Ryder Cup cash row overshadows Medinah

Tom Lehman was practicing 5-footers on the practice green in front of the clubhouse at the Medinah Country Club, all the while keeping a wary eye on a few reporters hanging around just outside the ropes.

A few minutes earlier, Lehman had emerged from a closed-door meeting with likely members of next month's Ryder Cup team and PGA officials aimed at diffusing a growing controversy over paying players to represent their country.

Much as he would have liked, Lehman knew the questions wouldn't be about his chances to win the PGA Championship that begins Thursday in this Chicago suburb.

The talk Tuesday wasn't about numbers, such as the 7,401-yard length of Medinah or how many under par it might take to win the final major of the year. It was about numbers like the $23 million profit the PGA reportedly will make from the Ryder Cup, and the $5,000 stipend players receive to compete in it.

It was enough to give Lehman a harried look as he stroked putt after putt to try and get ready for a week that could secure him a spot on the Ryder Cup team.

"All these issues will be resolved in the future. Now is not the time," Lehman said. "The idea of boycotting the Ryder Cup is, was and always will be ... ridiculous."

If the PGA Championship had enough image problems as the perennial stepchild of the four major tournaments, it didn't get any better as tournament preparations were overshadowed by the issue of paying Ryder Cup players.

PGA officials did their best to put the spotlight back on the tournament by holding an hour-long meeting with players at which they agreed to discuss ways of paying money to charities favored by the individual players on the team.

It seemed to work as the 16 top players on the Ryder Cup points list emerged from the meeting with a unified front, using phrases such as "non-issue" and "we're all on the same page" to proclaim their happiness with the current setup.

"We all agreed on everything," Jeff Maggert said after the meeting that included team captain Ben Crenshaw, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Jim Awtrey, the CEO of the PGA of America.

Awtrey and Finchem said they would work in the next few weeks to come to an agreement with players on Ryder Cup money being paid to their charities. But both said the players will not be paid to represent their country.

"The players do not want to be paid," Awtrey said. ``But the players are looking at how the Ryder Cup can be supportive of growth of the game and charities."

The midafternoon meeting put a hole in the practice schedules of the top players, with Tiger Woods hurrying off to play Medinah after it broke up.

Lehman, 11th on the Ryder Cup points list that accounts for 10 of the 12 team members, said he just wanted to get the issue behind him and play well enough to secure a spot on the team this week.

"Everybody is on the same page," Lehman insisted. ``The players are focused on playing."

David Duval helped spark the controversy with remarks of a possible boycott that he said were misconstrued.

"I never said I wanted to be paid," Duval said. ``I said I think that we should have money go back to our local communities. Some words were put on my mouth that probably shouldn't have been."

Even Greg Norman, who can't play in the Ryder Cup because he is Australian, was asked and offered his opinion on the issue.

"Sometimes you play for the flag," Norman said.

Though the players put on a united front after the meeting, Woods said just a few hours earlier that he thought players should be paid.

"I think we should be able to keep the money and do whatever we see fit," Woods said. "For me personally, I would donate all of it to charity. With all the money that's being made, I think that we should have a say in where it goes."

While the Ryder Cup controversy was the center of attention Tuesday, it was also a day for many in the field to get their first looks at Medinah, which will play more than 200 yards longer than it did when Hale Irwin won the U.S. Open here in 1990.

The course generally met with positive comments from players relieved not to find the tiny fairways and knee-high rough that plagued the British Open last month.

"I don't think we'll ever see fairways that narrow as long as we live," Davis Love III said of the Carnoustie layout. "This one is just a big, long, hard golf course."

The field of 150 includes defending champion Vijay Singh -- who won his first major in this tournament last year at Sahalla Country Club near Seattle -- and 25 club pros who were far removed from the Ryder Cup talk.

Scotland's Paul Lawrie also qualified for his first tournament in America with his win in the British Open, while France's Jean Van de Velde got an invitation despite his spectacular 18th hole collapse at Carnoustie.

"Hopefully, it's not going to be too humid," Lawrie said. ``But I've been in the sauna and stuff last week trying to prepare myself for the heat." AP