No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 901 - Solheim Cup Sunday Live Show

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Team USA wins the 2024 Solheim Cup over Europe by a final tally of 15.5 to 12.5. We put a bow on the matches with our final live show of the week as Lauren Coughlin joins the show. We close the pod with another narrative essay from KVV on his week on site with his daughter (1:44:25) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club today. Better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the No Laying Up Golf podcast. And of course we are live right now. Thanks to our good friends at high noon. It's an NFL Sunday TC. I believe my bangles have just kicked off against the Chiefs. And what what better way if you have that on a second screen with then the high noon in zone pack, the high noon in zone pack is here along with your favorite fall flavors,

pear and cranberry and year round classics, grapefruit and black cherries. Whether you're tailgating in the lot or golfing on the green, get out and enjoy the crisp fall air with even crisper drinks. The high noon in zone pack is only here for a limited time. So get it while you can visit high noon spirits.com to find it near you. High noon suns up. We thank them. Hey, Aaron cranberry, who my favorites big guy. There it is. There it is. We welcome Sally, Sally from Florida.

What a day for you, Sallyali. Welcome to the show. Getting late early here for the Jags, but I was very excited that the United States women team was able to capture the 2024 Solheim Cup in resounding fashion. And I cannot wait to talk about it with you guys. I've been so jealous all week. You guys been vibing on site. I'm not having any more kids in the fall because I'm not missing another Solheim Cup person. Okay. Yeah, we have been on site. We're right now. We're back in our hotel room. They were using the stage for the closing ceremony, which actually

hurt maybe lack of clothes. Yeah, not much. We'll get there. I bet. But you guys, I don't know. You're already talking about Jake's football and your team and everything. Guys, you're like bearing the lead here, man. USA what's up? Carlota cigar. No, no, we can't do that guys. I want to bring all this stuff before we do it though. There's somebody that means very, very near and dear to my heart.

You know, something that stands up to the true test of time. I have no idea. It's a true is built in America. I love it. Lauren Coughlin, Lauren Coughlin, Rose and Yeti products. Okay. Yeti is our presenting sponsor of all LPGA coverage for 2024. I am doing this live show standing up.

I've got a magazine thing going on here. I was actually setting on a Yeti cooler right now. Uh, or else I'd show it, but you know, I love everything about Yeti, Cool it right now or else I'd show it. But you know, I love everything about Yeti, hard coolers, soft coolers, tumblers, cups, French presses, pitchers, you name it. It's the season. They got stuff for that ice buckets. Please. Everybody go check them out at yeti.com. Find everything in their entire product line. Fall is the time for Yeti.

Please stock up for them. And I know that they're proud of Team USA too, boys. What do you guys have to say? TCD, you want to hand it? First of all, let me say, let me say, let me say, I don't want to bury the lead. The U S wins 15 and a half to 12 and a half. It's their first Solheim cup victory since 2017. It's actually the biggest margin in the Solheim cup since 2017. Crazy stat here. The last four Solheim cups have been decided by a total of six points. You can bear that to like the rider cup where none of the last four rider cups

have even been within five points. So the Solheim cup continues to deliver TC. What's our message coming, coming out of the spin, the spin room right now. So you can't win them all. I thought we won the day. That was the goal to be in. We won the fight. I'm proud of the fight. I didn't think this wasn't the most cohesive roster that we've had. And we're not going to be able to win all of them. We're going to be able to win all of them. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do.

And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do. And I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to be able to do I think I'm proud of the fight. I'm proud of the fight. I didn't think this wasn't the most cohesive roster that we've had and we made it work. It seems it sounds like there might be some dissension between the captain and some of the players there.

The eye test kind of on trial here. I think the eye test may have gotten a quick guilty verdict or not guilty. It may have been railroaded, honestly. Yeah. Malicious prosecution, maybe. No, I mean, listen, the ladies of the United States team played wonderful golf. I think Sarah Schmelzel made about 900 feet of putts today. Lauren Coughlin, Rose Zhang, Andrea Lee hit some big shots down the stretch.

I mean, it was, it was, the golf was great. Like in spite of everything, the last few days, as far as the shuttle fiascoes and the trophy presentation and the horrific coverage, uh, the golf continues to deliver in this event and it's, it's like inspiring. It does. And I'll say, you know, we were 10-6 going into today. All we could have asked for was a good sweat and we got that. I mean, it was very on edge there for... We were in the sauna.

Yeah. Can I just throw a challenge flag on this? It never got below balance. Minus 800. The U. S. Was never anything less than minus 800. It was like, Oh, we're within a miracle at Medina situation here. If every single shot goes the Europeans way over these remaining seven miracle and Manassas. Yeah, we were so close, Sally to, 14, and TC and I absolutely just peacocking out of the nation's capital this evening.

We were like, we were just giddy in the media center, trying not to draw the eye of our good friend, James Corrigan for, for, you know, being too raucous and rowdy. There was the whole James and, uh, uh, Zephyr Melton were going back and forth on Twitter. Oh yeah. They were, they were at each other's throats from like 30 feet away from each other. Anyway. Yeah. I will say this. This today was like the why team golf is so freaking awesome. And why Sunday singles is so great. Cause it's like, it just felt closer than it actually was. Like you got the sweat. It was like, Ooh, man. Okay. I see the window here.

This is revisionist history. You're trying to say it wasn't close. It wasn't close. It wasn't that close. That is outrageous. If things break a little bit differently down the stretch there, we will be looking at a 14 14 victory for the European team. Once again, exactly. You won. Honestly, you guys kind of got bailed out a little bit, you know, not, not bail. You personally saw I got bailed out, but it was good play. Lily of boo goes birdie birdie to have that match LC.

We're going to get into it. I'm going to stop myself right there. Let's just dive into the matches and we'll talk about how we arrived at the fire. I've been dealing with the last three days. I'm glad you guys had fun and believe, but it was not that close. It just wasn't. I'm sorry to report. That's me. That's watching the same competition. I'm like, yeah, you're getting different feeds. Well, we did. We're watching it thinking every single hole is going to flip over to the Europeans and just, it's just very unlikely to happen. Listen,

I know you're a data boy and you would tell us how unlikely that was, but we were watching it happen right before our very eyes. What happened? And what happened? I think the data one buddy washed out. Okay. So we started the day. So we started, listen back up to last year, the data would have said headwall, impossible. This will never happen. Exactly. Data lied last year. Okay. Please. All right. Please. I'm losing control of my own show here. So we begin the day at 10 six. We're going to go in order of how the matches finish. And I think this will help us really frame individual performances and kind

of lead to where we got in the end. And so first out of the gates was probably the best on paper matchup of the day. You have Charlie hall against Nellie Korda. And quite honestly guys, Charlie hall just came out and laid the hammer down on Nellie Korda. And quite honestly guys, Charlie Hall just came out and laid the hammer down on Nellie Korda. She, she, in other words, I would like to say, uh, Charlie Hall finally arrived at the Solheim cup, probably two days too late. That's not fair.

That's not fair. She no showed Friday, but she had a good day yesterday. She played all five matches, dude. She went three and two. That's an indictment on her captain. Okay. Well, we're going to get the one three and two. Like you can't say she didn't show up when she got three full points. She won her last three matches. Cody, Cody, I'll go to battle with you here tonight. We got to pick our battles here. Okay. Let's not get out of control. So yeah. So Charlie finishes three and two on the week. Nellie finishes

three and one. I mean mean the biggest thing to note is Charlie shot seven under par through 14 holes and this match was over after 14. It was just a phenomenal display Quite honestly anything to add their boys or on to match to know like weirdly I thought Charlie it seemed like getting paired up with Georgia was kind of the the get right moment for her and they kind of play each other into form almost yesterday. And I will, yeah, it's a sour note for Nellie personally to end the week on, but she had a fantastic week. I think her first two days were just watching the number one player in the world, like in a happy place being full of joy on the golf course. And that was a really cool

thing. Amen. So just a just a leap for Charlie to this this kind of back half of this week, it's kind of it reminds me I hate when I do this, like always comparing to the men, but just for reference, kind of like how Xander felt like I, you know, Xander was always a really good player and took a massive leap. And I felt like over the last two years more so than just the

last year, like compared to Xander, Charlie's just taken that, that pretty clear leap and is a very legit consistent player and taken it to Nellie like that when Nellie was just like flying sky high, uh, coming into this match was really impressive. Yeah. It's kind of disappointing. You know, we got to wait however many months, what eight months for another women's major, Charlie said in her post game interview, like she just, you say months for another women's major. Charlie said it in her post game interview.

Like she just, we need more women's majors. Well, I just wish there was like an end of year. We might need a sick, no, just because piggybacking on Sally's point, like if this is a real confidence builder, if this is a stepping stone for her, like it'd be cool to see her get a start in the next month or so in a big event, but we'll wait. We'll see what 2025 holds. She's playing in Cincy. So it should be cool to see her get a start in the next month or so in a big event, but we'll wait. We'll see what 2025 holds. I think she's playing in Cincy. So it should be a big event. Yeah.

You're gonna get to see him playing for the big purse and all that too. Yeah. That's a couple months away though. But what I think was most impressive here, it's not like Nellie, like she got beat. She didn't get beat playing bad golf. Right. Right. Right. You know, Charlie just literally did everything right today. It was so impressive to see. I agree with your thoughts there. Right. Right. You know, Charlie just literally did everything right today. It was so impressive to see. I agree with your thoughts. They're big. Like the shot into what was that on 14? Oh, I was thinking, like finish it off just to, I mean, almost made a two on a par five. Um, so we're 10, seven at this point. That's,

that's a big scalp that Charlie went out and got early. You put it on the wall. You had to wonder how that was going to motivate the rest of the team. Unfortunately, right behind him, I say, unfortunately from a, from a Euro standpoint, Megan Kang took care of business six and five over Emily Peterson. Megan Kang finishes the week a perfect three and Oh, Emily Peterson kind of inexplicably, but also like, I totally understand why Suzanne sent her out.

She played all five sessions. She finishes the week two and three. So I want to go to you, Emily Peterson thoughts. Yeah. You, I feel like we were, we were just watching a little something different on, on that over the course of this week. I kept hearing how much of a dog she was and it just felt like she's a dog. Yeah.

It just felt like I just have a purebred dog, but she's well trained, but she is a dog. Yeah, junkyard. I just didn't see a whole heck of a lot of it out of her this week. She in the team part, she missed a ton of putts and kind of really struggled to the middle part of these matches and she was completely out of steam. They hit a cold shank at one point today. It was, I don't know if I was just seeing seeing what Captain Captain Pederson was seeing there about trying to get five matches out of her while leaving somebody like the owner McGuire on the shelf, which is something we might be able to discuss and with some hindsight there. So I don't know, just seemed like a little bit, I'm a field player here.

I'm going with my gut, sending the two players out there. We're playing all five matches in the first two matches. One went and your favorite one didn't, but, uh, pretty easy to question that one. Just getting stomped. I think we might have a guest, uh, Yeah, guys, just before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I gotta get it. I gotta shoot my shot when I can. And we have the time now I want to introduce by, you know, nobody's going to disagree with me on this MVP of the 2024 Solheim Cup on this team, not Carlota Sagana, our very own Lauren Coghlin.

How's it going? Well, you tell us how it's going. I mean, you just won the Solheim cup. I know it's crazy. We just finished media and everything. So we just got back to the team room. So I think I can hear the caddies in there now. So they're letting loose. So what's what are the party plans this evening? We're at, well, like I said, we're at the team room.

I think we're here for a little bit just to get some food. And then we're heading back to the team hotel. And then I think the party really gets going over at the team hotel. Can you the two people that are sharing the screen there were rooting against the United States of America. Can you, the two people that are sharing the screen there, we're rooting against the United States of America. Can you, we're rooting against most of the United States. We're rooting for a moment all week. Stunt on them. Come on, stunt on them. I need you to have your moment here. Sorry about it. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say heck of a day here. I mean, tons of emotions coming into today.

