Browsing: words

blank

Jack from Santa Barbara writes: I have a friend who curses pretty regularly on the course; it helps him blow off steam. The other day, we were paired with someone who was clearly offended. Should my pal dial it back?

Whoever said profanity is a failure of the imagination never gave much thought to all the playful ways there are to curse. This is true both on and off the course. The Etiquetteist has been known to use the f-word here and there, and not just fore. The other one. It can come in handy when a putt lips out or a drive banks off a tree into the drink.

Which is to say: The impulse to swear is understandable.

Whether such lingo is socially acceptable is another matter. And as with most things golf, it depends — on the company and the context. The rules around speaking like a sailor on the course are pretty much the same as they are in life: not in front the kids, the boss, the babysitter or almost anyone you’ve just met. Save it for your buddies who know that when you say, “Oh, for f—’s sake,” you’re aiming it at yourself, not them.

Self-directed swearing can even be amusing. A golfer muttering, “Nice shot, you [bleeping] genius,” after blading one into a bunker is really just poking fun at their own folly. But when the language turns outward — when someone barks, “Don’t talk to my f—ing ball!” — the dynamic shifts. That’s not humor; that’s hostility, a sign of some deeper internal darkness. The Etiquetteist can only wonder what that class of foul-mouth does behind the wheel.

Profanity has its place. It also has its limits. It can be funny and cathartic in small doses. But when every other word is four letters, it starts sounding like arrested development. Witness the Ryder Cup hecklers who thought screaming obscenities at Rory McIlroy qualified as banter.

There’s a line between expressive and excessive, and it’s not too hard to recognize. Even the Etiquetteist knows when to hold his tongue — most of the time. When in doubt, read the room, and draw a reference from your off-course life. If you wouldn’t say it at the dinner table, you probably shouldn’t shout it across the fairway.

Save the full-throated meltdowns for the car ride home.

blank

Fred Couples warns you. Motioning his hand around his head, he says:

“The biggest thing is, I got nothing up here. Zero. Zero.”

And his downswing thought is only five words, so if you’re expecting a novel, you’ve clicked on the wrong thing. That said, the thought also says a lot. Kudos, then, to Couples for being an editor’s dream by being concise.

The discussion was started and shared recently on social media by six-time major winner Nick Faldo, and here, you should watch the entire post below. And below that, we’ll talk about it.

How did Couples develop his downswing thought?

After being asked by Faldo for his downswing thought, Couples said it came about through his swing coach. Sort of.

“This is how psycho that I am,” Couples said. “So I would work with Paul Marchand and he wanted to be shorter, shorter, shorter. And so when I played, I used to stand up to it thinking Paul was behind me. Like you had [David] Leadbetter, whoever was your teacher. And I would just think, OK, Paul — this is playing; I never had any alignment; I always stood open.

“And I’d say Paul’s right behind me, swing shorter, and I would do it. Instead of saying swing shorter, I had to throw something out there.”

The takeaway: There’s something important to be said in making an instructor’s words understandable.

What was Couples’ downswing thought?

Five words.

Said Faldo: “You got to the top …”

Said Couples: “It just went from there.”

Said Faldo: “It just went.”

Said Couples: “It just went.”

Said Faldo: “And there it is, your swing tip of the day: Just went it. When it got to the top, it went.”

The takeaway: This won’t — won’t— work for everyone. The thought will likely work better for more skilled players. But having an uncluttered mind — and “just went it” — can help.

What about post-contact?

One thing.

“Hold my finish,” Couples said.

Some players, Couples said, “buggy-whip” the club down soon after the follow-through. Not him. The club stays behind his head.

Said Faldo: “You’d pose for a photograph, just in case.”

Said Couples: “I would pose, yeah.”

Said Faldo: “Just in case you got on TV.”

Said Couples: “Even on bad shots, I would still pose.”

The takeaway: I really liked this breakdown here of why holding your finish is important.

Did Faldo have a downswing thought?

He said he did. A few of them, it seemed like.

“Oh, I had all sorts of beauties,” Faldo said. “Which Masters do you want to talk about?”

The three-time Masters winner then went with a thought he said he had in the 1996 Masters.

