Ryder Cup countdown: Biggest challenges for Captains Bradley, Donald
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Hello and welcome to this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. Rex, you're in New York City for the Ryder Cup Year to Go Countdown event, a promotional event in Time Center. The captains, the respective teams, U.S. Captain Keegan Bradley and European Captain Luke Donald, just gave about a 45-minute press conference with reporters on site and the Zoom call. Then they did live-to-tapes.

with the Golf Today crew. Then you and I join Mark Rolfing for a Golf Today roundtable. We are very much Ryder Cup'd out at this point, and yet we're still going to tape a 20-25 minute podcast for all the stuff we could get into on our hit. You were there. You were in person. What was the energy like and the atmosphere?

I like the energy and I like the conversation that you and I had on golf today. And this is going to be better because we have a little bit more room without Damon interrupting us all the time like he likes to do so much. Because I was struck by two things. One, the idea, and I asked Keegan specifically about when the time comes, if you do qualify, and he's been pretty clear about this, he's not going to make himself a pick next year for the U.S. team. Even if he's seventh on the list, I think he's been pretty clear about that one. But there is a universe where he would finish inside the top six.

And automatically qualify. And that's where he starts to hem and haw a little bit. I'm kind of with you on that one, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. And we sort of kicked it around a little bit on golf today, but I kind of wanted to cut to the chase that it simply cannot happen. And.

And I'm taken by two things. One, that it's so difficult in the modern era to try to both be a captain and a player that Jim Furyk wouldn't even allow Keegan to be an assistant captain two weeks ago at the President's Cup because he felt like it was going to be too much. Keegan admitted as much.

today in the press conference that, yeah, I was more, I was so focused on what I was doing, trying to prepare, trying to play. I didn't really pay attention to what Jim Furyk was doing. He told me after the fact that he plans to sit down and sort of unpack everything that went well and maybe didn't go well at Royal Montreal. But, and that's just as an assistant captain, the idea that you could do a Ryder Cup as a captain in the modern era and do it well is, is beyond belief. And it goes back to, I was kind of told this story recently,

by a member of the European tour who was in South Florida earlier this year. I believe it was in January. Luke Donald had some people over to his house. The DP World Tour officials were there essentially just trying to come to terms with the idea that, okay, Luke was going to be a captain for the second time after being successful in Rome. And one of these officials said that the conversation did turn.

To, okay, is there a player in the modern era who could do both, who could be a captain and a player? And then immediately Rory's name came up because I think it's probably no secret that Rory is very interested in being the captain the next time around when the Ryder Cup is played at Adair Manor in Ireland. He's close with the people who own that resort. It obviously would mean the world to Ireland. It would mean the world to

to Rory. And from what I was told initially, Rory's thoughts were, yes, that I can do both. I'm still competitive, clearly still want to play on the team, but I would love the opportunity to do this. I was told by the end of that dinner party that they'd come to the conclusion that yes, Luke was going to get a second term, but they'd also come to the conclusion that no, you can't do both. It's simply too overwhelming. I think one of the questions that the official asked Rory was after Rome, the Monday after Rome, last year's Ryder Cup,

tell me how you felt. And he said, I was exhausted. I was spent. I had nothing else to

to give. And he goes, okay, so compound everything that you gave as a player and you have to give even more as a captain because there can be no surprises. You have to, you know, turn over every stone looking for some sort of answers. That's what Luke Donald did so well in Rome. And for Rory, who has a vested interest in somehow trying to do both in a few years when it goes to Ireland, if he can come to that conclusion, I think eventually Keegan's going to get there, but right now he's still very much playing around on the fence.

Now, keep in mind, Tiger Woods was a playing captain for the U.S. President's Cup team five years ago. Yes, it's not. President's Cup is not the same thing as the Ryder Cup. There are way more promotional events such as the Ryder Cup.

year to go event that you just attended that he would have to be a part of as well. Look, by all accounts, Tiger Woods made some good decisions with his lineups that week, with the pairings that week. They were trailing heading into singles before a spirited rally on the final day to win yet again at Royal Melbourne. He was the American's best player that week in 2019. So I guess it is possible, if

