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CHASKA, Minn. -- Everywhere Davis Love III turned Sunday, there was someone waiting to hug him. The Ryder Cup was over, the Americans victorious, and now the celebration had begun. They hugged him while he was trying to watch the remaining matches. They hugged him during interviews. They hugged him when he was responding to texts. The scene around the 18th green at Hazeltine felt like a crowded subway platform, and right in the middle of all that exuberance and chaos was Love, a sly and satisfying grin painted on his face.It was a magical week, Love said.When it was?Bubba Watsons turn for a hug, he put his arms around Love and started sobbing. Not just crying, but full-blown, shoulder-shaking sobs. Thank you so much for letting me be a part of this team, Watson said, and Love put his head on Watsons shoulder for a second and let the two-time Masters winner bawl.That scene might be the best way to explain why Love turned out to be the perfect man to guide the United States out of a Ryder Cup rut. He has a knack for making everyone -- even quirky and prickly personalities like Watson -- feel loved.Leaving Watson off the Ryder Cup team in favor of Ryan Moore two weeks ago could have backfired badly. It could have made the entire task force the Americans put together into an easy punch line. There is no question Watson is the more talented player of the two, but his personality obviously rubs a lot of people the wrong way. When Love decided to go with his gut and pick Moore after the Tour Championship, he took another big risk in letting Watson be a part of the team as a vice captain. It seemed bizarre to leave a guy off the team because of his personality, and then invite him along anyway.But to everyones surprise, it worked. It wasnt a big thing, but it was a reflection of the way Love brought together a diverse group of egos and talent, and got the best out of all of them. Watson was a helpful presence throughout the week, driving carts, fetching food, texting with Love and Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker about strategy. It was clear, by weeks end, that Watson is someone who longs to be loved, to be a part of something, and in the midst of all the pressure that was on Loves shoulders, he still managed to make Watson feel like a big part of United States golf.This is what leadership looks like.Yes, the U.S. players still had to go out and play great golf all week. Its always easy to say, after the fact, that the captain did a great job when players hit the ball in the fairway and make putts. If you take the emotion out of it, its simple. The United States won just two of the past 10 Ryder Cups coming into 2016 because the Europeans played better every two years.But there is a flip side to that as well: If the players trust their captain, if theyre convinced hes organized, that he has a plan and hes not just drawing up pairings on a napkin an hour before their tee time, it puts them in the right place, mentally, to play great golf. Thats what the Europeans have done for nearly 20 years. They trust one another and feel like their captains understand their strengths and weaknesses.Love struck the right balance between analyzing stats and understanding the emotional tenor of every player. He got Phil Mickelson to buy into the same game plan that Patrick Reed bought into. He put together unlikely pairings like Brooks Koepka and?Brandt Snedeker?that made him look brilliant. Its no coincidence this is the first time since 1975 that every American player earned at least one point. Love tried to deflect credit in the post-match news conference, suggesting that all he did all week was drive a cart and respond to texts from Woods and Watson, but its clear no one in the room believed it.Theres a lot of pressure on these guys over the last couple years, Love said. We havent had a good run lately. Im thrilled for them that they got the win. Im proud of the way they competed all week. But mostly Im proud of the way they came together as a family and supported each other.A year ago, Love seemed a bit of an odd choice to captain this Ryder Cup team. He had a nice career, winning the 1997 PGA Championship and playing on six Ryder Cup teams. But he was, after all, the man in charge in 2012 at Medinah when the United States suffered its most embarrassing collapse in history, blowing a 10-6 lead on Sunday. Going back to him, giving him another chance on home soil, didnt make a lot of sense from the outside. But internally, in every meeting, the players who were a part of the infamous American task force felt as if Love deserved another shot. He didnt have an ego, he was eager to put in the work and he had the players respect.Hes the best leader, Furyk said. We came up with a plan, and he was the right guy to put it in place. I think we could all tell from that first meeting he was all in.One of Loves biggest strengths, clearly, was his willingness to put his ego aside and trust his vice captains. When Jordan Spieth and Reed blew a 3-up lead and halved their match with Sergio Garcia and?Rafa Cabrera Bello?on Saturday morning in foursomes, Love was leaning toward sitting them in the afternoon. He didnt know what to do, so he asked Woods for his input. Woods implored Love to send Spieth and Reed back out.Reed responded with one of the most memorable performances of the tournament, essentially beating Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson with his own ball. Just being a part of that decision clearly meant a lot to Woods. He said afterward hed be honored to serve as a Ryder Cup captain someday if he were asked by the Ryder Cup committee, of which he is a part.As a player who has been on these teams, to be on a different side of it, to be on the vice captaincy side has meant so much to me, Woods said. I learned a lot and I became really close to a lot of these guys, and its just been an honor to be a part of it. To be a part of getting to know these 12 guys, and these vice captains and our captain on a deeper level has meant so much to me. The relationships that weve forged here this week and actually before this week, these bonds will last a lifetime.In the post-match celebration, Love said while the win obviously meant a great deal to him, one of the things he was most proud of this year was developing (with Woods and Mickelson and other titans of American golf) an approach the U.S. can use going forward, for years to come.We started this process well over a year and a half ago, Love said. And were sitting there on the 18th green watching the last few matches come in, and Phil is already explaining whats going to happen in Paris.Love admitted his decision to go with Moore as his final captains pick, instead of someone like Watson or Justin Thomas or Daniel Berger, was extremely difficult. He agonized over it. Moore said he didnt think he had any chance of making the team before the last event of the season. Ill never forget riding down the freeway in my pickup truck talking to Ryan on the phone, Love