Davis: Maybe "The Best Team Ever Assembled" Is Only Something Coaches Say To Fire Up Their Team
Davis Love sought to clarify his eye-opening comments on Fairways of Life and, maybe, maybe he did not offer the best clarification ever. But on thing is clear: he no longer is saying the 2016 Ryder Cup Team USA is the best ever assembled. 
Here is what was said last week in response to a question from Matt Adams:
“We don’t have to do anything superhuman, we’re a great golf team,” Love said. “This is the best golf team, maybe, ever assembled.”
The clip again:
Love was asked about the comments Tuesday at Hazeltine and said the line was lost in the context of the %$#@!& coaches tell teams in motivational speeches.
Q. Your comments last week about potentially the best team ever assembled raised some eyebrows. What went into saying that, kind of a bold statement, and was there any concern about kind of adding a little motivation to the European Team room, because there's been some back and forth since then regarding that.
DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, it raised some eyebrows around our team, too, because if you listen to the interview, or it wasn't really an interview, it was a send-off that Matt Adams does for the American Captain, a very nice guy from Canada called in and said, I'm supporting the U.S. Team, I just think they need a little bit more swagger when they go out and play. And I said, I agree with you, we've got to get these guys going.
And I told a story that Tom Kite always told me, just out-drive them and walk faster than them, get to your ball first and dominate. Every time you get 2-up, you know what's better than 2-up?
I said, No, what?
He goes, 3-up.
He was trying to give me an attitude of, you're better than them, let's out-play them. Let's show them that you're better.
Then Matt Adams was asking me, What are you going to tell your team?
And I said, I would tell my team they're the best team ever assembled. Let's go out and show off and play and have fun.
That's what Nick Saban would tell his team when they're getting ready to go play Ole Miss. He wouldn't say, You guys have done a pretty good job this week, and you're a pretty average team, let's go out there and just give it a good shot. No, he's going to say, You guys have worked hard, you're the best team I've ever seen, let's go crush these guys.
By revealing to the world that he comes from the coaching school that says throw out any superlatives to fire-up a team, doesn't that make the words ring hollow when the team knows this?
Oh wait, right, pro golfers don't read. Oh, and golf isn't a team sport. But go on...
So the question wasn't, how do you rank this team in history. It was, what are you going to tell your team to fire them up. So I would still tell them the same thing, you're a great team, let's go out there and have some fun, play your game, don't get in your own way.
I think we try to be -- especially like our top players, five or six guys, whether it's Davis Love and Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard in '97; we try too hard to be better than we are or to do something extraordinary, and I think we get in our own way doing that sometimes. And we just need to understand that we're a really good golf team, they are a really good golf team. If we just go play our game, the results will take care of themselves.
It's just unfortunate that, you know, in that nice conversation, that it got misconstrued.
Backtracking alert! Maybe the best team, emphasis on the maybe.
Obviously that comment and to the other extreme, the comment about The European Team, is not what this is all about. So Darren and I have already talked about both of those things, and that's just part of The Ryder Cup. And our team's happy, their team's happy. We're out there working hard and moving on.
On another note, the best team comment popped up in Rory McIlroy's comments on motivation today...
Whenever we are going up against one of the greatest teams ever assembled, that's motivation enough, just to say, how good a victory would this be if we go out and beat these guys on their home soil that, you know are -- look, they are a very, very strong team. But at the same time, we have so many strong players.
Geoff
**Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com dissects Love's comments and concludes that the captain needs to get used to the dissecting.
Reader Comments (8)
I'm supporting the Euros but I have a feeling the US team could win it for Arnie.
Thanks for getting the comments back up Geoff, it's an integral part of your blog, always entertaining.
DM
You don't want to be writing checks you can't be sure you can cash. But all this will mean zero once the event starts. They'll call the players names and they'll have to go play and decide this thing.
Can't wait.
Good to have the comments back!
It is not about a team being the best ever assembled. It's about which team performs best over a mere 3 day period. And it's my impression that the team which is putting best usually wins.
also, once he said it, he should have stuck to it and not tried to walk it back. whether he is correct or not is beside the point. wherever the discussion goes after he shot off his mouth should just be bulletin board material for the US team. anything else looks weak and vacillating.