The Loop

The PGA Task Force didn't want Fred Couples as Ryder Cup captain because he's too laid back

February 23, 2015

Up until about a week ago, Fred Couples was considered a near-lock to captain the 2016 Ryder Cup team. But the three-time Presidents Cup captain was passed over in favor of Davis Love III after his candidacy, according to Jaime Diaz's article in this week's edition of Golf World, "cracked under scrutiny."

What halted Couples' apparent procession? A couple things, it turns out:

He's too laid back__

__Couples' laid-back style is seen as the reason behind the U.S. team's recent successes in the Presidents Cup, and while it's clear he has a talent for keeping players relaxed, that gift seemed to backfire on him in 2012. Diaz quotes multiple sources saying that Assistant Captain Couples was consistently late or absent from team meetings. It was compounded on Sunday, when Love wanted to send Couples onto the course only for Couples to not answer his cellphone or walkie-talkie. "There was the feeling Couples let the team down," Diaz writes.

He took the "easy way out"__

__Another reason Couples' captaincy was passed over is again an offshoot of his overly-relaxed demeanor. According to Diaz's sources, Couples' decision to text Jim Furyk the news that he wouldn't be selected as a captain's pick for the 2013 Presidents Cup, rather than calling him, reportedly left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. That Furyk is one of the eight men on the PGA's Ryder Cup Task Force surely didn't help matters.