Ryder Cup fans just lost something special. Now, we may never understand

Really on the table?

Is this even possible?

How close is it?

Problems that Keegan Bradley faces immediately no Choosing yourself to be the Ryder Cup captain’s draft pick, the exact same questions we asked at home, or the same questions asked in DMS in our work channel. Speaking of Ryder Cup, there are more than any other activity at golf, and the reporters in the room may be a lot like people watching on the couch – we all love a good story. As the kids like to say, this numbness.

The rating will be higher. The secondary market for tickets (which has already expanded in large quantities) will find new heights. There will be more Ryder Cups around your Instagram feed, email inbox and water cooler.

Now? It’s still a wonderful, epic, shocking time. But it’s not a dream for many purposes. Golf fans lost something In those picks for those captains on Wednesday morning, we may never know exactly what this is.

For this, we can thank Bradley himself. If he is as good as the actor, his team will win. Bradley said his decision to rush in the media was the “biggest” of his career (whether or not with the captain’s draft pick) had been set on the stone “a while ago.”

“We’re not fighting for it at all,” he added.

OK, my friend, the rest of us are! And there are good reasons. Because it’s chaotic Extra Since the Ryder Cup is its own, and the glorious capitalism of the American PGA, one thing that attracts attention is the most primitive golf. Even in the last group of professionals, you can’t replicate the nerves. Anxiety that doesn’t exist in the stroke game at all. Disdain that won’t appear in this gentleman game, even if it’s only temporary.

Humanity seeps out of the Ryder Cup traps more than anywhere else in the game. That’s why I’ve thought it was a lock for months – Bradley would call him his own. because nature The job of an elite professional golfer is to trust you to be competent, no matter what the lies are. This is the mentality obligation at the top of the game – you can do Anything The club holds it in hand. This contradicts the DNA of the best golf ball in Bradley’s life that year, handing the baton to everyone else, but here we are. Years ago, people spent optimized rosters, defensive shifts and in the sport, building golf courses to gain the advantage. In the process, we sacrifice a free-turning element in pursuit of overthinking.

One thing you don’t have to think about: Will Seve Ballesteros choose themselves?

undoubtedly. Phil Mickelson will have it, too. They would have drooled and become real puppet masters.

Tiger Woods took the opportunity at the 2019 Presidents Cup, and then he went to Australia and distributed daily classes to half of his golfers – and those who came home during midnight. What Woods did that week was still one of the least overlooked aspects of his legend, mainly because it happened in the early hours of the United States. If it unfolds on Long Island in the September sun, it would be so iconic that Bradley hopes to have a chance to copy it.

Instead, he had no choice but to observe how he treated Captain America when something went wrong with the Ryder Cup. Tom Watson was dragged by Mickelson in 2014. Jim Furyk was dragged by Patrick Reed in 2018. You can’t blame Bradley for historic overthinkers because they try to avoid those fates with minimal resistance.

But, for at least one week, you can’t blame us for mourning. Playing the captain was originally a lesson for everyone about the truly capable elite professional golfers. Or everything they can’t handle. It’s been over 50 years and now it feels like it will never be.

The author welcomes your comments at sean.zak@golf.com.