Ryder Cup 2008: Lessons from Paul Azinger
In case you missed it, the U.S. won the Ryder Cup of golf from the Europeans this past weekend – the first time in 10 years. Much of the excitement was around U.S. Captain Paul Azinger’s change in the points system used to select the 12 players who would compete on the U.S. squad. Which lead me to the question – is Paul Azinger the next Billy Beane?
The Ryder Cup team selection process works in a similar way. The Ryder Cup is played every two years, and the points system would take into account those two years of tournament results to select the 10 top golfers from hundreds of potential PGA players. Azinger did not agree with the details of the approach, and required the PGA of America to change its selection process before he would accept the role of Captain. His goal was to select the best players who had the most potential to win the Cup back from the Europeans.
As part of the new selection process, Azinger put more emphasis on the biggest, most pressure filled tournaments – the “majors” like the U.S. Open or Masters. He also changed the selection date so more recent tournaments right before the Ryder Cup would count towards the points system. The selection process was a great example of the use of analytics to make better decisions. The process was fair - everyone knew how the points system worked and could see after each tournament where they stood. Like Billy Beane as baseball, Azinger has forever changed the Ryder Cup and the system the U.S. will use to put its best players on the course.
My question for corporate America is this – If you had to pick your top team members for a critical project or initiative, do you know how would you do it? Would you use your “gut instinct”, or do you have a fair system of measurement in place?
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