Consensus: No Surprises In U.S. Ryder Picks; Much Surprise Hunter Mahan Left Off The Team
/The reviews are in and Captain Davis Love earned mostly shoulder shrugs, a few rave reviews and one outright blasting for his four Ryder Cup selections of Furyk, Stricker, Johnson and Snedeker.
John Strege even noted that no one should have been surprised based on the Monday night Twitter speculation.
There were no surprises, even the choices of Dustin Johnson and Brandt Snedeker to round out Davis Love III's four captain's picks.
"Everyone assume it's Furyk, Strick, DJ and Sneds?" Joe Ogilvie asked on Twitter in advance of the announcement.
On Monday night, Steve Flesch posted that, "DL3's picks are no-brainers. Stricker, Furyk, Snedeker, and Johnson. Consistency, experience, clutch putting, and fearless power."
Arguments for and against each candidate filled the room, Snedeker’s form (runner-up at The Barclays and sixth-place finish at last week’s Deutsche Bank Championship) and putter (first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained-putting, one-putt percentage and total putts) were impossible to ignore; while Mahan’s resume (he is the only active American player with a winning Ryder Cup record and his two victories this year make him the only U.S. player with multiple wins not on the team) hung in the conference room like a red, white and blue elephant.
In a makeshift war-room in the bowels of the Renaissance Hotel just down the street from Times Square, the captain and his assistants debated for well over an hour.
When the dust and ShotLink reports settled it was Snedeker who got the nod, but Love’s night was far from over.
Without questioning the pick of Furyk, Bob Harig suggested this about Furyk's role. Which is kind of like questioning the pick of Furyk.
Furyk has been a part of every U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup team dating to 1997. He was 5-0 last year at the Presidents Cup, but is 8-15-4 including a horrible 1-8-1 in four-ball (best ball) matches. His leadership and putting are keys, but what about those collapses at the U.S. Open and Bridgestone? He is the only player on the U.S. team without a victory this year.
The view here: Sit Furyk in the four balls, leaving him for three matches.
Farrell Evans says the inevitable and overrated team bonding begins Wednesday at Crooked Stick.
On Wednesday, Love will meet his full team for the first time at the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick, outside of Indianapolis. He has already started talking to players about possible pairings, team chemistry and scheduling. They will talk more about that Wednesday night.
Jim McCabe on why Hunter Mahan didn't make the cut.
You probably don’t, given that there have been 372 tournaments since then – or so it seems – and that hits at the heart of the problem for Mahan. You know how in college football if you’re going to lose a game, you best lose it in September? Well in Ryder Cup years if you’re going to win tournaments, you best win them late. Mahan didn’t and it seems like light years ago when he started the season with two wins and three top 10s in his first seven tournaments.
Since then? Mahan in 14 tournaments has one top 10, a stretch of pedestrian play that dropped him out of the top eight, where he had been firmly entrenched (even leading it at one point) most of the year. Worse yet, since his last top 10, Mahan has played in six tournaments and finished no better than T-19, his cumulative score for his last 20 rounds a stunning 15-over.
And when you say you want the hot hand, you’re also saying you don’t want the cold hand, which is why Love – painful as it might have been because Mahan is genuinely liked by the nucleus of the American team – bypassed him.
Jeff Rude says it's a nice team on paper and based on recent play, better with Mahan left off.
Mahan won twice early this year but has but one top-10 finish since April Fool’s Day, and that’s no joke. Like Mahan, Fowler looked like a lock in spring, for from late April to late May he had four consecutive top-10 finishes (including his breakthrough victory at the Wells Fargo Championship). But since then, he has had none and shot in the 80s three times.
The reason is, he views the Ryder as the “coolest experience” in golf. And he was “extremely” motivated to make the team two years after he flubbed a chip, lost the deciding match and broke into tears afterward.
“I feel I wanted to redeem myself because you feel somewhat responsible,” said Mahan, a member of the past five U.S. international teams, Ryder or Presidents.
Mahan said when Love called with the news, he didn’t ask the captain questions because he “didn’t want to know too much.” He said that he will try to somehow get motivated to play the last two FedEx Cup playoff events because “they don’t feel as important right now.”
Ty, is that statement conduct unbecoming? Dissing the Reset Cup like that?
Let me know. Yours in algorithms, Geoff.
Michael Collins unleashes a bold commentary suggesting Captain Love passed up Mahan for friendship reasons, may have cost the U.S. the Ryder Cup and that Mahan was "shafted." His issue is with Jim Furyk's selection.
Randall Mell was present for Mahan's presser today at Crooked Stick and shares this:
American Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III called Mahan Monday night to tell him he wasn’t among the four captain’s picks that will tee it up against Europe at Medinah in suburban Chicago Sept. 28-30.
“It is difficult not to be a part of it,” Mahan said Tuesday after a practice session at Crooked Stick in preparation for the FedEx Cup’s BMW Championship. “It hurts not to be a part of it, and it feels a little empty right now.”
And John Feinstein wonders if the Sea Island mafia played a part in Love's decision to select Snedeker.
Which leaves Snedeker, who has to be the closest thing there was to a surprise pick. He has certainly had a solid year and played well the last two weeks – second at The Barclays; sixth in Boston. He’s an excellent putter, which is never a bad thing to have on a Ryder Cup team.
That said, the choice inevitably will raise some questions. No one would ever accuse Love, one of the game’s good guys, of playing favorites but it’s worth pointing out that Snedeker and Love are both represented by the same company. Snedeker is part of what is known on Tour as the “Sea Island mafia,” – players like Love, Snedeker, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Jonathan Byrd who all live in Sea Island, Ga.
Robert Lusetich wonders if Snedeker has the credentials to have been selected.
He has had two chances to win majors and faltered at both the 2008 Masters and this year’s British Open, when a late rally helped him to a third-place finish.
His three wins have all featured big come-from-behind Sunday rounds, which isn’t the same pressure as playing with the lead.
And who knows what message Woods was giving when he was asked about Snedeker last week and brought up the lowest point of his career, a four-putt from 11 feet at the 2009 BMW Championship on the final hole that cost the 31-year-old a place in the Tour Championship?
“Unfortunately I played with him a few years ago when he made that mistake at Cog Hill on 18,” Woods said, before going on to add that “he putts it good.”
