Tag: Ryder Cup

Lynch: Ryder Cup Buddy System rides again with vice-captain picks

At least the U.S. team can save on personalized accessories by just using the same gear from last time.

It was after the 2014 Ryder Cup debacle in Scotland — a week during which Phil Mickelson’s most effective shots came during the losing team’s press conference when he targeted skipper Tom Watson — that the American team decided to crowdsource the captaincy.

The PGA of America created an oft-mocked task force to reverse U.S. fortunes in the biennial event. Another undeclared objective was to ensure that future players wouldn’t be denied hugs or high fives from some grizzled legend who thought the only inspiration they needed was to see the Stars & Stripes run up the pole.

Watson was 65 when he led his squad to Gleneagles, long removed from the weekly social circus on Tour, shoehorned into the role by then PGA president Ted Bishop, who idolized him. His leadership style — about as warm and fuzzy as a boxcutter to the face — grated on players. Europe won handily and the aftermath was ugly.

Determined to ensure greater buy-in from players on the choice of future captains, the PGA of America’s task force effectively handed control of the selection process to a small cadre of Tour players who had been appointed to the panel. One of their number was duly named captain for the 2016 Cup: Davis Love III, who had led the team to a narrow defeat in ’12. Love’s four vice-captains — Tom Lehman, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods — were also fellow members of the task force star chamber. (Bubba Watson later received a pity position as VC).

Ryder Cup
The 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, in 2016. Photo: Peter Casey/USA TODAY Sports

The U.S.’s 17-11 victory that year at Hazeltine cemented the notion that the task force’s strategy was a winning one, so it came as no surprise a few months later when Furyk was named captain for ’18. And the first three deputies Furyk announced? Love. Stricker. Woods. He later added David Duval, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar.

Woods relinquished the vice-captaincy when Furyk named him a captain’s pick to play, which he justified by winning the Tour Championship one day before the team got to Paris. But Furyk spent another captain’s pick on Mickelson, who had shown scant form in months and who went on to lose both sessions he played. But what he lacked in form Mickelson made up for in stature. He, too, was a member of the task force whose creation was spurred by his mutiny in Scotland.

The result was a painful loss for America.

But the buddy beat goes on. Last year Stricker was named as the captain for Whistling Straits in September.

Nice guy? Check.

Inoffensive to other players? Check.

Acceptable to Phil and Tiger? Check.

Task force member? Check.

Stricker immediately named his first vice-captain: Furyk. On Monday, he added two more names to his back office team: Love and Johnson. The task force bench is getting worked harder than the ’62 Mets, though at least the U.S. team can save on personalized accessories by just using the same gear from last time.

Even if Stricker has compiled an enviable career on the PGA Tour, even if he is regarded as one of the most solid citizens in the game, and even if the Ryder Cup is being held in his home state of Wisconsin, his appointment as captain and his choice of underlings suggests that Team USA is hostage to an awfully small circle. That’s a perception that can undermine a captain, no matter how well-intentioned. Are decisions being made in the team’s best interests or on the basis of personal loyalties among task force members? Is popularity with one’s peers now the most important consideration in selecting the leadership of Team USA?

In the years since Gleneagles, the American team has mimicked Europe’s successful strategy of breaking in future captains with a vice-captaincy role or two. But the task force buddy system keeps recycling former captains into those deputy roles, keeping the inner circle tight. If history is our guide, then Johnson can expect the nod for the ’22 captaincy, while Messrs. Stricker, Love and Furyk shouldn’t throw away their walkie-talkies.

Stricker will be the 29th man to have led America into Ryder Cup competition since Walter Hagen commanded the first team in 1927. The 28 who preceded Stricker as captain had major championship wins on their résumés.

The selection of Stricker marked a welcome end to that unimaginative tradition, but in every other respect his captaincy signals it is business as usual for the buddy system.

[jwplayer V51WOSCZ-9JtFt04J]

[lawrence-related id=778043364,778042513,778042133]

Paul Azinger talks Tiger, Ryder Cup, kicking cancer’s butt and becoming bulletin-board material

Paul Azinger is the perfect chap to meet for a round of cocktails at the 19 th hole. Face it, the guy likes to talk. Likes to laugh. Is passionate and intense. And does he have stories. In a life spanning 60 years now, Zinger won the 1993 PGA …

Paul Azinger is the perfect chap to meet for a round of cocktails at the 19th hole.

