Speculation about Tiger as captain, Scheffler safe over holidays, fun with DP World Tour and the Kordas. The Back Nine.
At the start of the year, a bit of speculation is allowed. Some disguise it as a forecast, a very popular discipline in early January. The colleagues from the renowned US portal The Fried Egg have put forward a bold thesis for the upcoming golf year: The PGA of America will offer Tiger Woods the position of captain for the Ryder Cup excursion 2027 in Ireland, but the 50-year-old politely declines. He prefers to lead the US team when it’s a home game. The GOAT as skipper at the continental competition on home turf: that would probably blow up all fan hype golf has ever seen in the USA.
Anyway: It would be Woods’ second refusal, having already declined for 2025 and Bethpage Black. This led to the appointment of Keegan Bradley, who since the loss at Medinah 2012 and not being considered for Rome 2023 carries the third trauma. It is a understandable decision by Tiger. Why should he give up home advantage – although statistically it practically does not exist – and risk his sporting reputation in an away command operation, whose chances are not great. The Americans last won in Europe in 1993 at The Belfry in England.
Moreover, his opponent at Adare Manor could be Luke Donald, who has outplayed the US skipper thoroughly twice. Thus, the PGA of America faces a dilemma again, as hardly anyone else offers for the job as team captain. Hopefully, it won’t be Keegan Bradley again – Medinah loser Davis Love III also got a second chance, though back in 2016 and at home. Well, a bit of speculation is allowed… What the ‘Fried Egglers’ also thought of:
McIlroy and teammate Keegan: It’s complicated
An odd constellation: Boston Common achieved its first-ever match win in the Tomorrow’s Golf League. That was thanks in no small part to putts from substitute Michael Thorbjornsen for Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama. But last Friday at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, the ‘Frogs’ not only faced Los Angeles but also faced a spicy team-internal situation. Rory McIlroy and Boston Common teammate Keegan Bradley had to keep a good face during the indoor spectacle, even though since the Ryder Cup at Bethpage, they have had a rather special relationship.
Specifically, since McIlroy was subjected to sometimes vile insults and attacks from US fans. Bradley downplayed the fan behavior and hostilities as merely ‘very passionate’. Allegedly, they reconciled, as McIlroy once stated, but before Boston Common’s first appearance in this second TGL season, the matter resurfaced. McIlroy made it clear he still holds a grudge against ‘Captain Keegan’ for not having done anything to calm the overbearing fans. ‘Sure, you have to use the home advantage,’ said the five-time major winner on the podcast ‘The Overlap’ with British football stars Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, and Roy Keane: ‘But Keegan and co