“I remember the ’96,” he said, “I’d used to pull it down. I used to call it ‘boot.’ I used to send the butt of the club down to my right boot. So I used to pull down that way.”

The word from Manchester United insiders is that Sir Jim Ratcliffeâ€s headline-hogging declaration that three years is an apt timescale to judge Ruben Amorim is merely Sir Jim being Sir Jim, the self-made billionaire showing his anti-PR, maverick streak.

While the debate rages on TV, radio, social media, and in drinking parlours about the sagacity of his words, what Ratclifffe did not say or allude to intrigues as much.

Because, like an anti-Rafael Benítez, Ratcliffe chose not to discuss the “facts†when assessing Amorimâ€s beleaguered incumbency, as the head coachâ€s tenure approaches the first anniversary early next month. Instead, Unitedâ€s largest minority owner reached for the easy punchbag of the media to opt out of facing the hard truth of the team under Amorim.

Discussing the 40-year-oldâ€s position, Ratcliffe said: “You canâ€t run a club like Manchester United on kneejerk reactions to some journalist who goes off on one every week.â€

Fair enough, except Ratcliffe would struggle to name any football scribe who leads Unitedâ€s training sessions, selects the XI and sticks to a rigid 3-4-3 that has drawn a desultory 20 wins and 21 losses from 50 games, as Amorim has.

Or who turned up for the opening fixture of the season against a serious title contender (Arsenal) in a pickle over who should be his No 1 goalkeeper despite signalling discontent last April with the incumbent (André Onana). Result: Altay Bayindir, in for the Cameroonian, was culpable for the Gunners†winner at Old Trafford.

And, also, failed to recruit an elite No 6, leaving Casemiroâ€s ageing legs and Manuel Ugarteâ€s untrusted ones to service the United engine room until the winter window, at least.

Manuel Ugarte has not convinced in central midfield for Manchester United. Photograph: Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images

Amorim is being scrutinised by the media, pundits, United fans and other enthusiasts because of his track record at United. What will influence Ratcliffe is the financial bottom line – the lingua franca of the Ineos billionaire and the six Glazer siblings who collectively are Unitedâ€s majority owners.

So far, so bad. Defeat in Mayâ€s Europa League final by Tottenham meant no Champions League football this season and the loss of about £100m from competing in the blue-riband tournament. The all-time Premier League low finish of 15th yielded £136.2m from the cash-soaked competition, but that was a near £50m – or the best part of a Matheus Cunha – less than Liverpoolâ€s £174.9m cash prize for taking the title.

If this trend of failure to claim a trophy and plunging league form continues the plug will surely be pulled on Amorim by Ratcliffe, the head of football policy, far sooner than three years.

After a summer net spend of about £170m (signing Cunha, Benjamin Sesko, Senne Lammens and Diego Léon) United were supposed to hit the ground running. Instead, three losses (to Arsenal, Manchester City and Brentford), three wins (against Burnley, Chelsea and Sunderland) and a draw at Fulham can be characterised as a faltering start, at best, and the 12-11 Carabao Cup penalty shootout loss to fourth-tier Grimsby was a farrago, the poorest/most unprofessional United display witnessed by these eyes in 13 years as the club correspondent.

skip past newsletter promotion

Sign up to Football Daily

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football

Privacy Notice:Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

On the back of all this, the question keeps coming: are there signs of a revival; of the odd green shoot that can be clung on to by Amorim, Ratcliffe and United supporters? The answer, politely, is: how can there be until two consecutive league matches, at least, are won under him for the first time? After beating Sunderland 2-0 before the international break, United go to Anfield. Do not bet the farm on him finally breaking that barrier against the champions, Liverpool.

Consider Amorimâ€s run in the league. In 34 top-flight outings, 37 points have been accrued. Amorim has won 10 matches.

In the same interview with The Business podcast, Ratcliffe said: “Football is not overnight. You look at [Mikel] Arteta at Arsenal. He had a miserable time over the first couple of years.â€

The Spaniard did, but he had the FA Cup triumph of 2020 (his opening season) as ballast and he did not finish 15th then. Instead, the Gunners placed eighth and have since been eighth, fifth, second, second and second.

