NORTON, Mass. -- When those involved created the U.S. Ryder Cup task force, they admittedly did so with an eye toward not just winning this year's matches at Hazeltine but also planning ahead for the next decade.
So if you buy into that theory, when it comes to U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III's four wild-card picks, let's back up the talk with selections that help build the base of young American players who can earn valuable experience later this month in Minnesota.
Ever the diplomat, Jordan Spieth, who has already qualified for the U.S. team on points, split the fairway right down the middle when asked about that possibility.
"I've got friends on both sides," said the 23-year-old Spieth on Thursday before the Deutsche Bank Championship. "Personally, I think in the four picks, if you get a combination of a couple of younger guys and then a couple guys who have at least played on a Ryder Cup before. Right now, of the eight guys, we have one rookie, that's Brooks [Koepka].
"Ultimately the captains are there -- they know more about the stats. They know more about the history. We're so focused on what we're doing week to week right now through these FedEx Cup playoffs. That's their job. But they want our input."
Players like Bubba Watson (37 years old and ninth in points), Matt Kuchar (37 and 12th in points) and J.B. Holmes (34 and 10th in points) would all be considered solid additions to the roster. But we're looking at the long-term view here. The average age of the eight automatic qualifiers? Just north of 33.
Instead, if you add Daniel Berger (23), Rickie Fowler (27), Billy Horschel (29) and Justin Thomas (23) to that mix as the four picks, that number drops by nearly three full years. As of now, five of the eight already on Team USA are major winners, and three of those eight are multiple-major winners. So with all that experience, why not start building toward the future?
Love, who will make three selections after the BMW Championship and a last one the night of the final round of the Tour Championship, doesn't appear to be beholden to the Ryder Cup qualifying points list. Maybe he's willing to diverge from the norm of picking from the group of players who just missed out on automatically making the team?
"We have a Justin Thomas or a Jim Furyk who didn't play for, what, four months?" Love said earlier this week. "There's a lot to look at. But filling holes, rounding out our team, obviously generically, you look at the European team, they need experience. You look at our team, we can pick more rookies; we have a lot of experience. But there's a lot that goes into it."
Love could go the younger route or with the safer, more familiar pick like a 46-year-old Furyk. The U.S. captain has noted in recent weeks how far down the list Phil Mickelson was when Jay Haas picked him for the 2015 Presidents Cup team. (Mickelson was 30th in points.)
That could open up the door for Thomas, who was 25th in points at the cutoff mark on Sunday. No one is saying Thomas and the five-time major champ are of the same stature, but Thomas would have been significantly higher if his win at the CIMB Classic last year counted toward the Ryder Cup points. Because of a new rule instituted by the task force, which Mickelson was part of, it was left off.
U.S. vice captain Steve Stricker hinted that the next three weeks of playoff events might be more of an audition and less about the age of the player vying for a captain's pick.
"I think it's just going to be about who's playing the best at the time in these next couple of weeks," Stricker said. "Who's going to step up their game and play well?"
That last pick is better known as the Billy Horschel rule. When he won the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship in back-to-back events before the 2014 Ryder Cup, he didn't make the team. This time around, a spirited Horschel could theoretically keep up his strong play of late -- a T-5 at the Wyndham Championship and T-13 at the Barclays in his past two starts -- and get the shot he missed out on in two years ago.
Two other 20-somethings who could give Team USA a more youthful look would be Fowler and Berger. Fowler already played on two Ryder Cup squads and nearly made the team on points, if not for a late-round breakdown at the Barclays. But Berger, a former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, would be well-served to get his first taste of the biennial matches at home, where the pressure will be less than a debut on the road.
So let's give the young guys a shot at Hazeltine. It's not as if the other system has been working, right? American losses in six of the past seven Ryder Cups can attest to that fact.
If the task force was conceived to build for the future, pay it more than lip service and get younger players some Ryder Cup experience, especially on home soil.