Davis Love III vs. Darren Clarke in 2016 Ryder Cup?

Nothing is official yet from either side, but it looks as if Davis Love III and Darren Clarke are set to lead their teams into Ryder Cup battle next year at Hazeltine.

The Europeans are expected on Wednesday to tap Clarke as the successor to Paul McGinley while the Americans’ choice to captain Redemption Tour 2 leaked out Monday, well ahead of the PGA of America’s official announcement slated for February 24.

Clarke is the odds-on favorite to make the cut when the ballots are counted during what The Guardian said would be the first and only meeting of the Euro’s five-man draft committee. Miguel Angel Jimenez appeared to the closest challenger to Clarke, a seven-time Ryder Cup participant as both player (five times) and vice-captain (twice).

McGinley, the skipper of last year’s victorious European team and one of the Euro 5 to make the call, told The Telegraph recently he would put aside personal differences and cast his vote for Clarke. The 2011 British Open champion has enjoyed the backing of the players likely to be under his command -- Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose among them.

Like Clarke, DL3 will be viewed as a “players captain,” and those players -- including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who may not even make next year’s team -- sit on an 11-person PGA task force created to win the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008. Love is also a member of the panel, whose apparent choice was tipped by ex-PGA president Ted Bishop.

Love was at the helm in 2012, when the Euros staged a remarkable comeback from a 10-6 deficit heading into Sunday singles to shock the Americans on their home turf, 14.5-13.5. While the battle cry for his successor, the rigid and uncommunicative (according to Mickelson) Tom Watson, was “redemption” for the Meltdown at Medinah (and we all know how that turned out), many observers believe there’s a redemptive aspect to the selection of DL3 for a second go-round.

That would certainly help explain why Love got the nod over successful Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples, the presumed leader in the clubhouse before Monday’s leak. That, and the fact that -- for better or worse -- Love has been to the Ryder Cup rodeo before and requires no tutoring to get up to speed.

“Davis has been involved in every Ryder Cup since 1993 ... It’s a logical choice,” newly crowned Champions Tour Ace Group Classic winner Lee Janzen said on Golf Channel Tuesday. “He knows all of the things about the media ... site visits, preparing the course, getting everybody ready, the outfits, the schedules.”

Wait, what? The “outfits?”

Who knew scripting the fellas was a critical part of the captain’s job?

“There’s so much to do,” said Janzen, a member of the 1993 and 1997 Ryder Cup teams. “He already knows how to do all that.”

Whether he can rally the troops in Redemption Tour 2 against Clarke and his confident crew remains to be seen.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, Freddie was Janzen’s pick to learn the ropes as Love’s assistant captain at Hazeltine and lead the charge in Paris in 2018.