Tiger Woods searches for answers to Ryder Cup slump
Tiger Woods identified three ways to improve the Ryder Cup team: (1) get younger players on the team who can play, (2) start making some putts, and (3) pick US sites to host the Ryder Cup that are played regularly by the PGA.
“They have a younger crop of players that are playing well. When our youngest player is 30 years old, that’s not a positive thing. They have Luke (Donald) and Sergio (Garcia), Paul Casey, all in their 20s. We don’t have anybody in their 20s on the team. And all three guys I just mentioned have won numerous tournaments around the world; most of our guys in our 20s haven’t won tournaments yet,” Tiger said.
My take: I can’t argue too much with (2) or (3). The site of the next Ryder Cup is Valhalla, which will not have been played on the PGA tour for 8 years. As Tiger said, there’s no home field advantage there. The PGA should have picked Firestone C.C. in Akron, where Tiger Woods basically owns the course.
I don’t think the age of the players this year really mattered. Sean O’Hair, Lucas Glover, and J.B. Holmes are all in their twenties and have won on the PGA tour. Tom Lehman had a chance to pick any of these players, particularly Lucas Glover, but didn’t. The team already had 4 rookies, so it’s understandable for Lehman to go with experience. What Tiger is missing is that for every player you add onto the team, you have to remove one of the other “older” players. My guess is that at least Lucas Glover and Sean O’Hair will make the next squad, and they will still be in their twenties. So which “older” player would you like to see replaced? Phil Mickelson?
And, Tiger, man, the reason these kids have not won more on the PGA tour is that you keep on winning all the tournaments. Maybe they should start playing on the European tour?
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