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Players, Not PGA Will Determine Love’s Fate

It’s déjà vu all over again. The PGA of America officially announced that Davis Love III would captain the 2016 Ryder Cup Team in an attempt to regain the cup from the dominating European Team.

If it feels like we have been here before it is because we have. Love came into the 2012 captaincy with all the optimism and confidence that every captain professes before the matches. Love was a successful captain crafting a 10-6 lead going into Sunday Singles then his team collapsed and left him and America with a heartbreaking loss.  love 12 cup

But things will be different this time around. Love will be supported by the newly formed Ryder Cup Task Force. The PGA has refused to call this working group a committee fearful of the reputation of all committees. What is that old saying…a camel is a horse designed by a committee. No, this is a task force and the PGA hopes there’s a difference.

For all the rhetoric about changing things up and using a new formula the PGA came up with a traditional selection with Love. But to hear them tell it things will be so very different this time around.

Love and the team will have the support of the Task Force before and during the Ryder Cup Matches. The task force comprises players, past captains and PGA officials and they have instituted some changes in the selection process.

The new “template” as they call it is modeled after the very successful European Ryder Cup Team model where future captains start out as assistant captains and work their way up the ranks to an eventual captaincy.

Those same captains, the past three, are kept on the task force for guidance and experience.

The PGA also enacted some change into the team selection process. They have moved back to four Captain’s Picks, changed the points system and most importantly moved the cutoff date for the eight members earning their way on and given the captain a later date to make his selections.

For the 2016 team the first eight members finish earning points after the Barclays which is two weeks longer than before. Then after the BMW Championship three of the captain’s picks will be announced with the final pick coming after the Tour Championship.

Those changes were enacted to allow the captain to select a hot player who was lighting up the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Billy Horschel was the hottest golfer on the planet at season’s end last year but unable to be selected for to the team. This will remedy that problem.

The changes to the process can only help the American Team but when all was said and done the PGA selected a known quantity. Love still fits into the mold that the PGA has used for years, except for Tom Watson 2014, a forty something, past major winner with ties to the PGA.

Love says he learned so much as captain and is thrilled to be back but the important result of this task force is the so called template that has been set forth by the PGA.

The PGA of America now has a set formula that utilizes many different points of view and experienced players to build a system for successful captains.

The PGA deserves credit for changing things up in hopes to end the European domination but let’s remember that just what Ted Bishop said when he named Tom Watson.  2012 team

The bottom line is that it all comes down to the players and how they play, and especially how they play on Sunday.

Love gets another chance but it won’t be The Task Force that determines his fate. Like always it’s the players, it’s always the players.

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