American Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker will have a unique task ahead of this year’s match in September at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
As a result of several tournaments being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, the U.S. changed its selection criteria by increasing Stricker’s captain’s picks from four to six players. Stricker doesn’t believe it’ll be more difficult to make two more picks than usual. Not only that, he wants the other six players who automatically qualified for the team to have a say.
“I don’t think it’s going to be more difficult at all,” Stricker said during his press conference ahead of this week’s 50th playing of the John Deere Classic, an event he’s won three times. “After the top six make the team, I plan on seeing these six players and getting their feedback to the next six that we’re going to pick. I want this to be a team effort. I want everybody to be all in on who these six picks are going to be and make it a team, a true team deal.
“That’s my plan going forward.”
Last June when the changes were announced, Stricker said it became apparent the selection criteria would need to be amended due to the various changes to the 2020 schedule that would impact a player’s ability to earn points for qualification.
“After many deliberate discussions, we collectively agreed that a smaller sampling of 2020 events — including just one major championship — would justify a one-week extension of the qualification window and an increase in the number of captain’s selections from four to six,” Stricker said at the time. “These changes were sparked by circumstance but conceived with integrity in mind. In the end, we believe they will allow us to put our best team together to compete at Whistling Straits in September.”
The Wisconsin resident recently won the Senior Players on the PGA Tour Champions but is back competing on the PGA Tour this week and skipping another Champions Tour major, the U.S. Senior Open at Omaha Country Club in Nebraska. Sure, the 54-year-old is on a bit of a Ryder Cup scouting mission, but don’t get it twisted. He wouldn’t be playing if he didn’t think he could win.
“I’ve got great memories here that I can kind of fall back on. I’ll use those to my advantage,” said Stricker, noting his three-peat of wins from 2009-11. “I’ve been playing well lately, so hopefully I can keep that rolling.
“But again, it’s a tall order. But that’s why I’m here, to see if I can’t try to do it.”