The danger in Paul Azinger becoming Ryder Cup captain again
Five weeks into the NFL season, in many cities around the country, the most popular man in town is the backup quarterback. Why? Because he could be the key to turning this whole season around…if only he got the chance to play.
Odds are, though, that single player, unless he’s the next Tom Brady, will struggle to win more than a few games, much less transform a franchise.
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Donald Trump has seemingly teased running for every major political office in the last decade, namely for president in 2012 and again is letting the drumbeat start for 2016. He’s yet to declare candidacy, and he probably never will.
Trump is a smart man. He knows when to buy distressed assets, like golf courses. He knows how to work the financial system. He is also well aware that he is at his most politically potent — like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin — on the sidelines.
Running does him no good, especially if he feels there’s no chance to win. It’s better to let people wonder what could be in their imagination than risk defeat, or worse, disappointment were Trump to win an election.
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I believe Paul Azinger truly wants to be Ryder Cup captain again. He immersed himself in the job in 2006, carrying his work all the way through a brilliant win at Valhalla in 2008. Azinger would do it again, given the opportunity, using the plan he turned into a cookbook for success as a guide.
Let’s say Zinger got the job for ’16 at Hazeltine. And that’s a big “if.” What if he did everything right, pushed all the right buttons and still came up short? What if the Europeans came to the U.S. and won yet again?
That’s the danger in Paul Azinger returning as captain of the Ryder Cup team. He would be setting a no-win trap for himself.
If he loses, critics and fans alike might believe that ’08 win was a fluke. They could say it was a poorly prepared European captain in Nick Faldo that gave the U.S. the edge. They could wonder when Anthony Kim is coming out of the witness protection program to give the Americans another Patrick Reed it so depserately needs. There’s plenty of second-guessing to go around if Azinger’s second coming brings a loss.
If he wins, then it’s the outcome every hopeful American expects: Azinger returns to his rightful place, wins and remains Ryder Cup royalty until he abdicates the spot to a disciple. We should’ve done this years ago! But Azinger won’t do this forever, and he certainly can’t win forever.
Paul Azinger’s greatest contribution to the Ryder Cup won’t be winning in 2008. It will be in spearheading the development of a true Ryder Cup program that, at a minimum, turns this series into a back-and-forth affair worthy of the talent on both sides of the Atlantic. Azinger can collaborate with current players to develop a player and selection strategy that reflects the modern tour and models itself as a hybrid of the ’08 model and the Europeans’ succession planning it does so well. He can set into motion a decade or more of continuity that anticipates future captains, the aging and changing of the team makeup and unified preparation.
In other words, Paul Azinger should be the general manager of the American Ryder Cup team, not its manager. That will mean sharing praise for future American wins with the button-pushing captain. It’ll mean fewer people will understand what Azinger did to, in NFL PR parlance, get this right. However, Azinger is not only up to the task, but he’s willing to do what it takes to restore the country he loves on a stage he loves maybe as much.
An American Ryder Cup renaissance is not a one-man, one-time job. It’ll take a team and time. The effort will require patience and persistence, not the abandonment of an approach if it fails. Let Azinger sit at the head of that table, the one constant in an otherwise rotating cast of players, captains and PGA of America officials.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
