Rymer Bites: Talkin’ Golf Between Fishing Bites

Charlie Rymer’s out on the water today, trying to hook himself and his family something for the dinner table. In the meantime, he’s got some thoughts about Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods, whose post-surgery return to competitive golf raises the question of whether Team USA’s captain will choose himself to also compete in December’s Presidents Cup matches.

Charlie Rymer:

Charlie Rymer here, coming to you on this beautiful fall morning from just outside of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. In fact, that’s the inlet right there behind me. I’m out fishing the jetties this morning trying to catch a red fish, maybe a flounder. No luck so far. My son, Hayden. He’s a senior at the University of Missouri. He’s working the back of the boat. Say hello to the folks, Hayden.

Hayden:

What’s up?

Charlie:

We hadn’t caught anything yet, but we’re going to. I’ll tell you what was exciting weekend in the world of professional golf. We had the big dogs back at it, and also the “Big Cat.” Justin Thomas picked up the win in Korea. And I’m going to tell you what, that’s the kind of win where, you win this time of year, it really sets you up for a little bit of an offseason and then, when you start the year after the 1st of January, you’ve got to have a ton of confidence. And Justin’s been really successful, in the past, in Asia. It’s often spurred him have a big year the following calendar year. So nice win for him.

And Brooks Koepka, unfortunately, had to withdraw from the same event, having some knee problems. The same knee he’s been having some issues with. So it was tough to see that. But before he got out of the country, he got into it a little bit with Rory McIlroy. Brooks was asked if he thought that Rory and he had a rivalry and Brooks (basically) said, “Well, I’ve been out here five years and he hadn’t won a major the whole time. I’ve been winning all of mine. So no, I don’t really view it as a rivalry.” So that’s a big stink for us in golf, and people inside of golf make a big deal out of it. I think it’s actually cool. I like it when guys run their mouth a little bit.

And then finally last night we had a Japan skins game, and Tiger Woods got off to a little bit of a slow start. Jason Day won all the cash in Japan. No surprise there. Jason, when he’s healthy and his mind’s in it, he’s as good as we have in the game. Unbelievable combination of distance and touch around the green.

But for me, watching Tiger Woods coming off of surgery and getting back into the thick of things, trying to get fired up a little bit, so he kept the presence. Now, the biggest question is, will he name himself as a player on that Presidents Cup team, being a playing captain, and I think he ought to. That’s the most exciting thing that could possibly happen to the Presidents Cup.

Well, you guys have a good week. I’m going to get back at it and see if I can round up a red fish or two. Have a good week, everybody!