U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, pictured in 2016 while playing on the winning team at Hazeltine, hopes that early looks at Marco Simone by his 2023 players will lead to similar happiness after the matches.John David Mercer/USA TODAY SportsThe U.S. Ryder Cup captain finally made it to Rome.With Aerosmith’s “Dream On” playing on a speaker in his cart, Zach Johnson stood on the first tee of Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, looking down the fairway where in less than a year’s time, his U.S. team will try to break a 30-year Ryder Cup losing streak on foreign soil.Johnson had never been to Italy before, and his trip last month for the “Year to Go” celebration of the Ryder Cup at the Eternal City was one of curiosity and one of business.The visit started with a “Captain’s Challenge,” where four foursomes played with the 2023 Ryder Cup captains. Team Europe’s Luke Donald and Johnson played the par-3 17th hole with each of the four groups, including three groups of boys and girls from the Federazione Italiana Golf’s (FIG) Elite National Under 18 team and the one from FIG’s Elite Disabled team.The captains then participated in a clinic before Johnson could exhale and get down to the business of his captaincy, which included seeing Marco Simone for the very first time.“From my eye, obviously a lot of elevation, way more than meets the videos and the pictures I’ve seen,” Johnson said. “Obviously the landscape, but just the vistas of it looks very, very cool. Very thick rough, but fairways that are obviously playable and greens that are up here (raising his hand above his head).”With such a long American drought in overseas Ryder Cups, Johnson knows that knowledge and experience will be key for his team to win for the first time since 1993 at The Belfry.How to do that? Get as many of his potential team members to Rome early.“I’ve got some plans, it’s not for sure yet. I’m hoping to solidify it sooner than later,” Johnson said. “I’ll just say this, the more you can get your team or your potential team on the ground, the better. And that’s hard. It’s not Wisconsin, or New York, right? So, it’s the difficulty of everybody’s schedule and getting them on the grounds other than the week of the tournament.”The plans likely include getting spots in the Italian Open in May, but the question is how many can he procure?The DP World Tour is looking into the possibility of creating an exemption category that would create positions in the field. With the DP World Tour’s 2023 schedule now out, players that are potential 2023 U.S. Ryder Cuppers will start planning a visit to the city of pizza and pasta.> The first Race to Dubai was decided on Nov. 22, 2009, when Lee Westwood shot a course-record 8-under 64 in the final round to keep a young Rory McIlroy at bay.The then-36-year-old Englishman earned $1.25 million for his 31st victory and a $1.5 million bonus for leading the European Tour’s money list, finishing the year with $6,376,984.“This is definitely the biggest moment of my career today,” Westwood said then. “Rory is only 20 … I can’t even remember what it was like to be 20 … and he will have many more chances ahead of him to win the money list.”Now 49, Westwood earned $4,272,914 in LIV Golf this year and McIlroy $8,654,566 in the 2021-22 season on the PGA Tour. McIlroy is sixth all-time in career PGA Tour money with $68,064,549.Westwood was right, McIlroy had many more chances and would go on to win the Race to Dubai three times, in 2012, 2014 and 2015.McIlroy also leads this year’s Race to Dubai Order of Merit over New Zealander Ryan Fox, with just the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa remaining before DP World Tour Championship.Westwood, whose season is over, will watch from the sidelines.Maybe one of the most interesting comments from Westwood after the win came the advice he received from caddie Billy Foster.“Billy told me to go out and bully other people,” Westwood said. “To make them take notice of me, rather than the other way ’round.”> We know the golf season is at an end when the Links Trust of St. Andrews, the caretaker of the Old Course, requires mats to play.From now through March 31, the Old Course will be played on mats, which is like not playing golf at all.Truly a sad day.> Published continuously since 1967 by IMG and now Rolex, “The World of Professional Golf” is an annual publication that chronicles the world of golf.The published version is hundreds of pages, but now Rolex has published some of the 2022 edition online.It’s worth the read and, if so inclined, the archives go back to 2011.> Sunday’s final round of LIV Golf’s Team Championship had just two rounds in the 60s: Cameron Smith’s 65 and Jason Kokrak’s 68, proving the Blue Monster is still a beast to be reckoned with.Ironically, Kokrak was first in fairways hit (10) and greens in regulation (17), and Smith was second with nine fairways and 15 greens.What made the difference was that Smith took 26 putts while Kokrak needed 34, the worst in the 16-player field.Just think if Kokrak could have found a way to bring the number down to something reasonable, like 30, then the 68 would have been 64.With the four months off until the next event, Kokrak needs to spend some time on the greens.
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