‘They should run Team USA’: Pro calls for controversial Ryder Cup shakeup

Eight-time PGA Tour winner Billy Horschel will play the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship this week. There, the veteran pro, who won the 2014 FedEx Cup title, hopes to improve his FedEx Cup position after a disappointing season on the course. But ahead of the first round at the Black Desert Resort, Horschel had another golf event in mind: the Ryder Cup.

And live on TV, he proposed a major shakeup for the Ryder Cup that would prove controversial: letting the PGA Tour take over the American team.

Who runs the Ryder Cup? PGA of America vs. PGA Tour

Since the very first Ryder Cup, the PGA of America has controlled the American side of the event. And because it’s so confusing, it should be remembered that so is the PGA of America not the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour, which split from the PGA of America in the 1960s, is where your favorite pros play most of the time. More than 40 tournaments are organized annually, including the flagship Players Championship. (They also own and operate the PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry, and PGA Tour Americas tours, among others.)

The PGA of America is primarily an educational organization, with thousands of certified PGA education professionals located throughout the country. But crucially, the PGA of America also runs the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup for the Americans.

Conversely, the European Ryder Cup team is run by the DP World Tour, the European counterpart of the PGA Tour. This has given the European team clear advantages in the Ryder Cup. The same staff, coaches and organizational leaders who work with the European players year-round also work with them at the Ryder Cup.

That consistency is different from the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Since the PGA of America does not have a year-round presence with the American players on the PGA Tour, the organization does not have the same exposure to the American players that the DP World Tour has with the Europeans.

He’s not alone, but Horschel sees this as a major problem for the American team.

Billy Horschel says PGA Tour should ‘run’ US Ryder Cup team

Horschel has never played in a Ryder Cup, but he was part of the 2022 Presidents Cup-winning U.S. team that is run by the PGA Tour. He also plays regularly on the DP World Tour, so he has some credibility on the subject.

On Wednesday Horschel participated in Golf Channel’s “Golf Today” showand when co-host Damon Hack pushed him to do so, the veteran pro came up with his controversial solution to the US team’s Ryder Cup woes.

Horschel suggested that the European team’s Ryder Cup dominance in recent years is partly due to their DP World Tour advantages. And he revealed he has spoken to other players and “bigger names” who agree.

“I’ve had a number of conversations after this Ryder Cup with a number of people, a number of other players, players who are bigger names and have been part of the Ryder Cups. What I shared with them is that I’ve been on the European Tour for the last five or six years and understand that the European Tour organizes their Ryder Cup. They see these people, they know the backroom staff and they can talk about the Ryder Cup as they play. having conversations,” Horschel told Golf Channel.

He continued with some specific examples: “Even if it’s a few years in advance, they come to mind about hotels or something else that you know about how they can make things better. They have the ability to talk to these people that they have relationships with on a regular basis.”

And then Horschel dropped his controversial position.

“In my opinion, we don’t have that at the PGA of America,” he said. “They’re coming along and doing a great job. I’m not going to say they’re not doing a good job.”

To solve this problem, Horschel sees a simple solution. Let the PGA Tour take over the US Ryder Cup team.

“I believe it’s time for the PGA Tour, or the people we believe, to take over Team USA. They need to lead Team USA,” Horschel stated.

Horschel said he envisions a complicated future partnership where the PGA of America still owns and operates the Ryder Cup, but the PGA Tour runs the U.S. team.

“PGA of America can still run the Ryder Cup, they can still sell all the business of the company, but I think we need to take more responsibility for our team and have people there who work on that Ryder Cup every year, and who are at our tournaments that we can have a relationship with and talk about things so that we don’t miss things and things don’t slip through the cracks,” Horschel said.

With their 15-13 defeat to Bethpage Black last month, the American team has now lost six of the last eight and nine of the last 12 Ryder Cups.

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