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.

You can check out the full interview below:

First of all, congrats on the Ryder Cup captaincy.

Thank you.

What does being a Ryder Cup captain mean to you?

Well it’s an incredible honor.  First of all to be the captain, I think there’s been 27 captains?  It’s a pretty small group.  I never dreamed that I … When I came out on Tour I just wanted to stay on Tour.  I wanted to see how good I could get.

I didn’t really come out on Tour really knowing much about the Ryder Cup. And then I wanted to play in it.  You play in it once and you want to play in it again.  And then I wanted to play for Tom Kite because he was my buddy.  I wanted to be on his team.  And now I’ve got young players that are friends of mine that say “God we really want to play on your team.”

It’s just amazing the journey to get from must a kid on Tour – I feel like I’m just a kid on Tour – to now people are calling me “captain” and I’ve got “captain” on my golf bag.  It’s just an amazing responsibility and an amazing honor.

But you know I’m looking at it as an opportunity to give back to the so many players that did so much for me… so many club pros and the PGA of America that did so much and help grow the game.

Hopefully a Ryder cup in the US in Chicago is going to be huge.  It’s a great stage for golf.  It’s going to be very exciting.

How do you think the US is going to stack up against Europe next year?

I’ve been to 7 Ryder Cups.  Played in 6 and was an assistant for Corey.  When we get up on the Stage we go “Man, we have an an unbelievably good team, don’t we?”. When they introduce them all you go “Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Zack Johnson.  Look at this team.  They’re incredible!”.

And then it always comes down to somebody misses a putt, somebody gets a bad bounce, the other teams holes a shot and you think “how did we lose?”.  And it’s always so close.

I think we will fare well.  Will we win or will we lose?  I think it just comes down to if we can get relaxed and just play like we know how to play.

Obviously we can beat them.  Obviously our players can win major championships.  We win more tour events than the Europeans win US tour events.  But we have to just go play like that.

It’s great to win 70% of your games during the hockey season but can you win the playoff series to win the Stanley Cup.  Can you handle that kind of pressure?  It’s a different kind of pressure at the Ryder Cup than it is week in and week out.  And we just have to handle it better.

I think as a Captain or as a coach, the only thing I’m going to try to do is to think like I did when I was playing.  I was trying too hard and I was nervous (laughs).  I just don’t want my guys to feel like I’m putting any pressure on them – I’m taking pressure off.  And that’s going to be the biggest thing.

I know Tiger Woods isn’t going to worry about what I think.  But you know there might be 2 young guys on that team that really want to do well because they want me to win.  And I don’t want them thinking that way.  I don’t want them thinking that we want to win for Davis like I wanted to win for Tom Kite.

And I’ve put pressure on myself and when things started going bad, I started feeling bad that Tom Kite might not win his Ryder Cup.  I don’t want that.  I want to make it clear that we’re going to go in to Chicago and play to have fun and to win and try to take some pressure off.

It seems like Freddy [Couples] did that win the presidents cup team.  Paul [Azinger] did that when we played in the US.  It’s a home game.  I’m going to have it easier than Corey [Pavin] did.  A home game in Chicago.  That’s going make it a lot easier and I think we can relax and play and be comfortable hopefully.  Hopefully we’re all comfortable in our own skin come Friday morning of the Ryder Cup and we just go play.

It’s easy to say.  It’s a great concept that this is just another game.  But that’s how we have to try to approach it.

You’ve been involved a lot of course design over the last several years.  What do you think is the key element of a good course design?  Could you give an idea of one or two of your favorite golf courses?

Well I like older style traditional golf courses.  Whether it’s Scotland or Ireland.  In the US, I like the US I like the old masters – the Rainers, Ross, Mackenzies.  Those kind of golf courses.  So that’s kind of the style that we’ve always built.  Courses that fit the land.  They’re not contrived or just artistic piles of dirt.  It’s just what fits the land and what’s strategic/traditional.

I think that golf course architecture is kind of like art.  You and I could go to the art gallery and you might like one painter and I like another.  That doesn’t make either one of them wrong.  It’s just different.

I like Pete Dye courses, but I don’t want to build them like that.  But I like the old masters.  I played better on Pete Dye courses but I tend to go seek out Donald Ross courses to play.  Now why is that?  I don’t know.  You’d think I’d want to play Pete Dye courses because I’ve won 7 or 8 times on them.