Their first time in singles here. You got down early. Talk about your round today, digging it out all the way up to 18. Yeah, I think I was talking to Terry kind of when we were taking pictures and it was just I think even in the middle of the round, like, you know, this whole week, you know, you kind of had a partner out there and you're with everybody and you know what Terry and I do really well weekend week out is get in our bubble and kind of do our own thing and you know I couldn't we

couldn't really do that this week because you know I had a teammate out there with me and you know I was talking with Lexi like the whole round so I wasn't really staying with Terry I was like Sarah kind of asked me to kind of come stay with her and so I was walking with Sarah the whole time and not and so I come up on today and like it just kind of feel like it just took me a little bit to kind of for us to kind of get in rhythm and then locks up with each other and a lot of like, you know, you love yelling my name and stuff, which I'm not used to and it was just A lot of like, you know, yelling my name and stuff, which I'm not used to. And it was just, um, getting kind of just getting my feet under myself.

And then once I kind of started to get settled, um, they're on about eight, eight or so seven, eight. Um, I kind of was able to hang in there and fight the rest of the round. How do you even begin to process this week? I mean, in, in, in, how did, how did it measure against what you were even expecting this week? I mean, in it, how did it measure against what you were even expecting this week to be? I mean, it was probably some of the most fun I've had on the golf course. Um, I think I was more comfortable than I was

anticipating. Especially on the first tee. Yeah, I think especially on the first tee and like making some of those cuts that I made, I think I was just a lot more comfortable than I thought I was going to be in that moment. But I think I've been thinking about it for so, like, you know, all year I've been, and pretty much since Evian, right?

You know, everything I was doing was to get ready for this week and to play well this week. And so I think we did a really good job. We had a really good game plan and I've just been playing really good golf. And so I was able to just, you know, stay being myself and have fun and play golf and see what happens.

Lauren, just from like watching, you seem like less anxious playing golf up like the highest possible level you can play at than maybe like three years ago. Like I just am thinking back to sweating, refreshing Monday qualifying scores and now watching you perform at the highest level and like just this total feeling I have when I'm watching you like, oh, she's got this, like she's totally got this, which is just, do you pause and stop and look at this and just be like, what the heck happened here?

Yeah, it's pretty, I mean, even at the beginning of this year, I was thinking about cuts, right? Still thinking about them at times. And I think I just started to get more and more comfortable in the moment. I started putting myself in the moment more times and Terry doesn't like getting credit, but it's just, his just like presence out there, I think has just relaxed me in so many different ways

and just giving me this confidence that I don't think I had before just because who he was around for nine years. He was with Anika for nine years, 69 wins. When he tells me you're that good, it's hard not to believe it. And so that's what he tells me all the time. If I do anything anything, I'm like, man, can you believe I just did that? And he goes, well, you're that good. Truly. Well, you tie a American Solheim record, I believe with your three and a half points, you joined two other previous team members.

I want to ask you about that putt specifically on 17 because that was such a huge putt, huge moment. I mean, and I guess I would juxtapose kind of piggybacking on what Solly said, like how far you've come with the confidence in the putter. Can you just talk about that? Yeah, I think again, it's just I think I've just found such a good routine with my putt, my putting just like practice that I mean, I do the same thing every day, sometimes twice a day, sorry, they're just popping champagne on stage. No, I love it. You can walk over there too, LC, don't worry about it.

Just take the phone and whenever you're done with us, take the phone and we want to see the celebration. There we go. So, yeah, but I think, you know, I've just gotten in a really good routine and I just, I think I've talked about this with Bethann or somebody asked me and like Chevron this year was the first

time I like, felt like I made some putts when I really needed to and that was my biggest takeaway. My biggest takeaway from that was doing that. And I think I just started feeling more and more comfortable. I started making more and more putts in that moment. And so I kind of always think I can make them now. And on 17 in particular, it was a pretty straight putt.

It really didn't do a whole bunch. It was downhill and I kind of just felt like, okay, I can just get it going. And then I kind of knew as soon as I hit it that I put a really good roll on it. And I know you liked the, I walked it in a little bit there. So no, it was awesome. No, absolutely surreal. And then coming down to 18 and obviously the way it played out, I honestly, I know we're looking for the full point there, but just gutsy stuff from Maya. I know you guys are close. I know John and had

are really close to awesome to see her make that putt and not really like, you know, like she said in her flash afterwards, she just didn't want to be the person to lose it. So yeah, LC few questions for you. Number one, how many high nudes do you think actually fit in the Solheim Cup? And then number two, what's gonna be the lasting memory of this week?

Yeah, I think probably about four to five, if I had to guess. I think my lasting memory would probably be that putt that I made on 17 today. I mean, that was huge. She stuffed it in there. On Thursday night, all the past captains, we had dinner with them, just the players and the past captains.

And one of the big takeaways was a half point is always huge and it can be the difference. And so making that putt on 17 to keep it, keep it, keep in the match and not go one down was humongous. Awesome. Well, Elsie, I don't want to keep you from the celebration. Yeah, they're drinking out of the cup now. So I need to get out of here. Bring your phone over there. Show us the celebration. Yeah. Show us. And then you're out of here. You can get out of your, out of our, we'll let you go and you go party, but bring us

over there. So, all right. Thank you. Proud of you. Proud to be associated. You're the best. Thank you guys. Have fun. I'll see you guys. I'll talk to you. So yeah. What a world. That's, that's pretty cool. That's, that doesn't suck. Um, God, she's, she's just the best. It truly, like when she was sitting in 18 fairway and it seemed like, you know, Hey, you get up and down from here.

You win the Solheim cup and even like fast forward and it's like, Hey, this is a puff for the Solheim cup. It's, it's like, you pinch me moment for me. Well, and then on top of that, you expect her to do it. You expect her to make the putt. You expect her to stuff the wedge in there. Like I had such opposite feelings watching, uh, LC's putts today. I'm like, oh yeah, this is fine. Versus anytime I was like, Oh fuck, Alexi. Like I was doing radio BBC and I, you have the microphone that you have to

hold like super close and like my hand was shaking. I'm like, Oh no, Alexi, I that you have to hold like super close and like my hand was shaking. I'm like, Oh no, Lexi, I don't want to. Cody sitting back doing radio in the back row and they're about 40 seconds ahead of the telecast and like the world feed too. And we are, and like, so, you know, Maya's putt, like they're going absolutely nuts. Well, typically those like radio booths are like really boxed in and insulated, but they were just totally out the open this week. So we can talk about set up

logistics. Anyway, let's get back. Yeah. So we left off it's a, it's 11 seven Europe, the third match to finish today, Georgia Hall 11-7 US just to clarify. Sorry. 11-7 US. Thank you, Sally. My partner is trying to do some revisionist history. Georgia Hall defeats Allison Lee four and three, which then makes it US 11 Europe eight.

Georgia finishes the week two and two. She turned her week around. She won Saturday afternoon and then of course singles today. Allison Lee finishes one and two. She turned her week around. She won Saturday afternoon and then of course singles today. Allison Lee finishes one and two. Gentlemen, I don't know, we don't have to spend much time here unless people have any strong thoughts. Georgia went and got it today. I think Georgia, you know, she looked, didn't look like a strong contender or a confident player the first day.

And then I think really turned it around the last, 24 hours or so, 36 hours. Yeah, Georgia got up quick in her match today, really vibing from her pairing yesterday afternoon with Charlie, clearly got some momentum going. She looked really, really good today, but honestly like, I was in the league, that one was kind of like, you know,

served up on a platter for this team euro squad. I mean, when I think back to Allison Leah, of course, I'm going to think about her holding out on the second for Eagle. That was a surreal moment. Um, but everything else has just felt a little bit like the moment was just a bit too much for it. It was definitely, you see, you see Nellie going out first, then Megan Kang and then Rose out fourth. And it was almost like they kind of tried to hide. Yeah.

And I, you know, I think Alison's bugaboos or putter and when her speed was awful, it's nervy. It's just, it's tough to be successful, especially on your own ball in a Stolheim cup with, with a bulky putter. So you mentioned Rose. Rose was the fourth match to end dominant victory, six and four over Carlotta Sagan. Rose caps the week, four and oh, a leading point winner on either time on either team. Sagan finishes one and three.

Cody, let me, let me kick it to you first. Rose Zang, I mean, this was a complete 180 from what we saw in Spain last year. Yeah. Not only a 180, but what everybody had been calling for, right? Everybody talked a lot of shit about Rose and what's been going on with Rose. And there has been a lot. We talked about it yesterday in depth in the live show and Gabby was there and provided some really good insights for us. But I think Rose continues to grow and mature as a person and as a professional. And this is the player that like we're very used to seeing in the amateur tournaments and how she went about her junior career,

her high level amateur career, her college career and match play too. A lot of good match play success. At times her professional career. Um, we just really haven't seen it as consistently as we've seen it in the past. And that's because she's playing with like really, really high level players all the time, but man, match play, she's a fucking killer, man. And her Potter was like Rose with a, a hot putter is tough to beat. I think that's been what's what's held her back. She hit the ball so good today on a course that is like you have a distinct advantage with length and that's not really Rose's strong point. Like she just hit it so good.

She missed where she needed to miss and she seemed to make every single putt. It's just it's truly like. Awesome. You know, we're, we're big fans. We're big supporters of Rose. She gets a lot of shit unwarranted. They're like, you know, kind of makes, you know, pisses me off a little bit, but like, I think this is one of those moments where like, hell yeah, man, go get it.

Well, and I think it's a lot of shit from just like sky high expectations. And she's just got to catch up to. Yeah. If you don't come out of shit from just like sky high expectations. Yeah. And she's just got to catch up to them. Yeah. If you don't come out of the gate and meet those right away, I'll say, or no is a freaking statement just like that. It really is. And playing like she endured a psychological examination today from Carlota.

She issued one to Carlota. Yeah. Yeah. I flipped it on, flipped on its head. I think Carlota just, A, didn't play well, but B, like her pace of play, like it's sick on a week like this because, because it's, they should have sent her out first today. And I bet NBC was like, no, we, we, we absolutely cannot. We will not give you another hour or two of footage.

Cody was talking about that this morning, but like Carlota, like, I mean, they were, they were holes behind at one point, like early on already. And it's just, it's unbelievable how slow she plays golf. But she plays, I mean, that's how the, each organization's events that she plays in or tours, it doesn't really matter. They allow that, you know, and we've gone back and there's been history of them attempting to give her a penalty for slow pan. She's like, no, fuck you. I withdraw. I refuse this penalty. So until people that continue to hold her to the fire, TC, I, okay. I liked your bit this week that you were super

in on the super slow pace of play. You're right for this event. It does. But man, like she intentionally or maybe unintentionally like gummed up almost this entire week. It's nuts how like literally this little micro tumor that just like spreads out into the be this thing that it is. And I was really worried yesterday because she was in the second to last match and you

had Charlie and Georgia right behind her who like can't they waited on every shot. Yeah. Charlie was first out and Saturday morning last inside. That was a long ass day for Charlie. Charlie, you know, she could play in three hours, you know, like, and I don't know, I do think at some point, like even out of live yesterday, like it, it was so slow. I think it's cheating. It's legitimately cheating. And I like the, just the fact that they don't penalize it doesn't

mean that it's not against the spirit of the rules. And it's like, it's, it's, it's objectively cheating. I truly don't understand. Like they said yesterday that they had put their group on the clock and I sat there and watched her take a minute and 15 seconds to hit a shot. Like she went back to her bag, which you can't do if you're being timed. Like I don't understand, like when you are being timed,

I don't understand when you go over time, how you don't get a penalty. That's the part I don't know about that because me thinking back to it, I remember, I can't remember who it was at the AIG women's open when somebody was put on the clock in the final round as well. And they said that they announced that on the telecast and I was walking. I think it was our group.

