Shane Ryan
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My new book on the Ryder Cup, 'The Cup They Couldn't Lose,' is out now. Order it here: tinyurl.com/2p8z2uze email shane.spr8 at gmail
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Articles by Shane Ryan
The search for the best place to pee on an American golf course
“The magazine that once gave us Peter Dobereiner, Dan Jenkins and Tom Callahan is currently canvassing people to identify the most picturesque place in golf where one might urinate … I kid you not.”—Former World No. 1 golfer Lee Westwood, on Twitter “The portable toilet outside the media center has signs with tips on putting and hitting drives, irons and sand shots.
The search for the best place to pee on an American golf course Original
"The magazine that once gave us Peter Dobereiner, Dan Jenkins and Tom Callahan is currently canvassing people to identify the most picturesque place in golf where one might urinate … I kid you not." —Former World No. 1 golfer Lee Westwood, on Twitter "The portable toilet outside the media center has signs with tips on putting and hitting drives, irons and sand shots.
What's left to look forward to this PGA Tour season? More than you'd think Original
Fall golf always has a few tricks up its sleeve, and while the headlines this year might not focus on the PGA Tour itself—Rory McIlroy’s quest to win another Race to Dubai, the return of TGL, and the Skins Game come instantly to mind—there's more than a little intrigue left in the place. With five tournaments remaining on the PGA Tour schedule and a few bonus events afterward, here are the seven things we're looking forward to the most as 2026 winds down. The Spiether-coaster continues?
On a warmer-than-expected fall Tuesday, at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn., 44 employees of Golf Digest gathered for what they thought would be a fun, competitive day of Ryder Cup-style golf. Instead, they got a bloodbath … a merciless whooping that led to a bitter round of second-guessing and recrimination for the losers, and a coronation for the brilliant architect of the winning team.
The Rout at the ’Rack: EXCLUSIVE interview with Luke Kerr-Dineen, winning captain of Golf Digest’s Seitz Cup Original
On a warmer-than-expected fall Tuesday, at Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn., 44 employees of Golf Digest gathered for what they thought would be a fun, competitive day of Ryder Cup-style golf. Instead, they got a bloodbath … a merciless whooping that led to a bitter round of second-guessing and recrimination for the losers, and a coronation for the brilliant architect of the winning team.
My friends and I found this obscure Swedish golf video game on the Internet. Now we’re addicted
The most nervous round of golf I played this year came at Whistling Straits, where, amid the birch trees and sunflowers and towering windmills, surrounded by small glacial lakes and stark stony mountains, I survived a nervy start to shoot four under and win the tournament. I see you have questions. Questions like: What tournament could an 11-handicap like me possibly be winning at a course like Whistling Straits, especially with a score like four under?
For U.S. Ryder Cup fans, Jim Furyk just said three things that should make you feel good about Adare Manor
The One-Year-To-Go press conference is not always a very engaging day in the larger Ryder Cup calendar. That's increasingly true in our current era, when the culture of secrecy around tournament strategy rivals something you might see in Langley or Vauxhall Cross.
For U.S. Ryder Cup fans, Jim Furyk just said three things that should make you feel good about Adare Manor
The One-Year-To-Go press conference is not always a very engaging day in the larger Ryder Cup calendar. That's increasingly true in our current era, when the culture of secrecy around tournament strategy rivals something you might see in Langley or Vauxhall Cross.
It may not seem like it, but this was the ideal Presidents Cup for America
I'm going to do something that will probably annoy anyone affiliated with the Presidents Cup, which is, of course, to immediately assess the weekend's results in the context of next year's Ryder Cup.
It may not seem like it, but this was the ideal Presidents Cup for America
I'm going to do something that will probably annoy anyone affiliated with the Presidents Cup, which is, of course, to immediately assess the weekend's results in the context of next year's Ryder Cup.
It may not seem like it, but this was the ideal Presidents Cup for America
I’m going to do something that will probably annoy anyone affiliated with the Presidents Cup, which is, of course, to immediately assess the weekend’s results in the context of next year’s Ryder Cup.
