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McGinley: '16 RC captain should be named by March

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Paul McGinley told Sky Sports on Monday that he expects the 2016 Ryder Cup captain to be named by March. 

Darren Clarke is the prohibitive favorite for the job, with Miguel Angel Jimenez essentially removing himself from consideration during a recent interview. 

McGinley, the victorious 2014 captain who is part of the five-man selection panel, said that he expects to have the next leader in place “within the next two months.”

“We’re just making sure we’ve got everything in place before a decision is made, and we’re getting closer and closer,” he told Sky Sports. “There’s a lot of information being gathered and we’re not a million miles away.”

In recent years, the European captain was named sometime in January: McGinley on Jan. 15, 2013, Jose Maria Olazabal on Jan. 18, 2011, and Colin Montgomerie on Jan, 28, 2009. 

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Punch Shot: Bold predictions for 2015

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It’s a new year and anything can happen. So we asked our writers for their bold predictions for 2015. Here’s what they said:

By REX HOGGARD

Phil Mickelson will win the U.S. Open in June and complete the career Grand Slam.

While it seems likely the bookmakers won’t share our optimism for Lefty’s Open chances considering his love/hate relationship with his national championship, it will be those less-than-stellar odds that finally deliver the Open title to Mickelson.

While the flawless symmetry of the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, where he’d posted the first of six runner-up finishes at the championship in 1999, seemed poetically perfect for Mickelson’s breakthrough, the pressure proved to be too much for him and he finished 16 strokes off the pace.

Mickelson will turn 45 two days before Round 1 at Chambers Bay. Only Hale Irwin – who is the oldest to win the U.S. Open (in 1990) at the age of 45 years, 15 days – has collected the title past his 45th birthday.

But when the golf world arrives in the Pacific Northwest the spotlight, and the pressure, will have largely moved on to other points of interest.

Without that scrutiny weighing on him, Mickelson, who dedicated himself to a new workout regimen in the offseason and said he plans to reexamine his schedule in order to peak during the majors, will finally collect a title that has painfully eluded him for 2 ½ decades.

By JASON SOBEL

Making a bold prediction is sort of like Goldilocks rummaging through the house trying to find the perfect bed and the right bowl of porridge. Rory McIlroy will win a few tournaments? Not bold enough. Some no-name from Luxembourg will claim the green jacket? Whoa, that’s way too bold.

You’ve got to find a happy medium that is bold enough to raise some eyebrows and yet not so bold that it’s an outlandish suggestion. All of which leads to mine for the 2015 campaign: The International team will win the Presidents Cup. Finally.

I’m basing this on nothing but the law of averages. This biennial competition has been contested 10 times previously and the “rest of the world not including Europe” squad has won just one of ’em.

This time, though, there should be enough firepower to beat what should be another strong U.S. roster in South Korea. Nick Price’s lineup will once again be led by Adam Scott and Jason Day; Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen have become stalwarts; and Graham DeLaet and Hideki Matsuyama could each be top-10 players by next autumn.

The struggle, as usual for the International side, will be filling out the bottom half of its batting order. Just as the U.S. Ryder Cup team needed a jolt of enthusiasm from rookies Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, they could use an infusion of energy from the likes of Anirban Lahiri, Matt Jones and Carlos Ortiz; granted, none have the talent of Reed and Spieth, but the formula should be analogous. 

Don’t fret for the U.S. side, though. Even if it loses for the second time ever, there’s always time to create a task force before the next one.

By RYAN LAVNER

Dustin Johnson wins twice in 2015.

DJ hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since August, when he took a self-imposed leave of absence to deal with “personal challenges.” He figures to return sometime in February, and by all accounts he’s stayed sharp with his game and rededicated himself to his craft.

That should be bad news for the rest of the PGA Tour, because despite his “personal challenges” Johnson has been one of the most consistent players in the world – he’s won at least once every year since turning pro in 2007.

With better decision-making both on and off the course, Johnson might finally be able to maximize his awesome talent. I bet that process begins this year.

By RANDALL MELL

Michelle Wie wins two majors.

There was so much to like in Wie’s game in 2014, from her renewed confidence in her driver to her career best scoring average and putting stats, but what you had to like most was the look in her eyes. She was in no way content winning twice, with one of those her first major championship, the U.S. Women’s Open. Watching with her confidence coming back, you see the ambition in her eyes again. You see a player who at times looks like she wants to plow through the field to get to a trophy. And you hear a player talking openly about wanting to be No. 1 in the world.

Wie’s “table-top” putting stroke may look odd, but it held up at Pinehurst No. 2, in a U.S. Women’s Open, where the nerviest putts in the world have to be holed to win. She has the game, confidence and drive to keep winning big events this year.

By WILL GRAY

Ernie Els will win again on the PGA Tour.

The Big Easy is 45, but there’s still plenty of gas left in his tank. While Els hasn’t garnered many headlines since his win at the Open in 2012, he has had plenty of time to adjust to some new equipment, including a new putter in advance of the 2016 anchoring ban.

Now 63rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, Els is coming off a season that included only three top-10 finishes, and the globetrotter will likely continue to split time between the U.S. and Europe. But with 19 PGA Tour wins, Els doesn’t need a lot of starts to have a chance to contend, nor will he feel uncomfortable with his name on the leaderboard come Sunday.