Ratcliffe is said to find piloting United “stressfulâ€, an insight into how, while everyone expects him to have answers to every question, he is human too. Maybe the jobâ€s stresses explain why he offered three years as a mark of when Amorim can be judged.

No one knows where Amorim will take the United train. But another annus horribilis – or even a poor next few weeks – and the head coach can surely not survive.

Source link

Kelly: What are your memories from your childhood?

Hugo: I grew up more with my mum. I spent a lot of time with my mum and my little brother. It was just football. I was going to school and playing football. Everywhere.

Kelly: I saw a video of your brothers and friends when you scored your first Liverpool goal.

Hugo: I remember my friend was there, but it was too much – I don’t like that kind of video. But it was nice because when I was in Paris, they were there with me. I have the same people there when I have success and when I don’t have success, and I think they are very proud of me and I think in time they are going to be good memories to see on video. Hopefully they will be there for many more goals.

Kelly: You said there you don’t like that sort of video. Are you quite a private person?

Hugo: If it’s me, I show this to people. I know it comes with being a football player with Liverpool – you are more famous, but my private life I don’t want people to know. I like to be famous but unknown. People don’t know what I am doing when I am home or what I do during my free time or talking to my brother.

Kelly: What do you do on your typical day off away from football?

Hugo: One day off or two days off?

Kelly: Your choice. Do you get two days off at Liverpool often?

Hugo: Not often, but if it happens I go to Paris to my family house and meet everybody. If I have one day off, honestly there’s not much I can do. I just chill at home – recovery, PlayStation, swimming pool, jacuzzi. I watch movies.

Kelly: What kind of movies do you like?

Hugo: My favourite one? I have two which are Whiplash and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Kelly: Tell me one thing about yourself that might surprise me:

Hugo: I am left-handed, you didn’t know? I don’t know, something special?

Kelly: Have you got a secret talent?

Hugo: Ah yes, I have one. I can draw. People, everything, life. Sometimes I like to draw. It’s always been easy for me.

Kelly: If you could only achieve one more thing in your career what would it be?

Hugo: It’s difficult because I want to achieve so many things but, right now, Premier League with Liverpool.

Kelly: That’s why you came here isn’t it?

Hugo: Yeah. I know how special it is to win the Premier League for English people. Especially here. So, yeah, to win the league with Liverpool it would be class. I’m excited.

Source link

Ryder Cup defeats are hard to stomach. The event has gotten so big and means so much that a loss often leads to a two-year fact-finding mission to right wrongs and ensure the ship is sailing in the right direction.

For the Americans, think the task force after the 2014 debacle at Gleneagles, or tabbing Keegan Bradley to be captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup after he was left off the losing American team in 2023. For the Europeans, a historic loss in 2021 at Whistling Straits was supposed to be the start of a dominant run by a United States team that appeared to be set for the foreseeable future. Instead, the Europeans responded with a resounding victory in 2023 that wasn’t as close as the 16.5-11.5 tally indicated and, on Sunday, a historic 15-13 road win at Bethpage Black. Europe has won 11 of the last 15 Ryder Cups and four times on American soil since the last time the U.S. won in Europe.

This latest defeat will undoubtedly send the Americans searching for answers. There are a number of reasons why the U.S. flopped at Bethpage. They set up the course incorrectly, which Bradley took ownership of on Sunday after the defeat. Where Europe set up courses in Paris and Rome to accentuate the strengths of its roster and put the U.S. at a disadvantage, the Americans neutered a famously difficult Bethpage Black track.

The Americans also failed the data test at Bethpage. While Europe sent out the mathematically optimal foursomes pairings and papered over their weak links in four-ball with their stars, the Americans trotted out the least optimal foursomes pairing of Collin Morikawa and Harris English twice; Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood steamrolled them both days. On Friday, the U.S. had Russell Henley tee off on the odd holes and Scottie Scheffler on the evens, despite the data pointing to the opposite being optimal. It took Scheffler and Henley’s caddies suggesting the change for it to become the plan for Saturday.