It may not seem like it, but this was the ideal Presidents Cup for America
Save for later I’m going to do something that will probably annoy anyone affiliated with the Presidents Cup, which is, of course, to immediately assess the weekend’s results in the context of next year's Ryder Cup.
Presidents Cup 2026: Your Vibes-Only guide to the top 24 players at Medinah
Ladies and gentlemen, this is unprecedented: An individual vibes ranking of a team golf event??? Is that even allowed??? You better believe it, pops: Vibesmen like me are the rebels of golf, and the usual rules don't apply. For those of you who are new to the scene, the Vibes Guide is a gut-check ranking of golfers based not on data or inside information or any kind of analysis, but purely on the true north of rash, unconsidered instinct.
Presidents Cup 2026: Your Vibes-Only guide to the top 24 players at Medinah
Ladies and gentlemen, this is unprecedented: An individual vibes ranking of a team golf event??? Is that even allowed??? You better believe it, pops: Vibesmen like me are the rebels of golf, and the usual rules don't apply. For those of you who are new to the scene, the Vibes Guide is a gut-check ranking of golfers based not on data or inside information or any kind of analysis, but purely on the true north of rash, unconsidered instinct.
Presidents Cup 2026: What happened to international men’s golf, and is it America’s fault? Original
Let’s begin with three sobering facts: Fact One: My colleague Jamie Kennedy, in preparation for our “50 Things that changed golf” podcast on the founding of the Presidents Cup, uncovered a stat from when the Cup debuted in 1994 about “international” golfers. International, in this case, means players who are eligible for the International team at the Presidents Cup, i.e. not American or European.
Presidents Cup 2026: Myth-busting the 12 most common tropes of team match-play golf Original
If you follow the Cups—we’re talking Ryder, Presidents, Solheim, even Walker and Curtis—you've heard them all before. These are the tropes that define the discourse, from "never pick rookies!" to "pair good friends together for chemistry!" to "Europeans just care more!" By turns, they can seem informative or annoying, but the more important question is, are they true?
Presidents Cup 2026: ‘Loading the boat’—The team match-play strategy every captain should adopt Original
In the context of team match-play golf events like the Ryder Cup and the upcoming Presidents Cup, “loading the boat” means sending your best players out at the beginning of the lineup, and it’s mostly used in reference to a final singles session. Over time, collective team-golf strategy has evolved to a place where it’s now accepted that a team should always load the boat, whether it’s behind, in front or locked in a tight match. The reason can be described in one word: momentum.
Spieth, Koivun and Real Stakes: 10 things for the Fall PGA Tour Season Original
Autumn is (essentially) here! It's the best season by far, and anyone who says otherwise should be shipped to Vladimir Putin's worst gulag. As the earth cools slightly from the miserable oppressive heat of our latest apocalyptic summer, so too does the professional golf calendar lose its blinding intensity. Yes, we have the Presidents Cup to watch next weekend, and we had some fun with the Walker Cup and Solheim Cup.
Qualifying for the U.S. Ryder Cup team will look different in 2027. Here's what's changing Original
In mid-August, U.S. captain Jim Furyk hinted that a new Ryder Cups point system was coming for 2027, and that unlike Europe's announcement, it would represent a big change for the U.S. team. That change dropped Wednesday in a statement from the PGA of America, and the two major headlines are that there will no longer be points awarded for "off-year" events, and the standings will no longer be tied to money.
This is the funniest golf misunderstanding we've ever heard
; ; ; ; Continue reading More for You
This is the funniest golf misunderstanding we've ever heard
The longer you play golf, the more its specific rhythms become second nature: the rules, the etiquette, the language. It's easy to forget that for somebody who comes to the sport with no background, especially as an adult, it can feel like landing on a foreign planet.
This is the funniest golf misunderstanding we've ever heard
The longer you play golf, the more its specific rhythms become second nature: the rules, the etiquette, the language. It’s easy to forget that for somebody who comes to the sport with no background, especially as an adult, it can feel like landing on a foreign planet.