Our philosophy has always been that the game is too hard.  Too hard to learn.  Too hard to play.  Too hard to play fast.  And we need to use traditional architecture but make it user friendly from the front or the middle tees.

And if you want to make it long and hard – The nationwide is playing a course this week that we built and from the back tees it’s too long.  But that’s what tour players need.  The average guy if you plays from the front tees at that same course, you might say “this is too short”.

That’s what we want.  We want everybody to be able to play a course that we build and not make it where it’s impossible and not fun.  We want to make it user friendly.

I always say that my mom might have to play this course.  And she doesn’t hit it very far.  [laughs] She’s a great player but she doesn’t hit it very far.  If you make it too hard from the front tees, then people won’t enjoy it.  And we always try to build for everybody that plays the golf course.

I’m actually just a few miles from the UNC campus.  And I was told my some of my friends here in town that you actually introduced Michael Jordan to golf back when you guys were in school together.  Is that true?

I did.  He was rooming with Buzz Peterson.  Buzz actually played high school golf.  So Buzz and I were playing golf together along with Coach Williams and a bunch of other guys on the team.

So Michael got left in the room all the time.  He ended up coming out riding in the cart and eventually wanted to play so Buzz and I rounded up a set of clubs and some old balls and got him started.  And now Michael plays more golf than Buzz and I combined.  We kind of created a monster. [laughs]

I don’t know what it is.  Michael and I both like golf and motorcycles.  But he’s really been great for the game.  He’s great for the Ryder cup and the president’s cup as well.

He really has been a big supporter of the US team and I know Freddy had him with him last time and this time at the President’s cup.  There’s must be something to it so I’m going to have to get some tips from Michael on how to coach my team.

I’ve read that you’re a cigar smoker?

I am but not as much as I used to.  I have a 17 year old son so hanging around with him a lot lately I haven’t been smoking many.  But I do enjoy a good cigar.

Do you have any particular recommendations for a good golf couse cigar?  We occasionally post some cigar recommendations on our website:

I just got the new.. I’m not going to be able to remember the name… the Ernesto Carrillo that had La Gloria Cubana.  He’s got that new brand, new line [EP Carrillo].  He sold La Gloria to [Swedish Match].  But I really like that cigar.

The Padrons are really good.  I’ve always been a La Gloria Cubana guy.  We used to get them down in Miami at the original factory.  Those are good and the ones from farther south of Florida are pretty good too.

You’re a participating in the Dove Men+Care “Journey to Comfort” campaign.  It’s not a brand that you would typically associate with golf.  What makes it a good fit for you?

You know it’s a great fit because one, it’s telling stories about my Mom.  It gives her a lot of credit for how much she did for me growing up.  But it puts us in a different light.  Stuart Cink and I are thrown in with Joe Girardi, Bobby Hurley, John Thompson, and Magic Johnson – real athletes.

And I think it’s really shown that not only are golfers athletes and people recognize that, but it’s shown a different side of us.  I’ve learned things about Stuart Cink.  He’s a friend of mine that I’ve played on teams with and I hang out with.

I’ve learned things about Stuart Cink from the Dove ads that I didn’t know [laughs].  I think it’s showing who we are as people.  That we do have families.  We do have hobbies.  We do have issues with our putting – like Lisa [Cink] said she told [Stuart] he had the yips so my wife told me to go get a long putter when she saw the ad. [laughs]  They’ve been fun.

It’s been a family project and I know people have really enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing the stories about me growing up.

Obviously a national brand that I grew up with.  It’s amazing that I’m now in their campaign.  It’s been a lot of fun.  We’ve had a great response to it. That’s for sure.

I know I’ve enjoyed watching the commercials and the Behind the Scenes videos.

You know what’s been amazing is that we obviously shot them but they weren’t out.  They were waiting for April and the Masters.  And I’m watching the NCAA tournament and I see Bobby Hurley and Magic Johnson and I’m like “I cannot believe that I’m going to be in those commercials” [laughs].  They were so good.

I’ve never looked forward so much to a commercial.  I’ve looked forward to Super Bowl commercial and whatever but I’ve never looked forward to watching – I’ve actually been watching golf so that I can watch the commercials [laughs].

