After Team USA’s disastrous home Ryder Cup loss, the search for a new captain has begun.
There have been plenty of hats thrown into the ring by fans and media, but the names mentioned by Phil Mickelson came out of left field. The six-time major winner thinks Team USA should turn to college football or basketball for their next captain.
He posted to X, “Here is why looking outside of golf to a coach K or Lou holtz is worth exploring. Golf is an individual sport that doesn’t have team work, support system, partnership, team analytics, personality traits, and more.
“The Europeans have a template that teaches and prepares their captains for these skills. U.S. has a new template every 2 years with little continuity. If a coach K or Lou Holtz or someone similar took over, would it be built upon or would it be scrapped and start over again afterwards? If that’s the case, it would be a waste of time and effort and not worth doing to begin with.”
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but that seems a little extreme! Dan Rapaport disagrees vehemently but gave a clever alternative along the same lines.
Dan Rapaport gives an alternative to Phil Mickelson’s ‘nuclear option’
Mickelson is right about one thing: Team USA needs to break the wheel and undergo a total reset if they want to overcome the efficient machine that is Team Europe. The two sides appear light years apart in terms of their culture and process.
But a college coach from another sport, like Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) or Lou Holtz, who are 78 and 88, respectively? That’s a little ridiculous. Rapaport, inspired by Mickelson, has an alternative.
He said on Dan on Golf, “I am so against the next captain of the US Ryder Cup team being someone from completely outside of golf. We should be, in some respects, looking at Europe as a model. What do they do so well?
“Has Europe ever had a captain who has never played professional golf before? After they lost at Whistling Straits, did they make Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola the captain? No. They went with a former professional golfer. I understand the desire to go big when something like this happens, when you lose a Ryder Cup at home.
“But it reminds me of when the [Cleveland] Browns were going to interview Condoleezza Rice to be their head coach. I don’t think that is the answer at all. I think there might be a nuclear option as far as the captain goes, but I don’t think it’s the right move.”
Rapaport’s solution? Instead of venturing into different college sports, lean on the might of the NCAA and hire a captain from college golf.
He explained: “I think if you want to go outside the box, we have a team golf system in the United States that is very successful in a very healthy ecosystem, and it’s college golf. These coaches of college golf teams actually have a similar role to the Ryder Cup captain, because they don’t coach the players on X’s and O’s.
“They are not telling the guys what positions to get at the top of their swing or how to chip and putt. They are there to put their players in a position to succeed and are there to build a team and a community.
“I have gone on the road and gone to all of these college programmes and that sense of camaraderie and playing for the guy next to you, it exists in college golf. They have found a way to bring all these individuals in different part of the country and often different parts of the world and got them to unite around a badge.”
If Team USA is looking to find a sporting advantage over Europe, they have one in the NCAA. The Europeans do not have an extensive institution designed to develop players and prepare them for the intensity of the professional level on this scale.
America needs a captain who can develop a team culture among its best players, so picking a captain whose job is to coach team sports is not a crazy idea.
Dan Rapaport thinks Tiger Woods will be the next Ryder Cup captain
Despite bringing this idea to the table, Rapaport thinks Team USA will turn to the greatest of all time, Tiger Woods, to lead them in Ireland. Woods has been linked with captaincy for a number of years, turning it down for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
Woods is seemingly the favourite this time around. He has ties with the billionaire owner of Adare Manor, JP McManus, and could be the perfect man to unite the U.S. players towards a common goal.
But Woods has an abysmal Ryder Cup record, having won only one as a player in eight appearances. That’s why Rapaport thinks that his college golf idea could be applicable when selecting vice-captains.
He explained, “I think it will be Tiger Woods. They are not going to give the captaincy to someone you have never heard of before or completely off the radar.
“But I think a captaincy team with Tiger Woods at the helm [with help, would be good].”
Europe’s success extends far beyond Donald. They have a deep support system working around the clock with the sole aim of putting their players in the best possible position to succeed.
Team USA can turn to college golf to create a similar team behind their next captain. They’ll need it to have any hope of snatching back the Ryder Cup on foreign soil.
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