A poll on USA Today’s website gives four choices for the next U.S. Ryder Cup captain: Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Paul Azinger and Johnny Miller. It’s fun to let yourself think about Miller for a minute. I’m not sure where the names came from, but Love has been a popular rumor. On Wednesday, Love spoke about his desire to captain the team in 2012 during a press conference at the Fall Series’ inaugural Sea Island stop, a tournament he is hosting.
“If you asked me two months ago, I’d have said no, I don’t want to take any chance on screwing up playing,” said Love, who has a 9-12-5 record as a player. “But now I look at it, I don’t want to take any chances on not getting to be the Ryder Cup captain.”
Love was an assistant captain this year, along with Paul Goydos, Tom Lehman and Jeff Sluman. Love has a quiet demeanor on the course, but I’ve always found him engaging and thoughtful in the pressroom — not to say that should be the criteria for choosing a captain. But I do not see him as a Corey Pavin clone.
Whoever is selected, he’ll have a much easier job that Pavin. There’s no question Pavin seemed overwhelmed at times, and his act was boring and soul-sucking. But he also had to captain a team playing in Europe, a borderline suicide mission.
It turned out to be a great and competitive Ryder Cup, but remember that the last time the U.S. won on European soil was 1993, and before that, it was 1981. It’s easy to pile on the losing captain, but there might not be a tougher task in sports than winning the Ryder Cup on the road.
The 2012 captain might have an easier road, but he’ll also have more pressure as the presumed favorite.
Who do you trust as captain?
As much as I love Love.. had to do it.. how could you not pick freddy and his Eccos?
Azinger is the only choice that can bring real intrigue and a unyielding determination to the U.S. Team. Fred is great, but boring. Davis is a great guy, but seems shy and sometimes introverted on TV. We need fire and brimstone in the team room and in front of the cameras.
I’m going with my fellow Tar Heel, DL III.
How about Jeff Sluman in 2012 in Chicago and DL3 in 2014?
Have Freddy be the President’s Cup captain till he doesn’t want to do it anymore ala Jack.
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Larry Nelson. Never too late.
Larry Nelson. 3 majors. 40 wins. 3
Ryder Cups 9-3-1. Still active. Never
Asked to captain. Great role model.
Daly. Might make him feel better about never playing.
I agree Nelson has always gotten screwed over, much better resume than some of the one major winners. But maybe he’s been asked and simply doesn’t want the job. Sluman’s done alot of the legwork for years and should get a chance whenever he wants it. Heck, I’d love to see Jack or Arnie as captain.
oh man i would LOVE to see johnny miller as captain.
Michael Jordan. He’ll be there anyway. Might as well give him something to do.
I think Davis should get the nod. Fred Couples would be a great captain, but he still has a chance to play his way onto the team. I agree that it would be great to see Johnny Miller as Ryder Cup captain, if only to see how he handles any criticism.
Here are my predictions:
2012 – Love (48 years old)
2014 – Stricker (47 years old)
2016 – Mickelson (46 years old)
2018 – Furyk (48 years old)
2020 – Woods (45 years old)
This would leave Couples, Justin Leonard, Brad Faxon, and Lee Janzen on the outside. One of them might be tagged for 2014 so Stricker might not get the nod in 2014.
Phil Mickelson should be the captain. He will be a quote machine and match wits with the best Euro can come up with.
More importantly, it would leave the golf for other players in light of his awful performance in recent cup history.
Couples, mainly because I just like him better. Miller is an a-hole, who would want to listen to what he had to say about anything?
Did anyone think about Lumpy? Tim Herron is a SOESpurb choice.
How about Julie Inkster?
This is Barry!
2 time major winner John Daly! Unless he strains a rib hoisting the cup and cannot be a captain.
I am glad to see a few of you mention Larry Nelson. He has been snubbed more than any former champion around. I wish it had happened but unfortunately the PGA isn’t smart enough to correct the error.
As for those mentioned I like DL III over Freddy. I liked the suggestion of Freddy for PCup Capt. as long as he wants it.
Mark, I find it interesting that you predict Woods will be washed-up at age 45.
Interesting how losing paints the Captain. Had this Cup been played here in the States with a partisan US crowd and fast greens, the US wins going away. Then Monty is called an idiot for not picking Casey and Pavin would be hailed as “mini-Patton” or some such nonsense.
Love will be the next Captain. The PGA of America prefers to anoint winners of its own PGA Championship. The exclusion of Larry Nelson (2-time PGA champ and awesome Ryder Cupper) as captain is borderline criminal. Somebody in the PGA had a reason to keep him from the job.
skip smith
October 6th, 2010 on 10:43 pm
Larry Nelson. 3 majors. 40 wins.
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Dude, I love Nelson but he only had 10 PGA Tour wins, including the majors. Only one thing matters to qualify as Captain of the US team and that is performance on the regular Tour.
Jay, I am not suggesting that having Woods as captain in 2020 means he would be washed up at 45. His career warrants an early captainship and probably more than one. Nichlaus was captain in ’83 at age of 43 and again in ’87.
Shanks, how then do you explain the Stockton choice? He had 10 PGA tour wins and ZERO majors. Nelson had THREE majors AND 10 tour wins. Anyway, everyone knows he got the screw job…somebody didn’t like him and that was it. It had NOTHING to do with his playing resume….
BTW, best ever name for a twosome was Love ‘n Couples.
Docsbro, Dave Stockton won the 1976 PGA Championship at Congressional CC right here in my backyard of Washington DC. Sank a 15 footer on the 72nd hole to avoid a playoff with Ray Floyd & Don January.
How about Calc? He had that famous shank at “The war at the shore”
How about Happy Gilmore or Tin Cup?
@shanks I apologize…I see he won to PGA’s but is still one major short of Nelson. Other than the US Open their records are identical, except of course their Ryder Cup records…Nelson was pretty stout when playing in them…he also had better major record that Tom Kite…
The last thing we need is another boring Captain like Jeff Sluman. I say Couples or Mark O’Meara in 2012.
Then we take Paul Azinger to Europe in 2014.
docsbro, I agreed with you on Nelson in an earlier comment. He got hosed.
no to DL 3 only because he skipped the CDN open in 2007 after being paid to redesign the course that was hosting it that year. Karma is a biatch
from GOLF.com
“No Love lost
The Canadian Open desperately needed some star power. (Apparently I didn’t fill the bill.) Davis Love III took a big paycheck to tweak the Angus Glen course and make it more palatable, then didn’t even show up to see how his work played out. I read in the Toronto paper how he didn’t admit that he was skipping the event when some Canadian writers asked him about it on Friday at Carnoustie, a couple of hours before the entry deadline. I bet Davis doesn’t miss out on the free money at this week’s Bridgestone Invitational.”
I say Tiger. When it comes to golf, he has serious cred. Players respect him. He’s maybe a little young, I guess. So how about Phil Mickelson then. Let’s shake this thing up. If not then let’s give Arnold Palmer one last shot at it. Everyone loves AP. He is a national treasure goddammit. You just can’t go wrong with that guy.