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Thanks to Davis Love III and Dove Men+Care for arranging the interview.

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.

Poulter’s shenanigans include eating cheerios out of the cup with his kids, putting to the cup on the practice green, hitting balls next to the cup on the range, and driving around with it in his car.

By comparison, the Stanley Cup has been tossed into a cemetry, dropped kicked into a frozen canal, left on the canal overnight, forgotten at a photographers studio and used as a vase, used as a trash recepticle for cigar butts, forgotten on the side of the road, urinated in etc.  And that was all before 1940.

Honestly, I found the videos enjoyable, but hockey players make Poulter look like he’s on the Hooter’s Tour when it comes to partying with a championship cup.

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.

via The Golf Blog

The US played a great match and has nothing to be ashamed of.  Playing in Europe is always difficult.  In fact the US has only won in Europe twice in the past 30 years (1993 and 1981).  When a match comes down to the final few holes of the final pairing, you really can’t ask for anything more as a golf fan.  Yes, it sucks that the US lost, but they gave it 100% and the Europeans won fair and square.

The Good:

Tiger - The #1 player in the world seems to be coming back into form.  This was his best Ryder Cup ever.  Who would have actually thought that the #1 player in the world would be the #1 points earner on the US team?   Working with Sean Foley is apparently paying off.  He wasn’t tack sharp over the weekend but he dropped the hammer on Monday shooting 9 under through 15 holes against Francesco Molinari.  If that’s any indication of what he is going to do the next time he tees it up on tour… well, look out because 19 majors will come very quickly.

Rickie Fowler – The Ryder Cup looked like it might be over with 4 holes left to play in his match with Eduardo Molinari, but 3 straight birdies allowed Fowler to halve the match and keep the American’s chances alive.  No, he didn’t play well overall, but the moxy that he showed on Monday will be a valuable asset to future US Ryder Cup teams.

Hunter Mahan – You could tell how much this all meant to Mahan during the press conference.  Hopefully he will be able to come to terms with the fact that he didn’t lose the Ryder Cup.  The US team lost the Ryder Cup on Sunday.  They almost won it on Monday, but that certainly wasn’t when they lost it.

Phil Mickelson – He showed his class stepping in to help out a heart-broken Hunter Mahan in the press conference.

Steve Stricker – They should call him Super Steve or something.  He played solidly all weekend, as usual.  He and Tiger should just be permanently paired together at the Ryder Cup.  Their 6-1-0 record is outstanding.  Maybe we should give them a celebrity couple name like Striger.

Lee Westwood – He played some great golf coming off of his leg injury.  He took over the #2 spot in the world (although the Ryder Cup didn’t really have anything to do with that) and now has a shot at becoming the next world #1 (that’s a subject for an entire new post).

Graham McDowell – Wow.  A US Open win at Pebble Beach and then being the guy that closes out the final match in one of the closes Ryder Cups in recent memory?  Life is good.

Luke Donald – He played exceptionally well, going 3-1-0 and continuing his unbeaten foursomes record.  He was clearly the best pick Monty made and I am eating some crow over his performance.

The Bad:

The Captainess - Raingate.  I realize this probably wasn’t actually Lisa Pavin’s fault, but if you want the title, you get either the credit or the blame that comes with it.  Did it not occur to anybody that they needed functional rain gear for an October Ryder Cup in Wales?

Phil Mickelson – Yes, he showed his class in the press conference.  He also played some pretty poor golf last week.  I wouldn’t expect the world #2 to have the worst record of any US player in Ryder Cup History.

Jim Furyk – I think the FedEx cup just took too much out of him.  I know that he denied any effect during the press conference, but the Jim Furyk we all saw this past week, was not the same Jim Furyk we saw at East Lake.

Molinari Brothers - They got beat like drums without a single point between the two of them.  Not much else to say.

Colin Montgomerie – Yes, his team won so he can’t be completely awful.  However, he’s paranoid and I still contend that the Europeans won despite his captain’s selections.  Does anybody think that it would have come down to the last pairing on Monday if Eduardo Molinari and Padraig Harrington had been replaced by Paul Casey and Justin Rose?

