Ryder Cup 2018

The Sad Truth of Lost Leadership and Teamwork

Major General (Retired), N. Lee S. Price, U.S. Army

 

If you haven’t heard by now about the Ryder Cup, you don’t follow golf. The bottom line – the Europeans whipped us, plain and simple and there is plenty of “blame” to go around. Reading the papers about the Ryder Cup is similar to catching advertisements of the old TV show “Dallas” – lots of crazy-inspired drama. Dustin Johnson, the world’s #1 golfer going into the tournament, went 1 for 5, distracted by feuding with Brooks Koepka. DJ apparently believed his fiancé was getting a bit too cozy with Koepka. Then there is Patrick Reed who was livid he didn’t get paired with Jordan Spieth. But Jordan didn’t particularly want to play with Patrick. Ok, what are you guys – 12? Get over yourselves and turn an introspective eye towards addressing the real reasons the Europeans whooped you. Where were the LEADERS for the US team? Where was your spirit of team play? For once, put your pettiness aside and play for something bigger than yourselves.

Here is the roster of players for both teams with their world ranking (as retrieved from owgr.com) for September 22nd, 2018:

Europeans                              Ranking                       U.S.                             Ranking

Casey                                        21                           Dechambeau                 7

Fleetwood                                 12                           Finau                              17

Garcia                                        28                           Fowler                           9

Hatton                                       26                           D. Johnson                    1

McIlroy                                      6                             Koepka                          3

Molinari                                     5                             Michelson                     25

Noren                                        19                            Reed                             15

Olesen                                      45                            Simpson                       16

Poulter                                      39                            Spieth                           10

Rahm                                        8                              Thomas                         4

Rose                                         2                              Watson                          14

Stenson                                   24                            Woods                           13

Total                                         211                                                                        134

 

Any casual observer would look at those rankings and be astonished that the Americans lost. So how do we turn it around? Before those players left the aircraft, they should have conducted a thorough post-mortem. However, the committee is likely discussing who the next captain should be and thinking we need to start with a clean slate. To that I say – scream really – stop the nonsense. It’s about the team and leadership; not about the player’s skill. No matter how painful it is, get all the thoughts from each player about what went wrong. Be respectful and discuss it. That’s something we’ve lost are way on, here in America. Then, when you start to build next Ryder Cup team, look at some new rules and have players sign a letter of commitment to the team. Sure, it may sound silly to you but that is our flag – the United States of America’s flag – on your uniform….so be UNITED.

Put the 12 players through mandatory team drills, like one of our military obstacle courses, where they have to rely on one another to complete the task. Team captains – observe and take note of who evolves in a leader role. Too often, I have watched individuals merely stand on the sidelines and watch if they are not in an appointed role as the leader. That’s not the way it works; everyone must participate. Think about being on a playground watching kids play. You gave yours a safety talk and they are doing fine. If you see another child in danger, do you just stand there like a cement wall and do nothing because you aren’t in charge? Of course not, you bust your tail to preserve a needless mistake. And you’d do that, even if you have a personal beef with that particular neighbor. Please – no clean slate – become a learning organization. We Americans want to cheer you to victory. I wore an Army uniform for over 38 years and was proud to display our National flag on it. I respected its meaning and still do. Every day I put on my uniform, I stood a little taller, and took pride in representing the best team in the world – the United States of America!