Ryder Cup Preview of the upcoming 2020 Edition at Whistling Straights
Every Hole at Whistling Straights. Much like the Olympics, we will see the 2020 installment of the Ryder Cup will take place this weekend at Whistling Straights in Sheboygan County, WI. Golf Digest does an excellent video series on YouTube doing hole-by-hole course flyovers. The Whistling Straights edition can be found here. The flyover displays and describes the impressive course design. Narrator Derek Duncan mentions that over 10,000 truckloads of sand were brought in to add elevation to the previously flat land along Lake Michigan. The Irish links style Pete Dye design, in my opinion has some similarities to Kiawah’s Ocean Course we saw earlier this year for the PGA Championship won by Phil Mickelson. Duncan mentions that used his out and back routings of each 9, however at Whistling Straight they cross over each other halfway through. The 11th even features a massive green-side fairway bunker Duncan calls an “even more intimidating of it’s predecessor” referring to the green side bunker at the 16th hole at Kiawah. Speaking of bunkers, Golf Digest Architect Editor Emeritus Ron Whitten counted 1,012 bunkers in 2015. Of course, the infamous Dustin Johnson unintentional club grounding in a bunker came at the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straights.
My heart was telling me to bet team USA, but my mind tells me I should bet Europe. I believe there is enough value on the number for Europe at a course like this with their recent history in the Ryder Cup. I caught a promotion to get an even money odds boost on Team USA so I took that, but assuming something like that is not available to everyone, I would bet Europe. I also bet Hovland as top Euro scorer at +750, and Morikawa as top American at +900.
As for day 1 matchups I like Brooks/Berger over Westy and Fitz, but am unsure about Brooks’ wrist so will probably stay away. I also have a small piece on JT/Spieth to defeat the Spaniard pairing, in hopes Sergio’s putter fails them.