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Team USA’s beerfest, the Internationals’ biggest mistake, and a cart girl’s rough mishap – Australian Golf Digest

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  • October 1, 2024
Team USA’s beerfest, the Internationals’ biggest mistake, and a cart girl’s rough mishap – Australian Golf Digest

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are excited for the arrival of an international player who we believe will end decades of coming up short. That’s right, welcome to the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns!

Oh, did you think we were talking about the International Team at the Presidents Cup? Unfortunately, prime Vijay Singh and Ernie Els aren’t walking through that door. But KAT does play basketball for the Dominican Republic—and the 7-footer can crush 7-irons longer than most guys hit their driver. So maybe he could stop two winless droughts. In any event, I’m fired up about my Knicks, but also to talk some golf after a feisty competition in Canada. Let’s get to it.

WE’RE BUYING

Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay: These two pals had their Team USA dedication questioned at last year’s Ryder Cup, but there’s no debating they were the best two Americans at the Presidents Cup.

Once again, Cantlay delivered clutch putt after clutch putt, including the biggest one of the event to win that final foursomes match on Saturday to give the U.S. a comfortable cushion heading into Sunday. And this time, he even wore the team hat!

For this week, redemption is spelled P-A-T. You also can’t question his 15-6-1 career record playing for the Red, White and Blue. Although that does make you wonder how he’s never won—and barely contended—at a major. But let’s stay positive. The Pat in the Hat and Cigar Xander played great.

But they also had plenty of help . . .

Keegan Bradley: The final result was predictable, but at least it came with a cool Cup-clinching moment. It involved Bradley’s opponent missing a very makeable birdie putt on 18, but it was still a neat, script-worthy finish considering Keegan’s devastating snub from Team USA for last year’s Ryder Cup:

Hopefully, the Netflix cameras will catch just as much of his story from this year.

The rest of Team USA: Scottie Scheffler. Sam Burns. Collin Morikawa. Russell Henley. Basically everyone else on Captain Jim Furyk’s team (Other than one guy—more on that in a bit!) delivered for the cause. This was an absolutely loaded squad.

And for those pointing out that LIV would have the likes of Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann if not for the whole PGA Tour vs. LIV tiff, just remember that Team USA would also have Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau so they might have even had a bigger advantage. Plus, they had an assistant captain in Kevin Kisner, who motivated the team through unconventional methods:

And rewarded them by making beer runs:

Everyone on Team USA played their part perfectly.

Angel Hidalgo: We take a quick break from Presidents Cup chatter to talk about what went down at the Spanish Open, where a guy who was on the Alps Tour just a couple years ago and following around Jon Rahm as a fan took down his idol in a playoff:

What a moment. What a reaction. What a week for underdogs! Well, underdogs not playing in the Presidents Cup, that is.

WE’RE SELLING

The Presidents Cup: I don’t have the answer of how to fix this thing, but something needs to happen when one side wins TEN in a row. Team USA winning this event has turned into the biggest lock in sports, if you don’t count the Jets letting their fans down every season. These guys on the International Team are good, but good doesn’t cut it against the Americans.

Although, as we’ve seen plenty of times, Europe somehow finds a way to beat these guys. Maybe the answer is adding women to the mix. Or maybe it’s to take away players and make rosters smaller. Or, perhaps, there should be some sort of skills challenge component. I don’t know, but I do know that while golf fans are already excited about next year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, no one is thinking about the Presidents Cup at, um, (Googles where the 2026 Presidents Cup is) Medinah the following year. And that’s not good.

Brian Harman: Since winning the Open Championship last year, this guy hasn’t really played like the Champion Golfer of the Year. Harman had just one top 10 in his last 15 starts and he was the only player in the Presidents Cup who got shut out in terms of points.

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Vaughn Ridley

He’s lucky he’s a Georgia Bulldog, or Kevin Kisner might not have let him drink any celebratory beers.

