Members of the U.S. Ryder Cup workforce on Day 1 of the matches.
getty pictures
After his Ryder Cup workforce had absorbed a historic first-day beating, U.S. captain Zach Johnson was left with the unenviable, some may say not possible, activity of explaining what went incorrect. When requested specifically whether or not he made any on-the-fly tweaks to his afternoon four-ball pairings after the U.S. was shutout in the morning foursomes session, Johnson gave a curious reply.
“Well, we have contingencies and things of that nature based on a lot of things,” he said. “I would say that we’d love to have everything drawn out way, way ahead of time, but there’s certain things you cannot control, and we are trying to control the controllables in our team room, and I’ll leave it at that.”
“So you don’t want to answer?” a reporter said.
“No, not particularly,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is there’s been some unforeseen things that we’ve had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health. It’s not an excuse, because we have depth, but I’ll just say, I’m grateful we have a team doctor.”
Curious once more. First off, why wouldn’t the U.S. Ryder Cup workforce have a physician? And second, what occurred? The golf press, for one, wished to know.
“I’m sorry, the health thing,” a reporter adopted up. “Can you delve into it a little deeper and give us a better understanding?”
“We’re just fighting things, I mean, internally,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of passed around a little bit, caddies, players. It is what it is. But it’s nothing more than that. Guys are fighting and playing regardless. I mean, it’s not anything that’s kind of weighed us down because of the depth we have and because of the many options we think we have.”
Here’s the factor with accidents and sicknesses afflicting skilled athletes: except the athletes or their coaches are prepared to reveal, with some degree of element, what these accidents or sicknesses are, it’s typically greatest to not point out them in any respect. That’s as a result of merely hinting at or vaguely addressing said maladies can result in hypothesis, rumor or, maybe worst of all, allegations of excuse-making. It most definitely will result in extra questions from reporters, which got here later in Johnson’s press convention.
In Ryder Cup Friday catastrophe, the U.S. discovered one thing regarding
James Colgan
“Going to take a bit of a punt here, but is it like a head cold thing?” a author said. “I noticed quite a few of your players have been sniffling a lot in their press conferences this week.”
“Yes, we have got some congestion and some just signs of things that are unfortunate,” Johnson said. “It’s a type of the place typically the vitality might be slightly low, however the potential and want to exit and play remains to be there. That’s what we’re weighing. Every one in every of them nonetheless desires to play each match, which is encouraging.
Reporter: “Is it spreading?”
“It kind of has, yeah, I’m being honest, yes, it has,” Johnson continued. “It has spread through my team.”
Whether his gamers’ situation had impression on their play is difficult to say, however Johnson, correctly, wasn’t about to make use of the bug as a cop-out when a reporter requested, “None of the players who went out said they weren’t feeling a hundred percent?”
“No, they were all hungry and ready,” Johnson said. “Still are.”
They had greatest be. There are 20 factors nonetheless on the desk at Marco Simone. To retain the title, the U.S. might want to win 12.5 of them.
Source link