Was it, was it Lillia's group? Yeah. Put on the clock because, uh because what's her name was playing. So yes, it was my group. We were not put on the clock at any point in time. And for some reason we, we, the NBC, the NBC crew like puts out to the, to the masses that people were put on the clock. Yeah.

I, I didn't see that at all. We were not notified of that at all in the media center. And we actually went and asked. And at no point in time did they say Carlotta was ever put on the clock. So I don't know where exactly television is getting that from. A couple of things, uh, speaking on the clock, we'll keep it moving. Uh, Rose in her four matches, she didn't see the 17th hole one time today. Hey Rose, how was Robert Trent Jones golf golf club?

Did you like the 18th? I don't know. I never saw it. It was just absolutely dominant. In fact, on the week she won 28 holes and only lost eight holes. Our guy, our hitter, big Randy Robles at the alias sports bureau, who was just carpet bombing our inbox all week with stats. It was good info that that plus 20 differential for Rose this week, like easily the largest, I guess he only like checked the last decade. The next best was Jessica quarter was plus 14 in 2015.

So this is like a big, big, big statement from Rose. And you know, we talked about Charlie, like very excited to see if and how this propels Rose, uh, big statement from Rose. And you know, we talked about Charlie, like very excited to see if and how this propels Rose more week to week. So the U S is now leading 12 to eight. It's starting to look, we have one more match that kind of quickly gets out of the way. Alison Corpus over Anna Norquist, four and three. This brings it to USA 13 Europe, eight Corpus finishes the week three and one Norquist two and two. I'm impressed with Alison Corpus. This is the second time we've seen her in a Solheim cup.

She's, she's played really well both times. She's got a steady demeanor and yeah, I just generally like her vibe. I think Norquist probably exhausted after yesterday. Like it seems like they kind of, they were like, all right, you got to get something out of, out of these other players. And she's kind of the de facto, you know, captain of sorts, like the playing captain of sorts. There's an implicit trust level and explicit trust level there with, between her and, you know, the whole leadership team over there on the European side. So, uh, a valuable two and two from her. Yeah, it was.

And I think this is where things stalli, they did get pretty interesting and we didn't have any matches and for quite a while after that Corpus norquist match. for quite a while after that Corpus norquist match. And that, that kind of red dominance just started to get chipped away at and chipped away at. And all of a sudden TC and I are in the media center. And it's like, holy shit. Like, I don't know, man, 14, 14 Europe wins every single one of these. There was a bad, There was a path. We did see a path to victory and we didn't even have to squint that hard.

You guys are worse than some other small golf media companies trying to dig themselves out of bankruptcy. There was no way back. You can't infuse more cash into this thing. All right. So, all right, let's talk. All right, Andrea and Esther. Andrea, listen, I'm like the president of the Andrea

Lee fan club. They go all square. Andrea Lee, Esther Henslite. They're the next match. They finish all square half point for the U S 13 and a half Europe, eight and a half. Tell me, tell me why you're the president. She's, I don't know. She just knows how to hit the right shot at the right time. Um, you know, it's a little bit worried. She was going to miss one of their short putts down the stretch, but Esther putted well most of the day. She missed that birdie putt on, was that 15 or 16? They kind of, it could have really, really put it away. I think. And, um, I thought we were going to see more out of Esther this week,

just from an availability perspective. She only played what? Three matches, three matches. She played two foursome sessions and then singles. I thought it was a mistake to not put her out yesterday afternoon and four ball. Uh, I thought she had earned that she and Charlie had one Saturday morning in their foursomes match on the whole. Just a weird decision not to put it. Yeah. I liked what I saw from Esther.

I didn't think that the moment wasn't too big for her. She's somebody that has played extremely good golf all throughout the season. Silver medalist at the Olympics. She goes one, one and one on the week. I should know Andrea Lee finishes two, oh, and one. So a very good week for Andrea. And yeah, you're right. Andrea was two down through 13 fights back for a crucial half point there. As LC said, every half point is very valuable. Cody, anything to add on, on Andrea or your view on this match? Uh, no, I mean, this, uh, it was a crazy match one, both back and forth, both ways. I think the lasting memory will probably be Esther probably playing better than

playing better than her record kind of will show. And on the flip side of that, like me being super impressed with Andrea Lee, like holding up, being firm, like digging it out of the dirt when she needed to. And she was given like almost every opportunity to kind of just be like, yeah, Esther, take this. And, and Esther's hidden it 50 buyer. I mean, Andrea Lee like, so we just carried that two or three. Uh, you know, I, I think, I think with Esther too, it's, it's just a matter of like, she acquitted herself well, got experience, like she's going to be

somebody that they're going to have to really, really lean on. Also, this was the first halved match the entire competition. We talked about the choice of sitting her or really not playing her much, but you know, she, she fought and she got herself a spot on this team. And she's somebody that Suzanne Patterson really has no clue who she is. You know, it's very difficult to try to figure out, you know, Suzanne famously said like I've had my pairings and like kind of the team put together for like the last three, four months. And then that's kind of disappointing. Right. It shows up and is like, Hey, I'm here. And that's kind of the same. Hello, I'm Joe. Yeah. Alba Valenzuela, who we're gonna talk about is in kind of the same boat there.

So yeah, super impressed. Andrea was like, the US had a lot of these, when things start to go bad, like looking for a stopper, like who is gonna stop the momentum? And the US had like four or five of them this week, honestly, and Andrea was one of them. And if it was so close, so much drama today, it turned, Andrea just like put up a wall. She put up the wall credit to Andrea

because she, she made clutch putts. I mean, this, this was TC and that this was in our models. We needed Esther to get a full point here. And then that didn't happen. And then, you know, then the, the pat, we had to squint a little bit harder and see the path. I'll note Andrea, uh, the two wins. She was paired with, with Rose and that's a fantastic pairing. I think that's one we absolutely will see in 2026 and probably beyond that. So next match to finish boys.

This was, we can talk about this one. Celine Boutier goes one up over Lexi Thompson and Lexi's final, in all likelihood, Solheim Cup match. This brings us to USA 13 and a half, Europe 9 and a half. I think Celine won, she was also playing against her captain as well. I know. So Celine finishes the week two and two. Lexi finishes the week one and three.

I'll note Celine birdied five of the last seven holes. She also left a couple of putts like right on the edge in that stretch. Uh, she played all 18 holes shot a bogey free six under today. Lexi made one birdie in the last eight holes. Solly from your vantage point, was this more Celine winning it? Did, did Lexi do as much as she could down the stretch? Where do you net out on this match? It was, uh, I mean, she wasn't like choking and making bogeys.

It's just an easy stretch of the golf course. Like you, you gotta make birdies to hang in that stretch. The golf course, we saw that the make birdies to hang in that stretch. The golf course we saw. Yeah. We saw that the whole week that back, you know, that back half stretch. So not really putting the foot down is kind of slipping it back. I mean, just shaky shots.

She didn't really hit any good shots. Those final six holes. I mean that nine iron into 16 was just flailed out there for a part of her game. It's supposed to be really good. And Celine, I mean, it could have gotten worse. Celine like made birdied five of the last seven holes, I think, and left two putts on the lip. Like it was, Celine really did come to play

that final stretch, which we were kind of waiting for that. It's not been the best kind of back to back Solheim run for Celine Boudier, but it's hard to call it a straight choke from Lexi, but just not the golf they were looking for out of her down the stretch either though. I will say, I thought Lexi's approach into 18 was a good shot from Lexi, but just not the golf they were looking for out of her down the stretch either though. I will say, I thought Lexi's approach into 18 was a good shot from the rough. But that putt, you know, it was never up online. It was always short.

And I'm honestly glad she did not have to putt to come back here because that would have been, that would have been really, really, that would not have been the way to go out. It's just, it's just funny to me that like the people that, you know, there's some people that get on Rose and it's like, cool, like turn your, turn your sights to Lexi, like the totality of her career and how many, how many times we saw this almost exact same script play out where, Hey, like she may not have choked it away, but she didn't, she didn't go get it. And I don't know. It was just, it was definitely a counterpoint to last year. She, she quitted herself a counterpoint to last year.

She, she quit herself well and finished strong last year in what was a loss for the U S team. It was a tie last year. I'll say quickly. I Celine and Celine showed me something today and quite honestly TC like we needed to see something. We were talking this morning. We were like, oh, like we have a Celine problem for the next half decade at least, cause she's not going anywhere either. Like she's, she's a firmly ensconced in the top and her 15 in the world rankings and extremely consistent player and

all of that. And yeah, she looked great. Her, her like rotation, her shoulder turn and just, she, she gets such good, like, I don't know. It's, it's just really impressive. It's like exactly the kind of stuff I'm trying to work on right now. And I look at her swing and I'm like, God, she's really good at golf. Quite honestly, you see why she's a top 10 player in the world. Really good form on her swing. What I will say is that you guys, we mentioned this so many times, specifically last year, we've talked about it a lot this year, is that for her world ranking, she always seems to like, just not really show up.

And I don't know really what happened, but she was three down to Lexi. And she made the turn and came back when really that closing stretch there, specifically 10 drivable par four all the way coming back, which should have been Lexi strong, strong suits. Celine was like, nah, hell no, man. This is my shit. And Lexi's driving away pastor.

Yeah. And she went out and did it. Now we can get to this in Amsterdam, but absolutely horseshit decision by I don't know who did it. I understand it was disappointing finish to that match for Lexi Thompson, but you cannot push cameras away. Morgan did it a member of the freaking media. You can't work the cameras when it's beneficial to you and run from them when it's not.

Okay, if you want to drape yourself and be this all American, represent the team USA and have this celebratory moment, which I still think overall her record stands like this would even with that loss today, like there's a lot that Lexi Thompson can hang her hat on. For sure. In SoulHunt Cup history. For sure. Very, very proud of that.

Thompson can hang her hat on. For sure. So I'm cup history. For sure. Very, very proud of that. And instead of like, you know, having that and taking advantage of it, we get this kind of the same Lexi Thompson treatment, which is different because since she's announced her retirement, things have kind of changed a little bit. We've also, we also got her, her putt in playing through, I believe.

Solly, can you confirm that? No, the whole, what lead up to it was it was playing through and like there's another action happening on the course in this time and they're just like showing her walking around looking at it and they come right back as she's getting re like walking into the putt to hit it. And they did that all day, like went to break at the worst possible times. Well, again, we'll talk about that in Amsterdam. Um, we can keep moving through the matches.

So next match in the house, we're going out four times to like, so we're going out four times and Esther going to go on three times. Like that to me is a shock considering. And that was the switch I would have made Celine. I think went out a Saturday afternoon, four ball, and I would have put Esther there anyway. Next match to finish Leona McGuire, who we hadn't seen since Friday.

Those four and three over Allie Ewing of the U S at this point, the score becomes USA 13 and a half Europe, 10 and a half Leona shockingly plays two sessions this week finishes one and one Allie Ewing, I hate it. Oh, and foreign. I believe she's lost. She's lost seven in a row. Seven. So it is, it's not good.

Um, nobody beats Vita scarolitis. I think 17 times in a row though. I think the story here is honestly some interesting quotes from Leona afterwards. She said, uh, I think this was in the flash area, talking about, you know, Hey, did Captain Pedersen give you much reason to as to why you sat? Leona said, quote, she didn't give me much reason to be honest. The feeling I got was that I was a little bit too short and didn't make enough

birdies. But I think today proved there's more than one way to skin a cat. This is all your reaction. Does she mean literally like too short in height? Like is that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like just doesn't hit it. Oh, okay. Which I would also learn as well. Celine the other way. We can't be talking about, we can't be talking about skinning cats right now in this political environment. Thank you. Thank you. So what do you, what do you make of this though? I think it's a little surprising somebody like Leona, who's honestly like quite good with media. Like this was a very targeted quote, I believe she, I mean,

she has a great Solheim cup record coming into this. She was, I mean, at 2021, like her and Mel Reed at Inverness, like they were just freaking incredible to watch. She came into the seven, two and one in her career. Didn't come in on the best form. And like, I didn't think a lot of her sitting out cause it's like, all right, the captain has seen their practice rounds.