The communication and attention to detail from everyone involved with Team Europe also clearly play a massive role in getting the most out of everyone on the team. Captain Luke Donald, his vice captains, the DP World Tour and the support staff leave no stone unturned — including the quality of the players’ hotel bedding — in preparing Europe for the Ryder Cup, which allows the best players in the world to play freely with total buy-in and belief in the process.

All of this is part of Europe’s Ryder Cup success. And yet, one quote from Sunday’s Bethpage celebration might tell a more succinct story.

After going 2-1-0 at Bethpage while finishing third in strokes gained: total and second in putting for the week, Justin Rose was asked how he explains his dominant performance on the greens in Rome in 2023 and this week in New York. Rose, who is 45, offered something that underscores the connection the European team has built between each other and across the generations.

“I wish I knew. I wish I could be a bit more selfish and know that 25 weeks of the year,” Rose said. “But do you know what I mean? I feel like the power of this, the power of the group, who knows what it is, that ability to lock in, the ability to just want it that little bit more.

“The answer to your question is I don’t know, other than the badge and the boys, honestly. That’s all that matters, honestly, the badge and the boys.”

The badge and the boys.

After the win, McIlroy noted that the entire European operation started focusing on how they would win at Bethpage the day after their victory in Rome. That’s around 700 days spent concocting a plan for three days — a plan for the course, a plan for the prep, a plan for motivation and inspiration and a plan for recovery. Europe had a plan for everything.

Part of the plan focused on the European teams that have won on the road before. Each practice day’s scripting was a call back to one of those victories, culminating with the purple the Europeans wore in 2012 in their victory at Medinah. The European social team released a video touting the 37 players who have won an away Ryder Cup. Even Sunday’s uniforms had historical significance as the four stripes symbolized the four teams that had won on American soil.

A deep desire to become the fifth team to do so flowed through every member of Team Europe.

harris english with u.s. team at ryder cup on sunday

He was robbed of a Ryder Cup moment he may never have again

By:

Alan Bastable

The Europeans brought back 11 of the 12 players from that team in Rome, all of whom spent two years pushing to make the team and make history at Bethpage. For the Europeans, beating the Americans seems to hold an importance that isn’t equally matched on the other side because of the blue-and-gold’s focus on its past and the desire of its current players to write the next chapter.

On Sunday, as the Champagne was preparing to flow, Donald once again hit on the importance of history and becoming a part of something bigger than yourself.

“That’s a big part of my captaincy is to create an environment where these guys are having the best weeks of their lives, honestly,” Donald said. “We’ll always remember this. We’ll always go down in history. We talk about all the people that came before us that paved the way for us. Now, future generations will talk about this team tonight and what they did and how they were able to overcome one of the toughest environments in all of sport.”

The U.S. will continue to look for ways to “emulate” what Europe does that makes it successful. Perhaps they can find a captain like Donald who presses all the right buttons. But with five words, Rose might have shown why it will be hard for the U.S. to do so. Why the U.S. will be better served charting its own course instead of trying to copy a formula for which they lack the ingredients. Everything for Europe is about the collective and the history of “the badge.” From Seve to Nick Faldo to Sergio Garcia and McIlroy, Europe’s bond with each other and their past is something that can’t be recreated or mimicked. It’s a galvanizing force that can’t be quantified.

One that just delivered a historic win — for the badge and the boys.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Rory McIlroy was nowhere to be found.

Two years after he had called his shot and predicted a win at Bethpage Black, Shane Lowry’s birdie putt on the 18th green Sunday transformed McIlroy’s comments from confident to prophetic. The celebration, however, had started without him.

Editor’s Picks

2 Related

A gleeful Lowry bounced to the tune of a heavily European crowd that serenaded him with chants. Jon Rahm hugged fellow Spaniard and vice captain José María Olazábal — captain of the last team to win a road cup in 2012 — who cried on his shoulder. European captain Luke Donald was finally able to exhale.

McIlroy had lost his blockbuster singles match against Scottie Scheffler 1-down and for a moment, the chance of being on the wrong end of the biggest collapse in Ryder Cup history appeared plausible. Down 12-5, the United States team had mounted a comeback and made the Ryder Cup as close as everyone thought it could be.

