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Lee Westwood tweaks Jim Furyk for not making Kevin Kisner a Ryder Cup captain's pick
Darren Carroll
Lee Westwood was kind enough to offer a suggestion on how to improve Team USA's Ryder Cup chances. It just came way, way too late.
Exactly six months after Europe's latest conquest in the biennial event, Westwood, an assistant captain in Paris, took to Twitter to tweak Jim Furyk for not making Kevin Kisner one of his four captain's picks. Despite the delayed timing, Westwood's tweet wasn't totally out of the blue as it came moments after Kisner's 6-and-5 win over HaoTong Li to advance to the quarterfinals of the WGC-Dell Match Play.
Westwood, who was eliminated from the event in group play on Friday, was alluding to Kisner's accurate driving, which would have come in handy on the tight layout featuring penal rough. The course setup was an important factor in Europe's 17½-10½ victory.
Kisner was certainly on Furyk's short list, but he ultimately wound up selecting Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Tony Finau to fill out the 12-man team. Those four players wound up combining for a dreadful record of two wins and 10 losses with Finau, the final pick, being the only one of the four to earn points.
In contrast, Thomas Bjorn's captain's picks (Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Paul Casey, and Ian Poulter) went 9-4-1. Perhaps, not surprisingly, Garcia, Stenson and Casey advanced to the knockout stage this week at Austin Country Club with Poulter nearly moving on before being vanquished in a group play playoff … by? You guessed it, Kevin Kisner.