You know, if somebody's playing like a dog and like just not worth throwing out there, right? And she did not- Bad dog, not good dog. Sorry, another bad dog you know dog i'm saying i'm saying like playing like a dog like not not the good kind of dog emily peterson's dog d-a-w-g correct uh so you know i was like okay there must be a good reason why she's sitting uh and just the quotes afterwards like uh maybe there kind of wasn't it's hard to

tell of course they didn't show much of this match I don't even know how well she actually played or how poorly Ali Ewing actually played. But a little chip on her shoulder when it comes to that. And I mean, she is seems like the kind of player where you would kind of throw out some of the stroke play form for the match play toughness and kind of what you got out of it. And, you know, one and one now moves to what eight three and one in her career and sat three sessions this week is kind of like, Ooh, for a field player, uh, that like Suzanne Patterson, that's a, that's a tough one to swallow.

And she tweeted, uh, form is temporary classes permanent. Uh, could mean anything guys. I mean, truly who knows what that could be. Yeah. It that's an interesting one. You know, an unnamed friend of the program was hypothesizing that. So Suzanne Patterson, when she played, she, she, she hit the ball a long way. She was a power player.

You know, you can see like Emily, I do think it's Peterson. We will check that, but you can see Emily Peterson's, you know, a long hitter kind of plays reminiscent of Suzanne Carlotta the same way. And this person's hypothesis was, listen, Leona is just like a completely different player than Suzanne was. And perhaps there's just not that, I just trust, I guess, at the end of the day, right? Like they just can't see that type of player. Like if you're not a long hitter, how are you going to be successful? So then read through some of these quotes from the, the intro presser, right? Or, well, so then there's another hypothesis that, uh, Suzanne perhaps

got pissed at Leona early in the week. And that's why she was looking for a reason to sit her and And the one quote that I guess would have like flame things was Leona was asked, you know, how would you describe Suzanne style as captain as she changed much this time around and Leona answered. Quote, I think Suzanne is Suzanne. She's been pretty similar. She obviously brings a lot of energy to the team, a lot of passion. She's very, very competitive and nobody wants to win more than her this week. I think she learned a lot from Spain. While we did bring back the trophy, there was a lot of things

that didn't go quite right in Spain. I think to be fair to her, she was very open to feedback and she's taken a lot of that on board. And she goes on to say, you know, some changes in the behind the scenes people, but it's like, I, you know, some changes in the behind the scenes people, but it's like, I don't know, there's just not a lot there. But also like Suzanne Patterson, like, seems like kind of a targeted thing to say that. Yeah. And I, you know, Suzanne strikes me as a tight person. Like that could rub her the wrong way. So I don't know, Cody, what's your read on this whole situation? Yeah, I don't know. I think it's just one of those things

where they clearly, they just don't get along. You know, she doesn't understand if she wants to play. It's based off of her game. That's fine. But ultimately it's like, you know, it's fine. She just, you know, Suzanne, we know she has her favorites. Emily is one of her favorites. There's a lot of people, right? And for the next Ryder cup of Suzanne was president and what, no matter what her form is would be on that team. She has her favorite, she knows who she can rely on. And even though there's the record to back it up, Leona is not that now I will say stroke play wise, Leona has not had the best year.

We talked about her being sick for a long, long time, but it's a very weird European thing because they put so much stock usually in the history of their records specifically when it comes to match play. I mean, yeah, stroke play results haven't been good this year, but the only person that you lost to at the one match play tournament that is in professional golf is Nellie Korda. She took second in Vegas. She clearly understands and strives. On a very long, like shadow Creek was a long challenging golf course. And you would think out of anybody that's going to throw out course fit,

it would be this current captain, but you know, it's like, man, like if, all right, cool. Like it's not a great course fit for Leona. Let's, let's just throw that out. And, and you know, I know she's hitting nine wood in certain spots, but it's like Captain Pedersen, like you got to throw that out and just trust her a little bit. Yeah. I don't have a, I don't have like a way to like lean. I'm reaching for this one. I don't have anything to support this other than to say it seems like Leona also is the kind of player, like player on a team side that can be the one plus one equals three, right? Like just kind of just plays a different role on the course of like a four ball match.

Like again, watching her and Mel Reed, their contrasting styles was just, it was awesome in 2020. And Suzanne was there from that. She was assistant captain on that team. And obviously the captain, like she was there for all of Leona's seven, two, and one lead up into this. And it just would take a pretty freaking huge, like this is the, you know, kind of sitting here, take the JT example for, for Rome.

Like this is the, you know, JT got his chance and it didn't go great. But like, you know, if you don't give the player that has had a great run for you in prior issue, you know, prior cups, a run, you can end up getting second guest here on the back end of that. And if the, if JT didn't get the run and the radical, we will be sitting here kind of saying the same thing. We're getting to see both sides of that coin kind of here. Yeah. One and one, I mean, just like two spots, but this is where I'll say, Sally, if, if, uh, if Esther and Andrea don't have that match, if Angie doesn't come back, we're looking at an absolute blue wall here, because at that point,

Maya was up on Lauren and it was like four in a row that we're seeing, you know, things, things were, and then, you know, and then you're looking at, Oh my gosh, did Lexi just choke away like the entire victory for the U S team here. So the next match that gets in the house, we talked to Lauren earlier. It was Maya Stark finishing all square with Lauren Coughlin. This brings the result to USA 14 Europe 11 LC finishes the week three on one Maya finishes the week one, two and one, as we said, LC was three down through 10 and she just played a phenomenal stretch of closing holes until then

capped off with that unbelievable birdie putt on 17 to, to, to extend the match really. And then that 18th, like so glad Maya made that putt to not lose the Solheim cup there. That would have been a bad way to finish. Um, felt like we got more out of Maya than a one, two and one this week. She played big matches. She, She went up against some, like, you know, some of the best stuff that the U S had to offer. I think in Kota, your, your like shotgun on the Maya bandwagon. And for good reason, I mean, today was just an encapsulation. I think of what Maya Stark's all about just total grit. Yeah. She's a, she's a killer, man. She goes out there and she gets it done when she needs to. It was, you know, obviously didn't get the full point today, but at no point

in time was she down in this match. And no point in time was Lauren ever up in this match. And they ended up, you know, each getting a half point, but it, Randy, you hit the nail on the head. When LC was on here is like, when we saw this pairing, I was like, Oh man, the only thing that would be a little bit crazier for no laying up truly I said, Randy, you hit the nail on the head. When LC was on here, it was like, when we saw this pairing, I was like, oh man, the only thing that would be a little bit crazier for no laying up, truly, as if it was like Madeline

versus LC, then it would have been like, oh, what do we do here? But you know, Maya's gonna be a staple in the Solheim Cup for a long, long time. And her record, even though it's not what it shows, nor do I think that like reflects her performance this week. Like there's so much more. They're trodden her out as like the heart and soul of the team. And you know what she came out on the first tee this morning to baby shark.

I was the target audience for that one. I may say, I'm gonna throw a little challenge flag at this. You guys are, this is kid glove treatment here. She had a three up lead on the back nine chunked one into the water on that was bad. That was bad. He put it in a bad spot and a terrible shot into 18 terrible putt to leave that putt that she needed to make to continue things. If this would happen to Lexi, it was a terrible shot. If this would happen to Lexi, you guys would be shot. If this would happen to Lexi, you guys would be absolutely slaying her for it. And I just, I got it. I think she was juiced up. I think, I think they probably didn't factor in the,

the adrenaline. That's kind of part of it. You need to factor that in Brady. That's kind of important. I thought, I thought Lexi got away with some, some approach shots that we can back that up too. So the chunk shot on 14. Yeah, that was bad. She got beat by, you know, what would have been a birdie there. And if you go back here, really, so she was three up, excuse me, two up at the turn birdies 10 drivable par four there to get it to three up, they moved to 11 LC birdies 11 to get to two down, moved to 12 LC birdies 12 to get the one down.

Like has her foot on the pedals. No pars on 13 moved to 14, which was a very defining moment there. Um, she ends up chunking it, whatever six, they, they, they're all square. LC hits a great shot. Like, yeah, which was a bad break. It like barely hanging up on that back fringe there. We hadn't seen it. Which was a bad break. It like barely hanging up on that back.

We hadn't seen it. Paul stopped there all day. Pars at 15, 16 pars, 17. Maya probably, yeah. Wishes you had that one back. Yeah. You know, great shot in there. And 18. I don't really know. Wait, 17 Maya stuffed it. They both birdied it. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, 18 was a tough one too. Cause the ball was above their feet all day. Everybody hitting it in there. Like anybody that stuffed it on 18. That's, it was impressive. Her and Lexi were both one under on the back nine.

Out there forgetting. Yeah, but also like she makes a, you know, all right, she put herself in that position, but she also made the putt. She made the comeback and Lexi doesn't even get it within two feet of the hole. You know, like that's where I just struggle. Both made par on 18, but anyway, just getting to throw that in there. No, I know. You go back like 30 seconds and you say anybody that hit it close on 17 or 18.

And that's exactly what Lily did in the next match to end it. And this was the clincher for the United States. Uh, Lily Vue ends up squaring her match with Albon Valenzuela to earn that decisive half point USA 14 and a half Europe 11 and a half at this point. Lilia looked dead in the water too. She was, she was what? Completely. Three or four down at one point.

Yeah. And, and then chipped away. She was actually two down standing on 17T and makes a 15 foot birdie putt on 17 to get the match to 18. And then absolutely hits the really maybe the shot of the tournament, given the circumstances, hits a wedge to about 18 inches on 18. Albon does not give it to her. Can I give you some details on that? Like if we're going to run through what would be shots of the day, like that is by far, it's incredible to have the guts to step up and actually like pull that off when you need it.

And that's because she has a low spinning golf ball, you know, and you need that for that half wedge right into that back flag stick. Her Pro V1 X golf ball landed online and checked up perfectly finishing in tight to set up the winning tap in par for team USA boys. USA. USA. Now, I don't know if I have the confidence, you know, I fancy myself to be somebody who can clip something off tight lies,

but to be able to judge, check everything like that. It truly was a special. Lily was one of 70 players who teed up this week at the Solheim cup, usually a titleist golf ball, more than five times the nearest competitor with only three. Each of those players have been through a golf ball fitting process to find the model that fits their flight spin and feel preferences, whether it's the V or the X or on the game's biggest stage is more of the best players in the world. Choose a performance and consistency of titleless golf balls. Head to title is.com to start the golf fitting process and find out which golf ball model

is right for you. Bang. Expertly done. Lily of who finishes the week one, two and one Albon Valenzuela after sitting all day Saturday finishes the week. Oh, one and one. I'll just say, first of all, I think Lily of who's an absolute killer. I think she is one of my favorite people to watch play golf.

And I thought her 17th and 18th holes today perfectly encapsulated why she's one of my favorites to watch play golf. Yeah. Coming off of what was, you know, not the strongest week for and stays in it. Comes back at the end. I like Albon. I want to see more of her. I like, I like the cut of her jib. You feel me? I feel you. I feel you, but sorry. What was it from home?

What did any thoughts here? Did, did anything surprise you? I just kind of, it was feeling like a, a dud of a week from Lillia up into that point. I mean, these events can kind of do that to you where you can end up being, being the hero despite, you know, not perfect weeks because you get to get the last moment and it was clutch. It was, it was, it was needed at the time. It was, uh, otherwise those last matches would have been, you know, there'd have been some sphincters tightening a little bit, uh, in the back half of that.