Face it, the guy likes to talk. Likes to laugh. Is passionate and intense. And does he have stories.

In a life spanning 60 years now, Zinger won the 1993 PGA Championship, 12 PGA Tour titles and two more on the European Tour. Captained the U.S. to victory in the 2008 Ryder Cup. Played on winning Ryder Cup teams in 1991 and 1993. Spent 300 weeks in the top 10.

He held his own against the best in the world, including Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and his late best friend, Payne Stewart.

And he kicked cancer’s butt.

[jwplayer Zmk6chRu-vgFm21H3]

Now Azinger talks a great game as the lead analyst for NBC and Fox.

“Well, I love golf,” Azinger said in a chat with Golfweek. “I can’t tell you how much I love the sport and how much I love watching it.  I love playing the game.”

While he’s “chomping at the bit” to get back to work, Azinger has kept busy sheltered at his home in Bradenton, Florida, since the COVID-19 global pandemic halted play on the PGA Tour in March.

“I just don’t let myself get bored as much as anything,” Azinger said. “Self-isolating isn’t too bad. I’ve done a lot of work around the house. I’m neater than I think I am. I can clean if I want to.”

The current state and the fear of the unknown concerning the coronavirus is mindful in some ways to Azinger’s successful battle against cancer that began in 1993 when lymphoma was discovered in his right shoulder blade. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments as well as Azinger’s perseverance conquered cancer.

“When I first heard the words, ‘You have cancer,’ immediately it was sort of a similarity to hearing there is a virus going around and we’re all going to have to shelter in place,” Azinger said. “When I heard what the treatment was for (cancer), that’s when I knew it was a big deal. This, you’re just trying to avoid the treatment.

“It’s a weird situation. For a long time there, we all but wondered if we could get it and could it make us sick enough that we could succumb. And that’s just a terrible feeling. And that was similar to the feeling I had when I had cancer, for sure.”

On a lighter note

Azinger’s love for motorcycles: “It’s a feeling of freedom.”

Playing against Tiger Woods at the zenith of his powers: “We were watching something we thought we would never see.”

His love for the Ryder Cup: “The whole patriotism aspect.”

Johnny Miller, Paul Azinger, Dan Hicks, NBC
Johnny Miller, Paul Azinger and Dan Hicks in the NBC booth during the third round of the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Azinger also addressed comments he made about Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood ahead of the final round of this year’s Honda Classic that turned him into a European Tour punching bag. One word – that – got Azinger in trouble when he said you have to win on the PGA Tour. Fleetwood, a five-time winner on the European Tour, was trying to win his maiden PGA Tour title.

“A lot of pressure here,” Azinger said on the broadcast. “You’re trying to prove to everybody that you’ve got what it takes. These guys know, you can win all you want on that European Tour or in the international game and all that, but you have to win on the PGA Tour.”

That European Tour. Oops.

“I’m sure I’ll be some bulletin board material for them at the Ryder Cup,” Azinger said. “I respect all wins. I try to use good grammar when I’m in the booth and I failed big-time on that one. And it didn’t come off quite as I hoped.”

Eventually, Azinger will get back into the booth and is a long way from sitting in a rocking chair and reminiscing about a good life lived.

“I’m still looking to make today a great day, tomorrow a great day,” he said. “I want to continue to try and achieve in charitable ways, be better as a person. I want to contribute to the game of golf in whatever capacity I can. Try to make the game grow and help the game come back from this devastating virus.”

Scroll up to watch Steve DiMeglio’s discussion with Paul Azinger.

[lawrence-related id=778042133,778036681,778035999]

Paul Azinger Interview

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio chats with Paul Azinger about life in quarantine, his comments at the Honda Classic, and the first time he played with Tiger.

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio chats with Paul Azinger about life in quarantine, his comments at the Honda Classic, and the first time he played with Tiger.

Nick Faldo: ‘I don’t want to visualize’ golf without fans

Nick Faldo doesn’t see how golf can resume without fans. The PGA Tour aims for the season to resume in June.

A Ryder Cup without thunderous, nationalistic legions of fans?

A Masters without patrons and roars echoing through the Georgia pines?

A U.S. Open and PGA Championship played in silence?

“I don’t want to visualize that,” Sir Nick Faldo told Golfweek this week about the possible soundless scenarios due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. “I think matches or games or some tournaments are fine without fans, but finals? I would deem the Ryder Cup a final, just like the Super Bowl and the World Series. And the major championships fall in that line, too.

