Ted Bishop as President of the PGA of America says changes are inevitable ahead of the 2016 Ryder Cup.
Bishop was aboard the charter flight that left Edinburgh Airport on Monday morning that included Tom Watson and his hapless 2014 USA Ryder Cup team.
The Americans went down by five points to a Paul McGinley inspired European Team and no sooner had Europe claimed an eighth victory in the past 10 Ryder Cup’s and the knives were out for Watson.
However the PGA of America, as custodians of the Ryder Cup as far as the USA is concerned, faces a crisis of confidence and Bishop accepts this.
“We had philosophical conversations on the plane home yesterday, ‘Where do we go next?’” said Bishop.
“We understand what we have to do and we are not on a serious timeline. We are going to take some time and figure out the best way going forward.
“We have all collectively said we are going to see where 2014 goes and I think that was prudent.”
Much has already been written where the USA team went wrong but what is clear is that McGinley had his European Team jumping through hoops in the lead-up to competition at Gleneagles.
Ted Bishop, President of the PGA of America who says changes will be made in the aftermath of the defeat handed out to Tom Watson’s side.
The selection of Watson, who first captained the winning 1993 USA Team, was first seen as praiseworthy but in the final Gleneagles wash-up he along with vice-captains Raymond Floyd and Andy North were so far removed and out of touch from those who represented the USA Team.
Many believe a better USA captain would have been Steve Stricker.
After initially meeting with Watson in Kansas City two weeks after the U.S. loss at Medinah in 2012, the entire PGA delegation returned to Watson’s home in November to make the final decision.
Before that, Bishop is reported having ‘reached out’ to former captains, including Davis Love 111, Corey Pavin, Lanny Wadkins and even Paul Azinger but it seems he ‘never heard back from them’.
“In that plea he said what this American team needs is someone they look up to and respect. ‘I’m talking about guys like (Arnold) Palmer, (Jack) Nicklaus and Watson,’” Bishop recalled.
“It’s not like we don’t ask former Ryder Cup captains their opinions. We definitely value their opinions.
“So we are going to be talking going forward about the selection process for captains and the selection of players.”
As well, Bishop indicated with the 2016 PGA Championship to be staged from July 28th to 31st instead of early August due to scheduling constraints caused by the Olympics it means the PGA of America will have to put back the end of qualifying for the USA team.
“There is no way, in my opinion, you can announce the automatic qualifiers two months before the Ryder Cup,” said Bishop, who suggested a scenario where the automatic qualifiers are named after the Deutsche Bank Championship and for the ‘wildcard’ picks to be named after the Tour Championship.
“So the PGA of America is willing to change from a certain stand point,” he said. “We are willing to try to put all the appropriate pieces into place to collectively make a good decision going forward.”