said. One of the hardest conversations Ive had to have. I dont know what to tell a guy when hes going to play the Tour Championship and hes right on the bubble. It was a new experience for all of us.In the end, though, he took a chance on Moore after he lost in a four-hole playoff to Rory McIlroy at the Tour Championship, figuring it couldnt hurt to bring along one of the best putters on the PGA Tour. It was particularly satisfying, then, to see Moore close out the Ryder Cup with the winning point when he defeated Lee Westwood on the 18th green. Thats when the real hugging began.Love had made that final putt once himself, in 1993, when he took down?Costantino Rocca?to give the United States a win over Europe at the Belfry in England. After the celebration, Love realized hed never retrieved his golf ball from the hole, and it was long gone. Hed been hoping to keep it as a memento. He thought about that as he watched Moore putt Sunday, and noticed Moore was so eager to join the celebration, he too forgot his ball on the green.I went over and grabbed it and took it back to him, Love said. He didnt want it, so he gave it back to me. So now Ive got one from the last hole. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping . The 29-year-old Baines has established himself as one of the top attacking full backs in the country and was the subject of two bids from United during the last off-season. 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When Annika Sorenstam played in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial amid much fanfare as the first woman to compete in a PGA Tour event since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945, Lexi Thompson was only 8 years old.Ive seen highlights, but I didnt watch too much golf then, Thompson says. I was a little younger and too busy practicing myself.The work paid off. Thompson is 21 now, No. 5 in the Rolex Rankings -- the highest-ranked American golfer -- with seven career LPGA victories, having won her first title in 2011 at the then-record age of 16.Thompsons presence in this weeks Franklin Templeton Shootout, an unofficial PGA Tour team event in Naples, Florida, certainly isnt wrapped with the hype of Sorenstams appearance at Colonial, where she shot 71-74 to miss the 36-hole cut by four strokes while impressing with her skills and grace under pressure.Still, when Thompson tees off with PGA Tour rookie Bryson DeChambeau on Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club in the first round of the 54-hole event, it will be her first time competing against men in this type of scenario. She partnered with DeChambeau in the 36-hole CVS Health Charity Classic earlier this year, tying for sixth in the unofficial event, but played shorter yardages on most holes.A few holes were from the same tees, Thompson says, but for most part they were up.No woman might have a better background for venturing to the back tees in a mens tournament than Thompson, the first LPGA participant at the Franklin Templeton since Sorenstam paired with Fred Couples in 2006. Her two brothers, Curtis, 24, and Nicholas, 33, are professional golfers -- Curtis is on the Web.com Tour, and Nicholas has been on the PGA Tour for a decade -- and she learned how to play alongside her siblings.It helped me out a lot, Thompson says. It made me a lot stronger as a player and as a person. They got me started in the game, and they were always there to help. Growing up with two older brothers who played is the main reason I swing as hard as I do. I always tried to outdrive them, to be able to handle the golf course, and it definitely made me a lot longer.Thompson has been one of the LPGAs most powerful players since joining the tour as a teenager. She averaged 277.40 yards to rank second behind Joanna Klatten (281.37 yards) in driving distance during the 2016 season, the fourth time she has been No. 2 in the category. (Thompson was fourth in 2015.)The length will be needed. Thompsons 2016 drives would have ranked 178th on the PGA Tour. And the demands at Tiburon Golf Club will be much different for Thompson this week than they were in the LPGAs season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. The women play par-72 Tiburon at 6,540 yards; it will measure 7,271 yards on the scorecard for the Shootouts 12 teams in scramble, modified alternate shot and better--ball formats.ddddddddddddIts going to be different for her, playing the distance that the men do, says Curtis Thompson. But shes going to embrace whats going on and enjoy it. When she plays a couple of rounds before the tournament starts, shell adapt, shell figure it out. The par 5s and shorter par 4s is where shell succeed, and on the long par 4s and par 3s, Bryson will have to take over.Tiburons front nine, with three par 4s of 440 yards or more, will be a test for Thompson. So will three of the layouts par 3s, which will measure at least 205 yards, something she doesnt encounter on the LPGA.There will be a few holes that definitely can play very hard, that will be tough, says Thompson, who doesnt plan to carry any different clubs to take on the longer set-up. The par 3s will be a good amount longer than in our tournament, and I already have a 6-iron into two of them.Sorenstam and Couples finished last 10 years ago, shooting 18-under 198, 13 strokes behind the winning team of Jerry Kelly-Rod Pampling. The intimidation factor never really went away because theyre such good ball strikers, Sorenstam told reporters of competing with men at the end of the 2006 Shootout, which occurred during a decade when women were getting opportunities to test their games as Zaharias had in the 1930s and 1940s.A couple of months after Sorenstam played at Colonial, Connecticut teaching professional Suzy Whaley was in the field at the Greater Hartford Open. Michelle Wie, only 14, played in the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii, the first of 14 tournaments in which she competed against men on a handful of pro tours. Se Ri Pak and Laura Davies also made appearances in mens tournaments, Pak tying for 10th in a 2003 event in South Korea.Thompson, who got the Shootout invitation from tournament host Greg Norman, vows to enjoy the experience playing with DeChambeau, 23, who approaches golf like a physics class and in 2015 became only the fifth player to win the mens NCAA individual championship and U.S. Amateur in the same year.I dont look at it as pressure. Overall, its to have fun, Thompson says. I think its good for the LPGA to have someone out there playing out there playing against the men, and it will bring a bigger fan base to the LPGA. It was a huge honor to be invited. People on tour have been encouraging and theyre excited.Regardless of how Thompson fares in this different environment, the appearance is unlikely to shake up her career path too much.I really havent had an interest, she says of playing in an official mens event. My only interest is if my brothers are playing and if the golf course suited my game well. The LPGA competition makes it hard enough to win. ' ' '