“You have to have fans for the atmosphere, I would think.”

The lead golf analyst for CBS Sports and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame knows of what he speaks. He won the Masters three times (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Faldo are the only players to win back-to-back green jackets). Won the Open Championship three times. Lost in a playoff in the U.S. Open to Curtis Strange in 1988. Tied for second in the 1992 PGA Championship.

And Faldo played in the Ryder Cup 11 times and was the captain of Europe when the U.S. won in 2008. He’s been in the CBS tower analyzing the play before him at scores of majors.

Nick Faldo of England wears the green jacket after winning the US Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, on April 14, 1996.

“Fans are really more than the atmosphere. They are part of the event,” Faldo said. “I laugh thinking when Tommy Fleetwood does his famous celebration in the Ryder Cup when he holes his putt, he’s going to look around and see nobody and he’s screaming to birds at Whistling Straits? Or Tiger fist-pumps after a huge putt and hears crickets?

“I get when sports starts and finding a way to do it without fans for the safety until we get things organized and people can really be well tested safely. But I can’t see, what I call them, finals, when you really do need the atmosphere to make it something special, to be held without fans.”

But if the finals are conducted without fans?

“If they do go forward without fans, then everybody is going to have to be really adaptable to anything,” Faldo said. “If you’re going to go play tournament golf and you’re really inspired by the atmosphere of the fans, you better get used to ramping up your own adrenaline and your own intensity. And you better learn quick or don’t go and play.

“It will come easier for some guys and harder for others, who are trying to figure out when to fist-pump or how to get motivated in silence. It will be a weird feeling coming down to the last holes and people are doing great things and your playing partners are going, ‘Yeah, nice putt, mate,’ and there’s no other noise.”

The current plan for the PGA Tour’s restart scheduled for June 11 at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, is for the first four events to be played without fans. Faldo, 62, will have to get used to the silent ways as he’ll be in the CBS tower for a solid two months if the PGA Tour is able to restart in June. He’s confident he’ll adapt, just as he has for the past eight weeks since he’s been sheltered at home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

“This is probably the longest period in my golf career, probably since I was 18, where I’ve been in one place,” he said. “Starting on eight weeks now. The longest before that was five, which was 16 years ago.

“At times, I struggled to get two weeks in one place. And it looks like we’re definitely going to go at least another six weeks. But we’re very fortunate. Life in Ponte Vedra is very good. We’re really disciplined doing the shelter at home.”

Now he just has a different routine.

“I have a routine on the road. You get up, go to the gym, eat breakfast, then go to the golf course,” he said. “I see the course, see some players and get the story for the day. Then it’s off to the tower and you get yourself set up and the CBS crew in the tower is great and it’s good fun. And then the great Jim Nantz arrives and off we go. And there are no two rounds alike so that’s great. You don’t know what’s coming. So we rattle away for whatever time it may be.”

Now, he says, he’s really busy doing nothing.

“But I have been doing a lot of brainstorming, thinking about what shows I want to film, lots of business ideas as well,” he said. “So, it’s between chilling and educating ourselves. Watching a lot of smart TV shows. Doing new exercises trying to lose an inch or two on the waistline. And trying to look past the bar to have a quick drink on the hour.

“Interesting times, these are.”

[lawrence-related id=778041981,778036372,778036331]

Former Ryder Cup site vandalized by motorcycles

A group of motorcyclists did donuts on the famed course, which hosted the 1981 Ryder Cup.

A famed English course that was the site of the 1981 Ryder Cup and other major tournaments was vandalized on Sunday by a group of motorcyclists.

Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, which is listed at No. 24 on Golfweek’s Top 50 Classic Courses in Great Britain & Ireland, was hit by vandals who used motorcycles to rip up swaths of the course.

No word yet on the extent of the damage. The famed club, just south of London, has two 18-hole tracks and originally opened in 1903.

Aside from hosting the 1981 Ryder Cup, the club has welcomed five versions of the European Open, the 2011 Senior Open and the 2018 British Masters.

This isn’t the first time that vandals have hit the club, including a time just before the Ryder Cup was played there. According to an article from UPI,  in 1981 Ryder Cup officials needed to assess damage to the 18th green on the course after it had been damaged. Intruders dug up parts of the putting surface and also drove an iron stake into the two-tiered green. The tournament was still played and the United States, captained by Dave Marr, won the event.