Rory McIlroy and some of his Europe teammates celebrate their 15-13 win. Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Suddenly, every point mattered. Suddenly, the United States fans had come alive, chanting for their team and cheering on its golfers rather than jeering at the Europeans. Suddenly, McIlroy had to rely on anyone but himself.

“It obviously was really tight there at the end,” McIlroy said. “It was a bit stressful.”

So McIlroy stayed out on the course, bouncing between Tyrrell Hatton’s match and Robert MacIntyre’s, trying to add support with sheer presence alone. Even when Lowry’s putt that retained the cup dropped, he remained out there through the final match that gave Europe victory on a knife’s edge: 15-13.

“It’s nice to be right. I’m not right all the time,” McIlroy said of his prediction. “I think when we won in Rome, the wheels were set in motion to try to do something that had not been done in over a decade. We believed a lot in our continuity.”

Beyond returning 11 of 12 players from Rome, there is a certain cohesion with this European team that is perhaps difficult to distill but easy to see. It’s there in the way the golfers celebrate when they win a hole or a match, but also in the way they respond when they don’t. It’s palpable when the first place they go to upon making a crucial putt is to relish in the moment with their partner. It’s evident when even the way they embrace projects a kind of closeness that doesn’t signal business partner but rather brother in arms.

PGA Tour, 72-hole stroke play golf requires an immense amount of concentration and focus. It is a singular endeavor that demands patience and rewards consistency more than aggression. Match play and alternate shot format do too, but over the past two Ryder Cups, it has become clear that while the Americans view those formats as obstacles to overcome with talent, the Europeans see it as an opportunity to showcase their unity (they are 14-2 in foursomes over that time). Team play is, unequivocally, their strength and what allowed them to both race out to an insurmountable lead this week and also stem the red tide of points that won or tied 11 of 12 singles matches Sunday.

In nearly every Ryder Cup over the past 12 years, the United States has held the talent advantage. It’s what has led to dominant wins at Whistling Straits in 2021 and Hazeltine in 2016. But even in losses, Europeans found glimmers of joy, in part because of the way they view this week.

Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy won their second straight Ryder Cup. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“Ryder Cup weeks are the best weeks of our lives,” Donald said. “I think those weeks we spend together are the ones we remember the most and the ones we cherish the most because of the time we get to spend with each other. That’s a big part of my captaincy is to create an environment where these guys are having the best weeks of their lives, honestly.”

It is easy to chalk up the European’s stunning performance through the first two days of this year’s event to things outside of the American’s control.

“They made more putts.” Keegan Bradley said multiple times.

“Luck was on their side,” Bryson DeChambeau said Friday.

Maybe it is that simple. But time and again, Europe has preached and proved that it’s not. That it takes chemistry as much as it takes data. That it takes emotion as much as it takes talent and that it takes precision off the course as much as on it.

“The level of professionalism he’s shown us the last four years,” Jon Rahm said of Donald. “His attention to detail …”

“His communication skills …” McIlroy added.

On Sunday, with the cup already in his hands, Donald allowed a peek into just what some of that looks like. There is the fact that the European uniforms were designed after what each of the past four teams that won on away soil wore, but that’s just where things begin.

Donald said the hotel room where the team is staying this week had cracks in the doors that let light in so they patched them up. He said that the bedding in the rooms only had sheets so they changed it to make it more comfortable for players. He said they swapped out the shampoo in the rooms for one with better smell and better quality.

“It’s just taking the time and having the care that you want to do everything you can to kind of give these guys the best opportunity,” Donald said. “You want to create an environment where they can succeed.”

Perhaps the greatest feat this particular European team has achieved is that, under Donald, they have mastered the balance between preparing for what is tangible — be it exact pairings, bed sheets, time zone differences or nailing down what skill the venue requires — while perfecting the intangible.

“I feel like the power of this, the power of the group, who knows what it is, that ability to lock in, the ability to just want it that little bit more,” Justin Rose said when asked about being the best putter in the Ryder Cup for the second straight time. “The answer to your question is I don’t know, other than the badge and the boys, honestly. That’s all that matters, honestly, the badge and the boys.”

