Davis Love III named 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup captain

The PGA of America confirmed that Davis Love III will captain the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2016 on Tuesday, making the expected choice official.

Love earning a second chance to lead his team to victory was golf’s worst-kept secret, with ousted PGA president Ted Bishop leaking the news last week. His stewardship at Hazeltine comes in the wake of Tom Watson’s disastrous turn at the helm in 2014, after his own failed captaincy in 2012 at Medinah, and a week after the Europeans tapped Darren Clarke for the 2016 job.

The 1997 PGA champion was the unanimous choice of the task force established after the Gleneagles debacle in which the Europeans clobbered the Americans, 16.5-11.5, according to Golf Digest’s Tim Rosaforte. One of the 11 committee members, Love was something of a surprise as the finalist for the seat, given that his squad blew a 10-6 advantage heading into Sunday singles and came in second by a point to the Jose Maria Olázábal-led Euro crew in 2012.

The popular Fred Couples was the presumed leader in the clubhouse for the Hazeltine spot, with 2008 winning captain Paul Azinger in the mix as well. Azinger took himself out of the running and will serve as a consultant to Love, while Freddie, the winner of three straight Presidents Cup tourneys, was never a serious contender for the captaincy, according to Rosaforte.

Couples is likely to surface as a vice captain charged with keeping the guys loose in the team room. Despite the Meltdown at Medinah, Love has the respect of the players and the experience on which to build a sustainable blueprint for the future, Rosaforte noted.

Indeed, Love’s appointment was part of a long-term vision for the Americans, Rosaforte said. Not only will the six-time Ryder Cup player lead the charge in 2016, but he will serve as vice captain when Paris hosts the matches in 2018.

As a newly reelected PGA Tour Policy Board member, Love will also continue an association with the PGA Tour, and remain a likely Presidents Cup assistant captain when Jay Haas steers the ship to Korea later this year. Here’s hoping DLIII, the original foster father of Sammy the Squirrel at the Presidents Cup in 2013, brings the U.S. team’s mascot back into the fold.

As for Couples, he did not have the gravitas needed for the Ryder Cup position, Rosaforte stated on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive Tuesday.

“The guys all love Freddie,” said Rosaforte, who noted that Love projected the qualities needed as the team’s front man, mainly the patience and demeanor to deal with the pressures of the job as well as the media.

Couples fully backed Love’s captaincy.

“They chose a great guy in Davis. He deserves it,” Couples said last week, according to ESPN.com. “Maybe in a couple of years down the line, I’ll have another shot at it ... I’m not bitter or upset or anything like that, because in my opinion, they picked a great guy.”

In addition to Love officially getting the nod as captain, Tom Lehman was appointed as a vice captain for the competition’s visit to his home state of Minnesota in 2016.

Other changes included a set system for the four vice captains: two will be past Ryder Cup captains and two will be players with extensive Ryder Cup history. The PGA also announced a revised points qualification system and outlined new timing by which the captain can make his wild-card picks -- three after the BMW Championship and one after the FedExCup finale, the Tour Championship. In 2014, perhaps the hottest golfer in the world, Billy Horschel, was left at home because captain’s picks were due before he went on his FedExCup run. Altering the schedule should ameliorate that problem.