Team USA will head into Presidents Cup battle this week knowing it is their last chance to capture some team golf glory this year.
Brandt Snedeker’s group are strong favorites to continue a dominant stretch in the competition, having only lost once since the inaugural matches in 1994.
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JJ Spaun was a winner over the weekend, but won’t be on Ryder Cup dutyCredit: Getty
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Rocco Mediate believes a Ryder Cup radical shake up is needed – and abandoning team colors should be an optionCredit: Getty
However the United States are not the team force they once were and Rocco Mediate is the latest player to voice concerns that recent changes do not go far enough.
“We keep having the same captains, same ones. Find someone else, do something else, change it up. But they’re not gonna,” six-time PGA Tour winner Mediate said.
“Love Jim Furyk, love the guys, love them – but change something up. Same assistant captain. Same everything.”
After last year’s Ryder Cup defeat to Europe, both the women’s Solheim Cup team and the amateur Walker Cup team have been beaten in 2026.
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That Ryder Cup defeat, despite a valiant showing in the final day singles at Bethpage, was the Americans sixth defeat from the last eight matches.
Overseas it’s an even more embarrassing wait with the US not winning on European soil since 1993.
Underlining Mediate’s point, the PGA of America have given Jim Furyk another crack at captaincy, the second time in the last six Ryder Cups that they have gone back to a familiar face.
Furyk was captain in France for a 17.5 / 10.5 defeat and while Steve Stricker was a dominant 19-9 winner in 2021, Zach Johnson and Keegan Bradley led the US to back-to-back defeats.
It has prompted a dramatic shake up in selection criteria, with Furyk outlining those plans in a recent announcement that confirms only the calendar year of the matches will be used in the points race.
But Mediate’s belief is that they go even further to stop a decline that has delivered just three wins since the turn of the century.
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Mediate did not hold back with ideas for how USA can try to win back the Ryder CupCredit: Getty
“If I’m the captain, I’m not in a cart riding around. I’m going to sit in the locker room, watch it on TV, maybe have a Diet Coke,” he said.
“I’d tell them, ‘Guys, listen – pair yourselves up, if you don’t like the clothes, play in your own clothes’. It shouldn’t make a difference in your life. It should just be fun.
“People will say, ‘that’s the dumbest thing’, but then you’ve got to remember, ‘Wait a minute — this isn’t working’.”
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Tiger Woods has yet to captain the Ryder Cup team, but was President’s Cup captain in 2019Credit: Getty
Mediate never made a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team – and is most famous for running Tiger Woods close at the 2008 US Open where he was beaten in a playoff.
Now 63 he plays on the PGA Champions Tour and clearly believes a shake up is needed to stop the rot.
Not everyone shares that belief, including Furyk’s assistant captain Justin Leonard, who has never captained the USA despite three Ryder Cup appearances and five in the Presidents Cup.
He believes that having the same faces around will give the US a chance to learn before they head to Ireland for the 2027 Ryder Cup.
“The fact that Jim [Furyk] is there, Keegan [Bradley] is there, and Brandt [Snedeker] has been around the teams and Webb [Simpson] as well,” he also told Golf.com.
“I’m sure there’ll be some things, some good things that we’ll take from next week to get things going in a better direction.”
The US have already come under fire for not picking 2025 US Open champion J.J. Spaun for this week’s matches in Montreal.
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Spaun was overlooked for this week’s Presidents Cup in Canada
The 34-year-old had the last laugh, heading to the UK to play in the BMW PGA Championship, where he emerged victorious on Sunday and admitted he was fired up by being overlooked.
“I played with a huge chip on my shoulder. I definitely had something to prove this week but everything happens for a reason,” said Spaun.
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“My whole career, I’ve kind of had to do that. I wasn’t given scholarships. I had a walk-on. I had to earn my PGA Tour card the hard way.
“Being left off the Presidents Cup team a couple weeks ago was very disappointing, and you know, I wanted to prove that I deserve to be on that team.”