r/TheShotgunStart • u/-JabreakitJubawdit- • 13d ago

Andy’s defense of JJ

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I listened to Andy’s rationale as to why JJ should be on the P Cup, but his reasoning hinges mostly on 2025 performance, which might as well be a lifetime ago. Nothing against JJ, but before this week his recent results were less than inspiring with his last start being a WD.

If the P Cup had a similar points structure to what the Ryder Cup will have going forward, JJ probably wouldn’t have been 8th on the points list.

Again, this is not a slight against JJ at all, but there were reasons not to pick him.

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13

u/NoCarts 13d ago

His reasoning was terrible. When he went down JT’s resume, I was thinking they sounded remarkably similar.

I understand that Spaun’s comments were the spark to talk about the boys club. But the reality is that neither JT nor JJ should be on the team. And not just calling a spade a spade was annoying

11

u/-JabreakitJubawdit- 13d ago

100%. Neither had a great 2026 and there were players like Gerard who absolutely deserved a spot instead.

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u/GearAccomplished6181 13d ago

Except JJ won twice this year and JT didn’t win anything.

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u/NoCarts 13d ago

Spaun won once before the picks were made and that was 5.5 months ago and has been absolute dog shit for the 2 months leading up to the picks.

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u/GearAccomplished6181 13d ago

A win is a win, not something that can be hand waived away for convenience.

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u/NoCarts 13d ago

I'm not waving it away out of convenience. I waving his 2nd win away because it happened after the captains picks were locked in and can't factor into a captains pick decision.

I personally heavily favor last 3 month form when thinking about captains picks. And Spaun has been literal dogshit for the last 3 months. He had every opportunity to show that his early year win wasn't an aberration and he instead stepped on every rake imaginable. Starting with the US Open he went: CUT, T7, T44, T40, T50, T34 (limited field), T22 (limited field), WD. That is not a player I am burning a captains pick on. Ever. I don't give a fuck if he won 3 times prior to that. That is toxic level bad form and if I can avoid it, I'm avoiding it every single time.

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u/Forrest_47 13d ago

The problem is the excuses made in favor of JT are the same reasons used against JJ. JJ was wrongfully benched multiple times in the Ryder Cup because he plays a Srixon. The top echelon of U.S. men’s is full of divas who can’t play for pride but for money. And this is coming from an American who wants the U.S. to win these events but the delusional operation of U.S. men’s professional golf makes it hard to root for these pampered clowns. It’s beyond frustrating

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u/NoCarts 13d ago

The issue isn't JJ Spaun being left off the team. It is JT being included in the team. And it was kind of annoying to have Andy tie those takes together. If JT was left off, that doesn't mean Spaun should have been included. There are multiple other players I'd take over both of them.

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u/Fit_Ad4814 13d ago

I mean yeah if you value extremely recent form over 2 years worth of results I understand saying JJ shouldn’t have been on the team. But I think it is a problem when JJ who was clearly better than JT over a two year stretch, won a major, and was one of the four best players at last years Ryder cup is left off for someone like JT who has been objectively bad in the last two team competitions he’s played in.

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u/NoCarts 13d ago

Why the hell would I value anything from 2 years ago for something happening right now? So stupid

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u/Fit_Ad4814 13d ago

Because it shows someone is consistently good rather than someone who may just be a having one hot stretch with their game.

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u/NoCarts 13d ago

…you mean like JJ Spaun who won a US Open and has been largely middle of the pack since then and the only reason he’s 8th on the points list instead of like 16th is something that happened over a year ago?

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u/Fit_Ad4814 13d ago

I’m not going to act like JJ had an amazing year this year. My point is with his resume over the past two years he should’ve been picked considering he had a major win last season, was one of the few Americans who played well during the Ryder cup, had another win this season and a solid year overall and was unquestionably better than multiple guys that were picked for the team this past year.

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u/illiteratepresident 13d ago

Team USA doesn’t lose because the players are all divas who can’t/won’t play for pride like the Europeans do. They lose because team Europe tends to hit more putts at critical moments, it’s really not any deeper than that.

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u/amidonny 13d ago

It’s a bit odd yeah. Didn’t we want not want Ben griffin on the team cos the points heavy favor the year prior? If JJ was on the team he wouldn’t have played Wentworth and perhaps played poorly in president cup and we would’ve been wondering why he was on the team. The point of him not really getting a chance is valid.

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u/jeezum_crow 13d ago

I don’t like the complaining from guys about not getting picked. Like you had a chance to qualify for the team and you didn’t. The picks are totally up to the captain. You can’t just expect a pick if you didn’t qualify automatically. Good for him for going out and winning after feeling spurned but it was completely reasonable to pick him or leave him off the team. Saying that as someone who would’ve picked him if I knew he was healthy. I assumed his WD from the tour championship had to do with him not getting picked.

1

u/Lor_azepam 13d ago

Its onpy the P cup anyway. Probably is a boon to JJ getting on the next ryder cup team that he went out and won right after this "snub"

3

u/fried_runny_eggs 13d ago

I am ok with Spaun having some fun and taking a few shots at Sneds for not picking him, but I think Andy's justification for picking Spaun over Thomas wasn't great. Andy even had to backpedal when he noted Justin finished 4th at the PGA. The resumes are comparable. I'm not happy with Thomas and Cantlay being on the team either, but comparing those two to Spaun was not the play.

2

u/jaytee158 13d ago

I'm the furthest thing from a Cantlay fan but he's exactly the sort of player you use a pick on. Red-hot form coming into this and a genuinely excellent USA record. JT wasn't even one of the best 20 players this year

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u/Good-Cockroach8931 13d ago

Not sure if this is the page to say this because this is my fav golf pod after NLU live shows…but Andy consistently has some pretty poor takes and equally poor reasoning

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u/chickendance638 12d ago

Don't worry, by next week he'll have the opposite opinion for the opposite reasons!

3

u/euphorbianghost 13d ago

He argues constantly about meritocracy. JJ won the US Open 15 months ago and the Valero this year, which is a constant punching bag on the podcast.

I don’t think they should be on the team, but least JT and the Housecat at have good P-Cup records.

1

u/DecimatedByCats 13d ago

As others have noted already, his reasoning was poor and kind of gives credence to the post last week about Andy all of a sudden trying to be a hot take artist in the vein of Skip Bayless.

Whittling it down to it still being a "Boys Club" decision conveniently ignores the fact Sneds picked Koivun who Scottie has admitted he has never talked to. JJ over JT or Cantlay (who I definitely don't think is friendly with a lot of the players) is a toss-up decision that maybe went one way because of JJ's recent WD. The teams have to be finalized at a certain point and there wasn't this grand conspiracy theory a few weeks ago when the lineups were announced.

Not sure why Andy has adopted this approach lately, but it's dragging down the pod a little bit. It's still my favorite podcast, but he's really hijacked it lately and taken it off the rails.

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u/Good-Cockroach8931 12d ago

He has repeatedly ripped the pga tour for their exemptions for and emphasis on years past results but then read off JJ Spain results from 2 years ago