And after Love announced three of his four captain’s picks on Monday, Watson is still not a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team. -Europe contest, set for September 30 to October 2 at Hazeltine National Golf Course in Chaska.
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As for Woods’ star power-and the related wish of the PGA of America to create a buzz for the Ryder Cup and golf in general-there’s a plan cooking there as well.
“This is a tough decision”, Love said. A lot of people would look at the scorecard and say “It’s a long course, we need big hitters”.
Love said the Americans competing in the playoff finale shouldn’t necessarily equate the PGA Tour’s season finale to a one-event tryout. I am not limiting myself.
“I got to play in the Walker Cup twice, once overseas and once in the USA and it’s really cool getting to play on home soil”, said the 27-year-old. It’s the players who win.
“We’ve got a strategy and we are going to work on that in the next two weeks and announce what best fits our team, not who shoots the best score in that tournament”. In fact, Watson hasn’t played elite-level golf since finishing runner-up to Adam Scott at Doral in March.
“We’ve had a lot of awkwardness in the a year ago and a half”. He is 4-5-2 in his Ryder Cup career and has played on three previous American teams. That’s a little awkward. He has played steadily since May, notching six top 10s.
“He still has to be in the mix. We’ve been there”, Love said.
“He has been amazingly involved”, he said. “He’s been very thoughtful in the way that he’s handled the Tiger Woods factor of being an influence but also being a distraction”.
Meanwhile, Holmes – the lesser-known of the trio – made his one and, thus far, only appearance in the Ryder Cup back in 2008, when he defeated Europe’s Soren Hansen during the singles matches to bring the USA within one point of clinching the cup – which they duly did.
“I thought his picks were interesting”.
He said: “It was a hard pill to swallow but I think those are things you grow from, those are things that make you tougher, better”.
The snub was brought into sharp focus by the fact Rickie Fowler was one of those who got the nod instead – and he’s the only man to play as many as eight matches at the Ryder Cup without winning one.
“I heard even, possibly, this is hearsay, but I’ve heard maybe even Tiger Woods could potentially be a pick”, Kuchar said via satellite after being named to a fourth consecutive US squad.
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By leaving Watson off the team in the first wave of picks, Love has time to identify a final player that he feels could match up with at least one of the other 11 players to form a possible two-man team.
