Walker Cup Recap: NBC/USGA Lay Another Egg; USA Wins From Behind, Again

Gordon Sargent at Cherry Hills Country Club. Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. 2023

St. Andrews, England - NBC, who has a virtual monopoly on the sport of golf, just can’t seem to get out of their own way. And, the USGA, with their “for the good of the game” schtick is complicit.

First, NBC.

The commentators in the booth were awful. Not that Fax or the other guys are necessarily, even, bad. But, having Fax in the booth after not having worked with these guys was definitely awkward.

Fax did his best, but the two Brits, who were tough to even distinguish from each other, just kept chirping, saying asinine things about soccer, sorry “football” and table tennis. Fax was apparently real good at ping pong growing up. #themoreyouknow.

The “language” barrier was just too much for the telecast to flow smoothly; was better to have it just on mute.

What else did NBC do wrong? We’ll, when you went to look at the score -when NBC did decide to put that up - it was hidden behind the goddamn peacock logo so you couldn’t tell how many points the US had, you just needed to, kinda, guess. Bush league. They finally did get this fixed for Sunday, but it was literally in the afternoon. Did noone think of this?

Unsurprisingly it took the Brits a day and a half+ to get Menante’s name right. It looks how it looks, but it is pronounced “muh-nett-i”. With only 20 guys competing, you’d have thought they do their homework to at least pronounce these guys names correctly. And Dylan isn’t exactly a scrub: Top 6 WAGR, National Champion and 2-time WCC Conference POY. He’s been around. Get the guy’s name right, ffs - he’s good!

Then, the USGA. Usually a stand-up organization in tune with the times. But, on Sunday singles, things got squirrelly on 18 green. Both Nick Dunlap were equidistant from the pin, (as NBC’s distance tracker also showed - 72 feet.) Instead of relaying this information to the USGA woman with the earpiece, she proceeded to walk off both competitors lines, definitely stepping in Barclay Brown’s line and presumably Dunlap’s as well. The announcers were astute to actually point this out, as it was clearly frustrating Mr. Brown. Just, in this day and age, is there noone from NBC or USGA’s team, watching the telecast, that can say, “Hey, the players have the same distance here, we’ve calculated, just go ahead and flip a coin.” Instead, it took 5 extra minutes, at least, to watch the shenanigan, and then came to the same result. Aye dios mio.

The US came from behind and won late, same as the previous Walker Cup. What is strange, is that once the cup has already been decided, they let (or force) the competitors still out on the course to finish their meaningless rounds. It’s a team sport, right, so what do those individual rounds actually mean after the cup has been decided? C’mon, man.

The coverage was definitely Sargent-centric and that’s fine, he’s the golden goose, the #1 amateur in the world for chrissake. But, show the other Americans, at least hitting some shots. The coverage was just so sparce of some of the other guys that it was really disappointing. They did so well to make the team and then to get such little airplay is pretty disappointing. Thinking specifically of Gabrelcik, James and Menante, here.

We’re all for softball interview questions after big events. The competitors are in the moment and the adrenaline is running high. That’s why we thought it a little acute when Miss Hally Leadbetter -best known for being David Leadbetter’s daughter, but doing a respectable job on the broadcast, one must admit - pressed Gordon Sargent on his “good-good” pick-ups on 16. It was a valid question, but Gordon clearly wasn’t ready for it. He game some longwinded nebulous answer about wanting to “put on a show for the fans” and saying they were playing quote a “friendly” match. He’s a good kid. The lights are always on him, and they’re bright. But, giving and taking 2 putts from 8-10’, are you serious? Not sure anyone has ever seen that before, and was rightfully stunned. NBD, but still shows that Gordo’s learning curve is longer than some may want.

Any win’s a win and the US should be proud of their hard fought victory this year. Everyone contributed positively and noone got blanked.

Interesting to note, one player not chosed to be on the Walker Cup this year, who was arguably very deserving, was Mr. Maxwell Moldovan. Surely perturbed by the turn of events, Max didn’t let it deter him, going out on the Buckeye Course and putting up a 59! Now, obviously that doesn’t come under the same type of tournament pressure. But, this is also the same kid that made the cut in LA at the US Open, along with Gordon Sargent. Interesting he got left off, but you can’t take everybody, we suppose. But, we’da taken him. Maxwell is tough and look for him to do big things in the years ahead.

That’s it from The Old Course, but buckle up for the Ryder Cup later this month in Rome!