey do you take a hotter player or go with a guy
Who’s got this track record but playing poorly how would you look at that or how would you have broken down that scenario uh specifically well I think JT has always been very good in Ridder cups and as I said before r cup is very very different from any other golf tournament
I mean we had a similar situation in I wasn’t involved in the team but in 2018 when Sergio got picked Sergio had a one of his Worst Years of his career I would say but then he showed up in the rid cup and he was the usual Sergio and and to
Be honest JT again I followed him the first afternoon when when he was playing against Victor and Tiel and he he was definitely the best of the two between him and Jordan he played much better better than Jordan on that afternoon and uh and and he had a decent pretty decent
Rider cup JT because he won his single he out that game I mean so I think I don’t think it was as controversial as as some people wanted to to make it look um I mean it’s always difficult when you get down to the picks I mean we had a
Similar thing like three months away we thought we struggling to get 12 guys you know that that could play at a good level in this Rider cup and then when the when the timing come to when the time came to make the picks all of a
Sudden we had a couple too many uh and unfortunately there’s always someone that is going to get the short end of the stick uh which you know in the US case it was obviously Keegan I guess it was the first first big one out uh but you know it’s it’s so
Difficult I mean the everything is so close these days that you know he might have picked Keegan and won and look like a legend and then he picked and then he lost and now everyone is saying oh he shouldn’t have picked JT but I think
There’s more to it than the PS yeah it was it was really trick I we we did a a total hypothetical like if it was like JT versus ludvig obviously a total hypothetical but like an upand cominging talent that you know a total you know
What what do you do there was a lot harder question I think than uh you know a Keegan that you kind of know who that who that guy is at that point but um obviously it didn’t quite work out real quick on l we made it 45 minutes in here
So I feel like I ask some like on at what point did that enter your mind and then at what point did that feel like a logical like reasonable expectation that he could be on the te so true story um again May 22 I’m in Rome and we’re there
With Henrik and Thomas Bjorn uh where I was going to be named well officially named Vice Captain the following day and we were there as well to have a look at the golf course start thinking about things um and we’re having dinner and I think it was Thomas that said is there
He asked me is there anyone in your stats that you see up and coming and that might have a chance to play in Rome and obviously he thought I was going to say something playing in Europe on DP War tour and I said well Thomas there’s
A this kid Swedish kid that is playing in college that he might have a chance and he looked at me like I was you know smoking weed said what what I’m like yeah yeah Thomas this guy remember the name he might have a chance so we leave
It there uh he just laughed at me and then um February well late January this year so nine months ago lud comes to play as an amateur in Dubai Desert Classic um and I saw his name on the entry list and I you know as Vice
Captain I raised my hand and I said that’s my guy for Thursday Friday and he shows up uh uh I don’t know if you know the golf course at the Emirates but like it’s a typical desert course pretty cold in the morning the ball doesn’t go very
Far and he hit the t-shirt on the first hole the t-shirt on the second hole and I was sold like literally I I turned to my candy and I said if this guy is not in Rome there’s something wrong here he shot the easiest 65 you’ll ever seen and
I finished playing and I walk on the Range and there’s Thomas sitting in a corner on the Range and he looks at me and he’s smiling because obviously he know knows what I’m what I’m about tell him and before I can even say anything he tells me oh it’s only one round stop
It don’t even start it’s only one round I’m like yeah yeah it’s only one round Thomas but I’ve seen enough golf in my life and I’m telling you this kid is different okay okay we’ll see anyway he doesn’t play well in Dubai finishes makes the cut but finishes at the bottom
Then he has a decent week at Bay heill decent week at Valspar I think and then I started spending more and more time with Luke and I said Luke the first time you got to the US you got to play with this kid because if he’s not in this
Rider Cup team he will be in the next one so just keep an eye on him so ludic turns Pro and he plays with Luke in Detroit I want to say so the second the first week we pair him with Fitzy and Tiel Hutton the PGA Tour was kind enough
To ask us who do you want to play with and goes okay let’s give him two rut players and both of them text me literally Thursday night saying oh where’s this kid coming from like Billy I mean Billy Foster so Billy C’s for Fitzy and Billy Foster you know
I think he CED in the last 15 or 16 Rider cups so he’s seen everything from seevi all the way falo longer all the way to Rory and these guys and I think he texted Luke that Friday night saying luk we need to keep an eye on this guy
So everyone is raving about it about him and then Luke plays with him in Detroit the following week and I think Ludwick shoots playing with Luke he shoots 6567 and he like one of the lead after two days so I texted look back and said look
How so how was it is it is it quite good and he I think he replied something of I’ve never seen anything like it and I said uh so where where we are now with him being in the team and obviously he said this as a joke but he said I’ve
Already asked him the size of the shirts and what kind of bed does he want [Laughter] but I mean I think he was still laughing at the time he was saying oh yeah he’s good but you know we see what happens and then he started playing really well