Team Europe poses with the Ryder Cup after beating Team USA at Bethpage Black. Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Late Sunday afternoon, with both retention and victory in hand, McIlroy finally made the climb up the 18th, red-faced and running on empty. For three days, he had entered the cauldron of Long Island on a mission, endured it through heckles and insults from American fans, and emerged from it vindicated and victorious, ready to be drowned by a multitude of European supporters who had been waiting to chant his name.

“Roooooory! Roooooory!”

When the Europeans won at Medinah in 2012, he was only 21 years old, playing in his second Ryder Cup. Now, here McIlroy was 36, a Grand Slam champion and at the center of another away victory like a perfect bookend.

“We’ll always remember this. We’ll always go down in history,” Donald said. “Future generations will talk about this team tonight and what they did and how they were able to overcome one of the toughest environments in all of sport and that’s what is inspiring to me, that’s what Rory gets and all these other 11 guys get, as well.”

As Donald finished his answer, sitting next to him, McIlroy wiped the tears from his eyes.

blank

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh had to be separated after the Jags’ 26-21 road win on Sunday.

The origin of the confrontation hasn’t been confirmed, but Saleh notably referenced a “legal” sign-stealing system run by Coen on Thursday as the two teams were gearing up to play each other on Sunday (2:50 mark).

“Liam Coen and his staff coming from Minnesota they got legally a really advanced signal stealing system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They do a great job of it. They formation you to just try to find any nugget they can. We have to be great with our signals, be great with our communication to combat some of those tells we might give on the field.”

Coen was clearly upset at Saleh, even after his team just authored a fantastic upset over the favored (and previously undefeated) 49ers.

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about the confrontation afterward in his postgame press conference.

“I didn’t see what happened so I’m not sure, but [Coen] shouldn’t be so sensitive,” Shanahan said in part.

The Jags pulled off the upset thanks to big plays, including a 48-yard Travis Etienne Jr. touchdown run and a Parker Washington 87-yard punt return for a touchdown. San Francisco also committed four turnovers to Jacksonville’s zero.

Jacksonville will now host the defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs on Monday, Oct. 6. Meanwhile, the 49ers have a quick turnaround to face the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday evening.

Source link

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Michael Jordan did not arrive at the 13th hole camera tower at this year’s Ryder Cup so much as he appeared.

He was not among the people at Bethpage Black, and then he was. All 6 feet 6 inches of him, draped in white Team U.S.A. gear and burning with a blue flame of competitive fury.

Jordan likes golf, and his biennial appearances at the Ryder Cup have made the inverse true. His sudden emergence on Ryder Cup Friday morning was a cultish experience for the Long Island golf faithful, who delighted in the sight of His Airness riding in a cart alongside the American team, and who clearly believed Jordan’s mythical powers of winning could be transferred into his country’s best golfers by osmosis.

But a problem was brewing by the time he sidled up against the 13th hole camera tower. The Americans were notwinning, and unless Jordan’s powers started working fast, the home team might be in trouble.

Jordan leaned over as Tyrrell Hatton, part of the day’s first European pairing, stared down a 10-foot birdie putt to sink his high-energy American counterparts, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas. Hatton aimed his putter and fired. The ball fell into the hole. DeChambeau and Thomas wilted. Jordan winced.

He was walking away before Hatton retrieved his ball from the hole. But before he disappeared again, Jordan could not help himself. He looked off with contempt, and then he delivered three foreboding words.

We got problems.”

Rory McIlroy celebrates a birdie on the 6th hole during Day 1 of the Ryder Cup on Friday at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Ryder Cup’s biggest hero, biggest dud from Friday at Bethpage

By:

GOLF Editors

The truth was much more damning. The Americans did not just have problems, they had oldproblems. Familiar problems. Problems that were supposed to be solved before the Europeans walked into Bethpage and stole a 5.5-2.5 Day 1 lead.

The truth was the Americans of Friday at the 2025 Ryder Cup looked an awful lot like the Americans of Friday at the 2023 Ryder Cup — and that was the biggest problem of all.

