Stricker to be US captain at Presidents Cup
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - Steve Stricker and Nick Price, with reputations for being "nice guys" on the PGA Tour, now get to square off as Presidents Cup captains.
Stricker was appointed U.S. captain on Tuesday for the 2017 matches at Liberty National, where the Americans will try to extend their dominance over an International team comprised of players from everywhere else in the world except for Europe.
Price returns as International captain for the third time, and he has reason to believe his side is close to winning for the first time since 1998.
After his first stint as captain in 2013, Price helped lobby the PGA Tour to reduce the number of total matches from 32 to 30 with hopes of keeping the competition close. That might have played a role in South Korea last year, when it was the tightest Presidents Cup in 10 years. It effectively was decided by one match on the final day, and the Americans won, 15ˆ½-14ˆ½.
The 2017 matches will be during the last week in September on a course with views of the Manhattan skyline. Liberty National also has hosted The Barclays twice.
"The Presidents Cup has meant so much to me and to my career, both as a player and a captain," said Price, who played on five teams. "I am so looking forward to leading what I'm sure will be another very strong International team and having another opportunity to win the cup after such a close finish last year."
Stricker played in the second Presidents Cup in 1996, and became a regular on the U.S. team when he turned his career around in the mid-2000s and played on four more teams. He last played in 2013, when at 46 he was asked to partner with 20-year-old rookie Jordan Spieth.
Stricker has been regarded as a future Ryder Cup captain. He was a vice captain at Gleneagles under Tom Watson and will have the same role later this year under Davis Love III at Hazeltine. There was a time when Presidents Cup captains were not considered as future Ryder Cup captain, though that ended with a stronger relationship between the PGA of America (which runs the Ryder Cup) and the PGA Tour.
Plus, a Ryder Cup task force formed after 2014 promoted more continuity in both sets of matches.