Welcome into Part 8 of the 18-part Devil Ball Golf 2015 golf preview, in which we get ready for the year to come in the sport. The U.S. Ryder Cup team hasn’t won since 2008, when Paul Azinger lead a rather eclectic dozen into Valhalla and stomped all over a European team haplessly captained by […]
Would a ‘general manager’ help the U.S. in the Ryder Cup?
December 20, 2014 by
One of the biggest knocks on how the PGA of America handles the Ryder Cup is the lack of continuity from one captain to the next. Ben Hogan was the last man to lead the U.S. into consecutive matches, back in 1947 and ’49. While there’s some discussion from one administration to the next, the […]
Former Ryder Cup captain Torrance calls Nick Faldo an ‘a**hole’
December 17, 2014 by
With a single poor choice of words at the 2014 Ryder Cup, Nick Faldo polarized the European golf community. While serving as on-air analyst with Golf Channel, Faldo called Sergio Garcia “useless” during the ’08 Ryder Cup, where Faldo was losing captain on American soil. Faldo explained Garcia was listless after his breakup with Greg […]
Fred Couples get a call, not The Call, from Ryder Cup task force
December 16, 2014 by
As it turns out, Fred Couples could be the guy asked to end the United States’ three-match Ryder Cup losing streak. Couples, according to Golf.com, has been contacted by the 11-person PGA of America Ryder Cup task force about the possibility of assuming the captaincy from Tom Watson, whose leadership and a five-point American loss […]
Fred Couples questions Mickelson’s Ryder Cup benching
December 12, 2014 by
Some two-and-a-half months after the Ryder Cup was decided, high-profile critics are still scratching their heads about some of U.S. captain Tom Watson’s tactical blunders. In particular, Fred Couples still doesn’t get why Watson sat Phil Mickelson for all of Day 2 at Gleneagles. “I’m not bashing Tom Watson, but sitting Mickelson, your best team […]
Woods on Ryder Cup task force: Hopefully, we only do this once
December 3, 2014 by
The path to future American Ryder Cup dominance starts getting paved next week, when the PGA of America-commissioned, 11-man Ryder Cup task force meets for the first time. Golf Channel reports the kickoff meeting was originally planned for this week at the Tiger Woods-hosted Hero World Challenge. Instead, it’ll begin with a conference call in the […]
PGA Tour commissioner floats idea of Ryder Cup-style exhibitions
October 23, 2014 by
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 […]
Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter mock Ryder Cup task force on Twitter
October 15, 2014 by
The idea of forming a committee to try to figure out how to win a biennial exhibition match seems kind of silly, so maybe that’s why European Ryder Cup stalwarts had no problem mocking PGA of America’s announcement of its Ryder Cup task force. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler are among […]
Woods, Mickelson and Azinger likely members of Ryder Cup task force
October 8, 2014 by
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson made for terrible partners at the 2004 Ryder Cup. A decade later, the two appear poised to work together to fix a systemic problem. PGA of America president Ted Bishop has indicated multiple times in the last week there would be change coming to the entire U.S. approach to the […]
