More Davis Love On Behind The Scenes Aftermath & Modifying Azinger's Pod System

I had the link open but didn't read Davis Love's transcript from Wednesday in Las Vegas. Guess I should have read it sooner...

You know, Sunday was not good; Monday was I think hard for a lot of our players.  We packed up and gradually everybody was leaving.  It was emotional saying good‑bye to most of the guys.  It was a little surreal.  Phil and Amy sat with (indiscernible) and I at the elevator.  They were the last ones to leave the ninth floor, and we sat there for a half an hour and I finally realized they just didn't want to leave.

They had a big airplane and were going home to see their kids, but didn't want to leave and it to be over.  I think that's how most of us felt.  It was hard not to get up Monday morning and put your team clothes on and go play again.

I think we're just sad it's over.  Obviously we're stunned by the loss, but I think the team really game came together.  You saw that Sunday afternoon the way they handled it, and I saw it all day Monday.  I just got a text from Dufner and Webb Simpson.  They're still pulling together.  I think that's the impressive thing.

About the four point Saturday night lead:

I think in the end, the enormity of it all‑‑ and it's all‑‑ we might have been better off tied.  Might have played better Sunday tied rather than trying to protect the lead.

In the end, I think Dustin Johnson said it best.  Everybody is feeling sorry for themselves and he says, Man, it's just golf.  They knocked in a bunch of putts and our lipped out.  There's nothing we can do about it.  You know, that really did sum it up.

And his picks...

Well, yeah, we could have picked Nick and Bill and Hunter and Rickie.  We could have picked a whole different four.  But, again, we had months and months of a plan that we talked to everybody on the team.  Everybody was involved.  We made some pairings really, really early.

My plan was we would never really play well the first two days.  We would always get behind.  We get behind the first segment.  We start trying too hard and get behind after one day and we start trying to play catchup.  We rely on singles.

The picks and pairings were made all based on my taking Paul Azinger's plan.  Once I got into who was making the team, it shrunk to two‑man teams rather than four‑man teams.

Eh em...pods, but go on.

I didn't have to do a whole lot of personality profiling because I knew the guys.  The Sunday lineup, if you go back and look at it, was based on the guys that played together and where we needed them in the lineup.

And the team was unified and on board with all of the captain's plans, just like the Europeans...

Our team agreed on everything we did.  Like Phil Mikelson and Tiger Woods, they know that they had to do what ultimately they agreed to do not what I told them to do.

I'm happy with the decision.  Now, I love Rickie Fowler and Bill Haas and Hunter Mahan Nick Watney.  They are the future of the Ryder Cup.

Sure, maybe they would have done better, but I love the team I had.  They gave it their all.  Most importantly, they represented their country on and off the golf course.