Ryder Cup Day 2 best lines

The Ryder Cup, after last being played two years ago, is now just three days away. But that’s also 72 hours. Or 4,320 minutes. Or 259,200 seconds. The point being, the biennial matches are as close to us as a hole on a par-3 — but yet feel as far away as one on a brutally long par-5. The second hand can seem stuck until Friday. 

And then there are the press conferences. They, too, can mostly drag. After all, there are only so many ways to slice a golf ball, so to speak.

But there are tasty morsels. 

So, over the next three days, as a means to get us to the moment when the balls are in the air at Bethpage Black, we’ll offer a highlight or two. They might be technical. They might be insightful. They might be emotional. They might be technically insightful, emotionally said. 

Tuesday, over 96 minutes, six Americans, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley and European captain Luke Donald talked, and we heard about a Bryson DeChambeau pick-me-up and President Donald Trump’s phone calls to Scottie Scheffler, along with a few other items.  

Bryson DeChambeau will undoubtedly be a story this week. Rory McIlroy, via a story in the Guardian, has talked about him. Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee talked about him on Monday. Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, J.J. Spaun and captain Keegan Bradley were asked questions about him on Tuesday. 

Russell Henley, though, shared a story. In 2021, he’d led by three ahead of the Wyndham Championship’s final round, only to shoot a one-over 71 and tie for seventh. Two weeks later, at the BMW Championship, Henley said DeChambeau approached him on the range. 

“I’ve just really enjoyed Bryson,” Henley said. “Bryson, after Greensboro in 2021 maybe, I was leading the tournament, and I choked it away, and the next week or the two weeks after, I saw him in Baltimore at Caves Valley, and he walked up and said — he goes, ‘Hey, man, keep your head up, that happens to everybody, you’re playing some great golf,’ and just encouraged me. 

“I’ll always remember that.”

Has Henley brought up the moment to DeChambeau since then? He said he had. And the reaction?

“Oh, he just said he appreciated me bringing it up,” Henley said. “He meant it, and yeah, he’s — it’s just cool to receive encouragement from a player of his caliber. Typically you don’t really know what to say when one of your — when you see a guy kind of choke in a tournament, but it was cool. He worded it in a way that was encouraging to me, so it was cool.”

The takeaway: Classy gesture. Notably, the BMW was also the tournament where DeChambeau lost to Patrick Cantlay in a six-hole playoff, then had a confrontation with a fan, according to ESPN. 

The pay-for-play ‘issue’ — and Pat wears a hat

Day two of press conferences brought the second round of questions on the U.S. decision to pay its players for playing in the Ryder Cup. Two years ago, the subject had been much discussed at the last Ryder Cup, and this year, the Americans will get $500,000 — $300,000 of which will go to charity, and the player will determine how the remaining $200,000 is used. (Previously, U.S. players had received $200,000, all of which went to charity.) 

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In his press conference, Scheffler had this exchange, and the reporter’s questions are in italics. 

Obviously, this is the first time that the American players are receiving the stipend to go with the charitable giving. What’s your stance on that particular issue?

“On that particular issue?” said Scheffler, who then used two of his fingers on his right hand to form quote marks. 

Well, in terms of are you keeping the stipend? Is it going to charity? What are you doing there?

“I don’t know if we’ve met before,” Scheffler said, “but my wife and I, we like to do a lot of stuff in our local community, and I’ve never been one to announce what we do. I don’t like to give charitable dollars for some kind of recognition.

“We have something planned for the money that we’ll be receiving. I think it’s a really cool thing that the PGA of America has empowered us to do. I have a deep passion for the city of Dallas, I have a deep passion for the organizations that we support at home, and I’m excited to be able to take this money and be able to do some good in our local community.”

In his press conference, Schauffele had this exchange:

Do you think the American fans care that you’re being paid as a team?

“I mean, you guys keep talking about it and trying to make it this negative thing,” Schauffele said. “It’s whatever everyone views it as. I don’t think I’d be sitting up on this stage if I didn’t have a positive attitude, and I try to look at this in the most positive of lights as possible: An opportunity to do some good, which isn’t always the case.

“Again, selfishly, if we’re able to impact some of the local communities and charities here, I think that’s what should happen. So yeah.”

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Then there was Cantlay’s press conference. What he was wearing was notable. 

Two years ago, a report had surfaced that Cantlay believed players should be paid to play in the Ryder Cup and that he was not going to wear a team hat to demonstrate his frustration — then, as he played hat-less, fans at Marco Simone started to wave their hats at him and chaos followed. But Tuesday? Cantlay was wearing a cap. In interviews, Cantlay has said the hat in 2023 didn’t fit, and he said that again at Bethpage. 

“Like I’ve said a million times,” Cantlay said, “the hat didn’t fit last year, and this year we worked with them to make sure we had one, and we got one, so we’re good.”

The takeaway: This will also likely be asked Wednesday and Thursday. GOLF’s Sean Zak wonderfully wrote more about the subject here. 

Trump texts and calls Scheffler. But what does the president say?

