00:00And then in the weeks that followed, it was announced that Jim Fierke becomes his captain.
00:04The last time, of course, the only other time he captained the U.S. side of the Ryder Cup was
00:09in Paris,
00:09where they lost, I believe, 17.5 to 10.5.
00:13And that was famously, that was the week where there was the whole Patrick Reed, Jordan Speed thing,
00:19which is interesting now that Reed's coming back to the PGA Tour, could be in the mix of some of
00:22these teams.
00:23So just give me your first sort of reactions or inclinations of like what this decision represents,
00:32especially against the very different direction that they went with Keegan Bradley at Bethpage Black.
00:39I think this was the only option, in my opinion.
00:43I thought Jim, first off, getting to know him a little better just in the broadcast,
00:47or beginning part of this year, working for Golf Channel.
00:52Jim's exceptionally, first off, he's always been a talented golfer, but also very well-spoken.
00:58And I think he's very smart.
01:00And the things that he does say, it feels like it has a general impact.
01:05And from talking with guys who've been on teams with him, but also just in the room,
01:10as far as just what he carries.
01:13And I think Jim's, when he speaks, people listen.
01:16And I think that's important in this role, right?
01:19I think it's easy to give the rah-rah speech and to try to come up with these lineups and
01:26have the right team.
01:28But I think Jim has learned a lot over the years, right?
01:31When you get that opportunity to be a Ryder Cup captain and it goes poorly,
01:34I think everybody's quick to say, well, he shouldn't get another opportunity.
01:38And I think many people can judge every single decision that he made that year and say, well,
01:45we don't really know what was going on behind the scenes.
01:47It could have been a nightmare that he was dealing with.
01:49He may not have had a chance at all.
01:52From whether the guys on the other team just played that much better, they played poorly.
01:57But also, you don't know what the team dynamics were.
02:00I know a fraction of that falls on the captain.
02:03But I think as we move forward, what have we seen from him that has proven to be that he
02:09earned this position?
02:10I think when you go with the President's Cup in Montreal, I thought he did a tremendous job.
02:15I thought he had a ton of conviction in what type of team he wanted and the guys that he
02:20picked.
02:20I think he left JT off that team, which I think it's easy for many of these captains to not
02:28want to leave off players that are of the caliber of Justin Thomas.
02:32I think most people would say, you can't leave him off the team.
02:35Well, he did.
02:36And I think that speaks to Jim and his confidence that he has in a decision that he made.
02:43And I think when he spoke in the media with these picks after the President's Cup, I came away thinking,
02:50man, this guy really is strong.
02:53And I think that he – and it's no surprise that the guys played really well that week.
02:57I know it's a little different playing a President's Cup and a Ryder Cup.
03:01But still, I thought he did a really nice job that week.
03:04And then you go to – he was in another Ryder Cup room, of course, with Keegan Bradley this past
03:10year.
03:10And so he's got all these years now of experience that I think helps.
03:16I'm sure there's going to be plenty of changes that are going to be made, whether it's the stat side
03:20or just how the team is formed and lineups and all sorts of things.
03:25But I think there is a level of comfort for the players in Jim Furyk right now.
03:29Yeah, it's interesting just to retrace this whole – I think there were some calls on social media of,
03:37should we have tried a Stuart Sink or a Justin Leonard?
03:41Should we try to continually be bringing in new blood because otherwise it feels like what was, I guess, two
03:48Ryder Cups ago, the loss in Rome, which is the boys' club, right?
03:52And so I think that there is some – that was by some virtue why Keegan Bradley was picked for
03:58Bethelage Black,
03:59of like let's bet in a new cap and let's try someone out.
04:02I think that Shane Ryan, who's written extensively on the Ryder Cup and is obsessed with the topic,
04:08wrote a really interesting piece just detailing maybe just the evolution of the captain of the U.S. side in
04:16these competitions.
04:16And then just the success they found initially with Paul Azinger and his whole – his pod system and things
04:22like that,
04:23and how that sort of developed and evolved to this task force more recently that Furyk was a part of
04:29alongside Steve Stricker and Davis Love III.
04:31And so Furyk, even though it seems like a safe choice, you know, a choice that kind of falls back
04:39in this sort of the boys' club world,
04:40I do think that – like it's already – you're already fighting an uphill battle.
04:44It's very, very hard to win a Ryder Cup on the road.
04:48And we know that there was – even though there was this huge charge in Sunday singles at Bethpage that
04:53was inspiring,
04:54there might be some scar tissue for certain players.
04:56And having a guy like Jim who's won, we know the President's Cup's not the same level,
05:00but most recently led largely the same group of guys to that win, Montreal,
05:05and to be able to kind of have that experience, that steadying hand,
05:08but also maybe get back to some of the stuff that was their recipe for success
05:13while borrowing pages from, you know, what Eduardo Molinari and, you know, Luke Donald are doing
05:19with kind of these advanced statistics and analytics.
05:20I mean, it really – I think that's the thing that whether it's sort of cliched or what –
05:26I mean, there is some truth in it, but it's like every time we compare the Americans to the Europeans,
05:31it's like, well, the Europeans have this far advanced structure.
05:34Like they're so far – they're doing scouting trips already.
05:36We don't even have a captain, you know, picked.
05:38I think that it doesn't have to be exactly that.
05:43It just has to feel like we have some structure and something that feels real and tangible
05:48and that we can kind of go back to as a foundation instead of just like –
05:52The players need to believe.
Comments