Breaking down where Tiger Woods might play for the rest of 2020

Trying to determine the playing schedule of one Tiger Woods was a regular, and often futile, exercise long before the COVID-19 global pandemic changed the world – and the PGA Tour’s – order. But with the PGA Tour’s announcement Thursday of an …

Trying to determine the playing schedule of one Tiger Woods was a regular, and often futile, exercise long before the COVID-19 global pandemic changed the world – and the PGA Tour’s – order.

But with the PGA Tour’s announcement Thursday of an ambitious schedule for the rest of 2020 – its restart coming June 11-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas – fans naturally began to wonder when the reigning Masters champion would tee it up.

So here’s some Tiger guesswork.

Woods hasn’t played since Feb. 16 in the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles, where his final-round 77 left him in 68th and last place among those who made the cut.

Citing a stiff back, he skipped the subsequent WGC-Mexico Championship, Honda Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship, where the season came to a halt after the first round. If play resumes mid-June – and that remains far from certain due to the continuing battle against the coronavirus – there would be 24 consecutive weeks of play heading into Thanksgiving.

Woods’ health and the major circles on his calendar – the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and the Open Championship – have always been the key points on the compass that determines the direction his schedule takes. He also refrains from playing three consecutive weeks and rarely competes the week before a major.

Thus, if the 15-time major champion, who is looking for a record 83rd PGA Tour title, is healthy, put down as locks the three major championships that remain on the schedule: the PGA Championship at Harding Park on Aug. 6-9 in San Francisco; the U.S. Open on Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York; and the Masters on Nov. 12-15 at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, where he’ll try to win a record-tying sixth green jacket.

Another lock would be the Hero World Challenge on Dec. 3-6 at Albany in the Bahamas. He hosts the tournament, and it benefits his foundation. It would be hard to imagine Woods not playing the Ryder Cup on Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, even with it being the week after the U.S. Open.

Just below lock status would be the Memorial on July 16-19 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. That’s Jack Nicklaus’ annual gathering that Woods hasn’t skipped when healthy and has won a record five times.

Put down at least one of the first two events of the FedExCup Playoffs – the Northern Trust on Aug. 20-23 at TPC Boston and the BMW Championship the following week at Olympia Fields in Illinois.

If he qualifies, he’d likely play the Tour Championship on Sept. 3-7 at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Now it gets tricky. Woods has won 18 WGC events – the next person in the win total is Dustin Johnson with six – and he places these events on the importance scale along with the Players Championship and FedExCup Playoffs just below the majors.

But the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, with four guaranteed rounds and tons of FedExCup and world rankings points, is the week before the PGA Championship. Would Woods play in the heat of Memphis and then fly to the cooler temps in San Francisco in back-to-back weeks? The take here slants toward no.

As for the WGC-HSBC Champions on Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in Shanghai, Woods has only played it twice, the last time coming 10 years ago. So that’s a no.

In the 50-50 category is the Zozo Championship on Oct 22-25 in Chiba, Japan. Woods won his record-tying 82nd Tour title there last fall. The demands of traveling halfway across the globe and the protocols concerning COVID-19 – would he have to quarantine upon arrival? – suggest at best a 50 percent chance of playing.

Two other events fall in the 50-50 category – the first two of the hopeful restart to the season. With the sports world clamoring for any live action, Woods, who one has to believe would be chomping at the bit to knock off rust, might not pass on playing either the Charles Schwab Challenge or the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

But he’s only played each tournament once, in 1997 when he tied for fourth at Colonial and in 1999 when he tied for 18th at Harbour Town.

So, to complete this latest exercise of figuring out where Tiger will play next, here’s the forecast. Woods will play nine events – the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Memorial, PGA Championship, Northern Trust, Tour Championship, U.S. Open, Ryder Cup, Masters and Hero World Challenge.

But that’s just a hunch.

Breaking down professional golf’s updated schedule

SportsPulse: Golfweek’s Adam Schupak takes a look at the updated golf schedule which had been turned on its during the coronavirus outbreak.

SportsPulse: Golfweek’s Adam Schupak takes a look at the updated golf schedule which had been turned on its during the coronavirus outbreak.

Graeme McDowell: Majors over Ryder Cup should be the priority when golf returns

Graeme McDowell ha

A year ago this week, Graeme McDowell resurrected his career with a victory at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. That feels like a lifetime ago, McDowell said, as the COVID-19 pandemic has made his return of form with the clubs “slightly irrelevant.” McDowell was speaking from his home in Florida where he was laying low with his family and waking up most mornings to his son asking him to go build train tracks.

