Alex Miceli - September 4, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Sep 4, 2012 7:33 AM ET

Golf Channel Contributor Alex Miceli is in New York City for the announcement of the 4 U.S. Captain’s Picks for the 2012 Ryder Cup team. He feels that at the beginning, 2 spots may have been locks for the team but over the next three weeks those two locks changed based on how they have played recently. Miceli feels that Davis Love III will place a lot of value in experience when it comes to who he will pick for the team. Europe has a great team this year and no matter how good you are, the pressure of a Ryder Cup is different from anything else and you need to be able to have an understanding of what you are about to face.

A couple of weeks ago, many people would have said that you could not leave Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler off of the U.S. team. But since they have not played well, Mahan and Fowler have been replaced by Snedeker and Dustin Johnson as the pair of players who many cannot imagine not being on the team.

Miceli does not believe that Davis Love III is the kind of person to go outside the box with at least one of his four picks. He will likely pick four people who have the right blend of experience and good performance.

Rory McIlroy won at TPC Boston despite not having his “A” game. McIlroy admitted himself that he made numerous mistakes during the tournament and it is not unlike what Tiger Woods was doing at the age of 23 when he won tournaments without his “A” game. Prior to this week, McIlroy held a narrow lead in the Official World Golf Ranking but with his win he has been able  to put some distance between him and everyone else.

A number of players had criticized the changes to the 18th green but when Luke Donald sent out his tweet expressing in clear terms his disapproval of the redesign as well as the architect. Hanse was not trying to make the hole more difficult but instead he was trying to make the players think more before attempting to hit the green in 2 shots.