Paul Azinger has a bold plan to fix the U.S. Ryder Cup team

DUBLIN, Ohio – Paul Azinger is fed up with seeing the U.S. side get taken to the woodshed by the Europeans at the Ryder Cup.

To illustrate his point, the four-time member of Team USA recounts watching 2025 U.S. vice-captain Kevin Kisner on the ForePlay podcast detailing the moment he knew Team USA was in trouble at Bethpage Black last fall en route to digging a huge deficit and an eventual 15-13 defeat on home soil. At the sixth hole, Tommy Fleetwood drove it in the rough in an alternate-shot match the first day on purpose so that Rory McIlroy didn’t have to worry about the spin on his approach to the soft green. McIlroy stuck it tight for birdie and the Euros were on their way to a 5-and -4 rout. Wrapping up the story, Kisner said, “I got on the radio and said, ‘Boys, I think we’re (expletive).” Laughter ensued.

“I watched it and I was mortified,” Azinger told Golfweek. “You had weeks to be ready and you were out-prepared. That can’t happen ever again on our home soil. Seeing that video irritated me to no end. I didn’t think it was funny; I thought it was awful.”

U.S. Captain Paul Azinger celebrates after the Americans defeated Europe in the 2008 Ryder Cup.

Azinger, who captained the U.S. side to a resounding victory in 2008, has a plan to fix Team USA. Hire a director of Ryder Cup above the captain, sort of like how college programs have recently been adding a general manager to oversee the bigger picture (Andrew Luck for Stanford football or Adrian Wojnarowski for St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball). And they don’t need a Task Force to search for the right candidate. Azinger is the man for the job.

As previously reported by Golf Digest, Azinger pitched the idea to new PGA CEO Terry Clark at the Senior PGA Championship in April. Azinger tells Golfweek that he and Clark and 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk had some informal conversations lasting about 10-15 minutes at The Memorial Tournament last week. Azinger, 66, is still waiting to see if the PGA is serious about a permanent role and then he’d have to decide if he’d be so inclined to do it.

Azinger said he has a standing offer to meet up with Furyk, who lives in Jacksonville, next time he’s in town to broadcast PGA Tour Champions for Golf Channel from the Tour’s studios in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach.

“He wants to cook me up a steak dinner — he says he’s a good cook — and pick my brain,” Azinger said.

Whether in a formal or informal role, Azinger wants to study how to be prepared for a road game. The U.S. hasn’t won on foreign soil since 1993 with a 33-year-old Azinger among the U.S. 12-man team. Azinger lobbied to remain captain in 2010 and try to win an away game but the PGA opted to go with Corey Gavin and Azinger has spent the last decade wondering how it has all gone wrong. He didn’t want to divulge any secrets, but he does want to share with Furyk his vision for developing a mindset of preparation.

“They just need a little spark to pull a major upset,” Azinger said. “I told Furyk, ‘You’re in a great place to make history, bud.'”

To hear Azinger tell it, Furyk, who was on the losing end as captain in 2018 in Paris, is the right man for the job. He’s seen both sides of the Ryder Cup and brings knowledge and experience to the job. Azinger said he lobbied behind the scenes to give Davis Love III another chance after the U.S. loss in 2014 and that worked out pretty well. Then Azinger posed a rhetorical question.

“Who else could we have put as captain? Why would you scar Justin Leonard or Stewart Cink? You have to put someone who has been there, done that, because we’re not supposed to win there,” Azinger said. “If Furyk loses, he’s a two-time loser. He’s going up against a buttoned-up three-time captain (in Luke Donald), they have the confidence, we have the jet lag. That is a no-win situation with everything to gain. To me, the upside is worth it. If he pulls it off, then 20 years of his life dedicated to the Ryder Cup finally comes to fruition. I want to be involved in some capacity in making that a reality; I just don’t want the spotlight.”

Captain Paul Azinger (R) and Jim Furyk of Team USA congratulate one another on the 17th green at the end of the Ryder Cup competition on September 21, 2008 at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky. Team USA won the cup.

Furyk was on Azinger’s 2008 team and speaks glowingly about him as a captain, and agrees that the PGA should begin treating the Ryder Cup team more like a professional sports organization.

“That usually includes someone that sits above the coach of the team,” Furyk said. “As captain, you’re worried about a lot of other things. The manager of the Yankees doesn’t worry about a lot of that stuff. He worries about X’s and O’s, team-building and how the personalities mesh. Having a bigger picture look on top of things and taking some of the background work off of the captain would be very useful.”

Furyk added that he has been talking about a similar style role for Team USA for several years during in-house discussions with the U.S. brain trust of Davis Love III and Steve Stricker, who could be future Ryder Cup GMs. When Furyk read Azinger’s original comments to Golf Digest, he immediately reached out to Azinger and said, “You’re spot on.”

“I think Europe has a little of that. No one talks about it, but they have a board with Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn and a bunch of guys sit and quietly go about their business and do it well. We like to announce everything,” Furyk told Golfweek with a wry grin.

When asked for a comment on a possible role for Azinger, PGA CEO Terry Clark sent the following e-mail response: “As we work with Jim and our Ryder Cup leadership team to build the strongest possible U.S. Ryder Cup program for the future, we’re focused on creating greater continuity across Ryder Cup cycles and establishing a structure that supports sustained Team USA success. As part of that effort, we are evaluating how former Captains, players and other experienced voices can continue to contribute to the U.S. Team. Paul Azinger’s perspective and experience remain highly valued, and we look forward to continuing to engage him as an important member of the PGA of America and Ryder Cup family.”

If the PGA is serious about making winning the Ryder Cup trophy back a priority, it’s time to let a full-time GM call the shots and there’s no better person to take the helm than Azinger, the man who wrote a business-manual book on how he got it done.

Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Paul Azinger proposes new Ryder Cup leadership role for U.S. team

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