President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Ryder Cup on Friday, following a recent visit to a New York Yankees game — where he also met with the home team. That led to this exchange with Scheffler, with the reporter’s question in italics: 

When the president went to the Yankees recently, he actually went into the clubhouse and addressed the players. I just wondered if you have or had any plans to meet him before or …

“I personally don’t have any plans,” Scheffler said. “The president is kind of funny. He loves the game of golf, he loves supporting golfers, and I get a call or a text from him sometimes after wins. He just loves the game of golf, and he’s one of those guys when you’re around him, he does such a good job of, like, feeding confidence into everybody around him.

“That was one of the things I noticed a lot with the little bit of time I spent with him, is he treats everybody the same and treats people with the utmost respect. Whether you’re the person serving us lunch or the caddie on the golf course or the guy who’s the president of the club that we’re at, he treats everybody like they’re the greatest person in the world.

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“I don’t think he has any plans to address us as a team, but I’m sure if things go well, we’ll hear from him this week.”

Are you able to give us any insight into what he says when he calls you?

“Great job,” Scheffler said. 

The takeaway: Don’t be surprised if Trump talks to the U.S. team at some point. 

Does Scottie Scheffler think there is an aura — around Scottie Scheffler?

Should you know Scheffler even a little, you probably know the answer to the question immediately above. And the question was asked a bit jokingly. But the thought of playing with a World No. 1 can unnerve a teammate, especially in the era of Tiger Woods, who went 4-9-1 in foursomes and 5-10-0 in fourball across eight Ryder Cup appearances. 

When asked if there’s difficulty in pairing someone with him, Scheffler said he thinks he’s compatible, though, again, it would be hard to think of him answering differently. But he also understood the trouble with playing with Woods.   

“I’d like to think that I’m not difficult to pair with people,” Scheffler said. “I’d like to think of myself as someone that’s a nice guy and easy to get along with. I’ve had different partners over the years and have had some success. I would definitely not put myself in that category.

“I think some of the difficulty you had with playing with Tiger — I mean, I don’t even know what it could be. It could just be the aura that was Tiger Woods. There was some times there when he was doing nothing but winning golf tournaments and just beating the absolute crap out of people time and time again.

“I couldn’t tell you what was difficult for those partners because I wasn’t there. For me, I’d like to think I’m an easy guy to pair with.”

So did Scheffler think there’s an aura to Scottie Scheffler?

“Not really,” he said, laughing. “I don’t have much to elaborate on that.”

The takeaway: We’ll maybe find out. At the 2023 Ryder Cup, where Scheffler was also the World No. 1, he went 0-2-1 when paired with a partner. Justin Thomas also had a good line when asked whether there is an aura around Scheffler, saying: “He doesn’t to me, but I also feel like I know him well enough that even if he did, I wouldn’t give him that credit and let that get to his head because he’s competitive and can get chirpy enough, that that’s the last thing I need him knowing that if I did feel that way.”

J.J. Spaun sings

Yes, he did, as you can see in the video below. 

The takeaway: Not bad. 

Justin Thomas sings — a Tommy Fleetwood song

Yes, a Tommy Fleetwood song. If you’ve watched Ryder Cups, you’ve probably heard the one, but if not, you can watch the European team’s version from two years ago below. 

The song came up after this exchange between Thomas and a reporter, with the reporter’s question in italics:

As we know, the fans bring so much to this event. Can you tell us from your perspective what the difference is between the European fans and the American fans, what they all bring to the table? And do you have a particularly fond memory, a song or a chant or something you experienced out on the course that you remember?

“Yeah, the chants, I don’t know how the Europeans do it,” Thomas said. “It’s really impressive, to be honest. I don’t know if there’s like a group text of 10,000 people that they just come up with these things, but they’re pretty awesome and impressive.

“I don’t know, I think obviously the history of golf, it lies deeper in the — it’s just very different. It’s the same end goal, right? Obviously, they’re very excited. The U.S. fans are very excited to cheer for us, just like the European fans are excited to cheer for Europe.

“Our daughter’s name is Molly, and the amount of times I had that Tommy Fleetwood chant stuck in my head, and both Jill [his wife] and I have caught ourselves singing Molly, right along to the Tommy song.

“There’s a lot of them, and I have a lot of respect for the European fans, just like I do the U.S. fans. It’s what makes, I’d say, weeks like this so incredibly special.”

The takeaway: We need a video of the Molly song. And if you clicked on the Fleetwood song above, it’ll be in your head for a good week.

Luke Donald’s friendship with … Michael Jordan

Donald graduated from Northwestern in 2001, meaning he started his college golf at the Chicago-area school when Michael Jordan was finishing his run with the Chicago Bulls — and the two eventually connected. On Tuesday, Donald said they remain friends and that occasionally, Donald will seek his counsel.    

Is there anything he’s picked up from His Airness? He said he had. It came out as he watched “The Last Dance” documentary.

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“He was never going to do anything he didn’t ask his teammates to do,” Donald said. “He set the example. He led from the front. He was very passionate about it, and he was very good at breaking down things into smaller, manageable goals.

“One example was he wanted to win the scoring title, and he needed to average something like 38 points a game or something like that, but he just broke it down into quarters and made it simple. I think it’s a good analogy about what that represents.

“But he also taught me that — I think he won four or five scoring titles before he won an NBA championship. You need your teammates around you. You can be a team of champions but not a championship team. You always need the people around you. You’re always stronger being a collective.

“I think that’s something that I certainly took from him, and I’ve tried to implant on my teams the last two times, that we’re always stronger together. Those are strong values that we try and live up to.”

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