It was the biggest liability with Jim Furyk Ryder Cup captain, and he hopes it may be his greatest asset: he has done this before and failed.
On Wednesday morning at the PGA Championship in Aronimink, the golf world heard from Furyk for the first time since assuming the role of Ryder Cup captain for the second time. By the time it was announced, Furyk’s captaincy was filled … quickly, as he oversaw one of the USA’s most prolific Ryder Cup strikes with their loss in 2018 in Paris.
Now, however, Furyk appears to have entered the premiership a changed man, and his message to the golfing world reflects that.
“There’s not an effort problem,” Furyk said. “There is a question of strategy and structure.”
Of course, we’ve done this before with Furyk — first at the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, when he talked about his hopes for an American team that had been unsuccessful in previous Ryder Cup trips across the pond. In that press conference, Furyk spoke at length about his lessons from previous captains and his excitement about a new group of stars led by Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.
This year, the picture is not so rosy. The Americans have lost two consecutive Ryder Cups without ever appearing particularly competitive, and the PGA of America’s role as tournament stewards has been called into question. The elevation of Furyk himself to captain only seemed to underscore the lack of American leadership and the lack of a coherent plan.
But speaking from Wednesday morning, Furyk spoke clearly about a number of issues he hopes to address – and changes he hopes to make – as captain of the 2027 squad at Adare Manor. Let’s dive into each of them below.
10 US Ryder Cup changes
1. Fixing a ‘shiny’ problem
It certainly comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched the Ryder Cup over the past few years, but the Americans have a big job to do. relates to alternate shooting. The U.S. team has been smoked over the past few Ryder Cups in this category — 6-20 over the last three Cups, according to Furyk — which has opened a tough hole for any team to climb out of.
Furyk indicated he would look to a number of ways to fix the top four problem for the American team, including the team’s actual deployment of analytics and roster construction and pairings during tournament week.
“It’s no secret that the quad has been an obvious problem,” Furyk said. “Our team the last two Ryder Cups on Friday and Saturday, we’ve opened massive holes.”
2. Update points system?
One topic that seems to have caught Furyk’s attention in recent days is the Ryder Cup points system, which is used during the two-year period between Ryder Cups to determine the six automatic qualifiers for the US team.
Furyk suggested the Americans are looking to change the points system, perhaps shifting the emphasis to Cup years to ensure automatic qualifiers are players in peak form.
“I think we’ll probably end up doing some sort of points system,” Furyk said. “But I also have some ideas about how to do it. Nothing is set in stone.”
And if this change could wipe out this year’s events from the criteria altogether, even though we’re already almost halfway through the season?
“This year could be valuable. We can also shorten the window,” Furyk said. “I don’t think there’s any problem with retroactive changes.”
3. Captain elections are standing
The US team increased its number of captain selections ahead of the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits to great success, but the drama surrounding Cup rosters since then has some questioning whether six captain selections is too many (or too few).
Furyk sees no such problem, suggesting the current system helps identify the best players while leaving enough room for roster configuration.
4. A close eye on analytics
American analytics team – Scouts Inc. – came under direct criticism for his methodology of creating the list in 2025. In Bethpage, the Americans twice published the pair of Collin Morikawa and Harris English, which ranked dead-last in DataGolf’s ranking the power of pairs and it seemed to work against conventional wisdom about both players’ form and competitive strengths. Meanwhile, the Europeans relied on analytics guru Edoardo Molinari, whose roster decisions had the golden touch against the American side.
Furyk refrained from criticizing the US analytics team at Scouts, but suggested he would make a decision on whether to move forward with the company in the next month.
“No decision has really been made at that point for the future, but one that will be made here in the next month for sure,” he said. “That’s my job.”
5. Further analytical changes
However, even if the Scouts stay in the group, Furyk said it’s likely their role will adjust significantly.
“How we have applied them and, most importantly, how we have discussed it and how that communication has been with the players needs to be improved a lot,” he said.
6. Pairings!
Furyk said the Americans will look to steal a page from the Euro playbook by pairing potential competition partners together next spring.
“I tried to hint earlier that this has to be a year-round, 12-month, 52-week-a-year priority for us to get better,” Furyk said. “But we have to start much earlier in terms of getting involved and buying players and we have to work on our pairings next spring. It’s getting an idea of ​​who can make the team and how the team is going to be involved. Every year we go early, but not early enough, if that makes sense to you.”
7. Leadership class
One of the main criticisms of the leadership of the US Ryder Cup over the past decade is that it has been lacking.
Today, there really isn’t a class of qualified American captains outside of Furyk, who is returning for a second captaincy, and Tiger Woods, who has debated the last two Ryder Cup captains and ultimately turned them down. Although the focus remains on ’27, Furyk indicated he would like to see that change.
“I mean it’s really important for me and Team USA to identify potential future captains and get them involved,” Furyk said. “That’s why I got Stewart (Cink) and Justin (Leonard) involved so early. I want them to be a part of the process. I want them to learn every aspect of what we’re doing and get more experience, if that makes sense.
“Yeah, I’ve been taking notes along the way that we’ve talked about as captain, we’ve talked about with our analytics team, how we’ve changed things, how we’ve tried to evolve,” he continued. “This is something we’ve been talking about at home for a long time and it’s something that needs to happen.”
8. Better messages
The Americans were repeatedly criticized by the Europeans in Bethpage for taking payment for their participation in the Cup for the first time. (The Euros followed up on that discussion by more than doubling ticket prices for Adare Manor, but have yet to address the issue of paying the players themselves.)
Furyk noted that the American side held the charity component of the Cup in Bethpage and needs to do a better job of communicating how the money is spent.
“I think what we’ve really missed and I’ve missed as a team is that we haven’t talked about the more than $3.6 million donated to charity,” he said. “We haven’t told the stories. I think there’s a lot of players out there who don’t want to be like, hey, look at me, look what I did.”
9. Continuity among American teams
The governing bodies of the US Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup are technically different groups operated by different governing bodies (PGA of America for the Ryder Cup; PGA Tour for the Presidents Cup). One easy area for improvement that Furyk has pointed to is continuity between the two sides, which have similar aspirations but have historically operated more divergently than anyone on either side of the ledger would hope.
10. Tiger!
Woods was a potential captain for the 2027 team, and he is certainly a future captain. Furyk said he hopes Woods will have a meaningful role of some kind on the ’27 team and that he intends to talk to the 15-time major champion about that role at some point in the near future.
