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Ryder Cup win begs question: Does US still need task force?

United States’ Rickie Fowler and United States’ Jimmy Walker celebrate during the closing ceremony of the Ryder Cup golf tournament Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) United States’ Rickie Fowler and United States’ Jimmy Walker celebrate during the closing ceremony of the Ryder Cup golf tournament Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

By Associated Press October 3, 2016 5 min read

CHASKA, Minn. (AP) – Memo to the 11-member U.S. task force organized to break Europe’s near-chokehold on the Ryder Cup:

You did well. Now take the next couple years off.

The most lopsided win for the American team since 1981 in the bag, there doesn’t seem much need to change the formula that carried the U.S. to a 17-11 win Sunday at Hazeltine National Golf Club. Probably not much need to change the captain, either, after Davis Love III came up a winner in his second time at the helm.

But Phil Mickelson is both a tinkerer and a thinker, and he doesn’t figure to leave well enough alone. He’s also the most influential member of the task force, and may tweak a few things for the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris.

“For us to go to Europe and try to win the Cup is a whole different feat,” Mickelson said. “That’s going to require a whole different level of play, of solidarity, of fortitude and we are going to have to build on this in two years if we want to try to retain the Cup.”