At PGA time, Ryder Cup takes over
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. - Time was that you start talking about the Ryder Cup and the people you're chatting with: 1. Look politely away; 2. Cough into their neckwear; 3. Head for the backdoor. These days, you mention the Ryder Cup and you draw a crowd, as Paul Azinger, captain of the 2008 Ryder Cup team, did Wednesday.Which is a measure of the Ryder Cup. Because everyone's here at Oakland Hills for the PGA Championship, the last of the season's four majors, a pretty good golf event in its own right. True, it is not really possible to separate the two. The PGA runs the American side of the Ryder Cup, and this PGA Championship, which begins Thursday, is the final event in which players can win points to fill the first eight berths on the 12-man team.
And so on the final day before the final major of the season, a day usually given over to speculating on who would win, etc., the most compelling topic of discussion was the Ryder Cup, and the two most compelling Ryder Cup topics are who will make the team, and the one guy who won't. Meaning Tiger Woods, now recovering from knee surgery in June.
It has been suggested that the American team might actually be better without Woods, in that the guys won't be idling along waiting for him to do something, and try to play better themselves. This position presupposes that the Americans haven't been trying their best, and so that's why the Europeans, those practitioners of a lesser tour, have been able to beat them so regularly. Azinger all but snorted at the notion.
“I don't see one single positive that Tiger Woods isn't on our team,” said Azinger, himself a four-time Ryder Cupper with a 5-7-3 record and best known for his little contretemps with Seve Ballesteros. “I can't imagine how you can argue a team would be better off without potentially the greatest player who has ever lived, certainly the greatest player of his era.”
And for this reason, Azinger named the Europeans the favorites when the game gets on at Valhalla, in Louisville Sept. 19-21. It's probably the first time the Euros - who have won five of the last six -- have been tagged as favorites. This speaks to the power of perception. It seems the perception persists that the European Tour is not as strong as the U.S. PGA Tour. This is true, in terms of depth. But forgotten in an argument is that many of the top European golfers either are members of the U.S. tour - such as Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald - or drop in from time to time to get in a few tournaments.
So the real answer is - and save the bonding argument for the therapists -- man for man down the lineup, the Euros simply have been better golfers. Not to spout your average heresy.
Many have argued that the Europeans bond better than the Americans, playing the same tour and traveling together and all that. Well, maybe a little bonding can go a long way, but this far?
The Americans (with Tiger Woods) have lost the last three Ryder Cups and five of the last six. The U.S. has won only once with Woods on the team, in 1997 at The Country Club when Justin Leonard polished off a scintillating rally by holing a 45-foot birdie putt to halve the match against Jose Maria Olazabal. Woods was 2-3 in that Ryder Cup, and an ineffective 10-13-2 in his five appearances.
Which is no attempt to refute Zinger's position on having the world's best player on your team. But on becoming captain Zinger made a radical move. He wanted, and got, four captain's picks to go with his eight players of the points list. Previously, it was 10-2. This would give Zinger a chance to get players who were running hot in the final months before the match. He has till Sept. 2 to make his choices.
Zinger is looking good with the six players atop the points list -- Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and Justin Leonard. But picking four players to go with them suddenly isn't as simple a prospect as it seemed.
“The four picks are going to be a little more difficult than I thought,” he said. “If I just take the top eight guys that are not in the top eight right now, go down to 16, there are a lot of really quality options there for me.”
He means the guys from No. 9 through No. 16 in the points standings: Woody Austin, Hunter Mahan, D.J. Trahan, Rocco Mediate, Sean O'Hair, 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and J.B. Holmes. But there's always a chance of the unthinkable.
“And there could be somebody all the way down to the 24th name that could get hot at the right time and just sidestep all those guys and go right to the top of my selection process,” he said.
Azinger considered the past, and thought of the job ahead, which some have made a national cause and not just a golf match.
“We have been out-putted and also outplayed,” Zinger said. “If Europe beats us again, then it's time to say maybe they are beating us because they are just that much better.”
Which is what some observers have been saying all along.
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