And then he came over to Europe finished top five in Czech and then I mean I remember even in Czech he played with my brother Franchesco has just been named a Vice Captain two weeks before and he plays he has to play in check with Ludwick and Nikolai hoard so Franchesco
Was all day 40 to 50 yards behind them and he comes at in there and I’ve been talking to ludig about Ludwick to Franchesco for three four months saying you won’t believe how good he is so he comes at dinner and he looks at me and
He said you’ve been busting my balls for four months about ludig I was ready to give it all back to you tonight and he said unfortunately I can’t because I’ve never seen anything like it so it was like I mean off off the tea I mean again we’re talking like
Him like he the next Tiger vots he’s not the next Tiger vots but off the te it’s something that it’s difficult to difficult to witness to to imagine if you haven’t witnessed it and again in in a team format you know to play someone to play someone
With someone like him in forom I mean when we ask the guys who do you want to play with I think I want to say at least 10 but possibly 11 guys say oh can I have a game with Ludwick yeah of course it’s just less variables right like
You’re playing the middle of the Fairway 340 you just wait on the te and you see this bomb 325 down the middle of the Fairway and I mean I would like to play with him I can probably win a game with him floor is just so ridiculously high I
Mean if he gets the iron play and the and the rest of it even you know if he has hot weeks like when we saw it he almost won BMW and obviously won Kon I mean it’s it’s it’s remarkable he’s such a good kid too of like he’s got a good
Head on his shoulders like he’s already improved his chipping immensely it seems like this year and then I mean the the to go you know he plays rder cup and obviously he I think he struggled a little bit with the you know the importance of the event the
Situation the atmosphere he wasn’t the the lud that I saw two three weeks before you could tell but a is going to be very helpful in two years time if he qualifies for Beth Page I mean he’s already done it before and you know Beth Page is going to be that on on
Steroids um I’ve lost what I was going to say can’t remember I was wanted to say something about Ludwick again but anyway but yeah it’s uh I mean he’s just that good and and yeah I mean he will play as Luke said he might play eight 10 R
Cups well it seems like too there’s such a you know between him and Nikolai and you know Rasmus coming and then Adrien Damonte chart like there’s there seems like there’s a good ground swell of young talent to choose from from coming up yeah yeah yeah I agree I think
There’s we have a lot of young upand cominging players and um yeah it’s an exciting time I mean this time we had a very young team obviously because I think the oldest guy was was Rosy and then other than him all the others were like in MO at the most in that
Mid-30s uh so it’s a very young team and there’s a few young up and coming Talent so I think we’re in a good place I mean Beth b is going to be extremely difficult um but you never know what what was the team room like Saturday night after uh
You know a controversial finish to that we have the Klay situation we have the Joe laavo situation we have I understand Mr mroy was maybe a little emotional about the whole situation which we saw some evidence of what what was Saturday night like uh going heading into Sunday
Singles well I would say what Joe did on the 18th green like he couldn’t wouldn’t have done anything better for us because I mean if he if he doesn’t do anything and we just lose the match and we go back and we’re a bit deflated and
We’re a bit uh down because we lost the first session since the start of this radal and on the same at the same time you have a was it a fivepoint lead yeah 10 and a half to yeah fivepoint lead so you can start thinking oh yeah we just
Need four points whatever it might a little bit of a tricky situation I think what Joe did I mean we walk back into the locker room not even in the team room in the hotel just in the locker room at the course and everyone was like so motivated and angry and saying right
This is this is so good because then tomorrow we want to win the session we want to give them a proper a proper beating in the single session if if Joe didn’t didn’t do what he did I think everyone was a bit almost sad and a bit
Tired and we just gone back to hotel but like for 10 minutes everyone was like all right tomorrow I’m going to win my point I’m going to win my point and we’re going to give them a proper bit up which I think is the right when you have
A five-point lead is the right attitude is to go into the singles and try to win the singles and and I think Joe did you know gave us a lot of fuel for for that Sunday where did you ever get even a little bit nervous on that Sunday with
Looking up and seeing a little bit of red on the board um I think think I was a I was a little bit nervous between I think the worst time was when when John was one down playing the last I was a few games behind with Tiel I think Tel
Was on 12 when John was playing the last um and I thought w we really need this half a point from John to you know to start to start getting closer then John got his half a point Tiel played a great back night against the Brian Harman and he won his game on
16 and I think when T won his game on 16 we only needed half a point and yes we were I think only Tommy was one up then we had one one down and two all square but it was only half a point out of four matches so at some point something was
Going to happen and eventually did with Tommy but it was uh I have to say it was a little bit too close for for Comfort yes there was that one moment when Tommy was only one up and uh Bob McIntyre went went down to only one up over clark in
