00:00Oh, Woody, you've been a part of so many different Ryder Cups, you know, away, home, you know, different locker rooms, different players throughout the years with plenty of different captains and vice captains.
00:09I want I want to get your opinion on how it's evolved over the years from from stats to how these captains are pairing guys up and just the overall just connection of the groups.
00:21You know, I imagine from that first one to where you are now with Keegan's captaincy with this with this Ryder Cup team, it's probably changed a lot.
00:30So from your perspective, from that first one, you've been a part of how how has it evolved over the years?
00:35No question. Like anything, any sport these days, so much of it now is analytics.
00:40And you just do deeper dives into who to pair together, where to put them, what formats to play.
00:47My first one was O2 with Curtis Strange as the captain.
00:51And this this wasn't, you know, out of the ordinary at all at the time, but it was much more by feel.
00:56You know, who do you who do you want to play with? Who's your buddy?
00:59Do you guys play the same golf golf? Back then it was the same is a one ball rule.
01:03So you kind of had to take that into factor.
01:05But it was much more. Who do you play your practice rounds with?
01:09You know, who do you want to play with? Not not necessarily taking a look at does do your games fit together?
01:15Are your strengths good for this golf course?
01:17And even even going down to when you're playing foursomes alternate shot, you know, what tee shots do you like?
01:25You know, I like these ones. I like this par three.
01:28Now it's it's boiling down to, OK, if I hit off the odds, I'm going to be putting more.
01:34I'm the better putter of our of our two. So that's the way you do it.
01:38Not to mention that the statistics that go into the analytics in terms of, you know, captain's picks, what golf style fits this golf course.
01:48You know, there's a lot more picking for teammates, you know, for for putting partnerships together rather than, you know, I think this this guy might be playing the best.
02:03But the where he's been playing good isn't anything like Bethpage Black.
02:07So it's it's sometimes you look at those things. And I think guys like, you know, late in the year when when like Sam Burns and Cameron Young started playing well, those games, their games fit Bethpage to a tee.
02:22So I think it really lifted Keegan Keegan's not spirits, but really made some some decisions very clear for him.
02:30Sure. Well, here's another question I got for you, John, is with all of these team rooms you've been a part of and maybe just some some losing teams that you look back and you think maybe you question the pairings or maybe even question the picks.
02:45But leaving those rooms and sometimes talking with the players and caddies, did it ever feel like to you that the players were frustrated with either the communication aspect of, gosh, I can't believe I wasn't told I was going to be playing with this guy or, you know, I would have loved to been on this hole.
03:04Was there a sense of that or was that happening for years with with other captains, just the communication aspect?
03:13You kind of briefly talked about it, but was that something that was happening year after year with, you know, especially when you look at the results?
03:19I mean, it's not like the U.S. has been very dominant in this.
03:22Yeah, it wasn't it. I wouldn't say it was commonplace, but it definitely happened.
03:26I think sometimes you there was one example I can I can I can give you where where we didn't.
03:37In 14, Hunter and Jim Furyk played four four ball together in the morning, both of them played fantastic golf.
03:45I think we won four and three. And then, you know, we were told we were going back right back out in the afternoon.
03:52Same pairing. Fine. Love Jim Furyk, one of the best team players you could possibly have.
03:57But we hadn't hit his golf ball once all week long because that was never going to be a pairing for foursome.
04:02So I spent, you know, you get 45 minutes to maybe an hour if you're lucky.
04:08So I spent the first 10 minutes talking to the Callaway guys trying to get the what does this golf ball do?
04:15And then, you know, trying to set up a little practice area for Hunter just to hit some wedges.
04:19Really, we weren't we weren't really concerned about, you know, long irons, but let's get this thing down for wedges.
04:25And it was just a quick turnaround and trying to figure that out.
04:29And you're a player. You know what you want.
04:32And what I tried to do as a caddy was to whatever the round was, no surprises.
04:39Yeah, I want I want a plan for everything.
04:42You want to know what the plan is for everything.
04:44So when we get out there on the 13th hole, I'm not springing something on you that we haven't talked about.
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