Crenshaw eyes returning Ryder Cup to U.S.

Ben Crenshaw gets choked up just thinking about the Ryder Cup, but the U.S. Captain knows the sort of steely resolve it will take to wrest the trophy from Europe in September's clash at The Country Club.

Crenshaw needed a few moments on Tuesday to collect himself after watching a video on the Ryder Cup and listening to past captains such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Dave Marr extol the virtues of the match play competition.

"It is such an honour to see those guys talk about this match," Crenshaw, tears welling in his eyes, told a group of reporters over lunch. "It moves me quite a bit."

Gentle Ben may be a softie when it comes to golf nostalgia, but the two-time Masters champion knows what it takes to win.

"This is not a picnic," he said, the fire back in his glance. "You can't expect flowers and roses going through this path. This is intense competition.

"Personal, prideful competition."

The 33rd Ryder Cup matches will be staged September 24-26 in Brookline, Massachusetts, with a 12-man U.S. team trying to end Europe's four-year reign in the biennial competition.

Europe retained the cup 14-1/2 to 13-1/2 at Valderrama in Spain in 1997 after snatching it back two years earlier by the same score with a Sunday singles ambush at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York.

Crenshaw, one of the game's greatest putters, is preaching the gospel of the short game as the key to conquering The Country Club and the Europeans.

"Every week you kind of live and die with your short game, he said. "You know it's going to be important that week."

Crenshaw said the Brookline layout with its smallish greens demands accurate approach shots and delicate execution from off the putting surface. He said he is urging U.S. players to practice, practice, practice the short stuff.

"I'm encouraging everyone to work hard on their short games, which is vital in match play," added Crenshaw, who plans to bring the full U.S. team to Brookline for practice after the WGC-NEC Invitational tournament at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio ending August 29.

The soft-spoken Texan believes recent Ryder disappointments will fuel his team. "Quite frankly, we're due," he said.

"There's a sense of urgency, no question about that."

Following the PGA Championship at Medinah, Illinois in seven weeks, Crenshaw will name two captain's picks to complete the U.S. squad. The top 10 players in the points standings win automatic berths on the team.

David Duval, Tiger Woods, Payne Stewart, Davis Love and Mark O'Meara and Hal Sutton have virtually clinched berths.

Crenshaw did not want to speculate on captain's choices, but he indicated that Phil Mickelson would be a pick should he fail to finish in the top 10.

Mickelson, who plans to play only the British Open and PGA Championship this summer in order to help care for his newborn daughter, is currently eighth in the standings.

"I'd love Phil to make the team on points so I wouldn't have to pick him," said Crenshaw. "A player of that talent, you'd want to have him on the team."

Crenshaw was more bold about European captain Mark James's possible picks, saying he believed 19-year-old Spanish sensation Sergio Garcia would be placed on Europe's team.

"There's no substitute for confidence," Crenshaw, 47, said of Garcia, who since turning professional following the Masters finished tied for third at the Byron Nelson Classic and was 11th at the Memorial in U.S. tour stops.

"When you're 22 or 21 (actually 19), you think you can do anything. A kid like that is extra special. There's no question he's going to be on the team, in my mind."

Asked about the effectiveness of Seve Ballesteros's hands-on style as European captain in the last matches, Crenshaw said he would be his own kind of captain.

"My foremost task is to get each player to play his own game," he said. "What it boils down to is you still have to play your own game. And it's very difficult with all the things going on that week. My job is to make the players believe in themselves."

"I'm not going to change my personality. These players know me. They know I have a highly competitive side. If I change, they'll know that. I have to relate what I know to them."

Reuters