Is it the best scenario for the U S Ryder cup team? I would argue, no, like this, this can't, this can't happen. And in my opinion, this won't happen. This would not have even been a discussion topic. Rex had Keegan Bradley, not one, the BMW championship. Keep in mind, he just barely eat inside the top 50 in the FedEx cup points. That was significant. Not just because he got Keegan into the BMW and he was able to win the second playoff event that got him into all the signature events that

and in major championships in all likelihood in 2025. That's where he'd be able to keep tabs on all the players who would be prospective players on his team, but it also keeps him in line for the biggest games

point payouts here in terms of the major championships and the signature events in the PGA Tour. That is where these players who are going to be automatically qualifying, there's going to be six automatic qualifiers in the U.S. team. That is where they are going to potentially mop up. In my opinion, Keegan Bradley is 26th

Right now in the U S point standings based just on what happened in 2024 and the major championships and the players championships. Those are the only five counting events. If Keegan Bradley does not win a major championship in 2025, this is essentially a non-starter. We've already seen him when it's a true event during the qualifying period for the Ryder cup in 2023. And it still wasn't enough to be on that team. It is so competitive and it's going to be so distracting. Like he like here's, here's just a scenario. Keegan Bradley, uh,

He teased it up at Pebble Beach. He shoots 66 in the opening round of the PGA Tour second signature event of the season. Is everyone going to be talking about Keegan Bradley's form at the time? Or are they going to say, whoa, good start here. If you look ahead to Sunday, you win this tournament. You're going to be right in the Ryder Cup mix. That storyline is going to dog him.

for the entirety of the spring and the summer. Amon suggested on our Golf Today roundtable that Keegan basically needs to withdraw himself from consideration. He essentially is. Like you listen to him after the President's Cup, I talked to him, he said it would be virtually impossible

for him to do both. There is nothing more important to Keegan Bradley in 2025, he said in his own words, than being the winning captain for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. I think this is much to do about nothing. It will not. It

It cannot happen. It's a fun discussion topic because we're 11 months away. We have nothing else to talk about as it relates to the Ryder Cup. But this is not going to happen, even though Keegan Bradley is 14th in the world ranking right now and still at the top of this game. No, and I think you're right. I think the idea that somehow he could play his way into the top six is I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's pretty far out there when you consider the level.

of play when you consider the level of competition. I think it's only a conversation because it's not something that has come up. Certainly since Tiger Woods was the captain of the president's cup team, as you pointed out in 2019, but that's a, such a different animal. I, I keep going back to the idea that if somehow Tiger,

It was going to be too much for him. It was going to overwhelm him. I actually jotted down a quote that he gave this afternoon during his press conference when he was talking about Montreal. And he said, quote, I was really nervous to play and I didn't want to think about both things at one time. That's as an assistant captain at the President's Cup. We've already made the distinction. Everybody knows those are two vastly different animals. And as we're about to talk about now, this Ryder Cup is going to be even more so. This is the Beth Pedro.

Ryder Cup. I think this one is going to be different on so many levels as far as just attention, eyeballs, how many directions the captains are going to be pulled. I think it's impossible to say he could pull off both. I think he could qualify. Like, I don't think it's outlandish. He's still playing well enough. But man, I just don't see how he can do both. We have decades of historical data that shows that that year's Ryder Cup captain, their performance, their form just falls off a cliff.

Like we, we have seen that time and time again. I remember when Steve Stricker was named the 2021, uh, us Ryder cup captain. We thought that Stricker could be on the team. We thought Davis love could be on the team in 2012. It just never pans out that way. The performance falls off a cliff. I would expect he can Bradley, even though again, he just won the second playoff event on the PGA tour.

That the same fate will happen to him. He will not be among the automatic qualifiers and thus will not be on the Ryder Cup team as a player. It is an interesting topic, though, Rex, is one of the things when I was reporting out the story on President's Cup Sunday was Keegan Bradley talking about how nervous he was heading into singles and that he thought he was going to throw up.

And that he had been a decade removed from this and he wanted it not just for himself, but for his captain, for believing in him, for his teammates, both present and future, who are going to be watching him to see how he was going to play. Like he was like physically nervous to the point that he was almost about to hurl in the U.S. team room. That gave me a little bit of pause.

And I'm curious your thoughts after seeing him in this press conference, right? Because if he was that amped up, if he was that anxious, if he was that nervous as a player, what's going to happen at the Ryder Cup with all of the attention, with all of the scrutiny, with all of the expectation that the U.S. should not just win but probably win handily today?

