The PGA of America finally has gotten so sick and tired of losing the Ryder Cup there are already internal discussions regarding a radical change in the way it chooses its future captains, The Post has learned.
It has been a little more than a week since the U.S. team flew back to the U.S. with its tail between its legs, losers to Europe for the third consecutive time, sixth in the last seven and eighth in the last 10.
In the week since, details of dysfunction created by captain Tom Watson with his players have surfaced.
They have been difficult-to-believe details — such as Watson making his opening speech to the players all about himself, telling them, “Two years ago at Medinah, you guys [bleeped] me,’’ and imploring them to “win this Ryder Cup for me.’’
We all know now Watson as captain ended up being a stunningly poor choice by PGA of America president Ted Bishop, who was attempting to make an outside-the-box hire in an effort to change the U.S. fortunes.
Now, the PGA of America is poised to make some big changes in its procedure in picking future captains — a procedure that will include consulting current players and past captains, who will have heavy input.
“In conversations we’ve had internally, the decision has been made to assemble a task force that will include PGA of America representation, past captains and current players to really dive into an open analysis of all aspects of the Ryder Cup to see what we can do to improve and give Team USA its very best chances of success,’’ PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua told The Post Monday.
“We’re in the process right now of assembling that task force and it’s something we’re excited about. It will give everyone a little bit of ownership. I think it’s going to be a healthy, inclusive process.’’
During Watson’s ill-fated regime, player inclusion off the course was missing as much as match-winning birdies on the golf course.
So good for the PGA of America for recognizing its system is broken and needs fixing and for being flexible enough to make the necessary changes.
Though Bevacqua would not go into detail about specifically who will be involved, sources told The Post the committee could include four current players and three past captains.
Phil Mickelson, who played in his U.S.-record 10th Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and was the only player to speak out about the broken U.S. system, figures to be one of the players on the committee, along with fellow high-profile veteran PGA Tour players Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker, who was one of Watson’s vice captains.
The past captains who should be a part of the committee must first include Paul Azinger, the last captain to lead the Americans to a win. It also should include Davis Love III, who captained the 2012 team to a four-point lead entering the Sunday singles, and perhaps Tom Lehman, a popular captain of the 2006 team that lost at the K Club.
This new system will end the “one-off’’ captaincy the PGA of America has employed in which a captain serves his two-year stint and then is never a part of the process afterward.
An example of how far from this path of continuity the U.S. has been, Azinger has never once been consulted by the PGA of America since his 2008 team won. Europe, meanwhile, keeps its past captains heavily involved and grooms its future captains as assistants first.
If Azinger, a strong personality, is going to be involved as a vice captain, the perfect U.S. captain for the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine is Fred Couples, who not only has had success as a Presidents Cup captain but has the perfect ego-less personality. He would not be intimidated by Azinger’s presence.
Stricker should be an assistant captain again, perhaps groomed for the 2020 matches at Whistling Straits in his home state of Wisconsin. Furyk, 44, Mickelson, 44, and Woods, 39, eventually will not be competing at such a high level that they’ll continue making the team as players, and they can eventually be worked in as vice captains and then captains.
This would end the PGA of America’s somewhat random and politically driven process in selecting captains and create a chain-of-command continuity to the selection process that might finally close the gap on what has become a lopsided competition.