Presidents Cup 2026: The Jackson Koivun selection is a great sign for the U.S. team’s future Original
The debate about including rookie Jackson Koivun on this year's Presidents Cup team often centered on a false dichotomy: Either you pick him as preparation for future competitions, like the Adare Manor Ryder Cup next fall, or you take someone with "experience" who can help you immediately. This, of course, was always wrong.
From ‘Best Shot’ to ‘Worst Meltdown,’ here are your PGA Tour season-end awards
It’s over! The 2026 PGA Tour season is a wrap, it was glorious, and while the players will deliberate in a few months in their vote on Player of the Year, we aren’t waiting. It’s time to hand out some awards of our own, from the serious to the tragic to the comic. Here we go! Best Shot In March, when Cameron Young hit his drive on the 18th hole at the Players Championship under intense pressure, I thought to myself, “we’re not going to see a better shot all year.” And I was right.
From ‘Best Shot’ to ‘Worst Meltdown,’ here are your PGA Tour season-end awards Original
It's over! The 2026 PGA Tour season is a wrap, it was glorious, and while the players will deliberate in a few months in their vote on Player of the Year, we aren't waiting. It's time to hand out some awards of our own, from the serious to the tragic to the comic. Here we go! Best Shot In March, when Cameron Young hit his drive on the 18th hole at the Players Championship under intense pressure, I thought to myself, "we're not going to see a better shot all year." And I was right.
How would the Tour Championship having played out using the new match-play format? We took a look Original
Starting last week, the Tour Championship officially entered its lame duck era. That probably sounds harsh, but it's not meant that way. Sunday’s action in the final round of the 2026 edition was plenty entertaining (would've been more entertaining if literally anyone could have challenged Scottie Scheffler, but what are you gonna do?), and next year could be the same. But the fact remains that we're killing time until the PGA Tour’s shiny new match-play model takes effect in 2028.
I have golf depression, and I'm not handling it well Original
Save for later Last summer, on a magical day at a course here in Durham, NC, I shot a personal best 74 and ascended to the heavens on a white cloud, surrounded a choir of glowing angels. It may sound strange, but if you play golf, you know exactly what I mean. I was truly happy. I had no expectations after that round. I'd been around this game long enough to know better, and in case I forgot, about 30% of the people I told immediately let me know how awful my next round would be.
Wyndham's POTY rise, Rory's re-animation and Lame Duck East Lake: 10 Things for the Tour Championship Original
TEN THINGS is a collection of words that runs prior to each week's PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We'll publish the best emails here. As I write this, PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has just announced that startin in 2028, the Tour Championship will be contested as a 32-player, match-play event held over two weeks.
The PGA Tour's player of the year debate still starts and ends with Scottie Scheffler Original
The hardest part of this for you, if you disagree with the headline, is that I'm going to start by bludgeoning you with statistics. I'm going to bludgeon you so thoroughly that you're punch drunk and reeling, and whatever you say next is going to sound feeble and desperate. You should just agree with me right now, and we can all go back to debating whether Jackson Koivun should be on the Presidents Cup team (yes).
Scottie's alpha resurgence stirs POTY drama: 10 Things for the BMW Championship Original
TEN THINGS is a collection of words that runs prior to each week's PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We'll publish the best emails here. Down to the top 50! But before we get to Bellerive officially, we must reflect. 1.
Rory McIlroy returns as the five-man POTY race heats up: 10 things for the FedEx St. Jude Championship Original
10 THINGS is a collection of words that runs prior to each week's PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We'll publish the best emails here. Welcome to Memphis, the hottest place on this or any other planet! It's playoff time, so let's boogey. 1. 90% OF THE TIME, THIS TOURNEY DELIVERS AN A+ FINISH I feel there is something sort of ...
