1. After the USA Ryder Cup Team closed out their victory Davis Love III joked that all he did was “write some names down and drive a cart around.” But he was there as captain for a reason. The Task Force, including Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk who were on that losing team in 2012 felt they failed their captain and he deserved another shot. He got it and he did exactly the same thing he did in ’12. He got his team a big lead by Saturday. The difference is this time they didn’t choke.
2. Out of the Task Force came the succession program that will have vice captains move up the ladder into the captain’s slot. Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker along with volunteer Bubba Watson and former captain Tom Lehman served Love well. Word is Stricker is next in line. We’ll see who gets it first after that, Phil or Tiger.
3. I wasn’t too convinced that these vice captains would do any good but player after player spoke glowingly about how their vice captain helped them all week, on and off the course. Patrick Reed loved having one on one time with Tiger. It worked…big time.
4. 45,000 plus fans roamed Hazeltine and while most were respectful of the great golf and the golfers a few over-served douche bags made a spectacle of themselves. On Saturday afternoon Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy were the main targets. As he was leaving the seventh green one mook shouted to Rory, “Hey Rory, suck a d—k!” Really? Rory retorted that he was right here if the douche wanted to do anything about it. The offender was removed and the PGA took strict actions on Sunday towards fan’s obnoxious behavior. It’s sad that a few morons prove Pete Willett right.
5. Rory was more animated than we have ever seen him before. A combination of the fans, the Cup, the competition and a little bit of Patrick Reed had Rory at his emotional peak.
6. Speaking of Reed, he has gone from America’s Most Wanted to American Hero. He says he bleeds red, white and blue and he showed it all week. He was the star of the American Team and displayed a surreal passion that endeared him to the fans and got under his opponents skin. 
7. I complained about Phil Mickeson playing in the foursomes (alternate shot) and his play was mixed, one loss, one win. But I advocated for him in fourballs. I wasn’t the only one that knew his driver would be a challenge. His old coach, Butch Harmon had a great line,”Phil can’t spell fairway, no less find one.”
8. Captain Darren Clarke is so well liked and respected by all in he game it’s hard to take a shot at him, but here goes. I think he may have done his team in first by his captains picks and second by his strategy. His good friend Lee Westwood, who was only picked for that reason was horrid. He got zero points. Martin Kaymer wasn’t much better with only one point and that was late Sunday when it was too late. And Kaymer played in four sessions. True, his pick of Thomas Pieters was great as he was the leading point earner with four points. But Russell Knox, 20th in the world and hot as hell watched this from his couch.
9. Clarke also insisted that his rookies, he had six of them, be paired with a veteran and that is not an unusual tactic. But when half your team is rookies that strains your ability to keep winning teams together. Maybe sending a pair of rookies out by themselves and keeping teams together may have worked better.
10. The television coverage was horrible. On both The Golf Channel and NBC we watched more commercials that golf shots. It seemed that every few minutes the golf was gone and another ad was playing. And when they were live on the golf with only four groups on the course on Friday and Saturday how are we not seeing every shot. If the PGA of America wants to take their premier event to the next level get a deal like Augusta National has at The Masters with very limited interruptions or The PLAYERS Championship where the last few hours had reduced commercials. It was maddening.
Bonus. The PGA of America likes its new tag-line, “Where Legends are Forged.” And it’s fairly good. We got to see some potential legends in the making as Reed, McIlroy, Mickelson, Stenson and the rest played their butts off. It was a great Ryder Cup… only two years until the next one.
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