At home. Do you think because he is such an anxious and emotional personality that he is built for what could be a very, very tense situation, creating the pairings, warding off any sort of momentum swings and charges from the European team, setting a Sunday singles lineup, like handling all the duties week of and in the competition, just sort of base personality wise.

I think he brings an interesting characteristic to the captaincy that we really haven't seen. I would say maybe on some level that was Paul Azinger, where he sort of took it to the next level, but he also had a level of energy that we haven't necessarily seen from U.S. captains in recent years. And I'll go immediately to Zach Johnson or Jim Furyk or even Steve Stricker. All dynamic leaders, all good captains on whatever level you want to put them at, but all of them kind of also adhere to the same idea that, okay, I'm just not going to upset the apple cart.

I'm going to try to keep things as calm and as steady and unsurprising in the team room as I possibly can. And that spilled over to those of us who carry notebooks and microphones for a living. They weren't really exciting captains. That's why we were looking forward to this Ryder Cup next year so much, because we had the opportunity.

for Liv Goff of these very real personalities being in the mix. I'm talking about a Phil Mickelson and a Sergio Garcia or maybe Ian Poulter or Tiger Woods where they're not afraid to let these personalities sort of spill over into what is the Ryder Cup. He's going to be so different for all the reasons you just pointed out. I mean, he makes cats nervous when they watch him play golf.

because of the way he goes back and forth over top of the golf ball. And I think he's going to bring that same energy. You can't be someone who's different. I would hope that he watched Jim Furyk really closely as much as he could during the president's cup, because he sort of had that calming influence in the middle of what was a very eventful week for the U S team. You sweep,

Sweep the first session and then you get sweep the second session and suddenly things aren't going as planned. And I think Keegan did have some awareness that, oh, Jim stuck with the game plan. He never panicked after Friday. So I would like to think some of that spills over. But man, the idea that the PG of America clearly wanted to color outside the lines.

when it came to this pick. They clearly wanted to wrestle some of the control back when it came to who was going to captain their Ryder Cup team from the players. And this all started in 2014. And you can track the story and how it evolved pretty closely. And that the PGA of America felt like they had gone maybe too far in one direction by giving the players so much power to decide who the next captain was going to be. So it seems to me they went hard in the other direction that, OK, he was a guy that wasn't part of

lack of a better term, the cool kids club when it came to Rome. He wasn't a pick. He probably should have been a pick going into that, but he wasn't good enough to be in the club for that Ryder Cup. And now he's going to be in charge of the Ryder Cup next year. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

And keep in mind, I love what we've seen from Keegan Bradley over these past couple of months. Like we've, we've learned more about Keegan Bradley as a player, as a person than we did in his 10 plus years on the PGA tour, what drives him, what makes him tick, what his goals and aspirations are. Like, I absolutely love that about Keegan Bradley, but I think knowing his personality, seeing how he performs, hearing what he thought about

inside the ropes and inside the team room at Royal Montreal. I think it'll be imperative that he builds out a support staff that puts him in the best possible position to make the necessary decisions that are going to be made and also have a calming influence on a player who is clearly a little bit uptight. One of the other storylines I thought that emerged from this press conference, Rex, besides Keegan Bradley potential playing captain was

Was the impact of the fans and the PGA of America, you know, potentially preempting any sort of unruly fan behavior that has become synonymous with New York sports fans? What's your read on this? Is this is this issue overblown? Is are we underselling the impact of what could be just absolutely catastrophic behavior from the spectators at Bethpage Black?

I want to make this short because I want them to clip it because I have such a hot take when it comes to this twofold. I was not kidding on golf today when I said I got heckled this morning going and it's just a two block walk. I had to walk across Times Square. So I got heckled. So I can't imagine. About what? About what? It had something mean to do with the golf channel. I don't want to repeat it because this is a family podcast. So it wasn't very pretty. It was a brand.

Sure. Yeah, let's go ahead and go with that. And I tend to agree with what Eamon said. He kind of said it half jokingly. But if things don't go well for the Americans, trust me, that crowd is going to be just as mean to the U.S. team as it's going to be to the European team. However, and here's my hot take. You've heard this before. So this has been reserved time and time again. I am tired of every time we're going into one of these matches.

