NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Jim Furyk spoke at length about his goals for the United States Ryder Cup team in his first large-scale press conference since being named the captain for 2027.
Put simply, they can be grouped into two buckets. Short term: Win on foreign soil at Adare Manor. Long term: Build out the U.S. operation into a 12-months-a-year priority.
“I like to say we need to create a blueprint,” Furyk said Wednesday ahead of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. “We need to create more continuity for our players and for our future captains. And we really need to start making the Ryder Cup more of a priority each and every year, year in and year out, and focus on growing and evolving into the future.”
Furyk dove into the details three weeks after being announced as the U.S. captain for the next matches in Ireland, and 32 weeks after Team Europe dealt the Americans a 15-13 defeat at Bethpage Black that was not as close as the scoreline implies.
That was Furyk’s fourth time serving as a vice captain for the U.S., in addition to his 2018 captaincy when Europe prevailed in Paris and his 2024 leadership of the U.S. Presidents Cup team that won in Montreal.
“I love this generation” of players, Furyk said. “I’ve had the honor to be their captain, their vice captain now for the last few years. I see the heart, the grit. I just love these guys.
“So when I look at my job, it’s really to create a culture, a chemistry amongst them and put them in positions where they can be really successful.”
That wealth of experience — he also played 34 matches across nine Ryder Cups — also helped Furyk begin to take notes in the wake of the Americans’ second straight loss, following Rome in 2023.
Furyk said he did not actively seek the job but hoped to be approached. New PGA of America CEO Terry Clark met with him the week before the Masters and Furyk accepted the job the following week.
Team Europe has become known for a relentless focus on the Ryder Cup throughout each two-year cycle. Furyk, 56, nodded to many of the areas he believes the U.S. can and should catch up.
“There’s a lot of different things we can talk about that with I think we can grow and get better at — our logistics, our travel, our schedule,” Furyk said. “We can get into our pairings. It’s no secret that foursomes has been a glaring problem. Our team play the last two Ryder Cups on Friday and Saturday, we’ve dug massive holes. But foursomes is the glaring problem.”
The United States trailed 11 1/2-4 1/2 after the two days of pairs competition last fall before a massive rally in Sunday singles fell just short.
Europe has also become known for its utilization of analytics. While Furyk bristled at the notion that analytics are “secondary” to the Americans, he admitted it’s another area the U.S. team can evolve.
“Like I said, we’re going to leave no stone unturned, and that surely from top to bottom includes analytics,” he said.
“I think where we failed or where we’ve struggled with analytics is probably relaying to our players how they’re used. I hate to hear someone say that, ‘Wow, I feel like so much of it revolves around analytics.’ I think it’s a useful tool. I think the European side would say the same thing. But there’s a lot of human element into that, and there’s a lot of decisions the captains have to make to put these players in a good position.
“So how we’ve applied them and, more importantly, how we’ve discussed that and how that communication has been with the players needs to get a lot better.”
Furyk said he has not yet spoken with Tiger Woods about a role on the 2027 team, but he plans to after giving Woods some time and space. Woods is believed to be in a treatment program in Switzerland after his March arrest for suspected DUI.
Furyk, who plans to visit Adare Manor for the first time in “about 10 days,” also declared that the PGA of America could have put his predecessor, Keegan Bradley, in “a much better position” as he was appointed less than 16 months before the matches. Bradley had no previous experience as a captain or vice captain.
“Team USA is a professional sports organization,” Furyk said. “We go from the Presidents Cup to the Ryder Cup each and every year, and what I started noticing is we were maybe losing a little continuity from year to year. So I just think we could be better at this as a 12-month process each and every year. It’s not something that, the Ryder Cup is over, we decompress, we let it go for six months.”
Englishman Luke Donald will captain the European team for the third consecutive Ryder Cup.
