With Tiger Woods’s conspicuous absence at the announcement of Davis Love III as the new captain of the US Ryder Cup team, a whole host of radical changes were also introduced as the Americans try to stop the amazing run of wins that Team Europe has been of late in the event.
Woods lives barely 10 miles away from where the event was being hosted and according to sources close to him, he did not turn up for the event because he did not want to overshadow the coronation of Love. He has been on a sabbatical as he looks to get back into shape ahead of the Masters in April and he felt that his presence would have overshadowed the appointment of Love as the team’s new skipper.
One of the major radical changes that have come about with Love, and every subsequent captain is that he will have two vice captains who have captained the team before and two more vice-captains, who have previous Ryder Cup experience, and would presumably go on to be captains themselves, somewhat emulating Team Europe’s “Liverpool boot room” template of the 1980s.
Love was the skipper when the US lost a seemingly unassailable lead of 10-4 in 2012 and he knows that he has to prove himself once again as the right man for the job. He said that he is here with the same goals he had in 2012, but he is no longer the same captain.
He added that it is a new business model where the team will be rebuilt completely and he has thanked the US PGA for creating a team of veterans that will hold the team in good stead in the future as well. Simply put, Love said that he wants to win the trophy once again.
Filed under: Ian Poulter
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