Get your calendars out because this could be tricky to follow. This time two years ago, we were preparing for the ‘Year to Go’ festivities for last year’s Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. Remember that? Of course you do. Well, this time next week we will be doing the same kind of thing with the ‘Year to Go’ hoopla for next year’s Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.
Derek Sprague, meanwhile, took up his post as president of the PGA of America last year but he is looking forward, not just to next year, but Ryder Cups in years and years to come. By that stage, he hopes Team USA will have established a line of succession for the captaincy which brings structure, stability and, of course, success.
It was the maverick Ted Bishop, Sprague’s controversial predecessor, who appointed Tom Watson as captain for a 2014 match that ended in disastrous defeat for the US and led to an excruciatingly awkward public filleting of the skipper by Phil Mickelson. Things had to change and Sprague already knew that.
“Certainly it could have been handled differently,” said Sprague, who was talking during this weekend’s PGA Cup match between the USA and GB&I at CordeValle. “Some people will say it should have been done in private but I was already thinking ‘how can you just select one person and expect the team to perform?’ What happened after Gleneagles didn’t have much to do with it. My head was already there. I knew that the decision of a Ryder Cup captain was mine in the sense that we set up the Task Force, but I felt ‘who am I to lead America’s team?’ We need more people involved with this, not just one person.”
For we sniggering Europeans, all buoyed by eight wins in the last ten Ryder Cups, the setting up of the US Task Force that Sprague mentioned seemed to draw on about everything, from ancient parchments to songs of the Old West. Having re-appointed Davis Love III as captain, Sprague believes this “born leader” can help build a brighter future. The USA desperately need a Ryder Cup win but it’s not a case of win at all cost as far as Sprague is concerned.
“I think it (a US win) is important to the Ryder Cup in general,” he added. “You don’t want to lose any interest. Of course we’d like to win at Hazeltine and this Ryder Cup is important, but we are trying to make decisions that aren’t just for 2016. What we’re saying is, ‘okay, this decision is for the next 10 Ryder Cups, it’s for the next 20 years’. It's about progression.”
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