But, uh, you know, I kind of just needed Lily to step up and, and, and, and have a better week than that probably. But, uh, you know, that'd have been one in three if she doesn't birdie those last two holes today. But she did and took care of it and gets to be remembered as the hero. But just didn't seem like they got the full Lilia Vu effort this week. I know you're a big Lilia guy, Randy, and I just I haven't always seen it, but I needed to see a little bit more this week. And honestly, they did such a bad job covering Albin Valenzuela's matches.

I have no opinion on, I don't know if I could pick her swing out of a lineup right now because I don't even feel like I watched her this week. Very good golf swing, hell of a putt. Yeah, I think too, it was, it's cool to see Lillian clench the winning putt for, uh, or the winning point for the United States after reading the, the, I was going to, yeah. So Brendan Quinn, um, it was before the Olympics. So what?

Two months ago or so had a wonderful, wonderful profile on Lillie Vu and her family's, um, just history and how they got to the United States. Please, please seek that out. I tweeted it earlier, um, on, on Sunday. So excellent there, Cody, anything to add from this clenching match? No, I mean, I just, I'm going to remember that wedge for a long, long time. Yeah. To be able to step up, get that shot and pull it off to perfection. When you needed it was huge, but it's all I am kind of there with you too.

I don't know. I expected a lot more from Lilia Vu and it maybe she, it's just a form thing, but this is kind of lacking this week. So she went one in three last year, one, two and one this year. I think that's fair, right? It's, I mean, your record is what it is. So it's, I think you are what your record says you are. I think if you zoom out, if you're like, all right,

one of Alison LC, Megan Kang, Nellie, and Lilia Vu is going to have a bad week. It's not that unreasonable, right? Like if you zoom up, but if you zoom in on that, Lily, you would not think that she would have that kind of week. And yet, and yet I think if you put that ball where Lillias was on 18 and Hey, one person on the U S team to hit this shot, who do you have the most faith in?

Like maybe Rose, you could talk me into just how well she was playing. I could see an argument for Nellie, but like, even if she's one and two coming into the day, like Lily is right there. Like she's who I want hitting that shot. A little revisionist history for him because I can go back a couple of weeks when she almost had that exact same shot on the 18th bullet, St. Andrews when she needed to pull it off and she didn't now pull it off.

So were you surprised? Yeah, very much. That's my whole point. Thank you. That's my whole point. So the last two matches to get us to 15 and a half, 12 and a half. Jennifer cup choke. It's a two and one victory over Lynn grant.

Cup Joe finishes the week one and two. He's warming up from the bullpen. Grant finishes the week. Oh, and four. And I'll just say TC. This was, I mean, it's all I'm going to cut you off the pass and just say, I thought it was reprehensible of Horan's, uh,

watching Lynn putt today and just all week was, was something that, you know, I haven't been sleeping well because of it. Uh, and just really, uh, it's just, this is not the Lynn grant that I know. We recognize that. So you're, I have nothing to say. I was expecting more of an apology. I've been here. Nothing but Lynn grant, Lynn grant, Lynn grant, Lynn grant, Lynn grant for years. And she went, Oh, and for this week, she did, she did.

It was bad. And then to your girl, Jennifer, Jennifer cup show had her on the speed bag. J Monahan's life is such a good term. I hate it. I hate it. Solly, nobody hates it more good term. I hate it. I hate it. So like, nobody hates it more than me. I'm sorry. All we can do is own it.

All we can do is own it. TC we've diagnosed the problem. We know what the problem is. We just got to get better. She's trying to hit, hit cuts instead of her native draw. Is that the issue, Cody? Like what is going on with Lynn Grant?

Well, it's not this event obviously is just a, it's a very small reflection of what her year has been. It's a, they made a decision for some reason last off season, she felt that that she could be more competitive on the LPGA tour. Uh, if she changed from hitting that tight draw that she usually does to a little baby fate, it's just, she wants to eat more filets. Yeah, not working.

So the final match to finish up our, our young hitters, Madeline Saxstrom gets a one-up victory over Sarah Schmelzel. And with that makes a, a true profit out of the beluga, Neil Schuster, who on the happy hour show Thursday delivered a plus 1200 bet to the masses that the U S would 15.5 to 12.5. And by God, that was the final margin. Madeline finishes the week two and one. Sarah Schmelzel finishes the week two and two. And let me just say before, I want your guys' comments. I had questioned the Schmelzel pick and I thought, hey, why is Angel Yin not in this spot?

She's got experience. She's got a pretty good Solheim record. And I thought Sarah Schmelzel and Stacey Lewis, it was a great decision. Sarah played very, very well and was a huge addition to this team. And that's why Stacey gets the big bucks and I'm here. I'm just on this golf podcast.

So kudos to Sarah. I'll say she played great on day one, which is important, like getting out and doing it early and putting the pressure on his board. She played terrible yesterday on Saturday, like really bad, but she was extremely valuable on day one. And I'll say that terrible though was with Lily Vue. So when we talk about Lily's record, like that was part of what goes into it. But, uh, I'll also say, I think Sarah, like her, just her,

a, every time I felt like they showed her today, she was chipping in or making a long punch. It was crazy. Uh, and, and Madeline still beat her, which props to Madeline. I think Sarah's like what I envisioned Russell Henley being on like a men's team of just good Potter, gonna hit a lot of greens, not really, you know, gonna kind of a chameleon that you compare with whomever seems like really dry and good in the team room. You know, so she did put the rain pants on like, yeah, we were kind of speculating.

Was that just like a switch of momentum for her? Was she just trying to turn the tides? Cody was, I don't know. Was that just like a switch of momentum for her? Was she just trying to turn the tides, Cody? I don't know. I was on radio at the time too. And Ian's like, did she like hit it out of the water? Or is she cold? Like what is going on here?

Still never got to the bottom of it. She's like me changing my fantasy team name because my team is not hitting very well. Just desperate moves. You got to change the mojo in some way. Two and one for Madeline. Yeah, yeah. And I think Madeline, this win gets her career Solheim singles record to three and one for Madeline. Yeah. Yeah. And I think Madeline, this, this one gets her career Solheim singles record

to three and one, I believe. So, you know, that's, that's excellent for her. I just really, the thing I wish for Madeline is just to find some consistency in her golf game. She is when, when she's on, she's one of the best players in the world. And when she's off, she just makes huge numbers. So I hope she takes a lot from this week. She's coming off, uh, her wedding. She just got married to Jack Clark, who was on Anna Norquist bag. So, um, yeah, a lot going on with her, but she remains one of my favorites. Madeline, uh, is one of two players in the European team that had a winning record this week,

her and Charlie Hall was the only two players that won more matches than they lost. So that boys was the Solheim cup. I want to quickly, um, let's go around most valuable players. Solly, can we, can we kick it off with you? Who who's your MVP? Uh, it's, I mean, it's gotta be Rose at four and O, um, you know, there's a lot of nominees there. I mean, LC really was, you know,

that's a little bit expected from, from Rose, I think, like for Lauren to go three, oh, and one, you know, automatic qualifier, and obviously a player that was going to be heavily relied on. But, you know, maybe most, not most valuable, I guess, but but most performing beyond like reasonable expectation was probably Lauren, right? War, right? Yeah, yeah, sure. Above replacement. For what she's paid. Yeah, you know, Rose gets paid the big bucks here in this analogy. But and

honestly, man, it was it was just really cool to see Nellie up until today play like an alpha and like really show a lot more joy out there. Like it just I'll remember that eagle putt that she made after Alison Corpus top that ball into the green but like the fist pump and the energy she brought to the first tee and the environment was just like women's golf really, really needs that and she doesn't always taking that upon herself to do and like she looked like she was, you know,

made a conscious effort like there's not even an effort like naturally enjoyed herself this week and that shine through, which added to the experience of watching on TV and in person just look like a frickin ball. And she was the leader of all that. So a lot of nominees because there was just a lot of really valuable players in the US side. Yeah, I'd even say that, you know, we've seen Nelly when everything's going right, you know, she's fine. She's fun to

be around. And she's hamming it up to the crowd and everything else like that. But even after like, just straight up getting beat by Charlie today, she was awesome. Like smiling. She was out there supporting and like, like fully embraced. I think how well Charlie played was like, holy shit. That was awesome. I think Claire Rogers tweeted it. She was, uh, show Nellie was showing, uh, uh, Charlie the, uh, meme that golf digest posted of like, it said six and four with Charlie smoking a heater. Nellie was there showing her Charlie the picture and they were laughing about there. It was blowing fat clouds out of that. Good to see Nellie just playing good golf again too. Like, you know, the, this last month, month and a half after, you know,

kind of going through a dry spell there, middle of the summer post us, us women's open and making the nine or the 10 and all that. And then the dog bite thing and all that stuff. Yeah. And like, honestly, like kind of a kind of a Sunday collapse at the AIG went open and a lot of that could have been based off some, some slow play happening there. But the only name that I think we've left out so far that also like deserves a little bit of discussion. Megan. Okay. Yeah.

I'm glad you said that because I think in an old school, you know, like how the baseball writers, Sally loved to like, who's the most like, I don't, I don't care about war, who's the most valuable player. I truly think you could make a Megan keg argument for like extracting and lifting her teammates. Yeah. They're here coming out on the tee today to Stacey's mom, like, you know, her absolutely being there, pumping everybody up, like being the funny person when she needs to, but like

absolutely embracing the moment and like having her game match that is it's really damn cool to see. This is like, you could probably go back and look at Ryder Cup Presidents Cup Solheim Cup and just look at whoever the Megan Kang is for this go around and like if Megan Kang is your seventh best player, like you're going to win the Ryder Cup. But when she is your fourth or third best player, you're in trouble, right? Like it just like if you if you need more out of needed

more out of Megan this week, you might not have gotten in your team, might've just been in trouble, but she can just play that secondary role so well. She only played once each day in team matches, won, won everything. Like was just a very, very valuable team member. Yeah. It's kind of person like makes these team competitions so special. Like she's, she represents everything I like about the Solheim cup. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that's very well said, but unanimously, I think by and large Rose, I mean, leading point, when, yeah, I mean, for no phenomenal stuff, like going out and being, you know, Carlotta has such a great record, what she did last year in her home country, you know, like truly like having the, the stones to win there. And like, you were kind of expecting that today, Rose going out there and like absolutely handling her business was so awesome. So let's, let's turn the tides a little bit team. You're a big, who do you got?

I'll say Charlie, perhaps too little too late. It would have been great had she played well on Friday. She did not, uh, but she hung in there. She, she found something her in Georgia, you know, maybe she, she helped Georgia play well today, who knows. But for Charlie to play all five sessions, three and two to totally boat race, the number one player in the world. I think that's your European MVP.

Yeah. Tough to go any other direction besides that. Like, you know, seeing, I think Celine getting two points out of coming in, like everybody down on her after last year's performance. I think that's probably up there as well, but not anywhere close to Carly. I was dogging Celine. Like, so it's kind of like a Sunday MVP versus that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, going out and beating Nelly first off today is like, cool. Like that,

like not like none of the, even, you know, us sweating a lot, you probably sweating, you know, through that sweatshirt, Sally there at home. None of that happens if Charlie doesn't go out and get it done against Nelly. That's well said. If we have to pick a disappointing player, I mean, I don't know how you don't go Ling grant. I, but if there's any others that you guys want to discuss, I just am, man, it just stinks that lane went on for like, it's just,

I think kind of stinks for overall, I would throw maybe Suzanne Patterson. I think that's fair TC. I think we're going to get into some captain stuff, but that's that one's, that was probably fair. I think at this point, it just seemed like some weird, honestly, let's, let's go there. I don't know. I just thought that, yeah, it just seemed like some of the pairings the last couple of days have been.

