{"id":62214,"date":"2015-09-30T15:08:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T07:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=62214"},"modified":"2016-05-31T10:29:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T14:29:31","slug":"a-year-out-woods-and-mickelson-no-ryder-cup-certainties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/09\/30\/a-year-out-woods-and-mickelson-no-ryder-cup-certainties\/","title":{"rendered":"A year out, Woods and Mickelson no Ryder Cup certainties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"After<\/a>
After a successful back surgery, Tiger Woods hopes to return to the PGA tour in early 2016.
(Photo from Woods’ official website<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CHASKA, Minn. \u2013 The PGA of America has altered its approach to the Ryder Cup with the tournament returning to the U.S. in 2016 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota. Perhaps the biggest change could be a team without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.<\/p>\n

Captain Davis Love III said it\u2019s hard to envision a U.S. team without Woods or Mickelson, but the two are no longer certainties as the Americans try to solve the European stranglehold on the Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n

Woods is ranked 299th in the world and recently underwent another back surgery. Mickelson is ranked 23rd, but hasn\u2019t won since the British Open in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be hard to imagine,\u201d Love said Tuesday at a year-out press conference at Hazeltine. \u201cThey\u2019re all my teammates that I\u2019ve played with. We\u2019re all getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 Ryder Cup is Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at Hazeltine in suburban Chaska, the site of the PGA Championship in 2002 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Europe extended its dominance with a win in 2014 at Gleneagles. The U.S. has won the cup four times since 1985. Woods and Mickelson have been mainstays on those teams. Mickelson\u2019s first Ryder Cup appearance was in 1995, followed by Woods\u2019 debut in 1997.<\/p>\n

Woods\u2019 recent back surgery ended his 2015 season. Mickelson was chosen for the upcoming President’s Cup by captain Jay Haas, despite lacking the points to qualify.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhil gets on a roll about every other year now, so maybe next year,\u201d Love said. \u201cI mean, his off year is really, really good. I think, in talking to him, he\u2019s excited about playing. He\u2019s not done yet. He wants to make this next team. If he doesn\u2019t make the team, he\u2019s going to be involved and I know he doesn\u2019t want to work for me. I think he\u2019d rather play for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I have a feeling he\u2019s going to be strong and motivated to make the next team, and obviously Tiger wants to get healthy and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mickelson spoke out during the last Ryder Cup captained by Tom Watson and the Americans have tried to find a new way to break their losing ways.<\/p>\n

The PGA America assembled past captains and players \u2013 including Love, Woods and Mickelson \u2013 to alter the approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of losing seasons in a row and we need to throw the game plan away and start over,\u201d Love said. \u201cWe need a new front office. We need a new attitude. The PGA of America, they rode home after losing again over in Gleneagles and they were not happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love said he\u2019s consulted Woods, Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk, along with former captains Tom Kite, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw and Dave Stockton.<\/p>\n

Love will be leading a team built on the young players like Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. Woods and Mickelson will have 2016 to show they can add to their Ryder Cup resumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just two of a lot of players that have stressed to me that they want to play on a winning Ryder Cup team,\u201d Love said. \u201cThe tone has changed a little bit on our side. Guys aren\u2019t saying, \u2018I want to make your team.\u2019 They\u2019re saying, \u2018I want to play on a winning Ryder Cup team.\u2019 They\u2019re not looking at it as my team, they want to play on a winning U.S. team. So, Tiger, Phil, Webb Simpson, Chris Kirk, all those guys, they\u2019re excited about making this team and making it a winning team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHASKA, Minn. \u2013 The PGA of America has altered its approach to the Ryder Cup with the tournament returning to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":62217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-62214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","mauthors-brian-hall","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}