The PGA of America will cast its net far and wide in an attempt to arrest the United States’ Ryder Cup decline.

An 11-man task force charged with solving the problem was named yesterday, and it includes past captains, former and present-day players, and officials with decades of experience of winning — and losing — between them.

Of the past 40 years’ worth of Ryder Cup matches, all but two American sides are represented on the committee, and Derek Sprague, co-chairman of the task force and PGA of America vice-president, said the search for answers would not be limited to the chosen 11.

Pete Bevacqua, the PGA’s chief executive officer, will be co-chairman, while past captains Raymond Floyd, Tom Lehman and Davis Love III, past Ryder Cup team members Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods, and Paul Levy, the PGA secretary, will also sit on the committee.

“We could have had a task force of 100-plus people, but obviously that’s unmanageable,” Sprague said. “But with the past captains and players involved, we will be able to reach out to all past captains and players.”

The most significant decision that the task force is likely to make will surround the selection of captains in the future, an issue brought to the fore in very public fashion early this year.

How that has been done in the past, and how it will be done in the future, is likely to be the topic of lively discussion. For Sprague, though, the need to get that right is paramount.

Taking a short-sighted view of the position, and who fills it in 2016, is not on the agenda.

“We can’t just focus on 2016, we need to look beyond that event and look several Ryder Cups down the road,” he said. “You’re vice-captains may be future captains within a certain period of time, so you build that continuity. And maybe the current captain stays on as part of the process as well after they’ve been captain of a winning or losing team.”

The process is the key component for Sprague, from how the players prepare the week of the Ryder Cup, to their media obligations, to the number of picks a captain gets for the team.

Everything is open for discussion in a process that Sprague sees operating over years, not months.

“What’s important is not to just focus on 2016, not just to focus on selecting the next captain. Keep the personalities and the names off the table and let’s just talk about the entire process.”

The long-term view is an integral part of what the task force hopes to achieve. Where teams have been selected in the past on a body of work that comprises less than two seasons of golf, Sprague wants vice-captains looking at players over the course of four or five years.

“You can’t expect these people to come together on the Monday before the Ryder Cup and expect great things from them as far as the team portion of that,” he said.

“A vice-captain today, who captains in 2018, 2020, they’ll be looking at players for three, four, five years.”