Los Angeles: Meticulous planning and a democratic approach have already highlighted the early stages of Davis Love III’s second stint as United States Ryder Cup captain with Tiger Woods playing a significant role as team tactician.
Love announced Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes and Matt Kuchar on Monday as three of four wildcard picks for this month’s Ryder Cup against Europe, and paid tribute to the invaluable help he received from his four assistants in making those selections.
“I’ll never be able to thank them enough for their devotion to this event,” Love said about Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and Tom Lehman during a news conference at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
“They have spent an incredible amount of time, not only over the last year-and-a-half, but in the last two or three weeks flying back and forth cross-country, on the telephone.” Love said that he and his four assistants had deliberated the pros and cons of various contenders for captain’s picks well into Sunday evening before reaching a consensus.
“There were questions late as last night,” said Love. “We went through a lot of scenarios. It was a very, very tough decision but we kept coming back to these three.”
With Woods having been sidelined for much of the past year while recovering from multiple back operations, Love has relied heavily on tactical input from the 14-times major champion.
“Tiger looks at things from maybe a little bit of a higher viewpoint than all of us,” Love said of Woods, a veteran of seven Ryder Cups as a player. “His strategy on the golf course ... helping us prepare for a big golf tournament.
“Everybody automatically thinks, just look at the [Hazeltine National] scorecard, it’s a really long course, we need long hitters. Tiger looks at it a whole lot differently.
“Over the last two or three weeks, he has made us really think hard about not only pairings but other things we need to look for in our players. He’s taken the stats package that we get and has broken it down to what we really need.” Love has made it a priority that his players have a vested interest in the team that will take on holders Europe from September 30-October 2, so he also relied on the input of the automatic qualifiers for his wildcard selections.
“We were still watching at the end, calling guys,” said Love, referring to Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship in Indiana.
“When Zach Johnson got off the golf course, I called him. When Jimmy Walker got off the golf course, I called him.
“We were waiting to talk to our team about where we were. We were really close [to the three wildcard picks] two weeks ago, but it took us until last night to finish it off.” Love will announce his final wildcard pick on Sept. 25, after the Tour Championship in Atlanta, to round out his 12-man team.
