Six weeks after the defeat at the Ryder Cup in Rome, Zach Johnson, captain of the United States, wonders if a different “time management” could have helped his players not to succumb against the European team at the Marco Simone (16.5-11.5). What went so wrong? The leader of the stars and stripes squad responds this week before the RSM Classic in his first appearance after the setback in Italy.
Johnson frankly revealed his “regrets” and admitted how much the disappointing result still hurts him. “I have many retrospective things that I certainly think about. I possibly regret some things,” said Zach. Speaking of specific matters he would retract, the Yankee captain mentioned several factors he has reassessed since he returned from his first captaincy at the Ryder Cup empty-handed. To start with, he would have liked to have been more careful with his players’ time.
“The common denominator I come back to and wish I could have changed, or not changed, I wish it had occurred to me earlier, is simply the precious commodity of time and understanding that it is precious. We made the round trip practice to Rome. No regrets. Amazing. I don’t think the guys would say they regret that, at least I hope they don’t. It was spectacular,” he affirmed. “If I could have put more value on time management, I could have put my guys in a better position to play golf at a better pace from the start,” he detailed.
Even in the days leading up to the Ryder Cup and especially afterwards, the issue of the “current form” of his team was central in the analyses of the event’s outcome. Before the 2023 competition, the 12 members of the European team played the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and seven finished in the top 10; on the American side, only Justin Thomas and Max Homa competed in PGA Tour tournaments in the weeks leading up to the Ryder and Brooks Koepka was forced to play in the LIV in Chicago, which ended just five days before the biennial event. Most of the American team chose to rest.
When Johnson mentioned “time management”, he was not only referring to creating more time for his players, but to helping them use it efficiently and effectively. While the captain did not blame his players’ lack of competitive activity leading up to the event, he reflected on how a different approach could have been developed.
“The ideal would be to have some fresh guys. But I don’t know if it’s the captain’s role to say: ‘Hey, you guys have to go compete,” Johnson asserted. “I don’t know if that’s the right way to approach it. The bottom line is that the FedEx Cup requires a lot of time, energy and they also need to rest. Some, I think two, played in Napa. Yes, there could be some truth in that. Because the European guys played the BMW, which is one of their flagship events, and most finished very high.” His view on poor time management also seems to be related to travel and time zones, an issue he hopes the PGA of America and the Ryder Cup can work on.
Even so, Zach readily took the blame. “You never know, anyone can beat anyone at any given time, but the crux of the matter is that I don’t think I put my guys in the best position for victory. The Europeans were playing great golf and that was the start of the road they had to travel for victory,” he concluded.