Michael Brennan captures Wyndham for second tour title, vaults himself into FedEx Cup Playoffs
On Saturday night, sitting in a tie for the lead at the Wyndham Championship, Michael Brennan briefly allowed himself to think about what it would mean to win—not only would he rise 58 spots in the FedEx Cup standings and make the playoffs, but he’d get such a boost that he’d be in position to make the second playoff event too. But the minute he went there, he was quick to chastise himself. “See, I’m already starting to think ahead to the BMW, and that’s a problem,” he said.
Michael Brennan captures Wyndham for second tour title, vaults himself into FedEx Cup Playoffs Original
On Saturday night, sitting in a tie for the lead at the Wyndham Championship, Michael Brennan briefly allowed himself to think about what it would mean to win—not only would he rise 58 spots in the FedEx Cup standings and make the playoffs, but he'd get such a boost that he'd be in position to make the second playoff event too. But the minute he went there, he was quick to chastise himself. "See, I'm already starting to think ahead to the BMW, and that's a problem," he said.
Jackson Koivun secures final playoff spot, bubbles burst for Koepka, Bradley, Hossler Original
The 21-year-old newly minted pro stayed and watched until the not-so-bitter end. In the clubhouse at Sedgefield Country Club, Jackson Koivun waited and observed as the leaders came down the stretch at the Wyndham Championship, the finale of the PGA Tour's regular season. He shot a somewhat disappointing 71 in his own final round, which meant that his fate would now be decided by other golfers.
Jackson Koivun poised to secure playoff spot on eve of Wyndham finale, with Beau Hossler and Michael Brennan tied for lead
When 21-year-old Jackson Koivun turned pro at the John Deere Classic earlier this summer, he knew he'd have five starts to try to reach the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings and make the playoffs, and it was a massive understatement to say he needed to "act fast." The truth was, he probably needed to win to get that kind of boost, and once he missed the cut at the Deere and finished T-10 at the ISCO Championship, you could replace "probably" with "definitely." We know what happened next—he...
A LIV Golf lifeline: CEO says 'lead investor' secured to keep league going into 2027 Original
After much speculation about the fate of LIV Golf in the wake of losing funding after this season from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the upstart league appears to have a future beyond 2026. On Wednesday morning at a press conference at Trump National Bedminster, the site of this week's LIV New York event, CEO Scott O'Neil announced that he had secured an investor to keep the league afloat.
Brooks Koepka and Jackson Koivun's contrasting nailbiters: 10 things for the Wyndham Championship Original
TEN THINGS is a collection of words that runs prior to each week's PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We'll publish the best emails here. Congratulations to the Wyndham Championship for being the first PGA Tour event to make me feel old (and by "congratulations," I mean "how &*#%ing dare you"). I covered my first Wyndham Championship in 2014, and have been back, at least on Sunday, almost every year since.
Europe announces 2027 Ryder Cup qualification process, unsurprising looks a lot like 2025 Original
In a statement released on Tuesday, Ryder Cup Europe announced its qualifying process for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland. In keeping with the theme of a team who in 2025 ran back the same captain and 11 of the same players, its process remains largely unchanged.
Koivun's briliance, a shockingly strong field and playoff drama: 10 things for the Rocket Classic Original
Golfpocalypse is a collection of words that runs prior to each week's PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We'll publish the best emails here. SCENE: Outrageous electric guitar music plays, I ride up on a skateboard, come to a sudden stop, chug a can of Mountain Dew, toss the can. "Hey kids, you think golf is boring? A sport for your dad and his dumb friends?
British Open 2026: One by one at Birkdale, contenders rose and fell Original
SOUTHPORT, England—The great and painful rule on days like these is that everyone has to fall. They're raindrops on a car window, waiting for gravity and accumulating pressure to send them cascading out of sight. It’s a thing that happens gradually for the field but suddenly for the lone player, and on certain Sundays, like the Sunday we just saw, things are so tight and so confusing that you can't predict exactly when anyone will go. If you try, you'll be wrong.
British Open 2026: Sam Burns has another chance to win his first major. And he has a text message from his wife to thank for it Original
SOUTHPORT, England — In the aftermath of his close call at last month’s U.S. Open, when he was playing the best of the contenders on Sunday but couldn't quite catch Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns couldn't hold back the tears. His father was there, and the 29-year-old PGA Tour pro badly wanted to win his first major dad on Father's Day. What also came into play was the sheer exhaustion of battling Shinnecock Hills for four days and missing glory by a single stroke.
