Perhaps the only positive to come from the 2014 Ryder Cup from an American perspective was the number of changes which were made in the hope of not repeating some of the mistakes which caused their heavy defeat at Gleneagles.
Of course, many will remember that the Task Force was put together ahead of the 2016 Ryder Cup. And that proved extremely successful as Davis Love III led his side to a superb victory at Hazeltine.
Certainly, Tom Watson’s final tenure as captain was far from successful. Watson had been the man who oversaw the US’s most recent win on European soil – back in 1993. However, he was unable to repeat that feat in Scotland 21 years later.
Watson was not responsible for all of the American problems at Gleneagles. The US lost the eight foursomes matches by a score of 7-1 – failing to win any. But some of his decisions did not appear to do his team any favours, with Phil Mickelson famously hitting out at Watson at the press conference after their defeat was sealed on Sunday.
The ‘weird’ change to US selection process which came after the 2014 Ryder Cup
Watson came in for criticism for selecting Webb Simpson and Hunter Mahan as two of his three captain’s picks. Simpson would win just half a point from his two matches all week.
So it was not entirely surprising that a change was made to when the American captain completes his captain’s picks ahead of 2016, particularly when you consider what happened at the 2014 Tour Championship.
By the time many of the world’s best descended on East Lake in September, Watson had already made his choices for who would complete his team for the Ryder Cup.
Interestingly, Simpson and Mahan both finished 19 shots off the lead at eight over par. And the person who took home the £7 million prize was Billy Horschel – who had also won the BMW Championship the week before.
Horschel however, was not in the top 15 to qualify for that year’s Ryder Cup, so it is probably not entirely surprising that Watson overlooked him – though Mahan was 25th in the standings when he was picked.
And with that, the US made a change for the 2016 event which saw Love III get to make his final captain’s pick after the Tour Championship. He would opt for Ryan Moore after his impressive display at East Lake.
Meanwhile, Jim Furyk made his final pick after the BMW Championship in 2018. A further change would come in 2021, with Steve Stricker naming all six of his picks after the Tour Championship.
How Billy Horschel forced Team USA to take a positive decision
The change was unofficially known as the Horschel Rule – something Horschel himself would admit felt a little ‘weird‘.
It marked the realisation that while form over the entire season is important when competing against the world’s best, sometimes a player gets on the kind of hot streak at the perfect time which is simply impossible to ignore.
Horschel – who is still yet to play in a Ryder Cup – being in Scotland in 2014 probably would not have made the kind of difference Watson would have needed it to. But given that the US actually got off to a strong start and won the opening session, you do have to wonder what could have happened had the visitors held onto the momentum just a little longer.
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