And everyone talking about, well, we want golf to be a mainstream sport. And then we get there and it turns out to be ugly because that's what mainstream sports is. And those of us in golf all want to clutch the pearls and say, this is not what we want at all. This isn't in the spirit of the game at all. Well, you can't have it both ways. Anyone that went to the New York Yankees game last night or the New York Mets game, unbelievable. Both those teams are in the playoffs right now.

We'll tell you that mainstream sports are kind of ugly. They're kind of mean. There's a lot of things said that probably shouldn't be said, but that's fandom when it comes to a mainstream sport. So if golf wants to continue to be a niche sport, which it is right now, then fine. Let's just keep the crowds the way they are at Augusta National, where no one's unruly. Everyone's enjoying themselves. Everyone knows when to clap. There's a difference between being ugly and...

as I would argue it is in Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, et cetera, and interfering with the competition. I would argue that none of the 24 players are going to be teeing it up in the Ryder Cup, want there to be any sort of

you know, negative interaction between a player and a caddy or the fan. I think they're perfectly fine with them booing bad shots, cheering missed shots, whatever the, whatever the case may be being hostile, having a bunch of animus directed towards the visiting team. What you don't want to have is something that spills over and affects the integrity of the competition. You, I mean, you never see that.

And I don't know what that means. I mean, I guess that's screaming in the back of someone's backswing or if they have a two footer. I guess that's what you're talking about there. My argument, my counter to that would be, yes, golf is different when it comes to that, because it doesn't matter how loud you scream when you're at a New York Jets game.

You're not going to impact Aaron Rodgers one way or the other. I mean, he's still going to perform the way he was going to perform, whether if you were screaming or not. So golf is different on that front. But if there is not behavior that's considered over the top within golf circles, I'm going to be shocked because we all know what this crowd is going to be. We all know who they are. I've covered major championships at Bethpage before. I've heard things said there that you don't hear anywhere else. And then you factor in to sort of that hometown thing.

Team concept, the idea that this is tribal to the New York area fans. This is their golf course, Bethpage. It's the people's golf course. And this is your team, Team USA. I'm going to be shocked if there aren't things said that are over the top, that aren't offensive to both players, caddies, families, anyone else involved with it on both teams. You're right. I don't want it to impact the outcome. I just don't think you can police that.

And look, we were both in Royal Montreal. We were both at the President's Cup. Sky Shuffler's caddy, Ted Scott, got into it with a fan after he deemed something that the fan said was derogatory towards Shuffler's wife. Like if that could happen with the nice Canadian folks, like, yes, it's going to get very nasty. It could potentially. Did you find those Canadians to be nice?

No, I really didn't. French Canadians are a whole different animal. But I think the worst thing that could possibly happen, and I think you're writing for NBCSports.com,

slash golf today, Rex, is this being a make or break Ryder Cup? If the PGA of America lets us get out of control, if it becomes where fans are shouting and Roy McIlroy's backswing, or they are shouting and John Rob misses a three foot putt, if it does affect the legitimacy of the competition, there's going to have to be a full sale reset. This is essentially the war by the Jersey shore situation.

At least it's being billed that way with 11 months to go. I hope it doesn't come that way. They can police it all they want. They can have monitors inside the ropes. I do think, obviously, there will be some vitriol. There will be some nasty things said. I think there certainly will be some edge, some edginess from the European players. I think all of our hopes are that it does not affect the actual football.

I mean, when you look at what they're going to do and there's going to be however many people there are, the grandstands they're building around the first tee in the 18th green is going to be so massive that they're going to surround both that first tee and the 18th green. So that's going to be an amputator like we've never seen, even at the Ryder Cup. And we've seen some pretty cool things at the Ryder Cup. I think the grandstands alone are going to hold 5000 people.

the idea that you could police one person yelling in john rome's backswing is kind of comical and i'm pretty sure you can't preempt it obviously the only thing that you could do is just kick them out immediately uh that's assuming you can find them that's assuming that out of those 5 000 people that are just in the grandstands you're going to be able to zero in on the one person that yelled mashed potato right before roy mack they always find the nfl stadium who pours a drink on a player it's amazing how they single them out immediately

It was funny. I was having this conversation before we went on golf today. And I was there was a one in New York's finest standing next to me. And he was asking what we're going to talk about. And I said it and he put it in his context. It was like, I don't know how they expect us to find one person out of 30,000 who is screaming.

