The
Ryder Cup
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| | | Lehman
omission still puzzling people Curtis
Strange, of all people, should have known better. The
United States Ryder Cup captain erred on Aug. 20 when he chose not to take Tom
Lehman with one of his two captain's picks. And Strange still has nearly three
weeks to think about that decision. When
the Americans defend the Ryder Cup at The Belfry in England starting Sept. 28,
one of the men who helped recapture the cup in stunning fashion two years ago
won't be there to help. As
the number of days before the defense begin to wind down and the images of the
dramatic win of two years ago begin to play more frequently on TV, it's hard to
believe that Strange won't second-guess himself, even if only for a few moments.
Instead of taking
Lehman -- a player who finished one spot out of a top-10 ranking which would have
automatically qualified him for the team, is 3-0 in Ryder Cup singles matches
and is 5-3-2 overall in Ryder Cup play -- Strange selected Paul Azinger and Scott
Verplank. While
Azinger, a tenacious competitor who is a veteran of the Ryder Cup wars of the
last decade, seems like a solid pick, the selection of Verplank raised some eyebrows.
Strange liked the fact that Verplank has faced a great deal of adversity in his
personal life, as he has battled illness and injury to become an outstanding PGA
Tour player. ``Scott
has a huge heart,'' Strange said. ``When you look at where he's come from -- injuries,
fighting diabetes everyday ... only he knows where that's taken him from. But
every day he has to wake up being a fighter, and you want that.'' That,
however, does not change the fact that Verplank, who finished 14th in the Ryder
Cup standings, is the first rookie who didn't make the team by automatically qualifying.
``I've said all
along I was looking for the two with the biggest heart, the most game, length
in the game to dominate a course or a player in match play ... who can handle
an atmosphere that will be different than anything they've seen before,'' Strange
said. If that's
true, wouldn't the captain want to go with someone who has already proven he can
handle -- and succeed -- in that atmosphere? Lehman's
fire and tenacity has been synonymous with the last three American Ryder Cup teams,
and his demeanor and game are perfect for a gritty and often bitter competition
that will never be about making pretty shots. In
an event in which the U.S. team showed up wearing combat fatigues for the 1991
competition at Kiawah Island, S.C., Lehman will always be a perfect fit. The
image of Lehman waving away a complaining Seve Ballesteros in 1995 at Oak Hill
in Rochester, his verbal sparring with Colin Montgomerie and his running war of
words with other European players and current Euro captain Sam Torrance is the
stuff that the Ryder Cup is made of. Some
of the European players singled out Lehman after the wild American celebration
following Justin Leonard's 45-foot putt on the 17th hole that sealed the victory
in 1999 at The Country Club at Brookline. Lehman fired back several times, and
has continued to express anger at the comments since then. It's
a clear indication that Lehman's intensity and desire to play in the Ryder Cup
is unabated, even by personal tragedy. Shortly
after the British Open in late July, Lehman's son Samuel was delivered stillborn,
five months into his wife's pregnancy. Following that, Lehman missed two cuts,
including the PGA Championship, and he slipped from 10th place to 11th when David
Toms won the year's final major. ``I
was emotionally spent,'' Lehman said. ``I was running completely on empty.'' Yet
Lehman was horribly disappointed when Strange didn't pick him for the team, which
seemed to show that the family tragedy wasn't weighing as heavily on his mind
anymore. ``They're
going through a tough time,'' Strange said of the Lehmans. ``It was a tough phone
call to make. Bottom line, he just hasn't played as well as we know Tom Lehman
can play.'' While
that may be correct, Lehman played almost well enough to make the team on his
own. And the point of the captain's picks is to give the captain flexibility in
shaping his team, not provide a consolation prize for someone who happens to be
playing well at the time. It's
why a player like Fred Couples, a Ryder Cup veteran who has often risen to the
occasion late in the competitions, was a captain's pick in 1995 and '97 and came
up with big performances on the final day both times, albeit in U.S. losses. Lehman
is an accomplished Ryder Cup player who hit a rough spot in his personal life
that carried over into his golf game. While Verplank, who comes off a three-stroke
victory at the Canadian Open on Sunday, is playing better than Lehman, the Ryder
Cup is a different animal than the PGA Tour. A strong year on the PGA Tour has
never been a good indicator of whether a player will succeed in the pressure-packed,
match-play format of the Ryder Cup. ``Obviously,
I'm playing OK,'' Verplank said Sunday after winning the Canadian Open. ``Not
that it really matters to me, but maybe to everybody else it makes Curtis look
a little smarter than he was. ``If
I play like this at The Belfry, then he's going to look a whole lot smarter.''
Whether Verplank
is up to the challenge remains to be seen. But Lehman is one player who has proven
he is built for the Ryder Cup, one of a select few who thrives under the microscope.
And Strange's own recent Ryder Cup experience should allow him to understand how
important that quality is. In
1995, Strange was a controversial captain's pick by his good friend Lanny Wadkins.
On the final day, in singles matches, Strange bogeyed the last three holes when
a par on any one of them would have retained the cup for the Americans -- and
prevented the U.S. effort that year from being nicknamed ``Choke Hill.'' Maybe
Strange was wary of making the mistake of taking Lehman for sentimental reasons.
Or maybe he just preferred to add some new blood in the form of Verplank. Whatever
the case, Lehman, who won his singles match 3 and 2 over Lee Westwood in 1999
as the United States routed the Europeans 8 1/2 -3 1/2 on the final day to regain
the cup, won't be around this time. It's
possible that Lehman could have provided inspiration for some of the younger U.S.
players at The Belfry, overcoming personal adversity to play for the cup in a
competition that is often about overcoming long odds. Unfortunately,
we'll never know. You can bet Strange hopes he isn't left wishing he had tried
to find out.
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International, in association with Ryder Cup, sponsors Golf Today
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