Those last two that was like well us had to have both of them but yeah Bob was all square it got to all square at one point there there was a moment they were both one only one up at the same time and it was like oh man it’s I mean if
There’s gonna be some slippage yeah I mean that’s that’s what happened at Madina I mean it was like okay well I mean not all this stuff is going to happen and it did and I who knows if it’s ever going to get get flipped but
So what what is I I know you don’t have a crystal ball on this but what is uh what does the future look like for you as an involvement in this in this event in terms of uh do you see yourself as a head captain uh in the in the near or
Distant future no no no head captain absolutely not I don’t think I have the the CV I don’t have the um you know I didn’t have the career to be to be Captain but you know if uh whether I don’t know whether Luke is going to be the next Captain or someone
Else uh if they want me to to be involved again in in helping the team with the stats whether as a Vice Captain whether just as a as a stats guy I’d be very happy to I mean I think as a European anytime you can you can get
Involved in the European R Cup team whether it’s as a as a water boy or whatever I’ll do it so I don’t think you need a CV to be head captain that that that like you guys have disproven that I’m not gonna buy that part but if you appreciate your humbleness but I
Wouldn’t eliminate yourself go ahead TC and it’s crazy too like just the way that like I play with Rory at BMW Championship in the Pro I’m like just the way that he talks about you and like the the respect that you’ve garnered from the guys in that team room both
Vice captains and players is is absolutely remarkable how did the decisions get made like I know much has been made of the task force here in the states is there is there kind of a core group of guys that just makes the decision is it made in concert with DP
World Tour like how doeses the the captain for the captain yeah um so you usually I think that we have like um let’s call it a committee or something which is uh guy kings which is like Ridder cup Europe director then we have Keith py we have I think David
Owl who’s the chairman of our P our tournament committee um and then I think it’s the the last three captains so it’s like a group of five six people and then they will meet in the next few months usually we announce the captain before the end
Of January I would say in normal years then I think two years ago with all the leave thing going on there was a bit of a delay uh so I guess before before the end of January we’ll we’ll hear some something but there’s no there’s no exact deadline or anything and they
There’s not like a voting process I think it’s just just more of a discussion and then they they agree on someone and and they they ask him we’ll get you out of here on this then what uh as previously mentioned home teams have definitely dominated this event how how
Does Europe flip it Rory was uh was quite conf confidently stated that Europe is going to flip it at Beth Page that’s going to be one psycho uh environment I I know he knows that but H how do you flip it as as I see it right
Now it is it’s playing at home versus playing on the road is are two totally different things how would you evaluate uh what Europe has to do to flip that yeah I mean as as Rory said winning a winning an away Rider cup these days is probably the the most difficult fat in
In in golf for sure and probably in sports I would say how do you flip it I don’t know I’ll tell you in two years hopefully it’s uh it’s difficult I mean you have to go in with the right mindset for sure because if you don’t go in with the right
Mindset it’s going to be a very long week um we had the we had doovic in our team room uh on the Thursday night and he spoke for 10 15 minutes to the team with Luke with everyone um and he gave us a couple of good ideas like obviously he’s always
He’s basically played his whole career in tennis with the crowds rooting against him and and he had a couple of good tips that I think will come very handy in Beth Page but as I said I think you have to somehow you have to embrace the the environment uh if you start moaning
About you know the crowds and the booing and everything you’re just setting yourself up for for a beating so I think how do you for Beth Page how do you see the course being set up similar to how we’ve seen it for for the majors there well I
Guess I I’ve never been at be page but I’ve seen the the shling data for for events and stuff it looks like you cannot make it like a bir Fest like they they usually try and make in the US um so I I know it could be it might
Be a slightly different different R but then on the other hand you got Adar Manor in in 27 which is as an American Golf Course as as you may get like it’s wide long uh runoff areas everywhere so I know you might you might we might win a b page
And then maybe we change the venue for man or we do something dramatic to the golf course TC was complaining about the setup at at Beth Page before the Marco Simone Rider cup even happened he’s this just it’s just like a bunch of straight holes there’s so the greens are so flat
They’re all kind of perched up there’s couple bunkers in front of them it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty unspectacular in my opinion I don’t know it’s good to have my mind of the course set up for a while we we spend so much time looking at every possible detail be be nice in a
Way to just go there and and play what you get and it’s G to be fine I mean I last question say the bunker the as long as the bunker raking isn’t isn’t crazy at Beth Page the us is going win what’s wrong with this bunker raking I don’t
Understand all I all I I had heard from a very good source that I thought you had told this person that that the The Rake bristles were wider than standard rakes huh I’ll tell you the name of this person as soon as we hang up he literally told me that but