So again, I don't know if make or break is entirely fair because I don't think the Ryder Cup is going to go anywhere. But again, this idea that you want to be a mainstream sport right up until the fact you look mainstream sports in the face and you realize that, oh, that's ugly. That's a ridiculous concept to me. I'm tired of it.

The fans always sort of police themselves too, don't they? Like if Jon Rahm is giving you the death stare, if Adam Hayes is barging into the crowd to find out who did it, like all the fans all of a sudden are going to be like, oh, it was him. He's the one who yelled, squire him away. I want none of this smoke. I really do not think it's going to be that big of an issue. But again, nothing else to talk about.

11 months ahead of time. One thing that wasn't asked of the two captains today, right before we get into a secondary topic was this idea of, is the home course home field advantage, uh,

Too much swinging in one direction. You look at the last five cups, the average, excuse me, the minimum margin of victory has been at least five points. The only one that didn't was 2012. And of course, that was a four point margin in the Americans favor heading into the singles before the miracle at Medina.

Do you think there should be some sort of cap on the home field advantage? You're already having the home crowd. Should the captains sort of not be able to put their fingers on the scale in terms of course setup as well? Is there sort of a way to neutralize what has become a pretty significant advantage for the home team?

To be fair, the captains don't have as much control over golf course setup now as maybe they used to. And I think probably the tipping point came after LaGolf National in Paris, where everyone who was there will tell you that was extreme. It was extremely set up for the European team, which look, Thomas Buhon did a brilliant job of doing that. Every single player on the American team had a hard time hitting fairways that week and that

It meant that you probably weren't going to win holes. And that's as simple as it got. My guess would be, and Keegan was sort of asked about this during the press conference, and he kind of dismissed the idea that he's going to have a huge hand when it comes to the golf course setup. Now, this goes back to, I remember when Davis Love set up Medina years and years ago, and it was essentially Augusta National. There was virtually no Rothman.

because he wanted his team of bombers, which at the time was DJ and Brooks and Bryson, whoever else, Phil, whoever else was on that team to just be able to stand on tee boxes and swing as hard as they can. I don't know that you can do that to Beth paid because it's sort of an animal in and of itself.

It is a difficult golf course under the best of circumstances. So I'm not quite sure how far they can actually go. So I don't know. And you and I had a really interesting conversation last year with Paul McGinley about golf course setup and maybe captains had taken it over the top. So I think both organizations, DP World Tour and the PGA of America,

have dialed that back to a certain degree. And certainly the week of the tournament, to be clear, neither captain has any say in the setup that falls entirely on this time around. It'll be Kerry Haig with the PGA of America. I think this is just, it goes to the heart of, it's just really, really hard to do. And we see it year, we see it every two years when it comes to, when it comes to,

It's to the American team. And when they're home, there's just a feeling that they are more comfortable in this setting. Exact same thing happens overseas. The Europeans are just more comfortable when it comes to Paris or Rome or wherever else, the Ryder Cup. And you can't take away from that. I don't think you should.

Keegan Bradley was asked what he expects from Beth Bates Black. He has not been in the golf course in a number of years. He said he expected to be as difficult as it typically is. Keep in mind, the 2019 PGA Championship, when Beth Bates Black last hosted a big-time event, just six players were under par. The Americans can sort of put their...

Thumbs on the scale as much as they want. They can, they can cut the rough. They could put the pins in the middle of the greens as Davis loved the third did in 2016 at Hazeltine is still going to be an absolute monster full of 475 yard holes. You're going to have to hit your mid to long irons. Well, that is typically the American strength.

And I think that is why Bethpage Black was selected as a venue for the Ryder Cup to begin with in terms of the location as well. Let's end briefly, Rex, with what do you think after hearing the captains today for each team?

what do you think is their biggest challenge? Let's start with Keegan Bradley. If you remove the aspect of will here, won't we be a playing captain? What do you think the biggest issue or challenge that he's going to have to face is dealing with the emotions that you touched on earlier? He is the type of person that is driven by emotions, both positively and negatively. And,

And obviously, when things are going well, like they have been for Keegan over the last few months, you get a very outspoken, very calming presence. Like when he was sitting in the media center today, he came across as a as a leader. We talk about coaches winning press conferences all the time. I would say Keegan won today's press conference because he came across as very much a captain. So.