British Open 2026: The day after scandal, Bryson DeChambeau was a mix of power and pantomime Original
SOUTHPORT, England—Before anything else, I would like to say three positive things: 1. The children love Bryson. In the time I spent following Bryson DeChambeau in his third round at the Open, just one child was guilty of punk-ish predilections, and I only heard about the kid secondhand—apparently, the precocious little snot-nosed guttersnipe shouted "watch your step!" as Bryson walked past the range. I can confirm that this was an anomaly.
British Open 2026: He was going to skip Birkdale. Now he's contending after a shocking 62 Original
SOUTHPORT, England — It took nine years for someone to shoot the second 62 in Open Championship history … and about 15 minutes for someone to shoot the third. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, because the story of what Sam Burns did at Royal Birkdale on Friday has an angle that's even better than that gaudy number. You often hear that the best way to approach a major, from a mental perspective, is to treat it like any regular tournament.
British Open 2026: Is this two-time European Ryder Cupper finally shaking his major blues? Original
SOUTHPORT, England — Some quick math says that in non-major play in 2025 and 2026, Sepp Straka, a two-time European Ryder Cup team member, has only missed three cuts in 31 tournaments. A handful of those didn't have cuts, sure, but many did, and that's obviously a very good made-cut percentage, and a big reason why the 33-year-old Austrian rose to seventh in the World Ranking. But if that's the impressive shot, here's the shocking chaser: In seven majors over that span, he missed five cuts.
British Open 2026: Adversity doesn’t begin to describe what this amateur has overcome to play at Birkdale Original
Sean M. Haffey Save for later SOUTHPORT, England — When you Google the life expectancy of a person with cystic fibrosis, as David Howard did—and as anyone would do after they have been diagnosed—what you find is that you can die as soon as your mid-20s. That's grim news to digest as a child and goes a long way to explaining the almost superhuman inner strength of the 27-year-old Irishman who is not only alive, but is competing as an amateur at the Open Championship.
British Open 2026: The 19 things you learn from listening to players for four straight hours Original
SOUTHPORT, England — The R&A may have its flaws, such as (10,000 words redacted), but credit where it's due: Its "mixed zone," where the players come to speak to the media after their round, is the best setup in major golf. Officials send the players to one of three Open-themed backdrops on a raised stage, each armed with a microphone stand that resembles a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat—one mic facing the player, one facing the media.
British Open 2026: Reigning champ Scottie Scheffler gets deep (and just a little morbid) at Birkdale Original
SOUTHPORT, England — There's a funny contrast between the image of Scottie Scheffler—an image that is largely true, I think—of an athlete uniquely focused on the present, totally undistracted by the baubles of fame, and obsessively competitive in a way that seems to be motivated by the joys of competition rather than its rewards, and the reality of the man who finds his way into deep and often fatalistic conversations at press conferences, especially at the Open Championship.
British Open 2026: Your vibes-only guide to the top 41 contenders at Birkdale Original
SOUTHPORT, England — The story of the Vibes Guide in 2026 is one of excellence, brief heartbreak and ultimate redemption of the most glorious kind. After the shock of missing out completely on Aaron Rai at the PGA Championship, I came back with a vengeance by declaring the start of the raw, uncut vibes era, obliged to man, and proceeded to predict the dark inevitability of Wyndham Clark's win at Shinnecock Hills in the No. 1 spot.
The bizarre, hilarious end of the 1971 British Open film: A minute-by-minute breakdown
My favorite Lee Trevino story, before I knew about the 1971 Open Championship, came from a Tony Jacklin quote about playing with him at the '72 Open in Muirfield. Trevino was famous for his nonstop chatter, and Jacklin was sick of it, so when they were paired together on the weekend, he decided to nip it in the bud. "Lee, we don't need to talk today," he said.
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