0:10 Today I must play we have Nish Agarwal from the Top 110 Golf podcast out of the UK to discuss Ryder Cup headlines, the history of Bethpage Black and take TJ on and the Head to You're our first UK guest and I couldn't think of anyone better to talk some Ryder Cup with. 0:30 How are you doing? I'm incredibly honoured to be invited on in this the build up to the battle of our continents. So yeah. And I see T JS got his USA hat and I've got my Rat Cup Europe hat on Glen Eagles. 0:48 When we won, Jamie Donaldson had that famous, that famous long iron in. I was there actually, I was around that green when that happened. Were you really? Yeah, Yeah, I've been to two rad cups. I'll, I'll bring out my other visual prop, which is it's looking a bit threadbare now, I'm afraid. 1:05 But yeah, see I love this channel now. This is from. Can you tell everyone what you're holding up for those who aren't watching? So for not watching I've got the towel from the Ryder Cup that was at Celtic Manor in 20/12/2010. 1:21 It was and it's a bit threadbare now because what I didn't realise is that in 15 years time I'd be on AUS based podcast and holes in the towel. Not the right, not the right look. So I don't use this thing anymore, but I love the it's the old logo. 1:39 So you know, they've gone all modern now with the logo. Yeah, it's the old school logo with a full Ryder Cup on it and the the full fluttering flags. And I still love that. That was a great logo for me. Now I know you have another piece of Ryder Cup merch you're a little less proud of. Do you care to share that one too or? 1:56 Yeah, it's very quickly because it's going to get burnt in a few in a week or so. I'll I'll put it up on camera. But it's a cap. It's a matching cap to the one I've got on now, which is from from Glen Eagles. But this is Whistling Straits, which is a a dark day in European Cup. 2:14 Little tough scene there. Yeah, we, we, we didn't do ourselves any justice. Updated video that weekend. But you know, so I thought I'd, I'd come in peace because I'll bring two things. I'll bring two things. 32 victorious things and 1:00 when we got pummeled. Fair. Yeah, very fair. 2:29 I. Was just going to ask how excited are you for this Ryder Cup? How how are you feeling about Europe's chances going into it? I mean, the, the, I suppose as always, whenever we head over to the states, it's a case of can we somehow get a drawer out of it? 2:47 Because I just, it just feels like there's this hex, I think of us going over to the states, like we just can't seem to, to sort of pull it off. And, and not only that, we go over and yeah, we, we, we do, we generally get pummelled, which which isn't great, but I don't know. 3:04 I think we're feeling quite confident, all of us here this time round. That's. Good. It's there's a few things going on that just feel like Rory has been a big story. You know, when he's just won his home Open, he's one of the Masters, you know, is it like serendipitous for him to win the the Ryder Cup as well? 3:25 I don't know. Yeah, it, it very much feels like this year more so than in past years, the back half of the rosters are going to very much they're usually the deciding factor. But like more so even this year where like the US was very skeptical on their last like what four or five in that were kind of like up in the air and nobody really was like in love with any of those picks. 3:50 And none of those guys are playing great golf right now. Whereas felt like with Team Europe, you could go down the list and make a good case for why all of those guys are are really on there right now. There's, there's an interesting psychology I think going on as well with his, with his team, because obviously Luke Donald being the captain again, and he captained us very well in Rome. 4:15 And I think we sort of, we'd like him as the captain again, of course. But he, he's not a kind of kind of guy who's going to get you pumped and excited because he almost is deliberately downplaying everything. But I think the way he's, he's giving away how he's feeling about this because he's not going to be 1 who's going to make headlines? 4:36 He's not going to be 1 who's going to go out and try and give the American team A-Team talk by, you know, just running his mouth a bit. He's not that personality. But what he's done by picking everyone who's played a Ryder Cup at least, but multiple Ryder Cups before, who've been in his team before, you know, all that kind of stuff, just says to me he is like, I want to win this. 5:01 I'm going, I'm not going there to get my scraped of 14 points. I'm not doing that. I'm going there to actually win this tournament. But I'm never going to say it because also wait, like, don't put yourself. Held to it, but he won't really wants it. Exactly. 5:16 He doesn't. You know, you don't write the headlines for the press. You know you can't do that. Speaking of headlines, I actually in this pod right after this, I'm going to be covering my favorite headlines and then we'll dive into the history and got some trivia for you guys. And then hopefully at the end, you're willing to make a little wager with us. 5:35 But before you go into all that, I just really want to quickly touch on the Top 110 Golf podcast that you and Chris do for listeners who don't know what is the podcast and maybe explain a little bit in the name, as well as maybe how you and Chris kind of decided to do this together. 5:51 Yeah, so we came up with the concept on a drunken Saturday night in our all All good ideas start with a. Dream. And Chris, so Chris used to be really, really good at golf. He was on the verge of turning pro when he was sort of 1617, got obsessed with the minor drops in your handicap that are required at that age. 6:13 And it just, he lost all fun from, from from a love of the game, basically. So he until I moved in next door, which is about four years ago, he hadn't really picked up his golf clubs for about 20 years. Then he spots me loading them in. I mean, I'm semi retired, so kind of, you know, I'm loading them into the the the car all the time. 6:32 And he's like, do you play golf? I was like, and what gave it away, you know, And he said, oh, well, you know, yeah, I want to start getting back into it. Fine. Anyway, we've had a few rounds this Saturday night. The fateful Saturday night happens and we end up talking about golfing challenges and things like that. 6:50 Now I'm awful at golf. My challenge is just getting round in 18 holes right. Are you? Being modest or are you? A little. I've got 17 handicap, which is I've worked in currently to get it to and I don't think it's going to budget from that. So I'm OK, I can get myself around a course, but also I don't play for scores and numbers. 7:10 I play, which is what has actually LED itself really well to this podcast. I've put us play for standing on a tee box on a Friday morning at 7:00 AM. It's a crisp morning. There's a little bit of frost on the on the grass and you just go, this is exactly why I'm here. 7:27 It's going to be warm later. I wouldn't rather, there's nothing I'd rather be doing at this time. So that's what I play for. Chris basically said, well let's, let's do a bit of a challenge. Let's try and play the top 100 golf courses in the UK and Ireland. Now I he's played to a high level, so he knows a lot of the courses that he probably knew what he was getting himself in for more than I did. 7:50 And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Can't be here. Well, I'm used to sort of paying £40 for a round. Then he went, well, how about we do it in 10 years? I thought, Oh well, what's that? 10 courses a year? That's doable, That's fine. What's that? It's not going to work out too much. 8:06 That night I did all the Google Maps, plotted it all out. Then I started the next day looking at the actual website for the golf courses. Yeah, much to my amazement, it wasn't 3040 lbs for a round. It was 300 to 400 lbs for a round. Just committed to a ton of money. 8:22 But yeah, I was absolutely pot committed at this point because I'd already told him I wanted to do a podcast about it. That's incredible. So basically our podcast is 2 now. Very genteel, terrible golfers trying to navigate their way onto these hundred courses. 8:40 There's some difficult ones on there to get on. However, we're trying to just keep a document for ourselves, really. And our kids are great. They love it. They're sort of, you know, they did say to me before they're like, are you going to do your podcast? I was like, yeah, actually I'm going to be an American podcast today. They were like, they couldn't believe it was like mind blowing for them. 8:58 And it's it's it's wonderful. Like we've been doing it for the podcast has been going for 14 months now and some of the people we've met, you guys included, you know, it's it's been wonderful sort of growing that network and and, you know, amongst all of that, we get to play some of the best courses in the world. 