Cracking the Code Book Summary

The Inside Story of the Innovative System Behind America's Surprising 2008 Ryder Cup Victory

"If you want to bring the Ryder Cup team together, maybe you have to break it apart." (Page 23)                                   

2008 Ryder Cup Captain Paul Azinger reveals the behind-the-scenes story of the code - the innovative strategy that helped mastermind America's 2008 Ryder Cup victory.  In Cracking the Code, Azinger unveils the plan The Wall Street Journal called "a novel, multi-faceted team-building strategy that worked to perfection - and which might provide an intriguing management model for business" (Sept. 27, 2008).

"Having played on four Ryder Cup teams . . . I had experienced the full range of Ryder Cup emotions.  I knew the agony that coursed through the losers, and I knew the overwhelming joy that filled the winner. . . .  Now my job as Ryder Cup captain was to create an environment where our guys could bond and thrive as a team." (Pages 17-18)

Tapping his friend, relationship specialist Dr. Ron Braund, Azinger sought to create a radical team approach in a game dominated by individual greatness.  The result was a strategy that focused on several key principles inspired by elite military operations and top businesses that can be applied far beyond sports:

• Break the 12-man team into four-man "pods"
• Place players in pods based on personalities rather than golf assets
• Change the points system to reward "hotter" players and give four "captain's picks" instead of the traditional two
• Control the controllables
• Trust and empower assistant captains and the players
• Communicate with each golfer based on his personality type

Amid the incredible story of some of golf's most pressure-packed moments, Cracking the Code (Looking Glass Books, 2010) illustrates a system that helped America's best golfers capture Ryder Cup glory "by laying aside their individual pursuits for a single week and bonding like brothers on golf's greatest stage" (inside cover, Cracking the Code).

-30-

• Cracking the Code Book Summary
• Cracking the Code Book Excerpts
• Author Paul Azinger Bio
• Author Dr. Ron Braund Bio
• Download Book Cover-Print Image (300 dpi)
• Download Book Cover-Web Image (72 dpi)