Raymond Floyd has
consistently been a part
of U.S. teams at the
Ryder Cup Matches,
and he brings a unique
perspective to the event.
hope you respect that because I respect all of
you who made this team.’
Let’s go back to (Phil) Mickelson and
Keegan Bradley sitting themselves out
after they’re killing everybody (in 2012 at
Medinah). If I’d been captain of that team,
they wouldn’t have been sitting out. My
thought would be, ‘I don’t care if you do
lose tomorrow, let’s win this thing today
and put it away.’ That’s a scenario in how
it’s evolved. So I was thrilled when Tom
was named captain. We were all caught off
guard because you all wondered whose turn
it would have been this time. There were
two or three names you could have thrown
up there.
THE PGA OF AMERICA
VG: You captained in England and this
selection been received by players?
RF: I think these modern players have won
so few times that you’d think they’d have it
in their craw to win this thing. But I think
we have to get back to a little more of ‘the
captain is the captain.’
The system has always been such that a
captain was usually someone in his mid- to
late 40s. And he has been, in most cases, still
competing. That tends to be a contemporary
or peer. As much as they’re still in tune
with the players, I think there’s a little bit of
complacency with that scenario because you
know guys well and want their input. You’ll
say, ‘Who would you like to play with?’ In
’89 I was captain, but I never went to anyone
and asked them who they’d like to play with.
I stood up and said, ‘This is the way it’s going
to be. I’m going to do the best I can and you
guys hit all the shots. But this is what I think
will work, so this is what we’re going to do. I
w w w. v s g a . o r g
one is in Scotland. Do you have to be
more careful in choosing a captain going
to European versus American soil and is
Watson the right choice for that?
RF: Tom would’ve been the right choice
anywhere. The respect that he has, the career
he’s had and the statesman and ambassador
he is for the game—he could have gone to
China and been a captain. He’s won those
(five) Opens and has said so much about
how he loves golf over there and the linksstyle game. He’s revered over there. That’s
certainly not going to hurt at all.
VG: It can get a little wild with the fans
as you saw at Valhalla in 2008 as an
assistant for Paul Azinger.
RF: It started with the ‘War by the Shore’ (at
Kiawah in 1991) and that’s unfortunate. It
got turned away, which is not good. I was on
that team. In ’89 (at The Belfry), which was
my team, it was really rowdy over there. Then
you come back in ’91 and it got played up with
the media involved and somehow the ‘War by
the Shore’ was created. You had camouflage
hats made up. I saw that and said, ‘Uh oh.
Floyd (pictured in the driver’s seat), the captain in
1989, and team member Tom Watson were part of
an American contingent at the Ryder Cup conducted
at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.
This is not the spirit of the Ryder Cup.’ It’s
supposed to be about good will, camaraderie
and sportsmanship and all of the sudden the
‘War by the Shore’ had some innuendo there.
VG: What was your role as Azinger’s
assistant and what is your expected role
for Watson?
RF: My role with Azinger was specific. He’d
read a book on Navy Seals and how they use
three four-man teams when they go out and
how they support each other. So Paul’s theory
was: We have 12 players. We’ll break them up
into personality groups. We’re going to have
Type A, B and C teams. I was the captain of
th