9:17 Even, you know, as an example, we're playing, everyone will know this course, Carnoustie, we're playing in October, iconic course. Everybody use it. And I'm pinching myself, you know, I'm just every day I'm like, I can't believe I'm going to be playing Carnoustie. 9:33 Furthermore, I'm going to I'm going to really make everyone jealous here. We have been invited up by a member to go and play the Old Course at Saint Andrews. You. Have guaranteed tea time on the. Old course we he he is a member there. He's going to, as soon as we arrange the times, he'll be able to get some. 9:50 I mean, how? It's like the Holy Grail, isn't it? That's going to be epic. That's, I mean, her new Steve was already making me jealous. I really want to go play and but that's just so cool. Have you played any of the courses up at Saint Andrews? So the nearest we've got we play. 10:07 We did a trip up to Aberdeen just recently and a couple of courses up there. So we played a course called Cruden Bay, which I think a lot of Americans will know about. We played another course called Gullard, which is really on that route that a lot of American golfers come over and do the yeah, do the that kind of circuit. 10:27 And then we also played a little known course called Trump International Links in Aberdeen as well. I'm not, it's probably not made it over to you guys yet about the awareness of that course, but what a magnificent golf facility he's made, honestly. 10:42 Yeah, I mean, it's just it's just a a fairy tale golf place. It was just amazing. Like we were just walking around going. This is. Like the greatest thing we've ever done. And actually it was, I have to say it was quite understated. 10:59 Like it, it wasn't. You have an opinion, I think, on how it's going to be playing a Trump course. And it it it didn't didn't meet any of those poor expectations. Probably you'd could call them, you know, it wasn't it wasn't brash, it wasn't loud, it wasn't in your face. 11:16 It wasn't anything. It was just blended in to its surroundings and a magnificent golf course. Yeah, nice. And I played really well. And I couldn't believe it. Like that was even more of a like that's not a consideration for me, but I played so well. 11:33 I came off that and I just went, this is what it feels like to actually make good golf. There's it's a really good feeling playing really good at a course that you've been wanting to play at and that is a good course. Like it's that like whole trifecta there of being really excited for a golf round, it being a really nice course. 11:54 And then also like the excitement and all of that and like potentially like that little bit of fear of the good golf course as well, never effects you and you just end up playing great golf. It's such a good feeling. I haven't, I feel like I haven't had that in a while. 12:10 I haven't played, I feel like I haven't played a good round of golf in like 6 months. But yeah, like I like second that. As the resident bad golfer of of our twosome on the podcast, that resonates so much with me. Like it's it's so it's such a good feeling being like, yes, I was so excited about this golf round and I played well, not just I'm still I'm still excited to be here because it's a really nice course and the views are great. 12:37 I'm with all my friends. But like, man, I really would have enjoyed this just that much more if I would have played well by my standards today. Like for me, that's not even like usually for me. I'm like off we play a nice course and I break 100. I'm happy, especially if it's a course that we've never played, right? 12:56 Like if I break 100 at a course we've never played, I'm like, yes, that's fine. That's. Exactly what I want to actually. Forget that, don't you? Sometimes that I think just going to a new course, just generally they don't have to be a good course, but it's that's tricky. And then you Chuck in that. These are some of the greatest golf courses in the world. 13:13 You Chuck in that. They're designed to be difficult. You Chuck in that. Yeah, you almost have to do that psychological trick with yourself, don't you? Just go, I'm going to enjoy this no matter what. But even if I don't play well, it's fine. And then it happens and it's just like, whoa, am I playing? 13:31 All right here. This is great. When, when TJ plays good, the rest of his day, doesn't matter how bad the rest of the day goes, he's in a good mood. You can be like, dinner reservations got cancelled. That's all right. You know, we can get whatever we want. Like he's, he's just floating. You'll be scared in a Somebody's got in a car accident on the way home. 13:48 Yeah, like I can get in a car accident and be like, it's that was on me, it was my fault. It's, you know, let's we'll handle it. Cash. I'll just pay it cash. It was all my fault. You could lose one of your hats, TJ, and I think you might still. Be. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I'm going to take away to the Ryder Cup here. 14:05 Otherwise, we're going to talk about something else. OK? I want to quickly touch on the headlines. I got 4 headlines here for you guys. I kind of want reactions from you both. These headlines are not the most popular headlines that everyone else might be covering. These are the ones that I am looking forward to the most. 14:23 And the first one here is what's going to happen, if anything, between Rory and Joe Locava, Patrick Cantley's caddy. Again, just as a reminder, First off, last Ryder Cup you may remember in Rome Rory accused Joe of basically not giving him a fair chance to make a putt on 18 after an epic comeback by Cantley and Fitz. 14:45 And he thought he celebrated too long in Rory's field of vision essentially. Which led to a little bit of a argument on the green and later in the parking lot with Bones, who JT's caddy came over to try and make amends and Rory just lost it on Bones. One of the nicest guys in golf too. 15:02 When asked about it, Rory said this is a real quote. Lacava used to be a nice guy when he was cadding for Tiger and now he's cadding for that Dick he turned into an asshole. This was obviously interview during the heat of the moment. 15:18 OK. Apparently though Tiger attempted to call Rory after the incident that day and there was 3 texts and two missed calls from Tiger on Rory's phone because they're obviously still close. Rory sent him back a quick message saying it's going to be fine. 15:35 Long day, just want to go to bed. Wow, I didn't know half of that, but you just explained there didn't know any of that. Do you? Think might happen between these two again or is that put to bed? You know, is that going to be a storyline? What do you think? Oh God, I mean the look, ultimately, I don't think that group is going to go out. 15:56 They're probably not going to finish by the time the weekend goes the pace that Patrick that can't they play. So I've just got to get the first jibe in I've got yeah, no, I think it's an it's an interesting 1, isn't it? I think that you you'd like you'd think probably. 16:12 I mean, Rory's great and I think everyone in the world of golf loves Rory because he is emotional and he doesn't, he's not this robot. You know, there was, there is a, there was a lot in there. There's a fire in there and he really wants to do well. I think he's he's very much the elder statesman in the team. 16:32 He's the leader of the team. I think he takes that responsibility quite seriously. I think that's why that sort of just exploded suddenly for some reason. You know, it was totally unjustified. Like I don't think it was, it was over exuberant. And also, you know, all day they've been giving them the, the, the hat thing. 16:50 Yeah, and they were giving Pamela shit for not wearing it. Yeah, you just, it's going to come back, you know, and actually to be fair, he didn't do anything over the over the, in my opinion anyway. But you know, sometimes you mobilise these things, don't you, for your own motivation and and perhaps he needed that just to give, get him really fired up. 17:10 I think they're going in and they're going to try and go in as much under the radar as possible because they're not going to want to rile anybody up. They don't want to give the crowd anything to go at. Any ammunition? Yeah. It's going to, it's going to be a bear pit anyway. 17:25 I'm expecting that. It's a Ryder Cup on US soil. There's always a lot of really high emotion going anyway. And you know, also it's in it's a new yoke. So you know, there's going to be a bit of spikiness, I think in there. 