NAPA, Calif. — On Monday, like you and practically everyone else, J.J. Spaun was back at the grind.
With shorts and an untucked polo, he looked every bit the grinder, too. To the left of the 11th green at Silverado Resort’s serene tree-laden, mountain-backed North Course, he pitched balls short, then long, over and over. Outside of some small chatter and the efforts of a few woodpeckers, the noise was little. Adam Schriber, his coach, watched nearby. After a while, playing partners David Lipsky, Rico Hoey and Chez Reavie moved on to 12, but Spaun, your newest U.S. Open winner, hung back, still hitting.
A few yards away, alongside caddie Mark Carens, Spaun’s bag sat.
A red, white and blue one.
Welcome to the Procore Championship, a PGA Tour September tournament that is also doing business as a de facto training camp for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. When next Monday comes, the Americans will be just a week from the start of that biennial meeting with the Europeans at Bethpage Black. But this week, they work.
Hold on.
A training camp? In golf?
What are they doing here?
And is Bryson DeChambeau, the only non-PGA Tour member on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, going to show up?
Below are those questions. And more. With some answers.
Why is the U.S. Ryder Cup team doing this?
Two main reasons.
Ahead of the last Ryder Cup, two years ago at Marco Simone in Italy, the Europeans crushed the Americans, 16.5-11.5 — and all 12 Euros played two weeks before the event, while just two Americans played in the two-week lead-up.
In the time since, the American inaction has been questioned, including by one of the members of that team. At last year’s Procore, which was played two weeks before the Presidents Cup team event, Wyndham Clark had this exchange with a reporter, with the reporter’s question in italics:
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Last year going to the Ryder Cup, there was a big gap in time off. Did you feel a bit unprepared and did that influence your decision to come play this week?
“One-hundred percent, that’s why I’m here,” Clark said. “Last year, it was realistically four weeks, and then by the time you pegged it up to play, it was the fifth week, so it’s five weeks. I mean, I would never prepare for a big event where I had five weeks off between one tournament to the next. I really do — I played actually in that round with Max in the best ball the first day. We — like through four holes I said, man, I’m sorry, because I kind of was not playing good the first four holes. I said, I’m sorry, I’m not tournament sharp right now, I’ll get into it. Then eventually I started getting more comfortable.
“But for sure, I felt like a lot of us weren’t prepared. This year for Presidents Cup, it’s less time, but I didn’t want to do that again. So if it’s something that I do myself or hopefully Team USA kind of makes it mandatory that everyone does it, I think we should all play before. I know we have such a grueling schedule and we all just played the Tour Championship, but if we can do it’s one more week to play and to keep us sharp so that we can win, I think it’s worth it.”
What did things look like two years ago?
Two years ago, the Procore Championship (which was then named the Fortinet Championship) was also played two weeks before the Ryder Cup. Americans Max Homa and Justin Thomas played it, and Homa went 3-1-1 at Marco Simone, and Thomas went 1-2-1, while the rest of the team won 6.5 points. (Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, played in a LIV Golf event the week before the Ryder Cup, and he went 1-1-1 at the Ryder Cup.)
On the European side, as noted, all 12 Europeans played in the event two weeks before the Ryder Cup, the BMW PGA Championship, held near the headquarters of the DP World Tour.
What did it look like four years ago?
Four years ago, the Fortinet was again played two weeks before the Ryder Cup, held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, and zero Americans played. But one European did — Jon Rahm. And all but three Euros played the BMW.
And the Americans dominated the Ryder Cup, 19-9.
Is everyone playing this week?
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Mostly.
For the Americans, DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele are missing. Schauffele’s reason is unclear, while DeChambeau plays his full-time golf with LIV Golf, meaning he’s barred from playing in PGA Tour events.
For the Europeans, one player is out. Sepp Straka and his wife have recently welcomed a newborn to their family.
Will Bryson DeChambeau show up this week, though?
Sort of, a person close to the situation said on Monday.
On Tuesday night, the U.S. team will have a dinner at a house nearby, and DeChambeau will attend. But, as of Monday, he’s not expected to be on the grounds at the Procore.
Before this week, U.S. captain Keegan Bradley has said DeChambeau has been in constant contact with him and the team. At last week’s Walker Cup, an amateur event that DeChambeau did attend, he also offered a peek at what Bradley has been telling his team.
“Bringing your ego,” DeChambeau said in a video shared by the USGA social media team. “Be who you know you are.”
Will Keegan Bradley play at the Procore?
He isn’t, but is expected to talk with the media at the Procore at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
Three of his vice captains — Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Gary Woodland — are playing, though.
Did Bradley play in events the two weeks ahead of his two Ryder Cup appearances? Once. In 2012, he played the week before, at the Tour Championship, but in 2014, he didn’t play for three weeks. (Three weeks before that event, he withdrew from the BMW Championship due to a rules incident.)
So what do you get out of a week like this?
Reps. The chance to fine-tune.
And maybe something more. Last week, at the Amgen Irish Open, European team member Shane Lowry said this of playing at the BMW event:
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“So I think it works well for us Europeans, I think, because we get to come to the environment that we’re essentially playing for. I feel like, when you go play the Ryder Cup, you’re playing for much more than just the 12 lads there or the caddies or the people that are there, I feel like you’re playing for the Tour. You’re playing for a lot of other people on the outside.
“So I feel like to put ourselves in that environment over the next two weeks, it kind of shows what it would mean to everyone. You’re getting well wishes off everybody. It’s not even just the Europeans on Tour, it’s the other guys, the Kiwis or the South Africans. I think everyone has a want for the European Ryder Cup team to win this Ryder Cup.”
Could they preview potential Ryder Cup pairings this week?
Yes. And the release of the Procore tee times later this week should be at least mildly anticipated. Will Ryder Cuppers play together? Will they play with vice captains?
As for practice rounds, the 10 Americans are expected to play the front nine in the late morning on Tuesday, and they will all follow each other in the Wednesday pro-am. Those times are below:
7 a.m., off tee No. 10: Scottie Scheffler
7:10: Justin Thomas
7:20: Gary Woodland
7:30 Webb Simpson
7:40 Harris English
7:50 Sam Burns
8: J.J. Spaun
8:10: Ben Griffin
8:20: Brandt Snedeker
8:30: Cameron Young
8:40: Patrick Cantlay
8:50: Russell Henley
9: Collin Morikawa
What if they play badly?
A good question.
One shot at a time, though, right?
Do you focus more on this week — or the Ryder Cup in two weeks?
Let’s go back to Lowry on that one.
“We prepare for big tournaments all the time,” he said last week, “and you always have bigger goals ahead. But I think, once you get back to the small task at hand and the small goals that you have — not small. I’m not saying the Irish Open is small. I would love to win the Irish Open. I’ve been lucky enough to win one, and to win it as a pro as well would be amazing.
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“I think the big goal over the next month is to win the Ryder Cup. I think you bring it back to your day today as a sportsman, and that’s what you do. Even like this afternoon, what do I do to recover as well as I can? Obviously I’ve got tomorrow in mind and the rest of the week, but I’ve also got the Ryder Cup in mind and the bigger goals in mind.
