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Furyk joins Ryder Cup talking heads

Photograph by Nicola MuirheadStoop to conquer: Furyk’s first experience of Port Royal was encouraging after leading separate pro-am teams to victory in the net and gross divisions. He and caddy Mike “Fluff” Cowan, background left, will hope for more of the same today

Jim Furyk believes that the United States need to take a more far-sighted approach to the Ryder Cup if they are be successful in the competition.

One of several people tasked with turning around America’s Ryder Cup fortunes, Furyk, who is in Bermuda for this week’s PGA Grand Slam, wants to look at the event over the next ten to 20 years, and not just at winning at Hazeltine National in two years’ time.

The PGA of America is expected to officially announce the members of its task force today, although Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Davis Love III and Rickie Fowler are all believed to be on it. Their remit will be to focus on all aspects of the side’s approach to the event.

Whether bad captaincy or bad systems are to blame depends on your perspective. Furyk has his own thoughts on the matter and, with Ted Bishop, the PGA of America president, and Derek Sprague, the vice-president in Bermuda, too, he has taken the opportunity to discuss a few things with his fellow committee members.

“In the Ryder Cup we have always talked about having to win the next one,” he said. “We’ve got to be a little more far-sighted than that.

“We need to look at the next ten to 20 years of Ryder Cup golf and let’s think about, ‘Hey, for the next 20 years we got ten events, let’s think 5-5 [won-loss] is good, let’s think about 6-4, let’s think about 7-3, let’s go on the winning side of it.’

“When we look back over the last 20 years, it’s probably a 2-8 type of deal. Let’s reverse that tide and get it moving forward.”

A veteran of seven appearances in the Ryder Cup, Furyk has plenty of experience of winning and losing the tournament, and is keen for there to be an open and honest discussion about the future.

With the likes of Stricker, Woods and Love understood to be involved, there are likely to be some strong opinions expressed over the next few weeks and months.

“I’ve got some ideas, the things I would like to see going forward, everyone’s got some great ideas,” Furyk said. “I just want to hear them all because it will be really the first time that we all got together as a group. I’m anxious to see the views from all different angles: from the officers, from the captains, from the players.

“We all love the event; we all want to see our side succeed and do well.”

That the US have assembled a taskforce of 12 to discuss the situation is the result of the very public fallout surrounding Phil Mickelson’s comments on Tom Watson’s captaincy and the defeat at Gleneagles last month.

Rory McIlroy, who was on the winning side that day, and who alongside Furyk, Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, will play in the Grand Slam this week, believes the airing of America’s dirty laundry in public may be a good thing.

“In a way, it’s not a bad thing that,” McIlroy said. “The PGA of America might start looking at the Ryder Cup a little differently or try to sort of come at it from a different angle. So, in the end, it might not have been a bad thing to shake things up a little.

“There’s a time and a place to say these things, and it probably wasn’t the perfect timing. But it is what it is and Phil is obviously a very senior player of the group and voiced his opinion; and that’s fine.”

Furyk is inclined to agree, looking to the possible positives, even if he does wish that the matter had stayed out of the pubic domain.

“Rory’s spot on,” he said. “It’s unfortunate the way things happened, but I think a lot of positives could come out of it.

“The silver lining is that it gives us a chance to discuss things. I want to look to the past, I want to see where we made our mistakes and how we can get better.”

The PGA Grand Slam of Golf begins at 10am.

Television: Ch 51 (5pm, same-day tape).