Surprising approximately no one, Davis Love III will be the next captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, the Golf Channel reported today.
Citing "a source close to the situation," the Golf Channel said that Love was approved as the next captain by the PGA of America's board of directors last month. The PGA neither confirms nor denies, but says it will make an announcement early in 2011.
Love has been the heavy favorite all along, having the right pedigree (major champion, multiple Ryder Cup appearances), being the right age (still in his 40s), and playing on the right tour (PGA Tour as opposed to Champions Tour).
Love's counterpart, the next European Ryder Cup captain, is equally easy to guess: Unless he doesn't want it, Jose Maria Olazabal is the man.
A couple months ago I wrote about the candidates for the 2012 Ryder Cup captaincies and included a poll asking readers to vote. On the Euro side, Olazabal was slightly ahead of Darren Clarke in the voting; on the American side, Love was slightly behind Fred Couples as the readers' choice.
But there was never any chance that Couples would get the job, given that he's already serving as Presidents Cup captain. And as I acknowleged in that post, my own choices - Sandy Lyle and Tom Watson - also had no chance of getting the spots.
Love - and Olazabal, assuming he's the Euro pick - will be a great captain in the sense that he's always represented himself and his team well.
See also:
Citing "a source close to the situation," the Golf Channel said that Love was approved as the next captain by the PGA of America's board of directors last month. The PGA neither confirms nor denies, but says it will make an announcement early in 2011.
Love has been the heavy favorite all along, having the right pedigree (major champion, multiple Ryder Cup appearances), being the right age (still in his 40s), and playing on the right tour (PGA Tour as opposed to Champions Tour).
Love's counterpart, the next European Ryder Cup captain, is equally easy to guess: Unless he doesn't want it, Jose Maria Olazabal is the man.
A couple months ago I wrote about the candidates for the 2012 Ryder Cup captaincies and included a poll asking readers to vote. On the Euro side, Olazabal was slightly ahead of Darren Clarke in the voting; on the American side, Love was slightly behind Fred Couples as the readers' choice.
But there was never any chance that Couples would get the job, given that he's already serving as Presidents Cup captain. And as I acknowleged in that post, my own choices - Sandy Lyle and Tom Watson - also had no chance of getting the spots.
Love - and Olazabal, assuming he's the Euro pick - will be a great captain in the sense that he's always represented himself and his team well.
See also:
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