Davis Love III: 'Pressure' Keeping U.S. Team From Winning Ryder Cup
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Ryder Cup is still more than a year away from being held at Hazeltine, but U.S. captain Davis Love III is playing the course this week to get a jump start on preparations.
He is hoping that getting out on the course early and often will help him prepare his team.
But it's what him and others are doing off the course that will likely have the biggest impact.
After winning just one Ryder Cup in the last 15 years, Love is definitely feeling the pressure to turn things around for the American team.
"Well, that's the problem," Love said. "That's why we keep losing, is we have so much pressure. We want to win the Ryder Cup so badly that I think we get in our own way...We just try too hard. So giving the players some input, giving some ownership in the team, taking everybody's ideas and putting them together so everybody feels like they're really prepared this time, I think is going to be the biggest difference."
That input and ownership Love is talking about is a new initiative.
Determined to end the losing streak, the PGA of America formed a task force to figure out how to fix what hasn't been right for the better part of two decades.
And Love is loving what it's doing so far.
"I think we've all sat down in a room four or five times and talked," Love said. "About ways that the Ryder Cup can get better, the way we can play better...We have a game plan now. And as Phil said, we're not going to win the next 10 in a row. But let's try to win seven out of the next 10. And let's get a game plan and let's stick with it. And I think it's just a lot of information that guys had in their heads that really wasn't getting shared. We've seen the Europeans, they've had a good system, they've had a good plan, good continuity from year to year. I think that's the biggest thing for us, is we're all talking. Tiger (Woods), Phil (Mickelson), (Jim) Furyk, we're all talking about it all the time. And thinking of things we can do, ways we can get better.
"We're going to spend a lot more time getting this team prepared than we did last time," he added.