They just seem chaotic. Yeah. They just, yeah. You can't figure out like any rhyme or reason to them. Last year, you know, I won't say she got bailed out, but she looks a heck of a lot better with Europe retaining the cup, winning the cup, I should say, TC. And it seems like out of a captain, you want to get off to a good start. That's like a captain's job is to put your best foot forward. And like both of her, like they've been in fucking shambles after Friday, both of her years, captain.

Like bits aside, like 1414 was not the result you're looking for out of a whole, a whole Salaam cup. It was a tie and a retain, but like, and then to turn around and lose, it kind of invalidates that. I honestly think like if you're over your two, you know, your two captain run here, you, you got no, you did not outscore the opponent in either time and like that's, that's, that's one she's got to, she's got to wear it. Well, let me ask you on the flip side, like I'm very impressed with Stacey Lewis.

She seems like she has her shit together. Cody would kind of lasting takeaways from captain Lewis. Uh, the great Ian Carter asked me this on radio. I was signing off too, if I could give a quick synapsis and kind of what the lasting thoughts of it. And I think for Stacey is that she is truly a transitional captain. She took the Solheim Cup from kind of the years of old, where it's all about your clicks and who gets on and your pairings, which is a reflection of the European team. And I think that they're still stuck there with her relationship

with the KPMG golf team and utilizing performance insights and statisticians and Justin Ray and his team really brought a Solheim Cup to equal footing to where the men's competitions are at. And I think that is what she is going to be known for and truly catapulting this competition into the kind of its next iteration of it. Now, yeah, she didn't get it done in Spain, but I think of all people, she learned a ton from that. She did not waiver when it came to what she believed in. And that's what the numbers do not lie. And she believed that all the way through Sunday in Spain,

and it didn't work out for her. She's a data girl. And she stuck to that this year and doubled down on that. And I think like, it's phenomenal. And you know, I don't know. I just think that it's really cool for her, a major champion and everything. In the post-round pressers, we didn't really get a tune into a ton of the US side, but they're drilling down on Suzanne. If there was somebody, and I know that in 2026, it more than likely will not be Stacey, but I would very happily have her back again as captain. It seems like to, I mean, just to give three, like three years of your life to being captain, Luke Donald's doing that right now. And, you know, Captain Patterson did that as well.

So, you know, just props to them in the midst of, you know, like I know Stacey's got youngish kids as well. Like that's a lie. And she's still playing high level golf too. Like that's, that's a lot, you know, whereas Pedersen's more kind of in the twilight of her career. So I think just balancing all of those things is, is pretty remarkable. It's classic. Like, I mean, she pressed a lot of the right buttons and the players played well and you end up thinking back really positively on the captaincy, right? Uh, it mean, she pressed a lot of the right buttons and the players played well and you end up thinking back really positively on the captaincy, right? It's it's all the things you don't like, you can't see and you can't know, like worked out really, really well, right? In terms of the,

you know, the people she put together, I know when she broke up, Rose and Lauren, I was like, I had my hands up in the air, like, what the hell are we doing here? And then like, all about like, they all worked, they all worked. So it's, it's hard to say, even remotely, anything doubtful. Same thing we kind of talked about after all these events of I don't know how much credit or blame to put on the captain. It seems like it's a very consistent combo of blaming the

captain. Other than the 2022 President's Cup. I feel like it's Yeah, we all said Trevor Elmer did an incredible job with that one. But usually it's like, you know, you, you celebrate the winning captain and then blame the losing captain, probably more than we probably should, but it's, it's hard to argue with the result. Also, we didn't say least valuable play on the United States. I don't think we really have to, of course, for sure. Yeah. Which like what's with that? I don't understand.

I don't know. That's how she plays like her normal tournaments too, because she's like really good in like, you know, the first round and then like the front nine of her second round and then she just shits the better. It's crazy. It's tough. What I will say real quick back to, to the captains and, and for Stacy, I didn't realize this, I guess, but big differences in golf courses between Finke-Cordeson and Robert Trent Jones golf course or golf club here. And this is something that like, unlike Ryder Cup, President's Cup, the Solheim Cup, the captains do not get to choose like set up yardages,

pin locations, everything. They try to keep it equitable. The LPGA and the ladies European tour kind of work through it together, but really it's whoever the host organization is. Last year, majority of par fours, we all saw they're pretty short, you know, a lot of big downhill par fours, not a lot of uphill shots or anything like that. When they were uphill holes, they're usually par fives that were pretty reachable. But those par fours, really they were hitting their second shots in between about a hundred yards to 130 yards, which benefited a lot of the European players.

This golf course here, just based off the length, the average par fours where you're coming in from 155 yards up to 180 yards. And really we saw that with the par fives moved up to eight of the top 12 players on the LPGA Tour according to KPMG performance insights in distance in in approach from 150 to 100 whatever 150 to 180 and then it's like 180 to 210, eight of the top 12 were on team USA. Yeah. Good shit. That's great. Which I thought the setup like not my favorite golf course. I thought it was a good match play golf course though, as far as the cadence of, you know, having nine as a cool par three

and then 10, they bumped that up for the most part into a drivable par four. And then you've got the two par fives kind of 12 and 14 there. And I thought the weakest holes in the course were probably that 17 and 18 stretch and they wouldn't see a whole lot of it. And granted, like there's some revolting shit out there as well. Like some of the bunker complexes, especially off the tee that, but like overall, I just wish they would go to more intimate settings and golf courses where like this one, this is a big property, big, big piece of land. And there's just not a lot of intimacy to it.

And I feel like you lose some energy and you lose some, some, just some of the crowd enthusiasm and some of the stuff that makes the Solheim Cup special, at least at Inverness, it was like that. Yeah. You don't have the Robert Trent Jones doesn't have that kind of classic, like the front nine goes out and back and then the back nine goes out and back. It's like, you know, the turn takes place like the furthest away from the clubhouse and the first tee.

And so I do think it leads a little bit to that. I'll echo your thoughts though. I thought on the whole, it was, it was a very good venue for, to test these women, to provide an excellent Solheim cup show, right? Experience. And yeah, I, I'm with you. It's in great shape too. I mean, I thought like the, you know, the superintendent, the, the, um, just the setup, like, you know, everything was dialed, everything that they, yeah, like everything that they had control over, they, they nailed

on that. Like I understand why this is a very like high profile, you know, private club out here in Northern Virginia. That's, that's unlike the rest of them. And it's very hard to get into and has the likes of, you know, former president Barack Obama out there as members. And that's where he loves to play his golf. Like you see it, it feels grand. It's very well taken care of, very well manicured. I understand the intimacy side of it. I think honestly, TC, you know, they're going to have that fix. They're going to a property that's like super interesting. Exactly. Exactly. Super excited. Versus like, like looking back to like watching

Des Moines even, right? Like that was the same thing as Inverness of like having that setting and feeling like you're hearing the roars or you're feeling the energy from all the different matches around. So quick shout out, just the pins I thought were great. I thought they use the best possible areas of those greens and made some really interesting like shots that you could play off banks and kind of funnel them in another funnel pins aren't what you'd like to see Randy but it was like very much of like LC barely mr. mark on 14 today and got held up there and it was a pretty severe punishment whereas I don't know I thought they just put some really fun

shots and approach shots into a lot of 18 that pin was Loki really hard today like you came up short on that ball spun back. And if you went just a bit too far, everything went down from there. I think this is like a classic example of like, dude, do I think this would have been I would, we would have been railing on this place. If it was a major champion, a men's major championship, the difference in like hosting a match play team event and a major championship is completely different. I don't care that much about the golf

course. If you can put a good venue, good setting up there. And like that first team, man, that place was freaking rocking on TV, which is a hard hurdle to clear. Like sometimes on TV, everything is gets kind of like dulled down. That was absolutely rocking. And I, the most FOMO I've had for not being at a first, any location at a golf course all year long. I thought from a first tee perspective, like I was expecting a lot more just as far as build out and kind of what they had going versus what we saw in Spain or we saw in Toledo. I would say something like Props to the Americans as well, because I think this comes back to captaincy and leadership is a lot of them were talking in, or I saw two or three different players mentioned using the slopes in their press conferences as well, which is like, that's very much that comes straight from team meetings and looking

at whole locations and pin sheets critically and effectively. It was clearly well scouted. And I'll say this, like we've, we heard the people, Lauren was up here with Alison Corpuz. She came up here two different times by herself. We heard of other players making stops post AIG women's open to come out and not only scout this course, but to really figure out what's, what's going on here where I was about to say European team, even though some of them might be based in the United States, they showed up on Monday and they're like, yeah, that's cool, man. Like we're going to play nine holes a day, nine holes tomorrow, do the gallon, like, you know, chalk it up. Let's, let's figure this thing out.

But speaking of fan experiences, I want to bring in our number one fan. Yeah, get out of here, TC. Get out of here. Come on, bullpen. We need, we're calling for an arm. We're calling from an arm. Righty. As she comes in, can I just clarify? I've got a question here from Barry who's asking if I forgot about LaGolf Nationale. I want to, one more shout out I have for our TJ was like, they cut the rough down this

week, which made for interesting shot making out of the rough. Right? I request. Yes. He requested that on Monday, but it made for exciting. There was enough punishment for hitting out of the rough that it made like it didn't, it wasn't like just hit it anywhere and there's no consequence. That's the difference in the golf national and Rome.

Like they cut the rough at Rome and that golf course played exciting. Like that was just exciting golf. Like there was home course advantage, whatever, but like at least it was exciting. The golf national was still an abomination and I will never, I would never stop ever having that opinion. Sorry. Welcome to the game. It's a Tron Carter tracker real quick. It says RTJ over Royal County down, like get out of here. But that's why I love the live show. That's why I love seeing your guys's comments here. Anyway, big let's see. So ladies and gentlemen, Casey Landman, and you might not know Casey, but if you've ever bought anything from the NLU pro shop, which, hey, we love when you do.

This woman right here is pretty much largely responsible for not only having those items, but getting those items. So Casey's a wonderful member of the team. This was her first Solheim cup and Casey, we'd like to put everybody to work by saying, give us three things. I want your three lasting impressions from this being your first Solheim cup. Let's start with number one. Well, number one, it was like the fans and the van experience.

Like, like you said, I've never been to a Solheim Cup before, a Ryder Cup or any really large, uh, build out things. So the intimacy didn't bother me cause I don't, I didn't know any, I didn't know any difference, right? Um, I thought it was great, especially like there were some vantage points where you could just get up high and see a couple of different holes at once, especially along the back, like nine, 10, 11, 12, all along the water. Yeah. And I thought it was great. I thought the fans were great. I didn't see anybody like

pissy or moany. It was like everybody got along. The Euros and the US people were just doing their little chants back and forth. Tons of people with families and kids. I love the people who took it to another level with their costumes. I know the Anabananas have been out before. It was lovely to see them in person. Today they had tutus on as well. But I think it was just a really good, fun time. And I was really glad I got to come and see it and know hooligans or shenanigans going on just just fun and people really into the

golf. So I, the best way I can describe it is it, it feels like a celebration of golf. And I think where in recent rider cups, it's really turned into like who can heckle the players, the, the loudest or, you know, the harshest. The Solheim cup doesn't have any of that. And I, it's, it's really nice being on site experiencing. Like I think everybody just loves golf and is looking to have a good time. Yeah.

All right. Number two, number two was that stretch of holes along the back. I just, just, it looked cool. It was awesome. Like today the sun was just out and beautiful. And I think the golf on those holes was really, really fun all week. I feel like a lot of the matches kind of either, you know, flipped or turned at those holes. I know Stacey had talked yesterday about really setting up the alt shot teams for those holes with like better

putters teeing off on the odds so that they could putt for birdie on like most of those holes. And I think it really worked in the Americans favor. And we got, you know, some pretty fun moments like Megan's putt like fitting on the edge on 12 yesterday forever before it jumped in people just, you know, putting putting balls, maybe that was 11, putting balls just like near holes. It was just great. It was good energy. Hey, I know. All right. I know you have to die. Sorry. Sorry. But no, you're right. The statistics,

I mean, that stretch more like 10 to 14, I think was the official statistic, but the U S just dominated that stretch all week. So I think number three, last and certainly not least, because I think it's the most special for you. Elsie, I mean, I always wanted to come to this Alheim Cup, but when Lauren made the team, I'm like, I told these guys, I'm like, I have to come. I'm going to get teared up.

