There's no tying in golf!
SOLHEIM'S SO-LAME ENDING
A tie.
A TIE?
A TIE?!?!
I don't care the sport, ties are simply unacceptable. Especially when it results in Team Europe retaining the Solheim Cup...
After Team USA's red-hot start on Friday winning 4-0 in the foursome leg, Europe clawed their way back to tie things up heading into the individual matches.
Then our girl Rose got her "welcome to international play" moment as she got crushed by Leona Maguire. Bill's BFF Nelly just barely missed out on an epic comeback on the back nine. And it all came down to Solheim pariah Lexi Thompson—saying "shove it" to the haters and ultimately bringing the match even for the day.
But in the Solheim, the tie goes to the former champion so Europe held on.
Which, I'm sorry, is so lame. At least in football where a tie prevents the games from going super long and tiring them out for the week to follow—this Cup only happens every other year!
Can we at least put some sort of captain v. captain showdown/sudden death match? Watch their teams rally around the wily veteran captain for one more shot at glory.
Uck, add it to my list for when I take over Bill Simmons' role as sports czar one day.
Angel Yin did earn a W.
"WE KEEP RECEIPTS"
Sorry to all the CU +21 ticket holders last week... still some work to do it seems but the Colorado ride was much like my own emotions whenever I buy a lotto ticket. (Powerball back to almost a billy... just sayin'.)
It starts with a period of unrestricted hype—furiously checking Zillow to make sure the dream home in Del Mar is still available. And quickly is followed by the actual picking of the numbers (aka the University of Oregon) when I realize that even with my unhinged confidence... I have still yet to get more than two numbers right on any ticket, ever.
That said, the Deion effect is already sending its ripples across the golf landscape—and provided one of the funnier moments of the Solheim action last weekend.
The clip above is from Angel Yin's presser before Sunday's singles matches. She grabbed her pair of shades and proclaimed that Team US is keepin' receipts.
The kind of jokes and vibes that only come from team golf. Please give us more!!!
Okay, let's pivot to the Ryder Cup.
UNWRAPPING THE ONION THAT IS VIKTOR
Team Europe is just so... European.
On one side you've got weirdos like Viktor who listen to super heavy metal—as seen in this fluff piece from the Euro Ryder Cup X account.
On the other side you've got a bunch of mild-mannered Brits, politely removing their headphones and declaring "that's brutal."
Timing for this year's Ryder Cup is truly awful for west coast viewers as there is 0 chance I will be awake at 1a to catch these tee times. But I do think this is shaping up to be a super close match—and the US is VERY due for a W.
Sorry, Viktor. We can be friends again in, like, a week.
Also, this piece really just reminded me how much I enjoy watching the TikTok/YouTube videos of these twins listening to classic songs for the first time. Screenshot below is the Phil Collins drum solo...
My favorite Ryder Cup coverage from this week...
CHESS NOT CHECKERS
Easily my favorite article from Ryder Cup week was this piece by Golf Digest around how the host country can moneyball their own course setup.
In particular it focused on the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National outside of Paris and how the European stats people discovered just how and where to shape the course to encourage the American stars to get suckered into exceptionally troublesome areas.
And it worked.
Basically they discovered that four of the US stars: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Patrick Reed all tended to miss the fairway by an average of ~30 feet.
The European response was to both grow out the rough so much that any shot which missed a fairway was absolutely buried.
And their second adjustment was even more devious as they pushed back the rope line for fans around fairways and short of the greens. The thinking was that if the fans weren't so close to trample down the grass, then the 30 foot misses by the US squad would find even deeper rough.
Genius. Gamesmanship to the highest degree.
My nightmare
TEAM GOLF AT ITS FINEST
Coincidentally, my golf league out of Los Angeles (Tiny Putters) has our own Ryder Cup this weekend.
Descending on Costa Mesa Country Club, we'll be keeping the vibes super high for Team Scott as I captain one squad and my co-founder Austin captains the other.
Doing myself no favors, I have now watched this clip I came across from Breezy Golf on IG about 1000 times. Poor guy in the blue has about a 4-5? foot putt to force a playoff as every single member of this 64 man Ryder Cup event looked on.
He missed. And the red team exploded.
The camaraderie was incredible. The pressure was unbearable. So please send all the good vibes... I fear my post-Jack swing isn't prepared for a moment like this.
Connecting with coworkers: Season 2
SEE! I CAN PLAY FANTASY
It's likely only me at this point who remembers the absolute embarrassment of a fantasy season I decided to chronicle last year.
But just closing the loop here to mention that I can in fact play fantasy. 5th place and climbing!
Bill on the other hand...
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