Corey Pavin – Honestly I think his captaincy was a mess.  I know they almost staged one of the greatest comebacks in Ryder Cup history, but honestly I don’t get the impression that he had much to do with it.  He never seemed to exude leadership.  Apparently he even expressed some confusion during one press conference about the total number of matches that were played.  Really????  He just seemed overwhelmed and unable to take the helm of the US team.  I wonder if he will ever lose the nickname “Borey Pavin”.

Sun Mountain’s CEO, Rick Reimers apologized to the American Ryder Cup team in an open letter and on their homepage.  In case you were living under a rock this past weekend, the US team’s rain gear was performing so badly, that PGA officials went into the pro shop and bought new rain gear for the entire US team (20 sets at $350 each).  Ironically, the new gear was made by ProQuip, who made the European’s outer wear.  The new duds even featured the European Ryder Cup logo.

This probably wouldn’t have been so embarrassing if Sun Mountain hadn’t gotten cocky on their facebook page prior to the Ryder Cup, posting “Weather will most likely be a factor at this year’s event. May the team with the best outerwear win.”  It seems like that’s exactly what happened – ooh burn.

In all fairness though, it’s nice to see the CEO of a company step up, apologize and admit that their product wasn’t up to the task at hand.  I’m not sure that it’s going to help their soon-to-be non-existent rain gear sales.  They make good golf bags, so I can only hope the negative media attention doesn’t impact bag sales as well (though I’m sure it will).

Here’s the text of the letter:

Sun Mountain Sports is very sorry for the way our rain suits performed at the Ryder Cup.

We will apologize to Corey & Lisa Pavin and the U.S. team at our earliest opportunity, and hope they will accept our heartfelt apology for the stress this must have caused.

We are evaluating what happened. Our RainFlex, introduced in 2006, has been extensively and successfully used by over 150 tour players, the 2009 Presidents Cup team, the 2007 and 2009 Walker Cup teams and thousands of PGA professionals.

We believed, as Corey must have, that our RainFlex, built with quiet, stretchable, breathable fabric would be an advantage to the U.S. team. That it was not is a great disappointment. It just was not enough for the torrential rains at Celtic Manor.

Sincerely,

Rick Reimers
Owner, Sun Mountain Sports, Inc.

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.

It’s not quite as outlandish as Monty soundproofing the Euro locker room at Celtic Manor, but apparently Corey Pavin has ordered a twitter blackout for the US Ryder Cup team.  Really?  What key info are players going to tweet out to the Euros via Twitter?  I don’t think pictures of their monogrammed hotel pillows are going to cost them the Ryder Cup.

If Monty follows suit (and I suspect he will if he hasn’t already), we might see Ian Poulter have a nervous breakdown.

Twitter reactions came fast and were overwhelmingly negative (surprise!)

[update]

Rob at Sandbox8.com has posted a great breakdown of some of the twitter stats for the affected players.  I posted this in the comments and I’ll repeat it here:

I don’t think the US players would post anything damaging or distracting – just mostly amusing or interesting things that help bring them closer to the fans. Sometimes I think some individuals (ahem Corey Pavin) need to step back and remember that this is just a game and it’s really all about the fans. Without them, you don’t get to fly on a private charter jet to Wales to play golf for week and cash million dollar paychecks.

Twitter is a great way for star players to connect with their fans on a more personal level than ever before.  It’s shortsighted and counterproductive to cut off that line of connection to fans during an event like the Ryder Cup.

I never thought I would write so many posts (two!) about golf clothing in one day, but apparently the Tampa Bay Devil Rays got together with Loudmouth Golf yesterday to try on some of Loudmouth’s unique golf apparel.  Maybe they could be the clothing provider for the US Team at the next Ryder Cup?

Practice Rounds Outfits

Golf.com posted up some new pictures of the USA Ryder Cup outfits.  There has been a lot of press around Lisa Pavin’s attempt to bring a “retro” look to this year’s Ryder Cup.  In my opinion, the best looking outfits are the ones for the practice rounds.  I could actually see myself wearing those outfits on the course.

Honestly though, I’m not sure how Saturday’s look will work on the course.  Maybe I’ll be surprised and it will look great, but right now I’m skeptical.  I just can’t see some of the team members with “enhanced girth” pulling that off.

Sunday Singles Outfit

Saturday's Outfit

Golf.com