Davis Love III, Zach Johnson Reflect on What They Learned as Ryder Cup Captains

Captaining a Ryder Cup, either side, is not easy these days. It’s especially difficult for the captain of the team that loses. Davis Love III and Zach Johnson have that in common. And Love got a redo with a second team that won.

“It’s just challenging to know that you know going in that you really can just give them the best chance you can to succeed, but you want them to win,”  Love explained in his pre-tournament interview at the RSM Classic. “I mean, we were talking about the left hole location on 17 on Sunday at Medinah yesterday. It still bothers me that I didn’t force Kerry Haigh to put it on the left.”

That was 2012, the year that Love had the disappointment of being a losing Ryder Cup captain.

“If we had done — we, Davis, would have done a few things different in 2012, we would have probably won,” he said.

It still bothers him a decade later. Such is the fate of Ryder Cup captains.

The captains control their scheduling with the team during the week. They coordinate what has to happen during the week, in conjunction with the PGA of America. There are speeches and appearances they are asked to do on behalf of the event.

Then, along with vice-captains, they select the teams that play and the order of the teams and the order of singles. The rest is not up to them.

It was Paul Azinger who first asked if he could have input on the course setup because he thought that could be an advantage for the US when playing at home.  It was an advantage for Europe when playing across the ocean, he felt. Since then, all US Ryder Cup captains have had a say in how the course plays.

Love recalled the 1997 matches at Valderrama. That year, they made a practice visit.

"Love believes it will stay with Johnson for the rest of his life because the loss at Medina still haunts him."

“We had a blast, but we lost,” he noted. Tom Kite, someone Love has always looked up to, was the captain that year.

According to Zach Johnson, being a captain takes a good part of someone’s life for about 15 months.

“There’s really about a year of true work, maybe 13, 14 months of work. So, when you have something of that magnitude that you’re doing day in and day out for the most part and then it comes to an abrupt halt, you can’t not think about it,” Johnson said about his experience as captain at the Rome Ryder Cup. “I love it, I am a fanatic of the Ryder Cup.”

He said there’s 20/20 hindsight, some regrets. The “mission” was to win, and they were unable to beat a strong European team.

Like every person who has captained a squad, he wanted to win he admitted. He wanted the guys to have the satisfaction and joy of a team victory

“It still hurts in some regards, but it’s also the journey,” Johnson added.

Two things he learned were the value of time and the skill of compartmentalization. He said there’s no one better at the latter than Tiger Woods.

"“If I could have put more value into time management, I could have put my guys in a better position to play golf at a better rate early on,” he added. “I’m not suggesting that would have changed the outcome, not at all.”"

Love believes it will stay with Johnson for the rest of his life because the loss at Medina still haunts him.

“If he’s the next three Ryder Cup captains, and he wins all three of them, that will never go away, that we lost in Rome,” Love noted.