May The Task Force Be Never Heard From Again!
/I've entered full Ryder Cup burnout mode, so under doctor's orders, my reading to Task Force's self-congratulatory press conference announcing Davis Love as 2016 Ryder Cup captain.
There is good news in this drama. The Task Force is done. Gone! No mas. It's tied with the PGA of America Hack Golf Task Force for most Task Force meetings in organization history (2).
No more conference calls, no more pretending to care, no more taking Tiger and Phil away from their short game practice and no more wondering if Team USA should go back to four picks (they did!).
The PGA of America Ryder Cup task force unveiled unanimous captain for 2016 in Davis Love and best of all, moved swiftly so that we can return to not worrying about the Ryder Cup for 18 months. Or so we hope.
It was another a fine day for the Golf Cart Industrial Complex, as the task force has decided lock in four vice captain’s. Tom Lehman goes into 2016 as one of the four. Nothing screams excitement like two losing captains to turn this ship around!
Dave Shedloski at GolfDigest.com got a groupthink vibe from the whole thing, which is good when it comes to restoring the fourth pick and fixing the deadline to qualify. But when the new/old captain is dropping MBAspeak, it's hard to get excited unless that new business model means not sucking every penny out of the event possible? I know, we can dream.
“It's a new business model, a new team building model that comes from being given an opportunity by the PGA of America to come together and use all of our veteran experience to build a new team culture and consistent plan for the future,” Love added. “So 2016 will be a collaborative effort of many individuals from the task force, past Ryder Cup Captains, veteran players of the Ryder Cup to create the best environment for our team to be totally prepared to compete at Hazeltine National.”
Steve DiMeglio notes the biggest qualifying change, which we'll call the Horschel Rule.
Eight of the 12 members of the team will be named on points earned following the conclusion of The Barclays, which is two weeks later than in the past. A new timetable for the captain's picks was announced, too. Three of the four picks will be announced after the conclusion of the BMW Championship, affording an extra two weeks for the decisions. And the final captain's pick will be made at the conclusion of the Tour Championship the following week.
Rex Hoggard explains the new qualifying process and reveals easily the best statement the Task Force ever made:
Lost in that structure, however, are the fall events in the PGA Tour’s wrap-around schedule. Money earned in events like the McGladrey Classic, which is hosted by Love, will not count toward the Ryder Cup selection system.
Bob Harig notes that the real takeway here is that Phil Mickelson, criticized for calling out Tom Watson at Gleneagles, got his way with the changes in qualifying, captain’s picks and captaincy strategy.
