Enough With The Ryder Cup Task Force.

In between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick talking about deflated footballs Phil Mickelson gave us an update on The Ryder Cup task force. For me I can’t figure out which story is more ridiculous than the other.

After another shellacking from the Euros this past September, the PGA of America decided that they’ve had enough and something needs to be done to fix the American Ryder Cup woes. We all know the story; since 1999 the U.S. has been deflated by the Euros. See what I did there? Other than a victory in 2008 it has been nothing but a never ending cycle of misery for the U.S. There’s been close matches, blow outs and in 2012 there was a historic collapse. So pretty much we have found every way to lose, but it was this latest defeat that has finally got the PGA thinking enough is enough.

Their solution was to create the heralded Ryder Cup Task Force which is an eleven member panel that will meet a number of times a year to help fix the American problems. That’s right we need eleven guys to sit in a room to figure out how our twelve best golfers can beat their best twelve best golfers. The only thing more ridiculous than this is two men telling us they don’t know how footballs magically deflated.

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Who makes up this task force? Well there’s a collection of PGA dignitaries as well as former and current tour players. It’s good that they at least have some guys who have been through the grind and battles of a Ryder Cup, but can we get some winners please? The current players include Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Mickelson. Between the five of them they have been a part of thirty-one Ryder Cup teams, producing only six victories. These are the guys handpicked to fix the Americans losing ways? What’s next Mickelson is going to start preaching to young golfers about how to win the US Open?

No matter how silly it may seem the task force is in place, and the PGA of America is hoping for big time results. Optimism is high and many key American Ryder Cup figures think they are finally on the right track. Mickelson is one of them, and after shooting an opening round 71 at the Humana Challenge he met the media and gave us an update.

"“I’m more about looking forward and trying to move forward from it and to really make the next … 10 Ryder Cups, make those the best we can. We have some really smart guys with a lot of great input in the first (Ryder Cup task force) meeting and we have another one soon, too, that I think will get us on the right track with a good game plan, with a good continuity from year to year. Who knows if it will bring the results we want or not, but there’s a lot of good, smart people in there and we’re moving forward trying to make this work.” Credit PGATour.com"

That’s right folks the task force is full of a bunch of smart guys who are moving forward trying to make this thing work. Let me ask you this? How smart do you have to be to find the twelve best American golfers? I mean wasn’t it pretty simple to see that Billy Horschel should have been on the team last year? Since the team was selected before the end of the FedEx Cup Horschel watched the Americans lose from home. Do we really need a task force to figure out that the FedEx Cup Champion should be on the team? Come on now.

Also if you are going to have captain’s picks those guys have to contribute. They were hand-picked for a reason. We can’t have another Webb Simpson on our hands here. Tom Watson picked him for his team and then went on to barely use him. This isn’t the NFL Draft there is no room for a wasted 6^th round pick. If you’re a captain’s pick you better be given a chance to contribute, if not then what’s the point of picking them?

You want to know why the Europeans win? It’s very simple, they just play better. They find more fairways, hit more greens and make more putts. Also they have better players and the ones who aren’t better just play better during Ryder Cup time. Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood can’t figure out a way to win majors but they step it up during Ryder Cup time. Come on guys if Sergio can figure out the Ryder Cup equation I think we can do the same without the eleven man cocktail party.

Next: 2015 Humana Challenge: It Is All About Birdies and Memories

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