Si-Woo Kim’s timing: First off, shout-out to Si-Woo and Tom Kim for spicing this event up. This South Korean duo was electric to watch, they played well, and they breathed life into this event. But if you’re going to do the Stephen Curry “Night-Night” celebration like Si-Woo did, you have to win the match. And even Steph himself confirmed as much:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/240929-curry-si-woo.png

Losing is one thing. Losing after doing that is an all-time tough scene.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour is back with the Sanderson Farms Championship, AKA that one they play in Mississippi for that fun rooster trophy.

Sanderson Farms Championship - Final Round

Matt Sullivan

Another reason to keep practicing, kids! But there’s plenty of other great action as the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship—with a loaded field led by Rahm and Rory McIlroy—takes place on the DP World Tour, and 30 PGA Tour cards will be handed out at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Random tournament fact: This is the first year the Korn Ferry Tour Championship is being played at French Lick, which was also the site of this year’s HGGA Championship, AKA my annual buddies golf trip. Congrats to French Lick on hosting two prestigious golf tournaments in one year.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Si-Woo will prematurely do the “Night-Night” celebration again: 1 MILLION-1 odds

—This week’s KFT Championship winner will do it: 100-to-1 odds

—This week’s KFT Championship winner will shoot lower scores than our group: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Fair point, Max. It also led to this not surprising tweet from the King of Golf Twitter:

Feel better soon, big guy.

TWEET OF THE WEEK (DELETED DIVISION)

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Love the feistiness!

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

This from former tour pro Mike Clayton has caused quite a stir on Golf Twitter:

Big fan of Mike’s, but that’s a bit harsh! What if those guys were hungover? Show some sympathy!

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (LOCKED-UP DIVISION)

Scottie Scheffler told some fans at Royal Montreal what being in jail was really like: “Boring.”

OK tough guy.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (SHOULD-BE-LOCKED-UP DIVISION)

What a dope.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (ACE DIVISION)

Michael Block did it again!

What a legend. Looks like it’s my turn to send him a congratulatory video.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (FAIL DIVISION)

We don’t know the details, but it appears like someone operating a beverage cart crashed it into a tree:

Thankfully, it looks like no one got hurt, but we feel for the young lady whose tears you can hear in the video. And we hope that someday she’ll get over this and be able to laugh about it. Heck, it would make one heckuva Southwest “Wanna get away?” commercial.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NON-STEPH/KAT DIVISION)

After becoming one of the most famous athletes on the planet through historic collegiate and WNBA campaigns, Caitlin Clark will finally get some much-deserved rest after her Indiana Fever were knocked out of the playoffs. But she won’t be resting when it comes to the other sport she loves:

And we love to hear it. Hit ‘em straight, Caitlin!

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Adam Hadwin wasn’t on the International Team, meaning he got more time to spend with his family—and be mocked by his wife, Jessica:

Even more motivation to make the next Presidents Cup, Adam!

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION ART

Team USA’s WAGs had a fun assignment of painting portraits of their golfers ahead of the Presidents Cup and the results were, well, mixed.

But there was one standout in Russell Henley’s wife, Teil, a full-time artist:

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Talk about bringing in a ringer!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“To be able to just play in this tournament and to win the point, my goodness. The last time I played in the Ryder Cup I was the point to lose the Ryder Cup. So if this is my last round as a player, maybe it is, I’m happy with that.” —Keegan Bradley. It would be a great way to go out, but being a Ryder Cup playing captain sounds pretty cool as well.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Jasmine Suwannapura for winning the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in a playoff after shooting a Sunday 61. The Internationals could have used someone rolling in birdies like that. . . . Condolences to Lucy Li (Remember her?) for losing that playoff after shooting a Sunday 60. Ouch. . . . John Daly confirmed he’s already filmed a scene for ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ and revealed that the long-awaited sequel is coming out on Netflix in March or April. Let’s hope JD is right about this one. . . . And, finally, in what has become a tradition unlike any other, I bought a new sweatsuit from Costco for the fall and winter months:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241001-grind-sweats.jpg

Tell me that doesn’t look sharp.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How many hours will I spend in those sweats before spring?

How many beers did Team USA consume?

Who will win a title first: the Internationals or my Knicks?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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