00:00And I want to talk about your Ryder Cup career because you played in four, you were on a part of three winning teams. And the first one that you qualified for was 2008. This is at Valhalla. And coming into that 2008 Ryder Cup, I believe Europe had dominated the last three Ryder Cups prior to that. So there was a huge emphasis in the US side. I believe it was Azinger was the captain that week. There was a lot of emphasis on the pods and trying to get the team to play for one another.
00:28You know, you had Tiger, of course, being the best player in the world, but they haven't necessarily had any of the results with having Tiger and Phil, the top two players in the world at the time, translate to a successful Ryder Cup. What do you remember about that first Ryder Cup in Valhalla? How much the US side needed to win that Ryder Cup and just maybe your overall experience of how nervous you were playing in your first one?
00:52Yeah, no, I mean, great memories. I mean, like you, like you mentioned, I've played four Ryder Cups, and they're all like really special in their own way. I put them all up in the same level. And that includes Valhalla, where we, you know, we got beat pretty good there. But it was my first experience. I was a rookie. And, you know, Nick Fowler was the captain, one of my heroes in the 90s growing up. And, you know, there were so many different elements to that week. And I was so inexperienced in many ways.
01:18I didn't really understand the kind of mechanics of what makes a great week, you know, the vice captains, the role they play. We didn't really have any vice captains that week at Valhalla.
01:30Fowler was kind of pretty much, you know, his own guy. And, you know, I mean, every captain kind of has their own thumbprint they put on things.
01:38But, you know, I loved everybody at Valhalla. But Zinger was obviously all over it, right? Pod system, putting one vice captain with a set of three guys and really making sure it nearly had, you know, solid coverage there, making sure communication levels were great.
01:55And I guess that's one of the things I've learned as the years have gone on that, you know, when you have 12 players in a room and see if those players flow from a Tiger Woods to a Boo Weekly who played no weight, you know, you've got 12 different personalities.
02:09You've got 12 different egos. You've got 12 different guys that want different things.
02:13And you've got guys that are very rigid in their schedules.
02:16They need to know exactly what's asked of them for that weekend.
02:20And you can't really throw them any curveballs because they go, wow, I was really well out, you know?
02:24And then you have players that are absolutely ready to do anything that's asked of them and they're very flexible, very fluid.
02:32That's like one of the little psychology things that I feel like I've picked up over the years kind of being part of Ryder Cups that, you know, the way that the captains and the vice captains manage each individual is hugely important because, you know, you got to talk to Tiger Woods a little differently from maybe how you talk to Phil, from how you talk to, you know, like I say, Boo Weekly.
02:53I'm not sure why I'm picking Boo out.
02:54We're talking about Valhalla and I'm seeing him, you know, riding the cowboy kind of driver off one of the boxes.
03:00I mean, that was legendary, legendary Boo at his finest.
03:03But, you know, Valhalla was interesting.
03:07I mean, you know, they beat us pretty good and, you know, they had a good team.
Comments