Show notes
Justin Leonard on the Ryder Cup Plan for 2027 — and Why He Wants to Be a Captain Someday
Justin Leonard is now a vice captain for Team USA under Jim Furyk heading into the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. In this conversation he opens up about why he took the job, what he and Furyk are building for the long term, and his own ambitions to lead Team USA someday.
Why Justin Took the Job
When Jim Furyk called and asked Justin to be a vice captain, there was no hesitation. The two have been friends for roughly forty years, dating back to a junior golf tournament in Dallas when they were kids. They've played countless practice rounds together over the years, and Justin describes it simply — it's an honor to serve him and do whatever he asks to help Team USA.
This comes in the wake of a difficult situation for Keegan Bradley, who was passed over for the captaincy despite being a player who, under almost any other captain, would have made the team on merit. Justin's read on that situation is generous and clear-eyed — Keegan was put in a genuinely tough position, and if anyone else had been captain, Keegan likely makes that team and could have been the difference-maker, both at this past Ryder Cup and potentially in Rome before that.
Why Detachment Could Be an Advantage
Justin offers a thoughtful self-assessment of what he could bring as a future captain. He describes himself as not a particularly emotional person — more black and white, steady, comfortable getting into the details. He sees his slight distance from the current player pool — built through his broadcast work with NBC and Golf Channel, and his role as a President's Cup assistant in 2024 — as a genuine strength rather than a weakness. When hard decisions need to be made, that detachment helps. The closer relationships and day-to-day camaraderie, he says, are exactly what vice captains and assistants are for. His own leadership style would be quieter — setting a vision and trusting the team to embrace it. He sees Jim Furyk operating the same way.
The Long-Term Plan — 2027, 2029, 2031, 2033
This is not just about Adare Manor. Furyk and his staff are explicitly thinking in terms of continuity across multiple Ryder Cup cycles — building a blueprint that gets handed off from captain to captain rather than starting from scratch every two years. Part of that includes connecting the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup more deliberately, using the team match play experience and success from one to inform the other.
Everything is being evaluated — travel schedules, when the team arrives in Ireland, analytics support, coordination with the PGA of America. Justin is candid that this kind of long-range planning is new to him, having not been deeply involved in these conversations before, but he's encouraged by what he's seeing take shape.
Learning From Past Mistakes
Trey and Justin dig into the logistical failures of recent Ryder Cups. In 2018, the team flew to France immediately after the Tour Championship — the same week Tiger Woods won for the first time in over five years — arriving with, in Trey's words, the tank already empty. Going into Rome, the team had five weeks off beforehand with no competitive rhythm, and a number of players hadn't played in that stretch.
For 2027, there are two weeks between the Tour Championship and Adare Manor — which Justin sees as ideal. Players are used to having two weeks off; nobody is being asked to squeeze in an extra tournament. It also creates room to travel to Ireland earlier and actually acclimate, rather than arriving Monday night and teeing off days later with no time to adjust.
Justin points to what the European side has done successfully for years — going over early, staying together as a group, getting away for a few days to play golf and bond before the matches begin. That's the atmosphere Team USA is trying to build. Not ten or eleven days in the same hotel room, but a structure that balances togetherness with the reality that, ultimately, this is a business trip with one goal — winning on foreign soil.
The Goal
Justin is direct about where this is heading. He wants to be involved with Team USA for years to come, in whatever capacity is needed. But he's equally direct that the captaincy is something he genuinely wants — hopefully, at some point, that's part of the path. Given his history with Furyk, his self-described temperament, and the long-term planning he's now part of, this conversation reads less like a one-off vice captain assignment and more like the early chapters of a much longer story with Team USA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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