President Ted Bishop of the PGA of America told Golf Channel.com in the wake of another Ryder Cup defeat that his organization is in the process of creating a task force to evaluate and make changes to the entire United States system.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson figure to be part of the group that will examine the entire Ryder Cup program, from how captains are picked to the selection of the 12 players and even the schedule of events during the matches.
“Basically we are giving the task force a blank canvas on all things on the Ryder Cup to give the PGA some input,” said Bishop of trying to reverse the trend in the series after Europe beat the United States for the eighth time in the last 10 matches.
“The PGA is willing to take a step back and listen to some people that are involved in the process.”
Bishop said the task force will consist of 10 to 12 members, including players and former players, former Ryder Cup captains and PGA officials.
Names that were mentioned included Woods, Mickelson, Davis Love III and Paul Azinger.
The new Ryder Cup captain usually is selected by the PGA at its November meeting, but Bishop said that won’t happen this year.
“There will be no captain announced in 2014,” Bishop said of the man who will lead the American team in 2016 at Hazeltine. “I don’t know what the time frame would be but we are in no hurry to make that decision. We want to give the task force a chance to weigh in on a lot of things.
“We don’t even have a short list of candidates (for the 2016 captain). That discussion hasn’t been started.”
Bishop said the members of the task force will be announced soon.
