🍕 Mamma Mia!
Ryder Cup Preview | Stats, Trends & More!
By the time you’re reading this, I’m en route to Italy for the Ryder Cup. The content schedule will be a bit different, as you can imagine. There is already a Ryder Cup Preview available on YouTube where I deep-dive Marco Simone and chat through the players who will be teeing it up. My plan is to create a shorter preview when salaries are released — assuming everything goes well in Italy.
My data site, RickRunGood.com, will be updated as normal — currently with European Tour, Korn Ferry Tour & LIV Golf slates available for review. I appreciate your patience as I embark on this bucket list trip.
I’ve already received a few notes from fans who will be in attendance. Looking forward to meeting up!
Chat soon.
Rick
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🏆 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup 🍷
Sahith Theegala: $9,800 | 139.5 Points
S.H. Kim: $7,400 | 127.5 Points
Cameron Davis: $10,100 | 120.5 Points
Matt Kuchar: $8,100 | 106.5 Points
Troy Merritt: $7,100 | 99.5 Points
Callum Tarren: $7,300 | 90.5 Points
TOTAL: $49,800 | 684.0 Points
🤫JT Calms The Critics
In terms of Strokes Gained, last week was Justin Thomas’ best start (+11.23) since the Phoenix Open (+11.90).
His approaches were “vintage JT”, gaining 4.99 strokes in that category — his second best event since July of 2022.
The big news is the 3.18 strokes he gained putting, making that two straight starts of 3+ SG with the flatstick. The last time he accomplished that feat was the 2022 Bryon Nelson (T5) and 2022 PGA Championship (WIN).
Has JT done enough to settle your stomach?
🫀 Short Game Sahith
Big hat-tip to Sahith Theegala who captured his first career PGA TOUR victory last week in his 74th career start. Scottie Scheffler’s first win came in his 72nd career start (just sayin’!).
Sahith did his damage on and around-the-greens, gaining 4.96 strokes from greenside and another 8.93 strokes on the putting surfaces.
That was the second-best short-game week of the season, behind Taylor Montgomery’s +14.17 en route to a T22 (sheesh) at the Texas Open.
Here are the Top 10 short-game weeks since 2019.
🗞️ Marco! Polo!
The 45th edition of the Ryder Cup will be played at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club just outside of Rome, Italy. The course was re-designed in 2018 to “create a course suited to match play golf”. Boy — did they ever.
There are some quirks to Marco Simone and there are countless options, especially off-the-tee. That’s going to play so well in match play since it should allow decisions to be make based on risk/reward scenarios. Let’s look at a few holes.
Number 3:
The tee-shot on #3 is basically the “standard” risk-reward shot at Marco Simone. You’ll see a lot of doglegs and subtle doglegs that will require committed lines off-the-tee. The reward is being closer to the hole, the risk is that the landing areas narrow and the rough/fescue lurks everywhere.
Number 5:
Despite being early in the round, #5 is a great match-play hole. A short par-4 with a tiny landing zone at 300 yards and water lurking down the left starting at only 270 yards. To completely remove the water option, players will need to lay way back. Holes will be won & lost here.
Numbers 11 & 12:
This corner of the property will be where lots of matches are effectively decided. First, #11 is a drivable par-3 at just 308 yards to the front of the green. Taking a crack at the surface might be a requirement for those trailing in their match. A much safer and easier layup awaits at just 250 yards.
Then, #12 provides an infinite number of lines off-the-tee — depending on conditions, wind, confidence and match status. The dogleg left is protected by inside bunkers and a narrow landing zone. Any shot that is slightly off will be punished.
✈️ Off & Running!
It’s here, it’s finally here! The Ryder Cup DFS Preview is linked below. As mentioned, I have not seen salaries at this point because they haven’t been released. My goal is to make a second, shorter video when that happens — hopefully from an Italian cafe or gelato shop (fingers crossed!).
🍵 Not Their First Espresso
The last three editions of the Italian Open have been played at Marco Simone with Nicolai Hojgaard, Robert MacIntyre & Adrian Meronk hoisting trophies. Below is the history for all Ryder Cuppers who have played at the Italian Open held at Marco Simone.
🪙 The Da Vinci Code
The only thing more enticing than revealing the location of the Holy Grail is revealing the potential partnerships for Team USA. Shoutout to Josh Segal who poses his own theory, based on some investigative work.
This team photo was released when the US went to scout Marco Simone a few weeks ago:
Josh pointed out that the hats Team USA is wearing don’t exactly feel random and, in fact, might give us a glimpse into the potential pods.
Sporting blue hats: Wyndham Clark, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and (presumably) Jordan Spieth who was not present.
Sporting white hats: Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Max Homa, Brian Harman and (presumably) Patrick Cantlay along with Xander Schauffele who were not present.
That makes sense considering it’s likely that Scheffler and Burns will find themselves together along with some other natural pairings.
The theory is backed up by each assistant captain wearing either a blue or white hat. That would put Stricker/DL3 with the white hats and Furyk/Cink with the blues. They could be assigned to each pod.
The kicker here is that Captain Zach Johnson is wearing a monstrosity red/white/blue/tie-dye hat that would signify him overseeing the entire team.
It’s crazy, but just crazy enough to be true.
🏌️♂️Rory’s New Buddy
McIlroy will be teeing it up in his 7th Ryder Cup but he is seemingly on the lookout for a new partner.
He has played in 22 partner sessions over his previous six Ryder Cups. His partners, ranked by frequency:
6x: Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell
4x: Sergio Garcia
3x: Thomas Pieters
1x: Andy Sullivan, Thorbjorn Olesen, Shane Lowry
That’s right — Shane Lowry is the only partner that Rory' has played with before who is on this current team and they played together once — losing 4&3 to Tony Finau and Harris English at Whistling Straits.
🔢 The Records!
Historic Ryder Cup records, sorted by most matches.
⚠️ In Case You Missed It
🎥 The “Every Hole At…” series from Golf Digest continues to be one of my favorite things on YouTube and their flyover of Marco Simone is no exception.
🏅 My buddy Wyatt Worthington fired a final round 64 to win the APGA Cisco Invitational. Big time win!