In the wake of the European Ryder Cup loss, a lot has been said about Nick Faldo's approach to the captaincy. That is, he sucked at it.
Now four days removed from the Cup, Ryder Cup snub Colin Montgomerie is calling for a change in the European system, most notably adding four captain's picks instead of two.
"I think Paul Azinger was very strong to go to the U.S. PGA and demand a change," Montgomerie said. "Having lost five of the past six Ryder Cups, a change had to be made for their setup and I'm sure that change will remain for the next captain. I think that for the future, eight and four is the way to go."
The "change" Monty talks about is what allowed Azinger to pick four guys for the team instead of two, most notably J.B. Holmes and Hunter Mahan, who combined for a 4-0-4 record. The point of the change was to allow the American team to pick from a larger pool, not subjecting the captain to a handful of players on the top of their game come Ryder Cup time and only two to choose from.
Montgomerie went on to take the smallest of jabs at Faldo, who left him off the team for the first time in eight straight Ryder Cup appearances.
British media fiercely have criticized Faldo after the United States' win at Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., especially for placing top players Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington at the bottom of the Europeans' singles order.
While Montgomerie would not be drawn into criticizing Faldo, he said he would have liked to see a different singles lineup.
"If those three were playing higher in the order, they would 100% have been included in the final shakeup of what happened," he said.
I guess hindsight is 20/20 but I'm pretty sure at that point nothing would have changed the outcome. The Ryder Cup was lost the first two days when the Americans played great and Faldo made some questionable coaching decisions regarding his teams.
Montgomerie probably has a lot things to say about Faldo but I'm sure that list wouldn't make my AOL bosses very happy.
