Watson Expected To Be Named 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain

According to several sources, on Thursday the Professional Golf Association of America will name Tom Watson as the captain of the United States team for the Ryder Cup event to be held Sept. 21-29, 2014 at the esteemed Gleneagles course in Scotland. At least one major player will not cheer the news privately.

First, let’s consider Watson. The 63-year-old has 70 career wins to his credit and has led the PGA money list five times; now he plays mostly on the Champions (aka the Seniors) Tour. In the 1993 Ryder Cup at The Belfry in Warwickshire, England, Watson captained the U.S. team which stormed back to win the overall title 15 to 13 after Europe had taken a one-point lead into Sunday’s singles matches. That was the last time the U.S. captured a Ryder Cup hosted in Europe.

With five of his victories coming at the (British) Open Championship — 1975, ’77, ’80, ’82 and ’83 — the Kansas native is considered to be one of the greatest links players ever. Given his ancestry and his links play, Watson is highly respected in Scotland. Despite all his success, though, it still seems a little odd that a player who spends most of his time these days other than on the main PGA Tour captaining a team which he last led nearly 20 years ago. It’s certainly a change from the association’s normal protocol.

That brings us to Larry Nelson. At 65 he’s two years older than Watson, but has won three majors in his career and has an amazing 9-3-1 record in Ryder Cup play. It appears, though, that Nelson will be snubbed again. A case can also be made for another notable player: David Toms, 45, who won the 2001 PGA Championship and has played on three Ryder Cup and four Presidents Cup teams. Then there’s Paul Azinger, who first came up with the procedure of the captain having four selections as well as the qualification process, and who had lobbied for both Nelson and Toms to get the nod as captain.

Finally, there’s the Tiger factor. Watson has been publicly critical of Woods and his hot-tempered style on the course. “I feel that he has not carried the same stature that other great players that have come along like Jack [Nicklaus], Arnold [Palmer], Byron Nelson, the Hogans, in the sense that there was language and club-throwing on the golf course,” Watson said in an interview. “He needs to clean up his act and show the respect for the game that other people before him have shown.”

Tiger has a reputation of not caring what others think about him, as well as shutting out his critics. Perhaps when PGA president Ted Bishop hinted that he was thinking “out of the box” for the 2014 appointment, he had two things in mind: Watson might be just the man to turn around the U.S Ryder Cup team’s fortunes in Europe, and that Watson might be just the man to shake up Tiger too.

UPDATE: Watson has been confirmed as the U.S. team captain for the Ryder Cup in 2014.