The putter has been the issue for Els in recent years, but his tee-to-green game is still good enough to contend with some of the game’s best. At some point this year, the flat stick will get hot and Els will lift a trophy on U.S. soil for the first time since March 2010.

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Punch Shot: New Year's resolutions for pro golfers

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It’s 2015. Time to hit the gym, shed some pounds, drink less beer or whatever resolution you want to tell yourself you’re going to commit to this year. Just for fun, we asked our writers to give their New Year’s resolutions for professional golfers this season. Here are their answers:

By JASON SOBEL

Maybe I’m still stuck in the giving spirit of the holiday season. Maybe this is going to sound corny and cheesy and all sorts of Pollyannaish. Naïve, even. But here is my New Year’s resolution for professional golfers.

Be more accessible. Acknowledge the crowd. Hand out an extra ball or two every round – at least for the kids. Smile for fan selfies. Personalize some autographs. You don’t have to be Phil Mickelson, but it wouldn’t kill you to make a little eye contact and give a few fist-bumps every once in a while.

Follow a couple of fans on social media. Not because they’re rich or famous or a potential sponsor. Just because.

When you’re being interviewed, especially on live television, be yourself. You don’t have to sound like a robot. Saying you were really surprised by your performance because you spent the last two weeks fishing instead of grinding makes you sound more real than reciting the old adage about hard work paying off.

That’s not to suggest the majority of players aren’t already personable. They are. But hey, in a game that can use help growing in any way possible, a little more is never a bad thing.

By RYAN LAVNER

For Rory McIlroy, the man who seemingly has everything – fame, fortune and his pick of female acquaintances – here’s hoping that he can do his best to avoid distractions in 2015.

They will be plentiful, no doubt. That’s what happens when you’re the new No. 1 player in the game, but this year in particular will provide unique challenges for one of golf’s biggest stars.  

Let’s start with the court case against his former management company, slated for February. Rory won’t yet have made an appearance on the PGA Tour, but the case could affect his early-season schedule on the European circuit. Add in the fact that the trial could include some unsavory details about both his buddy Graeme McDowell and his ex-fiance Caroline Wozniacki, and this figures to be a massive headache.

The run-up to the Masters will be insufferable as well, with the 25-year-old looking to become just the sixth player to win all four major championships. Rory and Tiger will be the biggest stories at Augusta, where McIlroy doesn’t have the best of histories, with just one top 10 in six tries and a collapse for the ages in 2011.

That figures to be a wild two-month stretch.

From a writer’s prospective, how Rory handles the most intense spotlight of his career will be one of the two most fascinating stories of the year.

By REX HOGGARD

Like joining a gym or vowing to cut back on adult beverages, New Year’s resolutions are more about the call to action than the actual result.

While Rory McIlroy is a more polished player today than he was in 2013 when Superman clocked more time as Clark Kent, the basic elements were the same – nuclear driver, pinpoint iron shots, serviceable short game.

The difference between that 2013 campaign, when he failed to win on the PGA Tour and didn’t contend in any of that year’s majors, and his ’14 masterpiece was the subtle advantage of unbridled confidence.

In ’14 when the world No. 1 won two of four majors, moved within an Augusta National green jacket of the career grand slam and added a World Golf Championships undercard to his resume, he arrived at the first tee each Thursday confident in the knowledge that he could win with or without his best stuff.

At his current ebb-and-flow clip, collecting the odd major every other year, McIlroy is destined to be remembered as one of the game’s greatest alongside the likes of Nicklaus, Woods and Palmer. Just imagine how good he could be if his New Year’s resolution was to avoid another mental lapse like the one he endured 2013.

By RANDALL MELL

I’d like to see Adam Scott resolve to put a standard putter in his bag before this season’s final major championship. 

Scott’s major championship fortunes changed after he put a long putter into play early in 2011. He didn’t have a top 10 in a major in the four years before he made the switch to a long putter. In the 16 majors since switching, he has nine top 10s, including his Masters victory in ’13. He has been T-5 or better in five of his last 10.

With the rule against anchoring going into effect in 2016, Scott has this year to figure out whether he will modify his stroke with an unanchored motion with the long putter or go back to a standard putter. Scott says he doesn’t believe going back to a standard putter will be a major issue. If that’s the case, getting one in his bag before a major in ’16 shouldn’t be an issue, either. The longer he waits, the more we’ll all wonder if it will be a major issue.

By WILL GRAY

Patrick Reed, embrace the dark side. Golf has plenty of room for heels – just ask Ian Poulter – and based on his performance in 2014, Reed clearly thrives in a me-against-the-world scenario. He took some criticism for his top-five comment in March, sure, but he also made those comments after dusting a field that included most of the game’s best players.

The line between confidence and arrogance is thin, but it’s not a delineation that should concern Reed. He wasn’t thinking about that when he enthusiastically quieted the crowd during his singles match at the Ryder Cup, one he went on to win to cap a weekend during which he earned more points than any other American. He shouldn’t lose sleep over image, or what fans or players think of him from one week to the next.

Reed should focus instead on what it takes to put his name near the top of the leaderboard. Based on 2014, that means keeping the earbuds in, tuning the competition out, and letting the results speak for themselves.

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