If things go wrong, if you end up in a scenario that Jim Furyk found himself on Friday, when suddenly what looked like it was going to be another runaway turned into a very, very close competition, can Keegan sort of keep a cap on those emotions that have driven him his entire career? My guess is he'll spend the next year coming up with a plan that allows him to work his way through that with his assistant captains, with John Wood, who's the team manager. I think for Luke Donald, it's a much more real challenge, and that will be dealing with the live players.

And right now, I think the way the DP World Tour has this set up, there is an avenue back. And now you have to give both organizations, PGA of America and DP World Tour, credit for being the first to create a pathway back specific to this event for those players who join Live Golf. Now, right now, that's it. There aren't any other splinters that players can go in different directions. But when Luke was asked point blank, it was no, I'm

I'm glad John Rahm has decided to keep his membership. I'm glad John Rahm has decided to play in his minimum number of events to make sure he maintains that membership, which would allow him to be a potential pick next year. I think right now the challenge for him, though, is to figure out exactly how his team is going to come together because there are still hurt feelings on that side when it comes to Liv Goff and what happened. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because it's certainly a different dynamic for Luke Donald than what he faced yesterday.

in Rome where some of the old guard really wasn't going to be factoring into who was going to be among that 12, whether it was Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, like those guys were not going to be in Rome as players, how Luke Donald navigates these potential landmines, how he reacclimates those players back into a team. And like, I think of Sergio Garcia who made some pretty disparaging remarks to some fellow European tour members on his way out the door. He has resigned his European tour membership. Luke Donald said that he said,

conversations over the past couple weeks with Sergio about potentially rejoining the DP World Tour and doing everything he needs to do to be eligible for this year. You would think, based on the way that Sergio Garcia played this year, even though I think he's, what, 44 years old? Like, he had a great year on Live.

third on the live point standings. He won an event, runner-up in three other events. You know his history in this event. You know that he can sort of handle the cauldron that is the Ryder Cup. I think he would be like a perfect back-end captain's pick at numbers 10 through 12 once you get the players on the PGA Tour who are performing or the European Tour who are performing well and Luke Donald wants to fill out

His team that way. I think that's the biggest challenge for Luke Donald because it's, it's ROM it's Hatton. I think those players are probably givens, but what do you do with a Sergio? What do you do with an Adrian Marank who was kind of on the cutting room floor of 2023 team that sort of spurred him to move, to live for 2024 as well. Could a David Pooj, the Spaniard step up this year and sort of, then you're sorting waiting for,

How much do live golf events matter versus regular PGA tour events or even the Rolex series events on the DP world tour as it relates to Keegan Bradley and that same sort of decision, you know, those players are eligible now at the PGA of America made live golf, one of its approved tours, but we're basically talking about,

one, two, maybe three players. You know, Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion. Yes, there's probably some hurt feelings based on the way that Bryson left the tour, was one of the 11 players who sued the tour. I think...

If you're an American player, you understand the value of having Bryson on that team, particularly the skills that he's going to have and how that can match up with Beth Plage Black. How about the other players? Would it be a Brooks Koepka, who hasn't been a factor in the last five major championships? He's going to have a hard time accruing points. Dustin Johnson, his play has really fallen off in 2024. Does he have sort of one last gasp of proud champion left in him? Who else? Taylor Gooch?

Patrick Reed, it's hard to imagine that those players are going to be in the mix. To me, that's a much more difficult scenario for Luke Donald, mending some relationships, re-acclimating those players into what could be, yes, obviously those guys want a John Rahman or Sergio Garcia on the team based on their performance, based on their play, based on the Ryder Cup experience. But I think personality-wise, there's certainly some work to do there.

Well, and I think when you look at the U.S. side, look, this happened in Rome, like Bruce Koepka was given a spot or not given a spot on the team. I would say he earned his spot on the team based on how he was going to play. But to your point, their opportunities are limited. And so we've already talked about how Keegan Bradley is going to be trying to climb uphill when it comes to trying to be the sixth to qualify for this team. It's even more hard for the guys on live golf because you essentially have four chances to

to do it. And if you don't play well in two of those four chances, you probably don't have much of a chance at all. I think you're right. It's going to be a really, really short list. I think Brooks is always going to be welcome back. Bryson is a bit of a different dynamic, but if he continues to play in the major championships, the way he played last year, I think he's going to be hard to sort of keep off that team. And I think deep down inside listening to Keegan, he's sort of hoping that

beyond hope that they'll figure something out over the next few months. And I'm talking about they, the PGA tour, live golf and the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia. Because he keeps talking about, we'll have to deal with that when the time comes. I think his idea right now, let's kick the can until we're in a situation where we can't get the can anymore. Both captains said repeatedly, they want the best 12 players who are able and eligible to play. I think that is welcome news for people who are tired of hearing about the division in golf.