17:42 But we're we're expecting that. But you know, we I think we're we're all no, nothing is going to hit us but surprise. But I mean, I cannot believe. What are the extra stuff that you just mentioned? There no. You know, like gets a, gets a call off. Tiger would be like, yeah, whatever. 17:57 It's going to be fine, Tiger. Don't you just missed call from Tiger? How fast would you pick up a call from Tiger? Yeah, right. Imagine being that close with Tiger that you don't automatically pick up phone calls and respond to text messages. From Tiger. I mean, yeah, you just be. You drop everything When you drop your kid, you drop everything. 18:15 Like, like Tiger Woods has just phoned me. I don't care what's going on. Yeah, but I've just broken my leg, Dad. I don't care. Tiger Woods has just called me. I'm answering this phone right now. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. I I think it's been 2 years since the last Ryder Cup. 18:32 These guys have got to have somewhat squashed this beef by now, or I mean, you got to think how many locker rooms they've been in in the last two years together to where they both probably looked at each other and said like, it was the Ryder Cup, come on. 18:48 I was frustrated. You were frustrated. It was just a product of that day. I would think that they probably even squashed it within the weekend maybe. Yeah, I don't. Know about that? You don't know, but but I can. I can. I can assume that it's two grown adults admitting that they were just a little bit heated in the moment and that they have since moved on. 19:12 Would I put it past either of these guys drumming it up a little bit for some drama? To yeah, for some drama on the first team maybe or. Something. Put up some nice bulletin board material for the boys that's that's neither here nor there. But. 19:27 I would think that as two grown adults, I'd hope that they've squashed this beef. In the last, yeah. I think so. I mean, look, I don't I don't know anything much about can't they, apart from the fact that he's obviously a phenomenal golfer, but he's obviously a bit of a opinionated spiky character, it seems like. 19:45 And I think it starts if, if, if we go off to a bit of a good start, but I'm not expecting that by the way. But if we get off to a bit of a good start, I think that he knows his pace of play gets under a lot of the European skin. 20:02 He knows that probably a lot of the people on his own. It's under American skin, too. Yeah, yeah, that's it. But he like at that time he was like, right, you just do whatever you need to do to win a yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's when it it could potentially spill out a little bit. 20:18 But, you know, I'd like to think our guys are going to go in there to try and keep it calm this time and just go, all right, diffuse the situation. You know, what happened last time we. It was good to use last time. I think it was useful. But, yeah, it was definitely useful. I think this time it wouldn't be. 20:34 I think it would really count against us, but you never know. That's Rory. I mean, I still remember, like, you know, that year when he was like, giving it the full light. I can't hear you, all this sort of stuff. And he was like, he was like, he was like screaming at the crap. Like he was like, this is not Rory McIlroy. 20:50 Like what he. Tries to be like, Ji, don't know who's being like who, but JT and Rory, when those moments come, just seem to be the two guys that are just like, they're trying to electrify the environment, right? Yeah, They are both kind of polarizing to some people. Kind of funny. 21:06 My dad hates Justin Thomas. Like with a passion. Wow, he's a big. Crybaby and everything else. I don't know why like I don't mind the guy, but like my for some reason I don't know who hurt him. He hates Justin Thomas. So when JT doing all that stuff, even if it's for the US, my dad's like get the fuck off the. 21:23 Yeah, do you know sometimes there are just golfers that just do the team. I must admit I'm I'm not a massive fan of of Justin Thomas. So really I'm not, I'm not offended by him in any way, shape or form. But yeah, I've never quite understood the hype person. 21:41 That's right. We're moving on to the next topic here, because I think he might. I think this is a good segue because JT is going to come up here, which is Keegan not making himself a plane captain. So Keegan's number 11 in the OWGR and famously didn't get picked last. 21:58 Ryder cut by Zach Johnson as a lot of us got to watch on a Netflix special. And it was brutal. And a lot of people think he should have picked himself this year and possibly would replace Justin Thomas as one of the people they would sub in and out for Keegan. 22:14 And Keegan, no doubt, has been playing really, really good this year. Now, last weekend, they were just sitting at the Pro Core Championship. And out of everyone from the US who played at that tournament because Keegan was trying to get everyone to get some competitive reps in before the Ryder Cup, JT finished the worst out of that entire crew. 22:33 So it's getting even louder right now. What do you guys think of the decision essentially of Keegan not picking himself as a plane captain? I want to leave this one because I have a strong. I was going to say I think you should go first. He absolutely should have played. He 100% should have played. 22:52 Numbers aside, like having a guy who is playing electric like that in this moment, like not just being like, oh, I've played well enough to get here like he is. He has been peeking towards the Ryder Cup. Like he has been continually playing better golf. 23:09 He's absolutely the right type of decision. I think you can almost pull this thing where like everybody has started to love you because you are the captain. And then you also get to be like the darling and be like, oh, and I get to wear the mask. 23:24 Like I'm not just, I'm not just Alfred. I am also Batman, for lack of a better analogy. That's a great analogy. And and like in any, in any year where admittedly as Americans, we're probably doubting our squad a little bit. 23:41 We know Europe looks really strong this year. Pull a move that's unprecedented to try and swing some momentum and morale back on our side and do something that hasn't been done in what it was it 60 years or something. 23:57 Somebody, somebody did it back in the 60s, I think, right? A plane captain. No more recently than that. No, no. Wasn't it Arnold Palmer? You're doing a little Fact Check here. You're doing a little Fact Check here. Anyone blasting me in the comments? No, no, leave it in. It's controversial stuff gets gets people. 24:15 Yeah, it was Arnold Palmer. Someone did the research before this. Nice work. Just. What year, what year was that shot 63? OK. So so we're looking at 60 plus years since somebody has been yeah, OK, so like I said, do something to stir the pot stood. 24:31 Just mix it up a little bit like what we were looking at and what we were looking at with like the last few guys in. No one was super excited about those. And there was a lot of people saying, I understand Keegan wanting to do what's right and taking the responsibility of captain, you know, and, and and, and honoring that role. 24:51 But I think no one would have majorly faulted him if he had flipped and said, hey, I'm going to let the vice captain or bring somebody else in to run it and I'm going to play instead, you know, put me in coach. You are the coach. 25:07 You're putting. Your give me the ball, give me the ball. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm going to try and remember it because I, I've got this habit now. So I'm 45 years old and I forget if I have to remember multiple points, they just leave my head. So I should really keep a pen and paper with me. 25:23 My first point actually is that I was sort of picking picking up on this and I haven't picked up on this up to now. So counter question a little bit, but so are are you guys a bit afraid of us coming over and beating you in the states? Is that is that the general feeling? I would say. 25:39 Afraid, afraid is maybe strong, but is that, does that feel like a strong possibility to you guys? From people I talked to who really follow this, it's it's it's the Rome Ryder Cup is more recent and fresh in our minds than the last time Europe won on US soil. 25:57 So you think about that and it might be a little bit of recency bias, but it's like, hey, I am I able to count on another Whistling Straits this year? From what I remember very vividly of Rome, man, did it feel like this last time, 'cause I'm well, I don't want that to happen over here. 26:14 So most people are kind of thinking about that event more than they are. Looking looking at it, it's what the last 4-5 I think Ryder Cups have been have gone to whoever is on home. Soil 2012 was the last time Europe won out here I believe. 