Topgolfgears Morning 9: Koepka denies fight | Anonymus RC member refutes Reed | WGHOF nominees

By Top Golf Gears On Oct 8, 2018

1. Koepka denies dust-up

Per Golf Channel…”Speaking to reporters Wednesday at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Koepka said: “This Dustin thing, I just don’t get. There was no fight, no argument. He’s one of my best friends. I love the kid to death. We talked on the phone Monday and yesterday, so you tell me how we fought…People like to make a story and run with it. It’s not the first time there’s been a news story that isn’t true that’s gone out.”

2. Anonymous Ryder Cup member refutes Reed

The Ryder Cup team rooms are proving more leaky than the West Wing!

ESPN report…”Reed essentially threw captain under the bus by telling The New York Times on Sunday that he was “blindsided” by not playing with after the pair’s past success in international competitions.”

“He is so full of s—,” a member of Team USA told the New York Post on Monday. “Blindsided, my ass. He begged to play with Tiger [Woods].”

“He would have shot 83 on his own ball Saturday,” the Team USA member said to the Post. “He totally screwed Tiger. He has no clue how to play team golf. I saw firsthand how bad of a team player he was. Eleven players understood the concept of team golf and only one didn’t. Unfortunately, that one proved to be too costly for the team to overcome.”

3. Koepka “heartbroken” for fan he hit with drive

Koepka took to Twitter yesterday following reports that the woman struck with his errant tee shot has lost site in her eye.

“I was deeply hurt and saddened by the tragic accident,” “I have made contact with her family to offer my sincere and heartfelt sympathy.”

He added: “I am heartbroken by the incident. My thoughts remain with Ms. Remande and her family, and I have asked to be kept informed on her condition.”

4. WGHOF finalists

The World Golf Hall of Fame released Tuesday its 15 finalists who will be considered for induction in 2019.

Male competitor: Retief Goosen, Graham Marsh, Corey Pavin, Hal Sutton

Female competitor: Susie Maxwell Berning, Beverly Hanson, Sandra Palmer, Dottie Pepper, Jan Stephenson

Lifetime achievement: Peggy Kirk Bell, Billy Payne, Dennis Walters

Veterans: Jim Ferrier, Catherine Lacoste, Calvin Peete

5. Speaketh the Bjorn

Thomas Bjorn did a post-Cup Q&A with Golf Digest.

How does it feel to captain a winning side?

Thomas Bjorn: “How do you sum that up? You know, I felt like-I felt all along that this was a good group of guys, but I have to say, when we got here on Monday, we got together. This turned out pretty exciting because the way that the 12 of them have just joined up together as a team and the way they looked after each other and been there for each other and been there for each other throughout the whole week made captaincy pretty easy.”

“The hardest thing about the captaincy I think this week was that there’s so many guys playing well, and being in such good frame of mind that I didn’t really — I wanted to get everybody on the golf course, but you can’t.”

“Today’s performance, there was a little moment in the middle of it all where I was getting a little bit worried, but then everybody stood up and did their bit. You know, I can’t describe how I feel about these 12. They have been amazing from day one, and I’m just so proud of them.”

6. Ryu’s plea

Interesting/odd/unprecedented(?)

So Yeon Ryu asked Korean fans on Tuesday to restrain themselves during this week’s UL International Crown.

“If there was one favor I could ask the gallery or the crowds that will be showing up,” Ryu said. “If they could refrain from very, very sharp criticism, that would help.

“Of course, we need to take advice, but really painful, sharp criticism can actually erode our confidence. I think that if we were given a lot of support during the event, then we would definitely be able to win this time.”

7. More Reed-Spieth stomping

The scribes aren’t finished pummeling the U.S. Ryder Cuppers!

Christine Brennan for USA Today, yesterday…”For U.S. men’s golf, the embarrassment is flowing like the Europeans’ champagne. Humiliation on the course has been followed by humiliation in the news. First, the U.S. Ryder Cup team was soundly defeated over the weekend by Europe, 17½ to 10½. Then, the Americans opened their mouths and things really got bad.”

“Boys, boys, boys. Talk about making us all proud: ladies and gentlemen, your 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup team….Everyone seems to be handling losing so spectacularly well, aren’t they? If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were a bunch of spoiled brats….It appears the Americans are better at pointing fingers than they were at hitting fairways in Paris over the weekend, and they seem to be singling out one guy: Reed.”

8. Only a riddle remains

…and some inter-male drama…

Golf Channel’s WIll Gray looks toward an uncertain future for the U.S Ryder Cup team…”With Reed making waves and reports of a simmering Dustin Johnson-Brooks Koepka feud percolating out of the team room, it’s clear that the Paris problems extended beyond the captain and his two most established players.”

“But with Woods and Mickelson sure to have captaincies of their own in the near future, those three are the face of a leadership group counseling the next generation of Spieth, Reed and Justin Thomas before passing on the torch.”

“It’s a model that has produced great results for the Europeans, an endless rotation of interchangeable parts that remains committed to the common goal. But when it comes to the U.S., it’s an exercise in do as I say, not as I did.”

9. The club that clinched the cup

Golf Digest’s Mike Stachura with some well-deserved exposure for Bob & company’s fine work.

Discussing Francesco Molinari’s flatstick, he writes…”The common denominator in all is his custom. Decked out with with a skull and crossbones stamp in the rear cavity in an Italian flag-themed paintfill, the putter is 32.25 inches in length with a loft of 2.5 degrees and a like angle of 70. The grip is Lamkin’s Deep Etch model. The putter has a single dot sightline on top and the head was milled to 372 grams, slightly heavier than most blade putters.”

“As for his play (which included holing 12 birdie putts in his two four-ball appearances plus singles) and that of the European team at the Ryder Cup, Molinari was typically modest. “I don’t think it’s as big as the score says. It was just holing putts at the right time.”