DCDeac
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- Mar 20, 2011
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Your dismissal of Walker is puzzling. He has 10 top 10's and 3 wins this year, and was one of only a handful of players to make the cut in all 4 majors (and he finished top 10 in 3 of them). Has he won recently? No, but he's been consistently good all year long. Horschel is literally the only player I would sub over him right now, but that's because he might be the hottest player in the world right now.
3 of your A guys haven't carded a win this entire season. Walker has 3.
Statistically Walker is noticeably ahead of Fowler in pretty much any category you can name, except that Fowler finished a few spots higher in the Masters, US Open and PGA (Walker finished T26 at the Open had a nice T6 in the 5th major).
He's a better ball striker, putter, and scores better.
He scores better on par 3's par 4's and par 5's.
Fowler was certainly closer to winning in the majors, but has been more inconsistent over the course of the season (7 missed cuts to 4).
And it's not like Fowler has some epic Ryder Cup history to point to. He played 4 fantastic holes in 2010 to square with McIlroy, but aside from that he was basically a dud.
Do I think Walker is going to have a better Ryder Cup than Fowler? Not necessarily because Fowler has shown an ability to rise to big occasions this year. I'm just trying to compare and contrast your classification of 2 players. One player hasn't won in a couple years but has been really close in the biggest events. The other won 3 times this season and had a very impressive record in the same big events, but is considered a significantly lesser player? Walker has the substance that people were asking of Fowler prior to his run in the majors this season.
Walker is WAY better than people give him credit for. That said, Walker has almost zero match play history to speak of.
In contrast to Walker, for example, Patrick Reed has a stellar match play record in his past. Same with Fowler, Spieth and Mahan.
I also don't mean to be argumentative. I love talking about this stuff with other people who actually care!
Don't get me wrong - I really hope he plays well. But he's a guy who's played on tour for 8 years, even lost his card and got dropped back to the Web.com tour in 2007. I think he took advantage of the wrap-around season and won 3 times when most of the real stars were taking time off. He has the look of a journeyman pro that hit a hot patch during the silly season and has just about missed as many cuts as he's made top 10's. And 6 of his last 7 events - he's been negative on strokes gained putting. It doesn't add up to Ryder Cup success to my eye - but I definitely hope to be proven wrong. Maybe he's been waiting his whole career for this kind of opportunity and will take advantage. Maybe he can green in regulation some Euros to death.
The 3 A guys that haven't won are Furyk, Fowler, and Phil. Can't say I'd even come close to replacing any of them with him. I'd say Kuchar was more of a maybe right now. But then you have to throw in zero experience in a Ryder Cup.
I don't meant to throw out my rankings as fact, and a lot of it is the eye test with me. But I have little to no expectations for Reed and Walker short of hoping they get put with a bigger name, feel comfortable not having to do too much, and can be effective in support.
If we're going to be competitive in this thing, I think we need Mickelson, Bubba, Fowler, and Furyk playing great golf. I don't think many of the other guys can stir up the kind of confidence those 4 are able to. Especially Bubba and Mickelson. Those are the two ultra talents that have the highest ceilings. And maybe Spieth, although his recent play doesn't suggest he'll catch fire.