26:29 Yeah. So that's, I think that's five in a row, right? So that I think that's another thing where people also, I think a lot of people say, oh, you're, you're at home, like you're on home soil, you're going to win. Like that's, that's worth another extra few points. 26:45 But there's also a time in the world where you go back to the 2000s and the US teams had Tiger Woods on them and they weren't winning Ryder Cups. And we're looking at a similar scenario right now where we have hands down the best golfer in the world on our team and we are not fully committed to saying that is a good enough reason to raise the floor up for all of the other golfers. 27:11 Like I said, I think I think our it, it's like a, it's like a basketball team where you're starting 5 is really good and the starting fives match up really well. But as anyone who follows basketball knows, basketball games are usually won by the first two or three guys who come off the bench and how well do the second units play? 27:32 And admittedly, like that's what, that's what that's where my biggest fear lies is that our second unit I'm not very confident in right now And I admittedly so draped head to toe in Team USA gear like Europe second unit. Yeah, I still. 27:49 Think I still think US will win, I'm just not as bullish on it as I may have been. Like Whistling Straits for some reason. But it feels like it's going to be close and and actually or. I think it'll be closer. Partisanship aside, that'll be great if it's a great, I mean, you know, what was the last? 28:06 The last close one probably was what we're talking now. I mean, was it Medina? I don't know. Was that the last really close one? I think others have sort of seemed to have been done and dusted pretty quick. Or you've certainly got an idea that who's going to win. 28:23 I know because Faldo got pummeled at Valhalla. Yeah, I think, I think Medina was probably the last one that was really, really close. Yeah. And that was a run. There was a run of a few that were that were quite close at that, at that sort of. Time. I'll tell you what, I feel a lot more confident with Keegan as captain than I did with Zach Johnson as captain. 28:40 It Yeah, it's weird. Isn't it Zach Johnson just didn't feel like, I mean, I suppose OK, so the the point in question is Keegan, isn't it? And so me and Chris sort of agree on this, but don't agree it's a bit of a weird thing. So for me, I was like, you cannot be Radicut captain and a playing captain. 28:59 I just think you've got way too much going on. You you've got all this media stuff. And then in I mean, we know how hard it is to play good golf and we don't have all that pressure on. Whereas he's got also reading the momentum of a match. You know, halfway through the first groups going out, you've got to decide who's going to go next because you've got to see what's happening and read the game. 29:22 Now I understand you can lean on your vice captains for that, but then what starts happening there is that you're actually you're devolving responsibility away from you to your vice captains. Now, I think if if the roles are reversed and there was a chance here that there was going to be European players going to be player captain and the vice captains are going to be relied on, I think I'd be more confident in that happening. 29:47 And the reason I say that is that because we've seen it in the past when the European team lose, even when we've been pummelled, apart from when Nick Faldo was captain, because everybody universally hates Nick Faldo. But apart from that, anytime we've been, I mean, what? 30:04 So at whistling straights, it was Darren Clark. It hasn't done his reputation in European Gulf any harm whatsoever. Nobody's bothered. It's just a thing. Let me put it to you this way. Almost. On your roster, Keegan would fit, would slot in here. OK so I'm looking at the Europe roster. 30:22 Sep Straka becomes a captain and isn't playing for your team. How do you feel? Sep Straka. Interesting. He's in the same position that Keegan theoretically would be. Yeah, I, I, I, I think the European, I think we'd be bit like, oh, I'm not really he should be playing. But then, but then I think there's a couple of things he had to play. 30:39 So number one, I, we, I don't think we'd put ourselves in that position. They made the mistake because he got let down by Jack, Jack Zack, like Jack Zack Johnson, but they committed to making him the captain and then that must have been part of the deal. In the background. I was like, you're going to be captain next time so you're involved in the Ryder Cup. 30:57 There was a story to that that I I heard on other podcasts where they dove into that a little bit, but. Yeah. So, so you can't go. Why have you done that? Because he's still good enough to make the team. Like why have you put him in a position where he's got to make this decision? So that I think the mistake started there in me. 31:13 There is a history when it goes wrong for the the for team. You were saying the Ryder Cup that there's this big bloodletting and like everybody starts going for everyone. And we've seen it. I mean, I know it happened at Glen Eagles because it was Tom Watson was a captain there and Phil just went for him in the first press conference, you know? 31:36 And it was like, guys, maybe you just need to get together and just get your headset together and get a good story out here about, OK, we've lost, but. Well, can I? Can I segue that into my third one? I swear I didn't send you the agenda before this. Oh, right. OK, here we go. We're doing. 31:51 The perfect job as a guest here. What a point. My third headline is just simply team chemistry. I I hate to admit it, but the European team looks a lot more fun to be on Home or Away and the US captain's pick call this year. Did you guys see the absolute lack of smiles and energy from everyone? 32:11 That was a news pick. Surely halfway through you'd have just gone, right? Scrap this format, it's just not working. Let's just do the announcements. And it was so. Cringy. Oh it. Was also like trying to look. Were they trying to look? Tough. Or were they trying to look like not interested, like it's another day or I couldn't? 32:29 Figure it out. They were giving us loading eyes. That's what they were doing. It was like, Oh yeah. It felt like they were trying to take it like, hey, we take being nominated on this team very seriously and it is a big deal to us. And we don't want to just be excited to be here. 32:47 We want to be excited when we win. But how you think it's going to look and how it does look, too, Yeah. Instagram versus reality. Right. Like, so that's one of those things where, yeah, in hindsight, if they if they pre recorded that call, I don't know why they didn't go. 33:09 Don't put this out. This is their out. It almost, it almost feels like the speech they got before they went on was what TJ just said. And I'm like, hell yeah. It's like, I'm on board with that. And then we all get on and we're like. And then you realize that you're just standing there. I mean, as as podcasters, we can probably all catch ourselves where we've watched back an episode and you're like just sitting there and you're like, the Hell's going on in your brain in this whole. 33:34 In your brain. Yeah, you're like, is your brain empty? And you're like, actually I'm probably deep in thought, but God I look stupid. That was really engaging, Yeah. What's happened? So I'm sure none of those guys loved it either, seeing it post and being like Oh my God, we look so you watch out. 33:51 I've watched your guest. So I mean, we, we were, we were all like like commenting about it and stuff like that. And I was like, it was brilliant because it was just, you know, I mean, Keegan's was obviously it was like a press conference style, wasn't it? 34:06 As well, the way he was sort of SAT and it was like we had Luke, Luke, it's always Luke, but we had Luke Tunnel sat there on a sofa with Nick Doherty, who I'm got a bit of a man crush on, but like Nick Doherty, the two of them and they're just chatting and they're like, go on. Then Luke, go on, give us your first pick. 34:22 And then, you know, Victor Hovland comes on and he's like, you know, just like Uber happy and just joking around. And I think that I think that there's we have that. We've always had that, you know, we've had that bulldog spirit and you know, we're like, let's look, we're here. 34:41 Ultimately, it's a stupid game, isn't it? You've got to hit this stupid white thing with a very thin thing into a very small thing miles away. Like that's it's just the worst game in the world, but it infects your brain and then you have all this like, I think actually one of the weirdest things that one of the weird dynamics that's probably come out of all of this is the is the live split. 