Over the past three years, put it aside and have the best teams possible. Rex, you have a car coming to pick you up from a New York City hotel. You were supposed to be in New York for at least 24 more hours. Going to rack up some fancy dinners on the PGA of America's dime. Maybe go catch a show, go to Broadway, go to a game. Instead, Hurricane Milton, we don't mean to make light of this, is bearing down on Florida. You have made the controversial decision to curtail your trip

and come back home to your beloved wife, the bunkmate. Please, the floor is yours. What went into your decision? I was holding off on making the decision, just like Keegan Bradley seems to be holding off on making the decision when it comes to Liv Goff, or it's just because I wanted to see how the storm progressed and exactly what was going to happen with the airports in Orlando. And before I even showed up to this morning's press conference, I'd gotten a notice from Delta, thank you very much, that my flight had been canceled on Thursday was when I was supposed to go home.

So I made the decision to fly home today, not because I'm so much worried about what the storm is going to bring to Orlando. And it looks like an absolutely awful storm. Oh, you should be, though. You should be. I am. You're a bit more of a weather geek than I am. I've lived in the same house for over 20 years and we've never met.

had, knock on wood, never had anything major as far as storm goes. Because again, we live in Orlando. If I lived on the coast, it would be an entirely different conversation. I spoke with a friend this morning in Tampa. They were being mandatory evacuated and everyone should do what they're told to. Because after watching what happened last week with Hurricane Helen, I think we should all be cognizant of the idea that these aren't normal hurricanes. These come with an extra punch. This one intensified to a category five

Really, really quickly, alarmingly fast. And so I made the decision to go home. Thank you, Delta. I got on an earlier flight. So I'm on like a 3.30 flight. So I should be home by 5.30 tonight because the bigger issue for me, as I pointed out to my beautiful wife, Bunkmate, that I know it feels like I'm abandoning you, but I still have three grown men living with me.

living at home in various stages of college and school, one of which is going to the fire academy, which would make him wildly more qualified in case something goes wrong at the house than I would be. I'm just going to turn into another liability, but I do think it's best that I'm home.

So just to be clear, and our social team can cut this clip if we need them to, you are returning home not because you think it's the right thing to do with what is projected to be one of the most devastating hurricanes that Florida has ever experienced. Oh, of course it's the right thing to do. Forecasted up to a category 200 miles an hour inland, which is pretty rare for a storm of this size. Not because of the potential devastation that your hometown of Longwood, Florida could be facing, but just because...

Delta canceled your flight for Thursday and you didn't want to stick in the city until Friday. No, because my idea was I was if I if I couldn't fly home on Thursday, which seems to me like that wasn't going to happen is the way the storm is sort of coming through. I was just going to fly to Jacksonville and stay at your house. And I don't know exactly how that was going to resonate with my wife and kids. So I decided it's best to go home tonight, be there when the storm comes through.

I mean, you mentioned I am a weather geek, a meteorological geek. Like this has been something for me to track over the past week. It's been pretty astounding to see the way that the storm has blown up. Obviously, we hope all of our friends and listeners and viewers who are in the Tampa area, the Sarasota area are heating up.

the advice. As the mayor said, if you are in an evacuation and do not, you will die. And that's always very sobering to hear. As beautiful as these things look, Rex, with satellite imagery, they are absolutely terrifying, the magnitude.

and the destructions. We do hope everyone on Florida's West Coast is safe. You and I will be back either Sunday or Monday for a recap of the week that was in golf. God willing, hopefully we do not lose power here in Jacksville where we're projected to receive 70 mile an hour winds, maybe some flash flooding. Orlando could certainly be getting the eye of a storm. Best wishes to you in Longwood.

as well and bunk i'm sure she'll be happy to have you home on tuesday night all right that is going to do it for this edition of the golf show podcast with rex and lav in the meantime you guys know the drill mbc sports.com slash golf rex will have a story up from today's press conference and his big takeaways there thanks for listening thanks for the support we'll talk to you guys in a couple of days

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