McDowell was one of the voices of reason when the Players Championship was canceled after one round, saying one day later, “To be honest, I was expecting the horn to go off on the ground yesterday… It’s the right call. It’s the responsible move. At the end of the day what we’re doing out here is insignificant compared to what’s going on on the planet right now.”

Today was supposed to be the media day for the European Tour’s Irish Open, an event that McDowell, a proud Northern Irishman, committed to host in late May, but with each passing day seems less likely. With the season’s first two majors already postponed, McDowell expressed concern for whether the Ryder Cup, which is scheduled to be played Sept. 25-27, should be contested, and said the majors should take priority.

“I feel like the Ryder Cup can only happen if we felt the selection process wasn’t compromised,” said McDowell, a four-time European Tour Ryder Cupper and vice captain for Thomas Bjorn in 2018. “Otherwise the tournament wouldn’t just feel right. We need 3-4 months for the qualification process. It’s a crazy puzzle. I can’t imagine how much time the tours have spent figuring out a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D.”

He added: “If we could be back to playing golf around June, you could argue four solid months for the qualifying process. Could you pick two teams of 12? That could re-inject some adrenaline back into golf, then I’d be fully supportive of it.”

McDowell said many “bigger picture things” have to fall into place and “it’s a waiting game and a dynamic situation.”

As a part-owner in two restaurants, Nona Blue, with Orlando and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, locations, McDowell may have a better perspective “from ground zero,” he said, than many of his fellow competitors as to the ripple effect the coronavirus has had on the economy. Both restaurants are shut down and trying to help staff through these difficult times. But being closed for potentially several months is going to have negative consequences on their restaurants’ cash flow.

“All of a sudden, you’re thinking about, ‘Will we be able to come out of this on the other end?’” he said. “It’s scary to think how quickly a business, all around the world, can be impacted by this.”

McDowell said he will be raring to go when the professional golf tours resume and it will only take two weeks of hard work to be ready. In the meantime, he says he’s enjoying plenty of quality time in the pool with his family.

“Our backyard looks like a pool supply store with all the inflatables and bouncy castles and slides you can imagine,” he said.

[opinary poll=”do-you-agree-with-the-pga-tour-cancellin-JWMD0u” customer=”golfweek”]

Coronavirus: Ryder Cup still a go for Whistling Straits

The biennial contest, run by the PGA of America, between the U.S. and Europe is still set for September at Whistling Straits.

[jwplayer hTRJDb4x-9JtFt04J]

First it was the Masters postponing to a later date.

Then the PGA Championship.

But don’t add the Ryder Cup just yet.

A report in The Telegraph on Tuesday said the Ryder Cup would be postponed to 2021. But the PGA of America said reports of postponement were inaccurate in a tweet posted to the official Ryder Cup account.

While the PGA of America postponed the PGA Championship earlier in the day, and the PGA Tour announced four additional tournaments would be canceled, the biennial contest between the U.S. and Europe is still on the schedule for Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

The last time time the Ryder Cup was moved was in 2001, when the matches were postponed to 2002 following the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11.

Europe has won 9 of the last 12 contests, including a 17½-10½ trouncing in Paris in 2018.

[opinary poll=”would-coronavirus-fears-prevent-you-from-wx4Cdk” customer=”golfweek”]

[lawrence-related id=778031948,778031867,778031789]

Thomas Bjorn throws some shade on Azinger controversy

Paul Azinger’s controversial comments on the European Tour didn’t go unnoticed by 2018 Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn.

There’s nothing more entertaining than a golf Twitter spat that gets blood boiling more than six months before the Ryder Cup. Thanks to a few comments by NBC’s Paul Azinger that have been ripped apart over the last 48 hours, we’ve got ourselves some drama that now includes some shade thrown by 2018 Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn.

Bjorn tweeted Monday, “Looking forward to watching @F_Molinari defending the biggest win of his career this week at Bay Hill…”

He was referring to Francesco Molinari’s 2019 victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational that was capped by a 43-foot, 9-inch birdie putt on the 72nd hole. But of course, he wasn’t really applauding the win as the biggest of Molinari’s career.

Molinari won the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie, becoming the first Italian player to win a major championship. And that of course gets back to Azinger’s rub against the European Tour.

The tweet and the intent was not lost on Molinari’s brother, Edoardo. “We need more Thomas Bjorn in the world!” he tweeted in response.

It all makes for some great fodder as we count down the days to Whistling Straits.