Football, schmootball

Americans might be focused on football this time of year, but plenty happened in the world of golf. The visiting team won the Walker Cup, an Englishman triumphed in Germany, and a Canadian shot back-to-back 62s on the Mackenzie Tour.

This team travels well

The United States needed a final-day comeback to retain the Walker Cup on Sunday, and come back they did. Eight of the ten Americans won their Sunday singles matches, making the U.S. the first visiting team to win the Walker Cup since 2007. Walker Cup Scoring

On Saturday, the Americans got off to a rocky start. They split the morning four-ball with Great Britain and Ireland but proceeded to lose five of eight singles matches. John Pak, however, won the final two holes of his match to keep the Americans within two points (7-5) heading into Sunday.

The teams of Stewart Hagestad/Akshay Bhatia and Brandon Wu/Alex Smalley got things rolling with four-ball wins on Sunday morning, and the U.S. team drew within one point. The Americans proceeded to dominate afternoon singles, winning eight matches, not one of which even reached the 18th hole.

Many of these players will be professionals by this time next year. Some will finish out their final year of college, others will finish high school, and still others will be professional next week. Regardless of what their futures hold, they will remember this Walker Cup for the rest of their lives.

If you were upset you didn’t get your televised team match-play fix this week, stay tuned for the Solheim Cup in five days.

German-English engineering

It turns out Paul Casey can win events other than the Valspar Championship. The Englishman took the Porsche European Open by one shot on Sunday after a final-round 66. Starting the day one off the lead, Casey made six birdies and zero bogeys to earn his second victory of 2019. The victory will move him up to No. 14 in the world.

One shot back of Casey was the trio of Matthias Schwab, Robert MacIntyre, and Bernd Ritthammer. MacIntyre built himself a five-shot lead through two rounds, but a Saturday 74 brought the rest of the field back into contention. The other Bernd (Wiesberger) and Romain Wattel both shot 64s on Sunday to finish inside the top 10. Porsche European Open Leaderboard

Quick Hooks

The Super Random Matt Kuchar Heel Turn of 2019 continue! Kooch found himself in the middle of yet another controversy when a video emerged of him pushing the “loose impediment” rule to its verrrrry limit. Video

Taylor Pendrith shot back-to-back rounds of 62 on the Mackenzie Tour this weekend. One of the longest hitters you will ever see, Pendrith has now won two of his past four events. He is second on the Mackenzie Tour Order of Merit and will be heading to the Korn Ferry Tour next season. Leaderboard

Playing without U.S. Amateur champion and Walker Cupper Andy Ogletree, the Georgia Tech men’s golf team still managed to win its first event of the season on Sunday. Led by Luke Schniederjans and Tyler Strafaci, the Yellow Jackets claimed the Carpet Capital Intercollegiate by 20 shots over North Florida.

The Latest

Shotgun Start: Kuchar disgraces himself again (as do the Browns) and America’s Walker Cup rally

Victory Monday this is not, as a new week begins with the Bears and Browns both 0-1. This non-golf matter gets full attention at the top as Brendan processes all that went wrong and the emotional tumble that occurred throughout the day. Andy is also quite amused with a cheeky nickname he comes up with for the Browns coach. Rafa Nadal’s slow play penalty is applauded and put in contrast with just how far golf is from such a move. Then it’s on to the Porsche European Open, where there’s praise for Paul Casey for his win and also contemplation of whether he’s underrated or just disliked. The primary news coming out of that event, however, was Matt Kuchar yet again taking some serious liberties within the gray area of the rules. Is he obtuse, entitled, unsportsmanlike, all of the above? This progresses into a separate topic of cheating and if that’s something that occurs much, if at all, at the Tour level. The episode concludes with a discussion on the Walker Cup, which was harder to comment on because no one saw it. Listen on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher.

Pro Shop

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