Good For The Game: Bryson Doubles Down On Everything He's Said, Still Wants To Go Up Against Rory In Singles This Week At The Ryder Cup
It's not shocking that Bryson steals the headlines now that we're a day away from the start of the actual Ryder Cup. He's polarizing, he'll say what he wants and he's been in this Rory rivalry since Pinehurst basically. He wants to chirp Rory, he wants to play against Rory. It's good for the game. I don't know why people are acting like this is some sort of outrage, in fact he doubled down on it today
"Look, I think rivalries are good gore the game of golf, and albeit I have the ultimate respect for Rory as a player. It's going to be fun to go up against him this week, whether it's against him directly or through other players. I think it going to be a fun challenge this week. Would I love to go up against him? Yeah. It would be a lot of fun. Is it going to happen? It's not likely. I mean, maybe once. You never know. I don't know if there's planning behind the scenes or whatnot. But look, he's a fierce competitor, a great competitor, but one that I would love the opportunity to play against this week."
Rivalries are good for the game. Hell, the Ryder Cup is built on rivalries. You can go to Seve or Kiawah in 1991 and everything that followed that to Brookline to Ian Poulter and Patrick Reed. The Ryder Cup is the one spot in golf where we need rivalries. It's different than normal golf. It's pride, it's us vs them and everything else. It's the only time we truly get team golf - forget LIV or the Zurich - this is team golf.
This is where I wish pairings were set up like the Presidents Cup. Instead of captains going back and forth (like we get at Presidents Cup) you just blindly set your roster and that's how you get the pairings. You don't have Keegan Bradley deciding to throw out Bryson 6th in singles and Luke Donald immediately responding with Rory. We should have that, it's also good for the game to do it that way. Not to mention it provides way more entertainment because you get the mental aspect involved and seeing people answer the call.
Either way, this is good for the game. Bryson/Rory, no matter if you like them or not, are two of the top 3 or 4 golfers in the world. Having some sort of rivalry there helps golf in moments like this. Now give us the singles matchup.