Phil Mickelson pours cold water on Tiger Woods’ Ryder Cup captaincy and names two alternatives
Phil Mickelson has talked down the idea of Tiger Woods leading Team USA at the next Ryder Cup and named his two choices ahead of the golf legend.
In the wake of Europe’s stunning Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black over the weekend, talks of Woods leading the USA at Adare Manor in 2027 has been rife.
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Mickelson, on the final day of this year’s action, ruled himself out the running for the captaincy role and now has said that Woods should do the same.
In response to one fan on social media, who had claimed that Woods is ‘not the answer’, Mickelson suggested basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and football coach Lou Holtz are two options that the USA should look into.
In a post on X, he explained: ‘Here is why looking outside of golf to a coach K [Krzyzewski] or Lou holtz is worth exploring.
‘Golf is an individual sport that doesn’t have team work, support system, partnership, team analytics, personality traits, and more.
‘The Europeans have a template that teaches and prepares their captains for these skills. U.S. has a new template every 2 years with little continuity.
‘If a coach K or Lou Holtz or someone similar took over, would it be built upon or would it be scrapped and start over again afterwards? If that’s the case, it would be a waste of time and effort and not worth doing to begin with’.
USA’s captain for this year’s event, Keegan Bradley, came under fire from critics after his role in hyping up the rowdy fans in attendance and the overwhelming feeling that the Americans entered the tournament underprepared compared to their rivals.
The contrast between the two captains was striking with Luke Donald, the European skipper, being the personification of meticulous planning and flawless strategizing.
Woods’ name has cropped up as the ideal candidate to succeed Bradley but Mickelson would prefer Krzyzewski or Holtz – despite their lack of golf expertise.
Krzyzewski was a five-time national champion during his time as head coach of Duke University from 1980-2022 and is regarded as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
He also leade the United States national team to gold medals at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and played a role in their success at recent FIBA World Cups.
However, he has not been on the sidelines since 2022 and previously claimed he was not going to ‘pull a Tom Brady’.
Holtz, meanwhile, is best known for his tenure at Notre Dame, where he led the Fighting Irish to the 1988 National Championship and 100 wins.
He remains the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 15 rankings.
After retiring from coaching, he since worked as a TV college football analyst but called time on that back in 2015.
