That\u2019s what Paul Azinger believes after the former Ryder Cup captain trashed Bethpage Black, which will host the bi-annual event this week, in an interview on Trey Wingo\u2019s \u201cStraight Facts Homie!\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n
Azinger said it will add an extra challenge for American captain Keegan Bradley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like Keegan\u2019s going to have to get these guys on a mission and on a mission quickly and single-minded to figure out how to fall in love with Bethpage Black,\u201d Azinger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guarantee you they don\u2019t love it either. Me and you don\u2019t love it. They don\u2019t love it. Europe doesn\u2019t care what the course is. Our guys might.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Azinger\u2019s issue seems to be rooted in his personal distaste plus his belief that the players are not overly familiar with the famed Long Island public course.<\/p>\n
Bethpage has hosted three major championships this century \u2014 the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009 and the PGA Championship in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cNope, not at all. We don\u2019t know the course,\u201d Azinger said in comments transcribed by Golf.com. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the biggest mistakes that the American Ryder Cup team always seems to make, or the PGA of America, is they go to courses that we\u2019re not familiar with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keegan Bradley, Captain of Team United States speaks in a press conference prior to the Ryder Cup. (Photo by Harry How\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Half of the U.S. Ryder Cup team did play in the 2019 PGA Championship with Patrick Cantlay finishing in third, Xander Schauffele 16th, Justin Thomas 23rd, Sam Burns 29th, J.J. Spaun 54th and Bryson DeChambeau missing the cut.<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka, who won in 2019, has largely struggled this season on LIV Golf and in the majors he\u2019s participated in. Koepka was not up for consideration for one of Bradley\u2019s captain choices.<\/p>\n
Bradley, who chose not to be a playing captain despite an impressive season, played the course often as he starred for St. John\u2019s golf team.<\/p>\n
Cameron Young, a Westchester native, has also spoken fondly of the course.<\/p>\n
The outspoken Azinger was the captain of the 2008 Ryder Cup team that dominated the Europeans 16 1\/2-11 1\/2 at Valhalla in Louisville.<\/p>\n
Azinger missed the cut at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage.<\/p>\n
A general view across the practice putting green prior to the Ryder Cup. Carl Recine\/Getty Images\/AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m used to playing fairly flat courses in my lifetime,\u201d Azinger told The Post\u2019s Steve Serby. \u201cA lot of downhill tee shots, awkward angles and then uphill second shots. At the (2002) U.S. Open setting, the rain that week was substantial and it really neutralised us the first day. I didn\u2019t enjoy it, I thought it was really too hard, and Tiger [Woods] ended up winning it that year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s the same for all the players. Does it give either team an advantage? I don\u2019t know. I think it\u2019s a golf course where you have to be a fairly powerful player, and I feel like both teams are bringing some real strong players in there. Look at Europe, if you look at that team, they are physically just a powerful team, they\u2019re gonna launch it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on The New York Post<\/a>and was reproduced with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States threw away their home-course advantage. Watch every round The 2025 Ryder Cup exclusively LIVE on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-161921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}