35:02 So some of the old guard like Westward, like Poulter, like Garcia going, you know, Garcia and Rory had a really big spat, didn't they, when the live split happened because Garcia was like, oh, no, we're going to get paid what we deserved. And Rory macro was like, but we don't get deserved to get paid, get paid anything. 35:18 We're just golfers. Like we don't play the game we love. And I feel like that game we love attitude really almost sits within our DNA. Look, it's, it's absolutely pouring down outside. And I guarantee you my local golf course, they'll be it'll be at least half full. 35:35 Yeah, like, it's just it's more we're crazy. We're crazy. I feel like we are too though, like the US has that I want to defend us here real quick that like there's it goes like TJ and I and stuff that like when I go to Portland and it's raining, I want to get out every single day like. 35:52 I don't get out there and I. Don't get to golf out there that much and I want to take advantage of it. And local here too. Like I can speak for the opposite in the heat. Like I'm out there golfing in 100. Degrees. All the time, Yeah. So. But I think the difference is that the US has this weird, like corporate feel to it, almost where their press conference felt like someone who had to go face the public and make a press announcement, versus Europe's felt like a Comic Con where they're about to introduce the next panelists walking out from the corner and it's all around like. 36:24 Yeah. I, I will say in this instance, 1 doing it like with like a live audience, like how Europe did it is beneficial. Like Sean mentioned with the, the Comic Con type feeling right, like that gives it a better vibe. 36:40 I will say also, we did not do ourselves. Maybe it's not that we didn't do ourselves any favor, but Europe definitely got to see how the US did it, what, a week or two weeks prior. Yeah. And got to see the action. Well, let's make sure we don't do that. 36:57 Like there's a there's a world in which they had a Zoom call scheduled. Yeah, for sure. Fly everybody in. We're doing it live. Give give these guys 12 cans of Red Bull before they get on. Yeah. Life. 37:12 And yeah, I mean, look, I mean, that's the phony war of the Ryder Cup, isn't it? Yeah, you know, And it's like, hang on, what? Right. They've got so much Flack for that, let's make it even worse. Yeah, how can you use? That so over the top, like, you know, Victor Hovland, I mean, he looked like he was high or something. 37:29 I was just like, what is he doing? Well, he always looks like that. Yeah, he just, he can't wipe the smile off his face. He could get absolutely annihilated at the rider. Could be. He'd just be like, yeah, you know, just it's just a happy guy. So yeah, I think there is that premium, I think within the team, like keep that chemistry going, keep that. 37:48 I mean, you know, and that's why there's this pathway of the captains and vice captains. You can see that they you know, they've they've found a not a winning formula. I'm not going to say that that's, that's, I think that's obviously wrong, but they've found a system where they can keep that DNA going. 38:06 Actually, there's there's another point I sort of wanted to bring out at some point because you know, we've got Jose Maria Olathaubol who's a vice captain and obviously he's captain from Medina, right? So they're obviously they're trying to lean on that a little bit. But I think the real reason he's there is because, you know, the legend that he was Sevy, Sevy encapsulated European golf and the passion of European golf. 38:30 And he's he's been, he's not been around for such a long time now. He's like, how are you going to try and revisit that? And we do that every year. Like you can see every two years in the Ryder Cup, something will happen on Saturday, whether it's good or bad. And then, you know, on Friday, sorry. And then Saturday will be like, oh, the spirit of Sevy, the spirit of Sevy, Do it for Sevy. 38:47 All this kind of thing. Yeah, I kind of get a bit bored of that because I think at some point you've got to move on from that and go like we've got our own, like we're bigger than just Sevy fanboys, you know? But I think I think we've got Jose Maria in there to do exactly that, you know? 39:03 And he's going to cry. He's going to cry at some point. Like that's just the way he is. Yeah, he's, he's passionate like that. But I think in the absence of someone like Sergio on your guys's team, sorry, go ahead. No, no, go on. Sorry. We're saying in the absence of Sergio. I was going to say, in the absence of someone like Sergio on the team, I feel like you need that passion that, you know, you got ROM right, But I feel like ROM is now ostracized himself a little bit. 39:26 So you need someone who's still got that like Sevy spirit and that might be all thoughtful. You know, that's all. Yeah. That's how, that's how Marie. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Rahm's become a necessary evil. Hasn't. He he. Yeah, he is. But. I want to go to the. I want to know the 4th headline here. So the last headline I have here is that I don't know if you guys heard about this, but Europe is using virtual reality headsets to prepare their team for the verbal abuse and noise that they're expecting to get at Bethpage. 39:55 So I, I know I have more on this. So Luke Donald hosted A-Team dinner this last Tuesday at Wentworth, the headquarters of the DP World Tour, where the European side runs the Rudder Cup. And they it was attended by players, staff, caddies, wives and girlfriends. 40:12 Rory revealed that it was there that the 11 players were given VR headsets to mimic the taunts and jeers from a rowdy New York crowd. They said, how far do you want this to go? McElroy told reporters at Wentworth. And I said go as far as you want. It's just to simulate the sights and sounds of the noise. 40:29 That's the stuff that we're going to have to deal with. So it's better to try and desensitize yourself now as much as possible before you get in there. You can get them to say whatever you want them to say and they would turned it all the way up so you can go as close to the bone as you like. I. Mean, yeah, I mean what, what have they got? 40:44 Have they got like they they have like people in the studio just recording stuff, but. I think like personal. Things. Yeah. Yeah, like things they can do is try and get under the skin of each of the gomers. I mean, I'd love to get, I'd love to get a recording of that, but find out. You know, you know, they're, they're dropping very specific names of people in those things or. 41:05 Yeah. Absolutely, yeah. I, I think, I mean, look, if you're going to do the whole, we're not leaving any stone unturned, then you know, that's going to happen with the crowd. I think the thing that I find a little bit odd with that is that all of these guys have played in a Ryder Cup and they know what the atmosphere is like. 41:25 And you do you know what the emotion of the match and things like that. And we, we talked about Rory before, weren't we, the emotion of the match. And suddenly he has a explosion at a guy who's actually a decent guy in golf. So you just like, yeah, can it prepare you for that? 41:43 I don't know. I mean, it's good if it just if it's it's, it's you know what? Luke Donald's played a blinder here. It's good. Smoke and mirrors. Oh, you think so? I think so. So this is a story from 1996. 41:58 This is so. This is about the England football team. And there there were enemies of the press really. I mean, for the, the, the, the English football team, the press just go for them. If there's anything negative remotely, they just go for them. And it's pretty vicious. 42:13 So what they did was they created a bit of a game between the squad, but whenever they went on bless you, whenever they went on the, whenever they went and spoke to the press, their mission was to get as many song titles into their interview as possible. 42:31 And they were like keeping a score and all that kind of thing. You know, that sort of stuff is right up our street for our sense of humour. So it wouldn't even surprise me if they're like, have got a little internal thing going on about who can say the most outrageous thing. Yeah, that makes it look like we're doing some ultra preparedness, but we're actually, we're just going to literally turn up and play golf. 42:51 This can backfire though and give the of course it's more ammunition to basically go even. Imagine everyone turns up with the yeah. What what's confusing to me is I understand the the audio aspect of it. 43:07 It is not, it is not lost on me that football teams do it all the time. American football teams do it right when they speakers and simulating, especially for like quarterbacks when they have to go out there and call the plays and they can't necessarily hear. So they have to play and sound to get used to what they have to do on the field. 