00:00When we look at the Walker Cup, we're talking about only two days of matches, so Saturday and Sunday, and there's no four ball like the Ryder Cup has foursomes and four ball that goes 36 holes.
00:11You're going to have four matches on Saturday morning, four matches on Sunday morning, just foursomes.
00:16And then you're going to have everybody playing on Sunday and then two guys sitting out on Saturday and singles.
00:21So with that in mind, knowing that this format is a little bit different, probably a little bit better for a team that has more depth, and you look at the last six years, U.S. has won five in the last six.
00:36What's been the word on the ground?
00:37Do you feel like one team or do you feel like GB&I has a chance this year to potentially win on the road?
00:44I think it's – I don't want to equate it to the President's Cup.
00:49I don't think it's that.
00:50I think it is obviously the United States has a deeper roster.
00:54You and I have talked about this a little bit of, you know, why can't it be closer to the Ryder Cup where you bring Europe and play?
01:01Well, that's because there is a Junior Ryder Cup, right?
01:03And this is the more historic of the competition, so this one gets all the good venues and the great places to go, but you omit the rest of Europe that would make this a little more interesting.
01:11I do think compared to, you know, recent years on the Walker Cup front that this GB&I team has more talent than they have had in the past.
01:20They have – I'm spacing on the kid from Florida State's name, Tyler Weaver.
01:25He's, you know, he's one of the top ten, you know, amateur in the world.
01:29He's going to be a great player for this team.
01:31They have a guy who just transferred to Carolina, Niall Shields Donegan, who made it to the semifinals of the USAM.
01:38He should be in good form.
01:40They have Ian Poulter's son, Luke Poulter, a number of other guys who – I think they have a fighting chance here.
01:45And I think a lot of it does come down to course strategy and how these guys choose to play the course in a way that, you know, it is – you have a lot of different options.
01:55And I think – I kind of want to rewind a little bit too and talk about some of these front nine holes as well because I think there's a lot of interesting things happening here.
02:02So on the first hole, it's getting started there where you're accustomed to seeing the driving range along the right side of one, and that's, you know, you can blow a driver over there, you know, a three-wheel drive you want to do it.
02:15That is out of bounds this week.
02:17There are hospitality tents there.
02:19Oh, wow.
02:20So no – all the people out there who are sick and tired of seeing T.O.R. leave on the PGA Tour, that is going to be a very nervy tee shot.
02:28And I think the issue with it too is – and this, again, comes down to lines and what the ball is going to do on the ground is that if you go too far left, that ball hits and starts running.
02:38It can end up in some of those native areas.
02:39It can end up in a bunker over there.
02:41So you really have to be able to commit to a line that's over the top of that tree, the line's the right side of that fairway, but also has a right-to-left shot shape.
02:49And for guys who predominantly, you know, it feels like a lot of the young guys are always trying to cut the ball to day, day, and age, that's a tough tee shot to take on as your first one of the day
02:58and hope that ball is going to hit its line, hold its line, and not drift over into the hospitality tents and end up out of bounds hitting three off the tee there.
03:05So I think that's a really interesting wrinkle, and I like the teeth that that adds to that first hole.
03:11Who are you planning on watching?
03:13Are you going to go over it all during the practice rounds to watch a little bit?
03:16Who would you like to get your eyes on?
03:17I definitely want to see Michael Assasso play this week, front of the show, of course.
03:21I want to see Niall play this week, you know, as a Carolina kid.
03:26And, yeah, I mean, I want to see all the guys I just mentioned.
03:29We just had Mason Howitz won the USM.
03:33Really, it's the cool thing I think about this competition is you can look back at some of these teams.
03:38USGA's put up a ton of really cool social content this week on both their account and the Walker Cup account.
03:43So you can go back and look and see all these guys who became stars, and this is where they kind of got their start.
03:48I mean, we were talking about this, I guess it was last summer, where Davis Thompson wins a John Deere.
03:53And I'm like, man, I was following him around at Seminole in 2021, and you can kind of see the origins of this.
03:58So it's, you know, you know some of the names you want to see, but part of me is, let's kind of take a look at everybody and put a pin in that, because then we're sitting here in however many years, one of these guys is going to be a star.
04:10And it's going to be really cool to say, hey, I saw him play the Walker Cup at Cypress Point.
04:14I'm bummed that Miles Russell's not here, of course.
04:16I think that's the one guy I really would have liked to say, I saw him play the Walker Cup at Cypress.
04:20But still, two rosters that are full of really, really good players that, you know, you get to kind of see their origins, which would be cool.
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