Jim Furyk gets the Ryder Cup captaincy again after Tiger Woods turned it down, is this actually the right call for the USA

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The USA has turned back to a familiar face for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland, confirming Jim Furyk as captain after Tiger Woods withdrew from consideration for the role. It is Furyk's second stint in the job, with his first coming back in 2018 in France, a campaign that ended in a heavy 17.5 to 10.5 defeat to Europe and a fair amount of criticism at the time, most notably from Patrick Reed, who was vocal about being benched for two sessions under Furyk's captaincy that week.

Furyk does at least arrive with a much stronger recent record to point to than that 2018 defeat alone would suggest, having led the USA to an 18.5 to 11.5 win over the International team at the 2024 Presidents Cup, a result that will have done plenty to rebuild confidence in his leadership credentials after the way the Ryder Cup ended six years earlier. Reflecting on the difference between the two captaincies, Furyk himself has said he felt a lot more prepared this time around than he was back in 2018, crediting that Presidents Cup experience with helping smooth out some of the rough edges from his first crack at leading the team.

The Adare Manor venue itself adds another layer of intrigue to the appointment, since it is a course that has already generated plenty of buzz on the European golf circuit and will represent a genuinely different test to the French course where Furyk endured his first defeat as captain. Whether a second chance at the job with a stronger recent record behind him is enough to finally get the better of Europe on the road remains to be seen, but the pressure will clearly be on Furyk to show that 2018 was very much a learning experience rather than a sign of things to come.