Love wild about his Ryder choices

GOLF: THE FOUR names proffered by US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III at the NASDAQ in New York yesterday were typically conservative. But, then, what did we expect? Love, after all, is a clotheshorse for Polo Ralph Lauren and the quartet of wild cards – in order of delivery: Dustin Johnson, Jim Furyk, Brandt Snedeker and Steve Stricker – fit neatly into the wardrobe of players who qualified automatically through the two-year points system.

Indeed, the only quirkiness to Love’s announcement was that he trotted out the names in order of descending height, from 6ft 4in Johnson down to six-footer Stricker for the match against defending champions Europe at Medinah Country Club in Chicago on September 28th-30th.

Europe have won six of the last eight Ryder Cups, their most recent defeat coming at Valhalla in 2008.

Surprisingly, though, Love confessed he had pretty much made up his mind on his four captain’s picks after the USPGA championship at Kiawah Island last month – when the qualifying process concluded – and that the intervening Wyndham, Barclays and Deutsche Bank championships provided little more than a watching brief.

In terms of winners and losers, Furyk – ranked 30th in the world but always seen as a likely pick – and Snedeker, who only returned to tournament play after injury at the British Open in July and who will make his debut in the match, were the big winners whilst Hunter Mahan, a two-time winner on the US Tour this season and ranked 19th in the official world rankings, was undoubtedly the biggest loser.

Mahan, who included a win over Rory McIlroy in the WGC-Accenture Matchplay final on his season’s CV, only dropped out of an automatic qualifying place at the penultimate counting event (the Bridgestone) and eventually finished ninth, only one place behind Phil Mickelson, in the final standings.

Defeated by Graeme McDowell in the decisive final singles match in 2010 at Celtic Manor, Mahan’s cause was hurt by a slump in form which saw him miss the cuts at the USPGA and the Barclays.

Conversely, Nick Watney’s return to form – highlighted by an impressive win in the Barclays – wasn’t sufficient to influence Love.

It would seem his mind had been made up on the four selected players, a mix of experience (in the cases of Furyk and Stricker) and potential (in the cases of Johnson and Snedeker).

“I think we’re extremely deep this time, deeper than we’ve ever been,” observed Love in justifying his selections.

“There was a lot of guys that played a lot of really good golf . . . you can analyse the numbers up and down and back and forth. It was tough to leave anybody off (the team) but we’ve four great players who are all playing very well and bring a lot to the team.”

Love made no secret of his desire to have Furyk in the team, overlooking players better ranked in the world – among them Mahan, Watney and Rickie Fowler – to go with a player who had previously qualified for every Ryder Cup since Valderrama in 1997.

“I need Jim Furyk. I need Steve Stricker. The team will benefit from those guys being in the locker-room, being in the team-room.

“Then, you can’t argue with the golf that Brandt and Dustin have been playing. I think they matched up well, and it really did kind of lay right out there for us.”

Love claimed he had looked for “youthful energy” of the younger players like Johnson and Snedeker and for the “calming influences” of Stricker and Furyk in going with the four players and dismissed any assertion that the United States don’t play like a team when compared to the Europeans.

“We pull a lot better than people (think),” said Love, adding that the problem was “we try too hard, get in our own way”.

Love said his essential message to the team would be to “loosen up, have fun, go play golf”.

Neither would the US seek to tweak the course in any way to better suit home advantage.

As the US captain put it, “you don’t have to tailor Medinah. You know what you’ve got (there). Medinah is a big ball park and it is perfect for us. I love Dustin Johnson on that golf course. I love our whole team . . . (Europe) know at Medinah they are going to be up against long hitters that are perfect on that golf course and that’s really what matters.”

The clock has, finally, started to tick down: 23 days and counting.