Okay anyways go what’s what’s one example just like we’ve heard about the video that that that Luke showed to each team member what’s another example of Luke’s leadership that just you think sums him up really well either attention to detail or you know just just something
That really speaks to him yeah I don’t know I mean so many things like um well to start with the the opening the opening ceremony speech like I was sitting next to Franchesco you know Luke was on the side and we had this they have this screen in front of them like
20 years in front with the speech that they’re basically reading the speech and obviously when Zach did his speech he had the phonetics for the Italian world so when he said I think he said graia and bonasera he had a couple of words and then when Luke steps up we’re
Looking at the screen and we saw like a couple of full sentences written in proper Italian with the Italian spelling and I I look at Franchesco we look at each other thinking right this is a mistake this is now this is panic and look look at that and just started
Reading in perfect Italian like the pronunciation everything was was perfect and the crowds understood it and I mean that was one up Europe already straight away 10 seconds into into his cency so I mean that’s one thing I mean the videos were amazing I mean I’m not a very
Emotional person and I was almost in tears uh poor Jose Maria Jose Maria was crying I think you know I think he spent 30% of the week crying because of me too I mean yeah but like in the locker room there was this uh savy thing I
Guess you seen it on social media yeah where they hang they hang the savy shirt that he used that oakill in his last rid cup and we have this nice picture of I mean we went in there on Tuesday Morning the first time we get to the golf course
All together and then we go out on the Range on the pting green warming up and no one can see cha orasal uh so we try and find him and then eventually someone goes in the locker room and is still in front of s his locker crying like a baby and and he
Just couldn’t stop and it’s like so I mean going back to Luke I think I mean so many things I mean the the biggest thing is the amount of time he spent uh doing all this like from learning Italian I mean learning Italian I mean
He did so he downloaded du lingo an app on his iPhone and I think he had the week of the rider I think he got to 290 consecutive days doing the Dual lingo I mean I mean you try and do anything for 290 consecutive days eventually you’re going to break your
String but you know so again motivational videos I mean he had a very cool thing which was his own idea in in our team room we had like as a Ridder cup player you get a replica of the trophy whether you win or lose you just
Get for appearance you get a replica of the trophy and usually you get it at the end of the week and his idea was I’m going to give it to the guys at the beginning of the week we’re going to have a nice uh display in the team room
With the 12 Ridder cups replica for the players and there’s going to be one Gap in the middle and every time you walk in the team room you look at the Gap and you think right at the end of the week we need to fill the Gap and then
Obviously at the end of the week he comes in with a r c and puts it in the Gap and it was just amazing but it’s uh I mean so so many things I mean again to you know it was difficult to get olazabal involved and you know he called John he
Called olazabal he called John again and he said John just make sure that cha comes on board and he got it like I mean a number of things that were just uh you know I I would have never thought of of some of those details and and and he did
It I mean I think communication was fantastic with all the players like everyone knew exactly going into the week they knew what they were going to do on Friday what was the possibilities on Saturday uh everything like even up to the practice trip like before we went on
The practice trip Luke sends us like a a WhatsApp text very long text where we had the exact schedule for the practice trip which is fine and then he said the week of the rider cup I want to have this to happen this to happen this to
Happen and it was like every every 30 40 minutes there was something going on and everything was already planned it was like it just gives you as a player it just gives you a sense again of of calmness and of like if you know if my captain if my leader is so well
Organized motivated is up for it then everything is going to be much easier so I think again going back to the beginning I think Luke was uh he was the true MVP of the week and and um you know deep down I’m really hoping he’s uh he’s
Able to do it again because it’s I think the players will love him you made me feel weirdly good about 20 2 because I don’t think tiger needs du lingo to practice English up in front of the the 2025 Ridder cup so I think I think
That’s what if that’s what it takes I think the am is G be a great position so T tiger might might bust out an Irish accent so hey Ed wardo this one’s up there man for me in terms of interviews and and insight into the ryer cup I know
We did a great one with Paul McGinley a couple years ago that was just like painted the picture for why Europe’s had so much success in this event and why uh I like I tend to like it for a lot of the reasons that you’ve talked about
Today I still am kind of determining why I’m rooting for the US and these things but the way you guys treat it as a competition and the team aspect of it I find so fascinating and to hear like especially hear Jose Maria’s uh you know that description of how what he thinks
Of this event is uh kind of what I think about it just as a sports fan so thank you so much for your time and sharing some insights and uh and some look into it and we’ll we’ll dig back into this bunker thing once we hang up but we
Greatly appreciate your time and uh hope to do it again sometime yeah thank you very much for having me it’s been great fun thank you
