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POINT: ‘I’ve been laughing all week’
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COUNTERPOINT: Azinger’s ‘whatever it takes’ attitude is refreshing
What a snow job.
Not that Paul Azinger is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of American golf fans, but all this talk about selecting Nationwide Tour or Champions Tour players for the U.S. Ryder Cup team is hilarious.
I’ve been laughing all week. Azinger must think dopey Americans are willing to believe anything.
The level of play on the Nationwide Tour or Champions Tour is substandard compared to the PGA Tour. If Azinger picks a satellite player for this team, I will wash his courtesy car every day of Ryder Cup week.
The reality of Ryder Cup competition is this: Americans are not very good at it.
Furthermore, U.S. Ryder Cup captains spend too much time looking for outside motivation. The last U.S. Ryder Cup captain, Tom Lehman, continually talked about having fun, as if it could be imported or implanted.
Earth to Tom: We didn’t need it. Anyway, what we got was a bunch of Americans with long faces and sour demeanors – just the opposite of fun.
The best golfers in the world already know how to prepare themselves for big-time tournament play. They don’t need to be pumped by philosophical speaking or motivational cheerleading.
If I had to choose one person to address the team, I would be tempted to pick a combat strategist such as Gen. David Petraeus, fresh from the Iraq War.
Inspirational speaking is a funny thing. In golf, it’s not necessarily a good thing. The passion might be there one minute, then it’s gone. It’s like a sugar high. Once it disappears, players crash and burn.
The mission in golf is to maintain a levelheaded determination for 18 holes. Getting jacked before the match, or while standing on the first tee, can be a prescription for losing. It’s a long haul out there, battling for18 holes and four hours. We need cool assassins, not rah-rah guys.
I like the appointment of Raymond Floyd as a co-captain. Now there’s a golfer I would listen to – steely and mean, he lets his eyes do the talking.
A dynamic approach to team golf has affected all the Americans, even Tiger Woods. Are you telling me that Woods needs to listen to a pep talk before the Ryder Cup? Such a notion is ludicrous.
Paint an unfamiliar game face on Woods and what you get is a player who is forced out of his normal routine. How else do we explain his 10-13-2 Ryder Cup record?
There is something wrong with the idea that Americans need extra motivation or preparation. It’s already there. Forget about all this phony pulse-raising protocol. Just let them play.
One more observation: If the Ryder Cup were 12 against 12 for three days, I would take the Americans every time. But it isn’t. Over the first two days, only eight of 12 players are selected to play in each of four rounds. Only in singles do all 12 players participate.
This format hurts the Americans, who invariably have a deeper team.
Picking eight of 12 for better-ball (four-ball) and alternate shot (foursomes) is a tricky procedure. The Europeans seem much better suited to these team games.
Why? Perhaps it is their background in golf, playing more team golf in their amateur careers. Perhaps it is their heightened camaraderie, learning their craft while they travel a bumpy professional road from one country to another on the PGA European Tour.
American golfers, with their jet planes and staggering wealth, have become singularly independent. Team golf is unfamiliar to them, like a drive into deep rough.
Sure, they will play it, but not comfortably.
If Azinger is serious about selecting players from the Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour, I suggest this strategy: Choose two from each tour, then pair them together in every round of team competition. Just think of the pride among these unexpected Ryder Cuppers. Think of the underdog mentality that would drive them. Think of the worldwide interest among golf fans.
Oops. I was just dreaming.
There is no way on God’s green fairways that Azinger will choose a player from the Nationwide Tour or Champions Tour.
The U.S. Ryder Cup team will be populated with the usual suspects and – it wouldn’t surprise me – with the usual depressing results.
Posted: 3/13/2008
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