43:25 I don't understand why set of why do I need to see the guy throwing me the bird when he calls me like something lewd like I. Don't guy in your field of vision or something you know. I don't understand how that changes anything in that field. You figure it. 43:41 I don't believe it until I see a picture of one of these guys practicing in AVR headset. Yeah, yeah. You think they've done like they've done AI and they've just repeated pictures of Cantlay and Joe Lacaver just for that, so you can zoom in on that. 43:56 I mean, it's just, yeah, I, I didn't know, I hadn't heard about this. It's a new, it's a new one. I need that one. But I just think, wow, I mean, yeah, it has potential to backfire that doesn't it? It feels a bit of a weird, weird. 44:12 All right, Well, Public I. Don't know if there's any other topics you guys want to cover real quick, but I wanted to focus on Bethpage as a course for the rest of the pod. All right, so before we do that, we're going to dive into the history and trivia of Bethpage. I want to hear more about today's sponsor for today's episode, Bird Darts. 44:29 Today's episode of Must Play is sponsored by Bird Darts Premium golf Tees. Nothing relaxes me more on the course than tear and open a box and RIP in a few bird darts with the boys. The 100% bamboo golf Tees feature a clean design with marks to help you tee up your shots consistently. So your only swing thought is worrying about the cart girl who's watching you tee off. 44:48 You can also use bird darts without worrying about harming the environment. They're biodegradable and the packaging is made from recycled materials. Head over to their website birddarts.com and use code Fair wagers for 10% off today. Check out their new 4 packs they just dropped for you and all your boys. OK, so this history is actually going to be a little different than the traditional segments I do on must play episodes. 45:07 I won't be talking at you the whole time. It won't be nearly as long. I'm actually going to be asking both you guys trivia throughout this history, and I have three questions for each of you and we're going to see who can walk away with the most points. This is just bragging rights. Unless. You easy done. I know. 45:25 Just just pride. Pride. I admittedly am not as much of A golf sicko as as many other people are, so we'll share. We'll we'll leave this, we'll leave this off. Here me neither. So maybe maybe it's like who can get endpoint? All right, let's kick it off. 45:43 So the Bethpage Black Course is one of five public golf courses at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, New York. TJ can you name the other four courses? God hint, they're all. Colors. They're all colors. Yeah, there is a blue, correct. 46:04 A red, correct, a white, incorrect. Dang it. That is no point for TJ. It's red, blue-green and yellow, red, blue-green and yellow. How do I green and yellow do they? 46:21 Do you have any any like facts on why? So no, I I have the order of events. I don't know the reasons for the colours. That could be a fun little tidbit to add in the post here. Yeah, I think the the green, the green was the most recent one I think, wasn't it? 46:37 Yellow. I think yellow was. Well, the yellow was the most recent, was it? Yeah. So in the early 1930s. Savage, I know. Yeah, in the early 1930's, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. 46:55 Famed golf course architect AW Tillinghouse was hired to design and oversee construction of three new Golf courses at the time, black, red and blue, as well as modify the Lenox Hills course, which became the Green Course. Tillinghas was one of the most prolific architects in the history of golf. 47:12 He worked on more than 265 different courses and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. Mish Tillinghas also designed another famous New York golf course that hosted the 2020 U.S. Open where Bryson won. Can you name that course? Yes, I should be able to do that. 2020. 47:30 So God, I should be able to do this, shouldn't I? This should be quite, quite simple. All the ones I'm guessing I know are nowhere near New York. All the ones I'm thinking of say Valhalla it's not, but. No, that's in Kentucky, unfortunately. Yeah. DJ, go ahead. Is it? 47:46 Is it Winged Foot? Winged Foot. Bang, let's. Go. There's no stealing of points here though, so damn it. Zero to 3, Zero to 0. Yeah, about recent. I should have known that. Yep. All right. So the 1930s were actually a boom for golf course construction in the US due to President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which directed $4.9 billion in its first year would go to the Works Progress Administration, or the WPAA new organization created to get Americans back on their feet during the Great Depression. 48:17 It employed hundreds of thousands of Americans to work on civil projects like infrastructure, parks, and even golf courses. And little known fact that FDR was actually a huge golfer in his early years and it wasn't until polio that he actually stopped playing. TJ, can you name can you name one other course we've covered on Must Play that was a direct result of the WPA? 48:38 Organization 30s question. Wow. Oh, was it it? Was it Franklin Park? No, that was before. Then it was Balboa. It's Balboa. That's what it is. So it wasn't recent. Dang yeah that is wild. 48:55 Alboa was one of the municipal stuff, yeah. Never heard of it. So what? Tell me about this. What's it? The built in the beyond the clubhouse, did you say? So Balboa Park in San Diego, which is the famous City Park in the 30s, they essentially designed the new full 18 and and a nine hole course as well. 49:16 They they did the clubhouse and everything else. And it's kind of like that architecture from the 30s that's really popular. And the clubhouse still stands. It's the same piece. But basically during the Great Depression, all these courses in the 30s that you may have heard of in the US got built because of basically trying to reinstate people to get jobs and whatnot and pull them out of poverty. 49:41 Yeah. So wow, OK, oh, nil nil here. Still I. Mean we called it. Yeah, so Bethpage. Bethpage State Park now had four courses, but due to the increased demand for golf after World War 2, the park needed a fifth course to handle all the locals coming in from the city to play. 50:00 So the yellow course was built as a result and was designed by Alfred Toll in 1958. One unique feature to Bethpage was that all 5 courses start from the clubhouse area instead of being spread out like modern golf resorts. Fast forward a few decades and Rhys Jones was brought in to lead a renovation in the late 1990s to get the black course ready for the 2002 U.S. 50:21 Open. The tournament was an instant hit Nish. Can you name the winner of the 2002 U.S. Open? I'm in. I've got this one. Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods? Yes. Come on. First point on the board. You know right? Funny story. So when, whenever we do pub quizzes, if you don't know the answer, there's three, There's 3 answers we write down. 50:44 It's one of them is onions, another one is 6, the other one is Tiger Woods. I've got no idea. I'm trying to cover all bases and stuff. I can't wait for onions to hit and when it hits is one of your random answers. 51:00 Don't even know why that Yeah. What Onion? 6IN Tiger Woods And that was it. All right. 10 onions then. TJ You got one more question here to tie it up. So the US Open at Bethpage Black was billed as the People's Open because it was the first US Open held on a daily fee public golf course. 51:19 Tiger wound up winning wire to wire, and this was just one more win right after the Tiger Slam era where he held all four major championships simultaneously. TJ, I'll give you a point. If you can name one of the courses that Tiger won his four majors at between the 2000 U.S. 51:37 Open and 2001 Masters, excluding Augusta, it's. Like a water. Yeah. It's like this is so easy. It's so easy. Yeah, this is. About to be the easiest question I've ever I've ever had to answer. Oh man. So OK, so he obviously won AUS Open APGA back then. 51:56 It was back then. It was still back then. It was still the British Open, right? Between 2001, 2001, yeah. You definitely have seen clips of one of these or more of these tournaments on YouTube before. 