I'm moving out of the frame, sorry. I don't want people seeing me cry on camera. No, I just getting to know Lauren over the last four years has been awesome. Like she's become a great friend. I would say you probably out of anybody like you've truly spent a lot of time with both Lauren and her husband and John. Yeah, John, my husband, John and and Lauren and John have all gotten to know each other really well. We've gone vacations together, we go to shows, we play golf.

It's just a beautiful friendship that's come out of me knowing you guys and being involved in NLU. So to be there for three days and just watch her freaking dominate was amazing. And not just in front of the home crowd of Virginia, but like the world. And she mentioned in the, you know, when she was on earlier, she's not used to people like screaming her name and like cheering Lauren. Oh, she's going to freaking have to do it because everybody knows Lauren now. So I'm happy that, that everybody can know her now and was really special.

I mean, sitting, like just hearing the emotion in your voice, truly. No, truly. It's like for you to be able to come to this Solheim cup. Like this makes me very happy and I'm so glad you got to experience. I'm glad I got to come. And we got to see a lot of refuge and nest people out there and roost people. It was like celebration of golf. Go do it.

You're having me on. Now I got to call my hitter back. You can come back. Amsterdam here. Amsterdam. Yeah. Go do it. All right. Thanks for having me on. Now I gotta call my hitter back. Come back. Amsterdam. So yeah. Thank you, Casey.

Gosh, you can't come off the bench after, you know, doing that good with Merchant deliver that good of a podcasting appearance. I know that's kind of unfair. I gotta follow that. Yeah, come on. Well, it's all he trying to be. If either you want to shed a few tears over the coverage. Sorry.

Let me start with you. You were so unfair. She gets to cry over Lauren and I have to be the bad guy about NBC. That's so unfair, Randy. I mean, we don't have to belabor the point. Uh, we can't belabor the point cause we gotta go here pretty late. Yeah. But Soly just like, I don't know. You watched it all from, from home.

What's, what's the high level takeaway? Can I just say like, I would love, I know this isn't how contracts work and it's not going to happen. I would just love, just, I'd love CPS to get a crack at these team events. I'd love someone to treat these differently than like, we'll show you what we show you. We'll get to it when we get to it. Don't worry about the matches you're missing. You're not missing anything back there. I know the most important match is probably happening and you won't see any of the first 14 holes and it's all going to come down to this, but like, don't worry about that. We got this shit.

They just don't got it, man. You know what else they don't got? Score bugs. Oh my God. I'm not a bad person for wanting to know the score of the matches I'm watching. It's a fucking disgrace. Like it can't happen at the president's cup in two weeks. It cannot happen. It will, it's going to happen. But like just put the fricking scores of the matches in the bottom right corner. I watched so much of this tournament this weekend guys.

And I 75 to 90% of it, I spent not knowing what the hell I was watching. How was that possible? Like I, you know, there's, if you're gonna have that many commercial breaks, I'm going to check my phone. I'm going to get distracted and you can't come back and assume I know what holder on what the status of the matches and what's going on in this golf tournament.

Like it's such a disgrace. It's such a low hurdle to clear. Like I'm not talking about anything complicated other than like the score of the event. The Bengals and Chiefs are at halftime. The score bug is at the bottom of the entire game. I had somebody on Twitter say, pull up your phone if you want to know the status of the matches.

Like what sport makes you do that? It is such a disgrace. It's always worried about getting distracted by pulling out his phone. Meanwhile, he sent us a picture yesterday. He's in his office and he's got the Noctow Box on. He's got nine different things. Nine 40 inch TVs on the wall.

That I'll, I'll say, you know, we, we, we heard a lot of, uh, so upset from a us perspective. So, so Comcast I think has taken over sky. Scott Comcast owns sky. Yeah. So for the first time, I think a lot of our European welcome to the party, they are experiencing the, the blooming onion that is Comcast and all its little tentacles that come down for it. So there, there was a, the world feed that was just

the NBC feed that was shot out both ways. Now I'll say, I know it was a huge change for sky sports and the people in the UK and normally how they're used to watching in the pictures that they see from a US perspective though. I thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of the sky sports personality brought into this. I like having Sarah Sturck there for additional post-round interviews. Iona out on the course was awesome. Katrina Matthew in the studio was awesome for us. Now I understand we got that because we just

completely cannibalized Skye's normal process. Not a fair trade. No. I mean, they, it's solid, but to your point on like having the score of each individual matchup, there were multiple times this weekend where they're, they're clearly spoiling the result of something that's on tape that they can't even get their little score. Right. Like us leads in this many, you know, you're all right. Cool. I, I'm like, now I know that they're going to miss this putt or that sort of thing. Dennis Kim, you're about to get kicked out of the show for San Iona was not good. Anyway, Dennis, Kim, you're about to get kicked out of the show for San Iona was not good.

Anyway, continue. Um, I don't know. Anything else to you want to add? Uh, again, I could, I could do like 10 other layers of like critiques, but again, the bare minimum is so far from being reached like, so another thing that just really kills me is the reason we saw Sarah Schmelzel play awful yesterday was because they decided that's the feature match. And once it was six up, they didn't move off of it.

Like there's all this other stuff. There's only four matches. Four matches. It was probably the least, it was probably the least interesting of the matches even before they, like even before the day started. They can't flex at all. Like it's a total, it's just, it's such a low level of shit given this fricking bother me this morning. Like Terry Gannon and them came on four minutes before the first tee time.

Like now there was a simulcast of the sky preview show, Katrina Matthew down the ground. They great. Like you want some kind of hype up into this and like NBC punted on all that and just aired this at least at least they aired the sky part. But like, again, you swoop in four minutes before the event begins to like start your commentary. It's just, it's such a middle finger to golf. It's not even a middle finger to the women like they just are mailing it in on all these team events to a level that is just so

beyond acceptable. We saw NBC kick the final match on the 18th hole, yesterday to golf channels. You know, they couldn't stay on an extra 25 minutes. It's, it's not great. It's not great. I want to move on. I don't want to move on. I didn't get a say. We got to move on because we got to go to the airport in like eight minutes. Okay. Eight minutes, But I'll say this. This is the LPGA's premiere event. If they cannot

figure out a way to get their television partner to mutually meet them in order to show their premiere event, there's something drastically wrong here. And I think it goes into a lot of things that we've saw this week that are the LPGA tour is extremely struggling with. There's a lot of organizations out there, us including that are doing everything possible to advance the women's game. All we care about is getting more eyeballs on these players because the level of play, their personalities, everything, they're fucking electric. And everybody is

trying to get all boats to rise. While the LPGA tours only television partner, Comcast, NBC, Golf Channel is literally holding us all down by the neck and drowning every single person. It does not matter what we do, how excited we get people when where we point them to the fucking coverage stinks. I know it's Cody. I'll take that even a ways farther. I thought it was a good on-site experience for everybody who was there, but it's really, really frustrating on Friday morning when you talk about it for a year or two years of,

hey, bring your kids to the Solheim Cup, make a trip in for the Solheim Cup. And then it's a logistical disaster and they only have seven buses. Like that's a, like women's golf and golf specifically, golf generally can't stop like shooting itself in the foot with stuff like that. And we saw it with the trophy presentation

this afternoon. We like we just keep there's just so many manifestations of this. And it's like, guys, like at some point, like somebody's got to be an adult and do better. And on the NBC side, I would like I'm tired of calling for like, Aunt Molly, Sam Flood, Tom Knapp, like Like you guys need like you're like subhuman to me. And like, you have no pride in what you do. Like just, just resign. But like, I don't even think that would fix it.

Cause Brian Roberts would just bring in another yes person. And that's where I'll, I'll say again, like USGA folks, anybody that's a member at any of his clubs, like, okay, go at him. I'm serious. I will say one final his clubs. Like, go at him. I'm serious. I will say one final thing. It's poisonous. Very good.

One final thing before we get out of there is that, you know, I love nostalgic shit. I loved if there was an event where Johnny decided to come back in the booth. I think we are beyond needing that for Judy Rankin. All right. And honestly felt a bit at times like I feel when, you know, President Biden's given a speech. It just, you don't need it anymore.

Well, Cody's an aegist. Their time, their time is gone. And she described the A&M University of Texas. You know, there's just a lot of things that just kind of were over her head. I love everything that she's done for the game, not only playing, but broadcasting on top of that. I just think, I think we're good. All right. Now you guys good there? She's retired. Like that's the that's the only thing I'll say. She's not connected. Yeah. She's clearly not connected. And that's, that's, that's fair. But like she has to step into the booth because Morgan Pressell is assistant captain on the team. I will just know if you want to hear us go in on the logistical disasters.

If you did not listen to our Friday and Saturday shows, we're not glossing over that. We went in depth on Friday. We followed up with the LPGA response Saturday. So don't need to spend a ton of time. And the whole thing is like, Hey, like they acknowledged the commission, like they made mistakes, but also like, like, let's not gloss over, like those mistakes shouldn't have happened. Like they're like, this is like, again, like basic stuff, like seven shuttle buses, really? All right, cool.

How many were there today? 40 something or? Yeah. Yeah. Like, all right, cool. Like how, how did you even come, come close to making those miscalculations? Yeah. All right. Like how, how did you even come, come close to making those miscalculations? Yeah.

All right. And final, we had a team draft that we went over on our happy hour show. Uh, so a big, big runaway here out of nowhere. Randy came from behind to end up winning, got to 17 and a half point. Clipped me. I was at 15 points TC just struggle. I told you guys I hated my team. The first pick somehow. He said he hated it before he even made a pick only had 11 points

there. Lauren Lauren. Yeah. There's a lot to take away from the week. We're going to talk a lot more about it in future LPGA content, but Solly, what Rory ended up about six inches away from getting in a playoff to win another Irish open. Yeah. If you're, if you're waiting for a wrap-ups on the, on Napa, we're recording this before Napa is happening tonight. And you guys need to go to TC is sweating, getting to an airport. That means you guys might be really, I'm playing Delta tonight ride. So I'm more worried about Casey's luggage. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Rory had, look, you know, I had a two shot lead on the back night at rural County down. He, you know, makes birdie on 16 Rasmus, Hoygard makes birdie on 16 holes,

a bunker shot on 17 par five 18th was quite reachable. He makes birdie on that one. Rory still was, you know, he's in the group behind, looked like he kind of had it under control. He had a good shot in the 17 kind of 30 feet underneath the hole. And I honestly missed what happened, but he putted it off the green or close to off the green way off, you know, 12 feet pass and missed the comeback or so he three, but now he needs Eagle on 18 to get into a tie. Uh, you know, get into a playoff hits a mammoth drive into the narrowest part of the fairway in between two bunkers had one 91 and probably hit an eight iron up in the air, uh, and stopped at 10, 12, 15 feet past the hole gave the putt a good

run, just barely missed on the high side. He missed out on a playoff by one shot and looked pretty darn bummed about it. Um, so Rasmus Hoygard wins the other Hoygard wasn't even the one that was on the, we got two of them, Solly. Now we never just one Hoygard. We mentioned PJ Tour in Napa is still ongoing. Live Chicago, we're going to hear an awful lot of that. Obviously we broke the news yesterday. TC decided to bail on us and go to Chicago of all places to check out Saturday action at live guys. It was, it was one of the most interesting experiences of my last decade in golf. And it was surprising. It was, it was a positive experience. I think overall there,

there's just a lot to unpack there. So we'll do a whole, I think you said it would take you months and months process. I got so much, so many I think you said it would take you months and months to process what you saw. I got so much, so many pictures and videos and it was just really, really interesting. And it was a well-run event and I'm just fascinated by it. So I'm excited to talk about it. Solly, I got you some merch. It was like being at Augusta. People, I swear to God, they couldn't keep the Crusher's shit in stock. They couldn't smash stuff. The range goes, it was crazy. It was like being at Augusta people. I swear to God, they couldn't keep the crushers shit in stock. They couldn't smash stuff rain. The range goes, it was crazy. It was nuts.

