Ryder Cup 2016: USA task force plays into Europe’s hands

by Paul Mahoney

Darren Clarke must have been sniggering like Muttley in the Wacky Races when he heard the latest Ryder Cup plan revealed last week by Dick Dastardly – sorry, I mean Davis Love.

The US team formed a Task Force after defeat at Gleneagles in 2015 charged with devising a strategy to turn around eight losses in the last ten matches. So what was one of the first things they decided would help bring about an American revolution? Love’s Brains Trust announced the US team has adopted the “vice-captain” title instead of “assistant captain” to conform to what Europe does. Yep, darn it, the Americans have cracked Europe’s secret enigma code. Clarke’s 12 are doomed.

With ten months still to go before the biennial bash up at Hazeltine, Minnesota, Love has announced his assistants, sorry, vice-captains will be Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker. Basically, three old geezers that probably wouldn’t have made the team but have been ever-present on the spanking end of recent Ryder Cups. The Task Force’s succession plan for future victory is really little more than a retirement plan. Same people; different titles.

To be fair, who else were they going to call? Fred Couples for one. He’d loosen up the tension in the team room. He said if he were captain it would be all about the players, plus he’d cancel the eternal dinners and meetings. Which is why he didn’t get a call.

John Daly? “We’d have fun,” he told me last year. “I’d love to be captain one day, although I know it’s probably never going to happen.” There’s no “probably” about it. The Blazers want a diplomat and a political figurehead. Daly is too much of a maverick. It would have been fabulous to watch him playing in the Ryder Cup in his pomp. He’d still fire up the team now in his plump.

And what ever happened to Paul Azinger? You know, the only captain to have plotted victory over Europe this century. He wanted nothing to do with the daft Task Force. Which is precisely why he would have been ideal. He knows the answer doesn’t lie in BS boardroom meetings. It’s all about inspiring the players to outperform their opponents and own expectations.

Which is what he did convincing his 12 that the pod system based on the US Navy SEALs was 2008’s secret formula for success. It’s a load of podswallop, obviously. The Americans simply played better aided by the fact that Europe’s captain Nick Faldo saw his role as more testimonial than inspirational. Nothing says you are not taking this seriously more than making DJ Spoony a sort of entertainment officer.

What does it say about the US that Love thinks it’s a clever breakthrough in the phony psychological war to announce Woods, Stricker and Furyk as buggy drivers, sandwich fetchers and cheerleaders? It says the US has nothing new to bring to the inevitable European party. It says Stricker, who has already gone part-time, is no longer a major player. It says Furyk, pictured right, who is still a top ten player, doesn’t feel he’s got what it takes. It says Tiger’s competitive days are over. Elvis has left the building.

What did Europe think of the Tiger call? Clarke was too busy sniggering, while Rory McIlroy said: “I don’t know what to think about that, I really don’t.”

And, just a reminder: the Task Force’s plan was to appoint three players trusted with inspiring a new generation of stars. With Love, they have a combined Ryder Cup record of won 40 matches, lost 59, drawn 15.

The trouble is that when one team keeps losing, the tendency is to look at what the other team is doing and try to copy it. But it’s not about them; it’s about you. Which is why football teams that try to play like Barcelona, or rugby teams that think they can be the All Blacks, always fail.

Deep down, every captain knows there is no secret plan that can be thrashed out in the pub or at a special Task Force meeting. But they all have to pretend there is, otherwise what’s the point of even having a captain?

Clarke’s masterplan is: “I’m not going to change anything Paul (McGinley) did.”

Love said of the Task Force: “It’s a new business model, a new team-building model, to use all our veteran experience to build a new team culture and a consistent plan for the future.” But he knows that’s gobbledygook. He knows the truth: “Win – you’re a hero. Lose – you’re a goat,” he said shortly after being appointed captain.

The only captain who can claim to have influenced victory is Tony Jacklin.

“I took the job on conditions: I wanted to fly on Concorde because the Americans flew first-class and we sat at the back of the bus in bloody economy,’’ he said. “We had neither a team room nor a uniform. The Americans had everything. All that had to change.”

Jacklin made it a level mental playing field, but he knew the real reason for success was the players.  Europe had Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam. Jacklin got lucky. “Timing is everything!” he said.

Tagged Hazeltine, Ryder Cup, Ryder Cup 2016