52:12 This is such a like, I was so not interested in golf at this point in my life. Like, I was like playing the Tiger Woods game because I. Like playing games. But I was not like I didn't play golf for another 10 years in my life. We're just gonna wildly guess like pioneers. 52:32 Pebble Beach. It was OK. Yeah, it was the fate. It was the infamous. His caddy realized there was no other golf balls after you get. Oh yeah, 3T. 80s that's a great story. Yeah, Saint Andrews is where they played bridge up in that year and Valhalla, which you just earlier called out. 52:52 Valhalla, yeah. I thought about Saint Andrews was my other like blanket guess all right. All right, all right. For the for the last point, you already won Niche, but this is just for a victory lap here, all right? Yes, come on, I'm ready. So Bethpage Black was already known by locals and those who had played it as one of the toughest tests of public golf. 53:10 But 2002 brought nationwide attention to the course because of that U.S. Open. Following that, many golfers tried and failed to get on the course as it became one of the hardest tee times to get in the country. On top of the demand, it was discovered that certain groups of people had created bots to book hundreds of tee times each week that wound up never getting played. 53:29 Eventually, Bethpage cracked down on the bad actors, but it took him way too long. Now golfers who want to get out camp out in the parking lot the night before and hopes to get a number in line that guarantees them a round of golf at the park, but not necessarily the black course. So you don't know what course you're going to get. 53:45 As the course now prepares for the Ryder Cup next week, the course will be tougher than ever. Shouldn't be a surprise though for anyone who watches because I'm sure TV is going to be pummeling us millions of times with the famous sign that sits right outside of Bethpage. It says warning. 54:02 The Black course is an extremely difficult course which we recommend only for Nish. There's 3 words remaining. Very experienced golfers. No, but you're very close, TJ, You want to guess, is it very good golfers, highly skilled golfers? 54:20 Highly skilled golfers, yes. Yeah, yeah. That's that's a sign that puts dread in your heart, doesn't it? If you. Have you heard the rumor behind why that sign's out there? Go on. It's most people believe this. 54:36 I don't know if it's like a rumor or if it's true or not, but the story goes that a man had taken his wife out there before the sign was up to basically learn golf. And all the people behind them were so pissed off that he had taken the beginner golfer on this course that they put up a sign warning that it was only for highly skilled golfers. 54:55 Wow. Goodness me. Yeah. I. Yeah. Do you know? OK, right. What what do you think about that as a, as a thing? I mean fair play if you want to learn on the hardest course. What are you? I mean the It's funny because the term highly skilled golfer is obviously up for interpretation. 55:18 Subjective. It's very subjective. What do you think? What do we, what do we think? Like the Max? Like do you think that I should go out there and play Bethpage Black as a 24 handicap? Well, I mean, this is the thing, isn't it, you know? I would say yes. 55:34 Like I would love to go out there with you and play. I just. Wonder how we I mean, a 24 handicap to me suggests that you know, you know, golf, you can you have the odd good old which we all do whatever. But you know, you know the etiquette of golf and all that kind of thing. 55:49 And it's like it's just a lot. And what what what do they keep saying in golf that the real way to lower your score this two ways, your short game, right? And I mean, that can go wrong for the best people. Rory's proven that missing 3 foot puts and all sorts. 56:05 And then course management, well, we don't play enough golf to be able to course manage. We just go out there and smack driver every time and then just figure out what happens on the second shot. So yeah, I yeah, I have a personal beef about putting handicap. 56:24 There's GG itself is so subjective where people try and be like, Oh well here are the TS that you should play based upon your 7 iron distance or here are the TS that you should play based upon your handicap. And it's like sometimes it's like, man, some days my handicap is not determined by how I'm getting off the T or how far I'm hitting my 7 iron. 56:46 It's yeah, yeah, everything from like 50 yards and in. And that's all of a sudden that's fifty shots, right. Or even more, even more than that some days. So it's it's there's no way to set up hard, fast rules. You have to do something that is open for interpretation or or you actually just do set a line and you say deal with it, which I'm sure golf courses could do if they want to, but they also don't want to turn away money. 57:12 A. Lot of the ones that we play, they, they do say there's a handicap limit. It can't be over a 24 handicap or something like that to play I. I think the sign should be more so about the time you spend on the course. It should be like, hey, if you're can't get under 4 1/2 hours or 4 hours on this course, like don't play, you know, like, I don't care if you're bad. 57:31 But if you're picking up your ball and not trying to search for it for 4 minutes, like yeah, why wouldn't that be respected the same as a good golfer like. Well, it's probably. You're limited to 10 shots per hole. Yeah, like the byproduct of the highly skilled golfer is, is the pace versus like, you know. 57:46 What we've seen. A lot on the course, like well OK, fuck. Off, Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's exactly right. Well, I mean, there's been plenty of occasion, I mean, you know, recently Chris, Chris is good. He's a, he's a 1011 handicap and he he shot 115 having an absolute night. 58:05 Drive by on Chris here. Sorry, Chris, I. Mean, I know, yeah, sorry. I mean, I, I relished that he took a lot of shit from me for that. But he's he's had a couple of really bad blow up courses where just nothing has gone right. Then he's like 4 and things like that. 58:21 And you just like, but you know, but he's a very, he's a very highly skilled golfer. I mean, some of the shots he can play, you know, he's just done that, you know, So what are we saying? Highly skilled on one shot, Yeah. Exactly. Only when it counts. Yeah. All right, So rounding out the episode, I thought it'd be fun to end this with some predictions that we'll make here live, myself included, because I've only been, you know, putting you 2 up to it. 58:46 There's 28 points total. Obviously in the Ryder Cup, 14 1/2 points are needed for the US to take back the cup. A 1414 tie actually results in Europe retaining the cup. So let's start with TJTJ. What do you think the final tally is going to be at the Ryder Cup this year? 59:06 I am going to go with a 15 1/2 against 12 1/2 USA victory. Come on. I'm head to toe in USA guys. Like there's no way that I'm going to think. 59:24 I, I, I think, I think golf fans get to relish here. I think we have a very close Ryder Cup. I think it's, I think it's coming down to the wire on the final day, which I think is what we all want to see. Which helps. You away like I think I think but but I think we're going to I think we edged out just on the on the, you know, the home turf advantage and you know by by Americans being capable and willing to say the most lewd things to get underneath someone's skin. 59:57 Yeah, but we've we've had VR headsets practicing. Yeah, you've been. Practicing I, I think whatever you guys think is dialed up to 10, we can go to 11. Oh yeah. Yeah, I'll go next. I think that's a good line there. 1:00:14 Tji actually like that one. I might steal that for our preview. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm going 1513. So not the half points, I'm just going solid 1513. I think what's going to come down to is I, I, I don't know why, but I feel like Europe always plays better in day one. 1:00:32 And so I feel like day one Europe might take a lead and then I feel like after that, US might make a strong comeback and then kind of end it after that. So that's my prediction. 1513 Europe up on day one. US closing it out. Yeah, Yeah. 1:00:50 I think we might come out strong as well actually. And I think we we may take a lead into that after that first, first couple of rounds of what is it 6, is it 6 points? You can, there's eight points up for grab, isn't the grabs isn't there on the first day I think. 1:01:06 Something on the first day. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think I think we might end up a point or a point and a half ahead after the first day. I think we're going to hold on. I think we're going to I think we're going to sneak it 14 1/2 thirteen. Oh, you're. 1:01:22 Being 14 1/2, thirteen. OK, I think. I think we're going to sneak the win this year. I, I really do think like mindset wise, I think we're going to, we're going with the mindset that we're bringing that cut back. And I, and I think there's a, there's a mindset of like get off 14 points, that sort of mission 14 kind of thing, you know, but I, I just have a feeling something's going to happen here. 1:01:46 Do you know what's going to happen? Something that that form would suggest isn't going to happen. And this is one play we are worried about. I think Matt, Matt Fitzpatrick might just do a clean sweep and just win five points. It's terrible when the Ryder Cup, he's the one player actually I think I must say as a separate point that we are a bit all worried about because his form in the Ryder Cup is terrible and he's even, you know, he's even dragged Rory down and stuff like that. 1:02:13 So he needs to really step up, I think, and not become a walking point. It'll be interesting to see if he plays on the first day. I think he'll be kept for the second day. I don't think he'll play out play on that first day. Yeah. 1:02:29 All right. So on behalf of you and Chris, would you be willing to make a wager against TJ and I here? You guys take Europe, we take. Chris is literally willing to do anything. So yeah, I'll. I'll accept the bet. I'll accept the bet for Chris no problem. Kind of guy. OK, TJ or any stakes here? 1:02:47 Do you want to do you want to do money or you want to do like something the loser pick or winner pick something for the loser What? Do you? Yeah. Like, I've got to do something on the golf course or something like that. I think that that'll be a good thing, wouldn't it? Yeah. Although getting Chris to film anything is an absolute nightmare, so I don't know how he's going to. 1:03:05 Are we going to? Either way? Cool. God, you've really caught me on the hop here. What do I want TJ to do if we win? I had an idea that I think it's funny. It's it's, there's no harm in it. It's just funny and useful. 1:03:21 Yeah, we're not. We're not doing that. There has to be some skin in the game here. OK, well I was going to say the losing team has to record an ad break for the others podcast. But instead of an ad read, we just talk up both of you guys as golfers and as people. 1:03:39 Like we just say glowing things about you and you, you play it like an ad read essentially in your podcast. Be like kicking off today's podcast. We have a yeah, we have a special placement from the top 110. But the winning team gets to write the ad read. 1:03:55 Can we the winning team, can we add you have to talk about the how good the other podcast is and then you is and then you also have to talk about how good of a country that country. You know what I I feel, I feel like that's, that's the way forward, isn't it? 1:04:14 I think that's that has to be. I like that. No, I, I think, I think like that. I think we should do you get to you? You're right, the ad roll. And I think it should be about how much you love and how much you admire the other country. 1:04:30 I think that's what that that that makes sense for me. So that's what it is. It's not. It's the Battle of the Continents, isn't it? So I'm good with that. I'm good with that. OK. Whereabouts in there the losing? Team reads it. Yeah, whereabouts in Europe do you particularly like TJ? 1:04:45 Cuz I'll start writing this now. I'm pretty pretty funny. You know, I've, I've, you know, I've never been, we're, as anyone knows, I, I recently got married. So we're planning a honeymoon for 2026. So I will be going to Italy. 1:05:00 So if you want to include anything about Italy for me to speak to, whether that is places who might listen to the podcast and say, oh, we like that guy, he's coming. You know, I think, I think we're looking, I think we're looking for Southern Italy is. What we're doing, OK, we'll do this. 1:05:18 I like this. Yeah. I wouldn't even bother writing anything else. I don't love his confidence that he already wants to start writing this. As soon as I found out that our guys have been wearing VR headsets to practice. I mean, it's in the bag, pretty. 1:05:35 The bag, you thought already. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to go to those lengths, yeah, you don't look like an absolute fool practicing. I mean, what are they going to do is they actually take the headsets off and go, oh, this isn't what we thought it was going to be. I like I said, I think we are way more capable of saying way more lewd things than whatever. 1:05:54 Don't. Yeah. Don't undercount that. I totally agree. I totally agree. You cannot prepare for stuff like that. You also can't prepare for the the wit of a sports fan on the day or something that catches them or whatever. You know, it was what I'll leave you with one last story and it was it was from the first Ryder Cup I went to at Celtic Manor, which we which we won. 1:06:17 Colin Montgomery was captain and it was the, it was the that the wettest Ryder Cup ever. And basically what happened was they'd had a big break in play and we all went and got drunk in the in the beer tent. And then suddenly this news comes out that they're going to go out and play and we're like, all right, OK, all right, everyone gets out on brolleys, all that kind of thing. 1:06:39 So the Team USA had sent the players out obviously to a warm up on the range and they discovered that their waterproofs weren't actually waterproof because they're still hammering it down. So this new spread and there were rumours that they were going to go and buy some merchandise from the from the merchandise tent. 1:07:03 Now this is how petty we are, right? Cleared out all of the USA merchandise to where the European waterproofs. How good is that? If you do something, that's what you do. And that is, that is how you win Ryder Cups, gentlemen. 1:07:21 That is how you win Ryder Cups. ER, headsets and swapping out I. Mean every fan dreams of having a bit of a hand in the result, right? That was absolutely do it. It was. Amazing. Yeah, we had to. Yeah. We had some good, good rumors circulating. 1:07:38 Then is when Rory is big bushy hair as well. So everyone had like wigs, they're doing this. They haven't even heard of a beer snake where everyone gets all the plastic cups. Basically everyone was doing that and building as tall as possible and then just hooking the wigs up to the top of the marquee so no security could get them back down again. 1:07:58 It was great. It was just Rory, wigs everywhere. The things you do when it's 7 hours of just drinking and no actual entertainment because I think they already played about eight holes so they could keep playing the highlights. There were no highlights. So one of the greatest days I've ever had. 1:08:13 By the way, that was hardly any drinking for seven hours straight. It was great. I think the is the next Ryder Cup in Europe at Adair Manor. Is that where? It's called, Is that a Dare Manor? Yeah, yeah. I really want to go to that chorus just obviously to play, but I want to go to that Ryder Cup, so maybe we can make this a thing and like TJ that. 1:08:32 Should be it. This should be a good thing, actually. You know what? Here's what we'll do. I will. I'm making this promise. See, I will. I wasn't going to before, but I will register for the tickets and then if I've got 2 spare tickets, but I'll basically I've got two extra tickets, you guys can go. 1:08:51 We'll go. So damn. That would be amazing. I will. I will buy you some rounds of golf and beer. I was going to say that the, the, the the loser of the Ride Cup pays for the tickets. That's yeah. I don't think it's crazy expensive to be honest, but I mean the the expense for you guys. 1:09:07 It's the the this year's was crazy at at Bethpage. Crazy, yeah. Well, travel wise, I think TJ and I are both going to be in Europe next year, so there's some opportunities maybe do something even before then. But anyways, I'm going to wrap up here for those who stuck around. 1:09:27 Nick, thank you. Thank you very much for joining us today. Absolute pleasure. Eventually, we'll have Chris on too. For everyone who stuck around too for the entire episode, please make sure if you don't already, subscribe to Must Play wherever you get your podcasts and rate US five stars. It does a lot of help for us. You can also watch the video version of this over on YouTube by searching for fair wagers or must play. 1:09:47 And we appreciate your time today and we are going to be rooting for the US. So memory of today. USAUSAU SA get my ragdoll towel out, there we go. 1:10:03 Bye Nish. Take care. Thank you man. All the very best. Thanks, Chapman. © 2025 Spotify AB Legal Privacy Cookies