A lot more of that obviously live Chicago still ongoing. I don't know TC. Maybe you can check and see if there's an update as John was running away with it. And then that, that means he's going to win the, uh, the Cody will be monitoring the individual championship next week. I will be monitoring the team championship next week? I will be monitoring the team championship. I actually will be out on the grounds a little bit out at Merida as they go down to the great. Rom won by three.

Congratulations to John Rom. Speaking of Big Texas, I was surprised to see Big Tech's Jimmy Walker playing in the Irish Open too, but you gotta play where you gotta play, man. The Crusher's won the team competition, we don't care about that. That is going to be it for my mic. That'll be it for this live show. I appreciate everybody tuning into our Solheim cup coverage. We did this last year and went all in when we went over to Spain.

This year we did it again at Washington, DC. TC was all excited because, I don't know, he wanted to see national monuments and battlefields and stuff like that. And you guys did your best. I appreciate you guys sticking with it. It was a hell of a week. I don't know. We're going to have a ton of lasting thoughts as this continues to spill over here. But if you're listening to this podcast, there's going to be an excellent narrative essay at the back end of this. And if you're watching this live show, tune in for the podcast tomorrow, especially because KVV, he's going to write a piece, I say write in air quotes, because he's going to turn it in to a narrative piece, much like the Victor Hovland one recently.

And we're going to attach it at the end of this, this show. And thank you to Keegan. Keegan van Valkenburg was, I think the MVP of our week. Yeah, for sure. Thanks to Keegan. She did an awesome job yesterday. She was an awesome today. Uh, you know, there's going to be a lot, a lot for them to go through.

So please check out the podcast feed, uh, with KVV as he, he, you know, is kind of honest on with these narrative pieces. I'm really digging him too. Um, not only Keegan, but thank you to of course, Friday, Meg, Meg Atkins, uh, for joining us on Friday and for Gabby for joining us yesterday. Gabby Herzik. Yep. Uh, TC, what do we got for Stone Creek Evans Scholar?

Yeah, I just wanted to shout out Stone Creek. We're doing a stonecreekcoffee.com slash no laying up. They're donating 25% of proceeds to the Evans Scholars. We're trying to raise five figures for the Evans Scholars and we'll, yeah. Good coffee. We'll kick in some, but yeah, you can get the vision fund, the eye test. So I might just purchase some of that for you by your grinder as well. I know. Solly loves that too. Presidents cup deep dive podcast is going to come out on Tuesday. I

know. Solly has been absolutely grinding on that. Me and sweet baby, Neil Schuster are back in the booth this week for the trap draw. And guys, we have a world premiere, a two part world premiere coming on our YouTube channel, this here channel right now, for the first time ever, we conducted the No Laying Up Club Championship at Aaron Hills this May. And what I'm gonna do is as we close this live show here,

I appreciate everybody tuning in, give thumbs up on the way out, but I am going to play the trailer to this two parts. So it's going to be a Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm pretty sure on our, on our YouTube channel, but 8pm, 8pm, each night premieres each night. So we appreciate everybody tuning into a Solheim cup. Please check out the podcast And if not, we'll see you on Tuesday night. Cheers. For podcast listeners, here is Kevin van Volkenberg on the 2024 Solheim Cup. What's your favorite sporting event

that you've ever been to? To be honest, I have to think long and hard for choosing mine. As someone who has worked in sports media for almost 25 years, I've been spoiled in ways a teenage someone who has worked in sports media for almost 25 years, I've been spoiled in ways a teenage boy who grew up in Montana never could have imagined. I've been to four Super Bowls and a handful of Masters,

several Open Championships and half a dozen National Championships, a couple of Olympics and even a World Series. As I get older, it gets harder to pick a favorite. It all blends together into a quilt of adventures. My 12-year-old daughter Keegan, on the other hand, has a pretty definitive answer to that question. I know because I asked her Sunday night when driving back to Baltimore from Manassas, Virginia.

The best sporting event she's ever been to, without question, was the 2024 Solheim Cup when she watched her friend Lauren Coughlin go undefeated over three days, including a gritty Sunday performance that was essential in holding off a spirited European comeback and let the Americans capture the trophy for the first time since 2017. It's still a surreal thing to say out loud. Not only do I have a 12-year-old daughter who loves golf who will jump out of bed at 6 a.m. and drive to another state with me so we can watch a tournament together, we're also lucky enough to know someone on the Solheim Cup team, someone who greeted us with a hug

on the first tee and immediately started introducing us to her teammates. I know the LPGA is an imperfect organization. And certainly from a logistical standpoint, this was an imperfect week. If you were one of the parents who tried to take your kids to the Friday session and had to wait in line for a shuttle for three hours, I can't imagine you want to hear what a wonderful week me

and my kid had walking inside the ropes, fist bumping American players. But I will give the LPGA credit for this. I think the organization's heart is in the right place on a lot of stuff. A year ago, they reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested in bringing my daughter to the Solheim. She could even be a junior reporter if she wanted.

Their reasoning? They want more dads to embrace the idea of connecting with their daughters through golf. Personally, I think we're a case study of how your DNA doesn't have to determine your golf swing. Because while my swing looks like a water buffalo in roller skates trying to hurl an axe, my daughter Keegan's swing inspires compliments from strangers on a regular basis. Golf has always been flush with stories about fathers and sons who bond over a lifetime of back nine strolls.

You can pick up literally dozens of books on the subject, some of them moving and some of them maudlin, but there is significantly less literature out there about fathers imparting life lessons to their daughters on the links. There are more women picking up the game now than at any other time in the sports history, almost a 15% increase since 2020. But a significant part of that growth is being led by young professionals, women who didn't start playing until they were in their 20s or 30s. There has been real progress made, but golfing dads are still more likely, both statistically

and anecdotally, to nudge their sons towards the game than they are their daughters, particularly when they're young. I've always felt like shining a bigger spotlight on the Solheim Cup would be a way to supercharge additional growth. Let's be honest. Stroke play is often a snooze, even for those of us who love the game. Tethering your daughter to a couch and telling her to pay close attention as someone goes through a two-minute putting routine that's

Bookended by two erectile dysfunction commercials Sounds like a great way to have her talk about you in therapy as opposed to talking to you in a golf cart But team golf is something else entirely Team golf is a party you want to be invited to There is music and dancing on the first tee, whether you're into Chappell-Rome, Taylor Swift, or even Metallica. There are celebrations after big putts.

There is hootin' and hollerin' and huggin' after big shots. There is an infectious joy that radiates from the players and then ripples through the crowd like an electric current. You could see all that unfolding this week at Robert Trent Jones' golf course. Seen normally demure personalities like Rose Zhang and Nellie Korda bouncing on the balls of their feet and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Megan Kang was flexing like a professional wrestler after every big putt. Charlie Hall was strutting from tea to green, cigarette often dangling from her lips,

looking like a radiant, unapologetic movie star. I love the Solheim Cup because it asks a dozen women, all from very different backgrounds, to bond over something bigger than themselves for a week. And the reward isn't just a trophy. It's the satisfaction and pride of knowing that you and your brethren are capable of representing more than your individual interests. If there's a better

parenting lesson than that, then I haven't found it. Keegan and I talked about all of that over the course of three days. We talked about whether Chappell-Rones' Hot to Go would make a good first tee walk-up song, but we also talked about when to give putts and match play and when to get aggressive on approach shots and whether you'd rather hit a draw or a fade off the tee on certain holes. We followed our favorite players, but also players we barely knew, studying their games with the intensity of a religious scholar. At one point I couldn't resist teasing her.

If you get to meet Nellie Korda, do you think you'll tell her about when you dressed up as her for Halloween when you were eight? She turned a beautiful shade of fuchsia. Along the way, something fun happened. Roughly two dozen dads tracked us down to say hello. Maybe they read something I'd written about Keegan or seen pictures of us golfing together, but it was the nudge they needed, they said, to start going on similar adventures with their own daughters.

Some of them, granted, were still in their early stages, the days when you ride a cart at dusk and barely hit putts, but returns were promising. Make sure you bring lots of snacks, was Keegan's stock answer when those dads joked if she had any additional golfing advice. Personally that seemed like good life advice to me but if nothing else it was a good laugh line delivered by a girl who has through golf seen her self-confidence soar in recent years. She also wanted to tell them not to make the mistake that I often do of wearing three different shades of blue in public,

but we're not quite there yet when it comes to zingers and strangers. We've all heard the cliche that 90% of parenting is just showing up, but in my experience, that simplifies it a bit too much. A lot of parenting is also sharing the things you love with your kids and watching their own love blossom in whatever direction they choose to take it,

like branches of a tree stretching towards sunlight that's entirely their own. One of the best things you can do as a dad is introduce your kids to people you respect and admire, because no parent, no matter how wise or funny or rich or how good with a wedge they are, is going to have all the answers. You're better off if you put your faith in the collective strength of teammates,

which is a roundabout way of telling you that Lauren Coughlin gave my daughter two gifts this week, each of which I never would have been capable of. The first came on Saturday afternoon when we met her on the first tee and peppered her with questions about her first three matches, all victories. She filled us in on the details, then uttered a question I suspect Keegan will never ever forget. Do you want to meet Nelly? The LPGA captured the interaction and shared it on social media. Maybe you already saw it. But even if they had not captured it, I think it would still be imprinted in my brain and in my

heart for the rest of my days. Nellie Korda leaned over and asked my little Keegan if she was a golfer. Yeah, my daughter answered, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation. She has a great swing, too, Lauren quickly chimed in. Nellie Korda, owner of one of the most elegant golf swings in history, nodded with approval. Keep hitting them straight. Following day, things were looking dicey for the United States. They'd built a big lead the first two days behind Nellie and Lauren and Rose, but now Europe was surging, and every match felt vitally important. Lauren was down three to Maya Stark at one point, but we watched her claw back to even. If the United States was going to hang on, Lauren couldn't lose her match.

When Lauren hit her approach on the 17th hole to 15 feet, and Maya hit hers to four feet, I started preparing a dad speech in my head. It was about how loving sports often means you have to learn to absorb massive disappointment. There is no script, just like in life, and sometimes you're going to get crushed by the thing you love. I plan to remind her, probably through my own tears, that Lauren had so much to be proud of this week. Just wasn't her day, or the United States this day. But I kept the speech to myself, and instead posed a question. What do you think is going to happen? I think Lauren is going to make her put Keegan

said, I said a prayer to the golfing gods as I watched the ball trickle towards the hole. Then I let out a roar when it tumbled in. Keegan and I hugged like true believers, even though my faith had wavered. While hers apparently never did, she made up the difference for both of us. We didn't even mind when Maya Stark rolled in her own birdie. We knew then that Lauren wasn't going to lose, not after being tested like that. And on 18, she earned a crucial half a point, setting the stage for Lillie Avoo to win the cup with a tie on the very next match. I can't get you inside the ropes in an LPGA event,

but if you're listening to this and you're lucky enough to have a daughter, But if you're listening to this and you're lucky enough to have a daughter, take her out on a golf course this fall. Bring a speaker. Learn the words Taylor Swift or Chapel Rowan songs. Put a club in her hand. Bring lots of snacks. You'll be blown away by the gifts you might get in return. I'm Kevin Van Balkenberg, editorial director at No Laying Up. Thanks for listening. right club today.

Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?