On thatFriday back in ’23, the U.S. went down 6.5-1.5 at Marco Simone on a lopsided morning session and an uneven afternoon session. In ’23, the Europeans revealed a three-headed monster the Americans could not answer in four-ball and could not compete with in alternate shot. On that Friday, the Americans started flat and stayed there, watching as their best players faltered and the Euros holed everything. And on that Friday, the Euros displayed a deep knowledge of their roster’s strengths and weaknesses while the American pairings were disjointed and easily second-guessable.

Two years of soul-searching followed that wicked Friday in Rome. The PGA of America eventually settled on Keegan Bradley as next U.S. captain largely because he represented a “break” from the traditional American leadership. He entered the post preaching change and backed it up by hiring the first-ever team manager and a brand-new suite of vice captains. Bethpage, another home game, promised to be different.

On thisRyder Cup Friday, though, the problems were the same. Much like ’23, they went down after a lopsided morning and an uneven afternoon (though the Americans scraped away another point to merely go down three, 5.5-2.5). Much like ’23, they were trounced by a three-headed European monster (this time it was Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood). Much like ’23, the Euros holed everything and the best American players faltered. And, much like ’23, the American roster decisions — particularly the playing of Datagolf’s 132nd-ranked alternate shot pairing, Harris English and Collin Morikawa — seemed overmatched.

The scoreboard is intimidating, but as Bradley pointed out on Friday evening, it is not eliminating.

“Well, we’ve played 25 percent of the points. We’ve played the first quarter of a football game or a basketball game,” Bradley said. “They went out there and they played better than us today. They made more putts.”

That is all true, but the scoreboard isn’t the only thing that needs to change for the Americans at this Ryder Cup. More than any change in outcome, the U.S. needs a change in spirit.

“0-2 today, pretty disappointed,” DeChambeau said. “I played good golf, just not good enough, and they made everything. Luck is on their side right now.”

Luck, maybe, but the Americans know winning is about much more than luck. They have a few powerful voices in that arena at Bethpage, none more powerful than the man in white pressed against the 13th camera tower on Friday morning.

It was Jordan, after all, who proudly told the world he had “failed over and over again, and that is why I succeed.”

The Americans certainly hope that’s true for this Ryder Cup Friday. Otherwise, Jordan was right: They’ve got problems — and at Bethpage, they’re only getting bigger.

blank

A popular AEW star has justified his existing hatred of Triple H.

Earlier this year, in May, during an interview with BetIdeas.com, All Elite Wrestling star MVP opened up about his hatred for WWE Hall of Famer, Triple H. Montel Vontavious Porter explained why he fails to respect The Game, before explaining that it had nothing to do with ‘race’.

Recently, in another interview with TMZâ€s Inside the Ring, the former champion doubled down on his past comments about having no respect for Triple H.

“I stand by those words. I have zero respect for him, personally or professionally. And when I tell why, then people will be like, ‘Okay, that makes sense.â€â€

H/t Wrestlepurists

In 2024, MVP parted ways with WWE and joined hands with All Elite Wrestling. Soon, he brought along Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley to form The Hurt Syndicate.

AEW’s Big Plans To Compete With WWE WrestleMania 43 In Saudi Arabia

In spring 2027, WWE is set to host WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia. However, their mainstream competition, AEW, has also opened up about their big plans during that same time.

Speaking during the All Out media call, Tony Khan revealed,

“I have a lot of interest in it and I can promise weâ€re gonna run a huge event in the spring of 2027. I think spring 2027 is gonna be a great time for AEW. Weâ€re still gonna be in the peak of this massive media deal that weâ€ve done with Warner Bros. Discovery. Weâ€re gonna be delivering great shows… Thereâ€s gonna be a huge pay-per-view for sure, and one pay-per-view I can tell you is gonna be huge in spring of 2027 that has done huge things for us in AEW and I think some really historic things in pro-wrestling is AEW Revolution.

Weâ€ll have a huge Revolution… People ask about the spring of 2027, I can promise weâ€ll have a huge AEW Revolution and a lot of big plans for then and obviously very focused right now on 2025. Thatâ€s looking very far ahead but, thereâ€s definitely some potential for us to do some big thing in the spring of 2027.â€

In other news: Adam Page has addressed WWE’s constant counterprogramming methods.

Source link