Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending a few minutes interviewing Davis Love III. We talked about the Ryder Cup and how he thinks we match up against the Europeans. You can tell that he’s excited about being a Ryder Cup captain and has been thinking quite a bit about what he needs to do to lead the team to a win next year in Chicago.
We also discussed his philosophy for course design, introducing Michael Jordan to the game (and the role Jordan may play at the Ryder Cup), and cigars.
Well knock me over with a feather. Davis Love III has been formally announced as the 2012 US Ryder Cup captain. He was a vice-captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup team and rumors that he would be the choice for 2012 started even before the Ryder Cup was over.
Love referenced the fact that his selection as captain wasn’t exactly kept under wraps. Immediately after being introduced, he joked about how secret the selection process had been and asked if everybody could wait for a minute while he tweeted the news.
Love also seems to like his chances of bringing home the Ryder Cup trophy on US soil:
I don’t think we could ask for a better home field advantage than Chicago and Medinah Country Club
The conference wasn’t all smiles and laughs though. When asked about the significance of being selected as captain by the PGA of America given the fact that his father was known as the consumate PGA professional, a teary eyed Love discussed what an honor it was to first win the PGA Championship as the son of a PGA professional and then be selected as a Ryder Cup captain:
Jose Maria Olazabal was named today as the European captain for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. Olazabal has played in 7 Ryder Cups, and been the European vice-captain for the past 2 teams.
He was such a unanimous choice that the Europeans didn’t even bother voting on it before naming him as captain. Europe is hoping that he can carry his record as a player forward as the team leader (18 wins, 8 losses, 5 draws).
Ian Poulter has had the Ryder Cup in his possession for the last few days and has really been enjoying himself. I’m sure some people will be offended, but honestly I think it’s pretty mild compared to what the Stanley Cup has been through. Click the continue link to view the rest of the videos.
In case you haven’t seen this, here’s a video of Hunter Mahan from the post-Ryder Cup press conference. Watch this video and tell me that the US team doesn’t care about winning. As I said my Ryder Cup Wrap-Up, Hunter has nothing to be ashamed of. Also a very classy move from Phil to step in and grab the mic when Mahan starts to stumble.
I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the 2010 Ryder Cup. Click the continue button to read on or I’ll give out your name and address to the guy in the picture.
Congrats to the Euros. They played some great golf. And the Americans have nothing at all to be ashamed of. You can’t ask for a better finish that having it come down to the last few holes of the last match. I’ll post a breakdown tomorrow. But for now, here’s a video clip of the Monday highlights.
Tiger was seen using a mallet putter (presumably a Scotty Cameron Del Mar) during Tuesday’s practice round at Celtic Manor. If he puts the new putter in play this weekend, it would be the 2nd time he’s put a new putter in play in recent months.
Is Sean Foley’s swing instruction influencing Tiger’s putting stroke as well? It certainly takes some stones to swap out a putter that you’ve won 13 majors with, but he could probably use the change.
[update]
The putter appears to be a Nike Method #3, although there are conflicting reports about whether he is actually gaming the putter or simply testing it out around the course. Either way, I’m sure Nike is dying to finally get one of their putters in Tiger’s bag for good.
