PGA Tour commissioner floats idea of Ryder Cup-style exhibitions

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem boiled down the Americans’ loss in the Ryder Cup to a simple problem: getting smoked in the foursomes format.

“You can’t play foursomes down 7-1 (in eight foursomes matches) and think you’re going to win the cup,” Finchem said Wednesday at the McGladrey Classic in Georgia. “Seven to one in the Friday and Saturday (matches); you’re climbing a mountain.”

It makes sense, then, that Finchem sees no sense in the 11-man task force charged with skeweriing all aspects of the American approach to the biennial matches with the hope of ending a three-match losing skid. Finchem wasn’t invited to be part of the committee, but it also doesn’t sound like he blessed it.

“They made more birdies they we did and that’s the reason we didn’t win the cup,” he said, according to Golfweek. “It’s not the first time it’s happened.”

The fix, then, is as simple as getting better in the foursomes format. The PGA of America can’t do much to facilitate more alternate-shot golf, but Finchem and the PGA Tour, which has re-engaged the PGA of America more in the last two years than the prior two decades, can.

Finchem acknowledged the possibility of hosting a “side event” that’d essentially be an exhibition tournament in the foursomes format. With the extinction of the Tavistock Cup, the week of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March now has room for a unique exhibition that could stand to improve the Americans’ chances in regaining the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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