The first news of the Ryder Cup captaincy came as more of a “leak” rather than an announcement. We heard from Tim Rosaforte that Davis Love III was going to be captain again.
My first feeling was disappointment that they did not take my suggestion of a Ryder Cup CEO, but rather choosing the safer route of picking a popular figure in the game. My second feeling? How could this be the result of the Ryder Cup task force? To pick DL3 again?
If the answer to the question is that, yes, this is the result of the task force, then I am extremely disappointed. This is a “more of the same” type of move rather than trying to make the big changes the U.S. Ryder Cup needs. Sure, Davis is a nice guy and he had basically won the 2012 Ryder Cup before his team’s lousy Sunday singles play, but he is not change. He is one of the many losing captains the U.S. team has had in its recent past. How as a fan of the U.S. team can you not feel anything but disappointment?
As I said, Davis had basically won the 2012 Ryder Cup. He had put his team in a position with two matches left on the course, at the time the team point total was 10-4. Then, Ian Poulter, the most incredible match play competitor, who has done mostly nothing otherwise, got hot and the European team won the last two points to close the day at 10-6.
A deeper look into the main job function of the captain makes Davis look like a pretty lousy captain. His captain’s picks with the exception of Dustin Johnson were abysmal. Steve Stricker was 0 for 4. No wins, no points and he was a drag on Tiger. Instead of helping Tiger play better they partnered and mostly they just lost. Then there was Brandt Snedeker, who at least won once, going 1-2 and looked awfully shaky throughout all of his matches. He did not look prepared for all of the pressure that the Ryder Cup offered.
The other captain’s pick was Jim Furyk. A safe pick, as Jim has been a part of many team matches and could mentor the big group of young players that were on the team, but Jim’s 1-2 performance was not very strong. Dustin Johnson was amazing. He won all three of this matches including a great 3 & 2 victory over the Danish birdie machine, Nicolas Colsaerts. Still, the captain’s picks went 5-8 (and again DJ accounted for three of those five). Take Dustin out of it and the captain’s picks were 2-8.
One must admit that Davis did a pretty admirable job during the team portion. Ten points was pretty incredible effort. But his final day lineup was a disaster. He chose Bubba to go first, Bubba has proven to be a pretty lousy Ryder Cup singles player. He has lost 4 & 3 in 2010 to Miguel Angel Jimenez, then 2 & 1 to a guy who he outdrives by roughly sixty to one hundred yards in Luke Donald. Also, now I have the benefit of looking into the future and Bubba had a 2014 Ryder Cup to forget. He has not played well in Ryder Cup singles, he is 0 for three.
Maybe the decision was to put some of shaky guys out first and then bring it home with his veterans later in the day. Still I see very little thought in how he laid out the team. I guess he thought since Bubba and Webb Simpson had some success in their team matches that teeing them off one and two would help them feed off each other? I don’t know. In addition, also don’t understand putting out three inexperienced Ryder Cuppers such as Bubba, Webb, and Keegan Bradley as his opening three was going to have a good outcome at all. The U.S. lost all three and the Europeans were off to the Miracle at Medinah.
It is too early now to speculate about how the U.S. team will look in 2016. The new team is likely to feature young talent such as Jordan Speith, Rickie Fowler, and Jimmy Walker but likely the Best Player Ever to Play the Game (BPETPTG) may not be one hundred percent yet. Who knows… maybe he will have retired by then due to his back or maybe have won a major by then.
The core of the European team will likely stay the same. Rory, Justin Rose, and Sergio will likely be featured. Poulter may still be a factor but it is less likely. So as it stands now, the European side looks stronger. Davis will likely face some very difficult decisions, what to do with a potentially struggling Tiger, if Phil doesn’t find something he may be on the outside in need of a pick, although my suggestion would be if either cannot make the team on merit to make one or both of them an assistant captain to groom them for the captaincy. Being the captain in 2016 could be an extremely challenging job.
To sum it up I am very disappointed with the decision of Davis Love III. He offers nothing outside of the ordinary and no change which is sorely needed.
Photo credits: © Andy Lyons
Laughable. It is so easy for us to blame bureaucracies, captains, and the “system”. This is golf. You see Phil Mickelson and others throwing their captains under the bus but they are just making excuses for players that are incapable of winning. Players that have been professionals for 10, 15, and 20 years don’t need to be roused up like they are a bunch of teenagers playing a high school football game. They are old enough and mature enough to find their own motivation to win. Problem is many of them just do not have it anymore. Patrick Reed won his matches because of his motivated personality and Phil and Furyk lost because they are a couple of beaten down old men riddled with mental scar tissue. The captain is way less important than we portray him to be. We still portray him that way because we are not not ready to admit that the old guard of American players are simply incapable of getting it done anymore.
Good article and I agree with all of it. So as a European I fully support the pick for Captaincy of DL3 😀
Like the guy, really do, but what were they thinking? Picking a previously successful captain may not be a giant leap forward but I could kind of understand it. Giving an unsuccessful captian another shot at it is a bit beyond me.
I’ve always been a Rugby player, golf is new to me, but one thing stands out at the top level of Rugby for me – very rarely does a top player make the best coach, and in Rugby it’s the coach who calls the plays, picks the team, runs the show…… Why for the Ryder Cup does it always seem like the Captaincy is something that’s given out as an honour rather than to the best man for the job (and I’m talking on both sides of the Atlantic)? Is the Ryder Cup really worth that little?
The gut reaction is to be disappointed. But I’m not sure that’s a fair response since we don’t know what options were available to the PGA of America. I think it’s safe to say that if Freddy Couples wanted the job, the PGA would have been tripping over themselves to give him the position. The same is likely true of Azinger. I suppose the PGA could have gone completely outside the box with a less mainstream name, but that wouldn’t have been a cure-all by itself. Is change for the sake of change really what we want to see?
My opinion can be summed up this way: The selection of a captain was just one step towards the goal of US Ryder Cup Supremacy in 2016, and probably not one of the more critical steps, at that. There are still many things the PGA of America and Davis Love himself can do differently – both in preparation and player selection- that will have a FAR greater impact on the US fortunes in 2016 than the name of the guy setting the pairings.
With all the sour things I have been reading about this “Task Force” pick, you’d think the forces might want to reevaluate their choice for captain.
Outside of Ballesteros and Tony Jacklin (ok, Bernard Gallagher) I couldn’t name you 2 other captains during the recent dominance by the European Team. Therefore, I humbly suggest that this captaincy business is over-rated. Pick your players, pick their sweaters, kick them in the butt and tell them to go play as if it was THEIR money. End of discussion.