Is Love best or second-best pick?

— -- Perhaps we will never know for sure, given the importance of coming together and putting aside the acrimony that existed in the aftermath of the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

Tom Watson turned out to be an epic failure as captain, Phil Mickelson got his point across that the U.S. players needed a bigger voice and a continuous plan going forward, and the PGA of America acquiesced by delaying the naming of the next captain and forming a task force.

After all that, they come up with Love, who was a losing captain in 2012?

Love might be a good choice, but is he the best? Or even second-best?

Golf Channel reported Monday that Love will be named the 2016 captain at a news conference next week in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and to avoid any more ill-will, you have to believe those on the task force will publicly support the choice of a popular captain -- even in defeat -- who is a good guy and will carry that PGA of America banner.

We digress here for the obligatory "the captain can only do so much'' argument of how Love is not to blame (at least not fully) for that 14 ½-13 ½ defeat in 2012 at Medinah, just as Corey Pavin didn't lose the 2010 Ryder Cup by the same margin. For that matter, Watson could have done everything right at Gleneagles, and the Europeans might have still won, acknowledging their overall firepower.

But given the angst that played out over the past several months, didn't it become clear the players wanted Fred Couples to lead them at Hazeltine next year?

Couples went 3-0 as Presidents Cup captain, and most of the players who are so successful in that competition are also part of the perplexing spate of defeats in the Ryder Cup. Most have backed him as a player's choice for captain, and though the Presidents Cup is a far different animal than the Ryder Cup, you could see Couples as a launching point to the new era.

"I think that when you look at who the next captain is going to be, and you have to look in a big picture of the next 10 Ryder Cups, the next 20 years, as opposed to short-term,'' Mickelson said last week in San Diego. "I think that is one of the things that the task force is looking at is the details on how to set a game plan so that there's continuity from Ryder Cup to Ryder Cup, and you have great player development and leadership and that's consistent with each other.''

If that happens -- and if Love is part of it -- then great. But is that what is happening here, or did the PGA of America just pay lip service to the task force and move on?

As recently as last week in San Diego, where Couples showed up during the pro-am to walk nine holes with Tiger Woods, he expressed interest in the job. Mickelson certainly didn't discount him, nor the candidacy of Paul Azinger, the most recent U.S. captain to win, in 2008. It is unclear, however, if Azinger really wanted the gig again, or if he could get what he wanted as far as structuring the team.

So now it goes to Love, one of Couples' best friends and a guy who was on the 11-member task force. Did he just sell out one of his best friends in Couples? Or did he become a compromise choice because the PGA of America wanted no part of Couples, who is not viewed as the kind of captain who buys into all the ancillary nonsense that comes with the job?

The latter is more likely, which makes you wonder if the PGA of America cares more about promoting the event than winning it.

Again, that's not to knock Love, whose team built a 10-6 lead and somehow couldn't get it done Sunday at Medinah. But ... if you want to nit-pick -- and that's what all losing captains endure -- then you have to look at what occurred.

Love made two crucial errors that likely contributed to the defeat.

Remember the Mickelson- Keegan Bradley pairing that went 3-0 at Medinah? They were romping to an easy victory Saturday morning (7 and 6 over Lee Westwood and Luke Donald), and Love wanted to put them out again in the afternoon. Mickelson declined and stuck with his mantra that playing all five matches was not good for him.

Love was criticized for not forcing Mickelson and Bradley back out, but what he could have done was obvious: Take Bradley and put him with Tiger Woods, whose partner Steve Stricker was having an awful week. Woods and Stricker lost to Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald 1-up. Who knows what Bradley might have meant, but a half-point there would have proved huge.

The other error was putting Stricker out so late Sunday. He was in the 11th position, a crucial spot if the matches became tight. Sure enough, everyone at the end mattered. Stricker was off his game that week and went 0-4; he should have been sacrificed early, when it was clear Europe had to be strong in the beginning. As it turned out, Stricker lost 1-up to Martin Kaymer -- who clinched the Cup for Europe.

Again, this is harsh on Love, who did mostly everything right and simply didn't get the production he needed Sunday.

He suffered greatly after that loss, and the players commented how bad they felt for not winning the Ryder Cup for him. Love, a 20-time PGA Tour winner and six-time Ryder Cup participant, is certainly not a bad choice.

But is he better than Couples, whom the players apparently wanted? Is he better than Paul Azinger, another player they wanted and a previous captain who won?

Or is he simply a compromise who is better at waving those PGA of America pom-poms?