AKRON, Ohio — He didn’t try to backpedal. He had no interest in spinning a gulf between fact and fiction. Leave the damage control to those with heavy hearts and haunted heads.
Hunter Mahan walked off Firestone’s famed South Course, the sun boring a relentless hole into his skin and the media hammering away just as relentlessly following his pointed comments about the Ryder Cup in a recent national magazine article.
His remarks were made with sincerity and, if he’s guilty of anything, insight. Let the slings and arrows fall where they may.
“I said them and I just forgot who I was talking to. I was at my house. I was relaxed,” said Mahan following his opening-round 71 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. “Just kind of spouting off when I didn’t need to say anything. They weren’t intended to be hurtful to anybody.”
The Cliffs Notes version of Mahan’s snafu involves this year’s Ryder Cup – a team, for what it’s worth, Mahan desperately wants to play on.
“I’ve heard the whole week is extremely long. You’ve got dinners every night – not little dinners, but huge, massive dinners. I know, as players, that’s the last thing we want to do,” Mahan was quoted in this month’s edition of
Golf Magazine.
Mahan went on to criticize the PGA of America, which runs the Ryder Cup, for its selection of venues for the biennial match, how the proceeds from the Cup are distributed to charities and, perhaps most troubling, said of all the extracurricular activities players must endure, “you’re just a slave that week.”
The rub here is that Mahan, who is currently 11th on the U.S. points list, has never played on a Ryder Cup. He was asked why the American side seemed to perform so well at the Presidents Cup and so woefully at the Ryder Cup. What followed was a well-researched, thoughtful response. What showed up in print came across as arrogant and self-indulging.
Mahan has already reached out to U.S. captain Paul Azinger, calling him shortly after his comments were published on the magazine’s Web site.
“I assured him that my comments had nothing to do with my desire to make the team,” said Mahan, who went 2-3-0 on last year’s U.S. Presidents Cup team. “I think he was understanding of what I was trying to say. I wasn’t misquoted but it was kind of the wrong context. He understands how hard I want to make the team.”
Mahan understands that his comments may hurt his chances of earning a spot at Valhalla. The top eight players on the U.S. list after next week’s PGA Championship automatically qualify and Azinger has four captain’s picks.
What will be lost in this episode is that Mahan was simply repeating what he’s heard other, more accomplished players say for years.
“How would he know? He’s had to hear it from probably everybody who’s ever played on (both teams),” said Scott Verplank, a veteran of both cups. “I’m sure we talked about it last year at the Presidents Cup.
“If that’s all you hear sometimes perception becomes reality. But that’s a mistake on our part if that’s what we’re letting become reality.”
Players may grouse about having to put the penguin suit on and glad-hand during such an important competition, but, as Verplank put it, “if that’s what I have to do to be on the team I’ll be in a black tie every night.”
If Mahan is guilty of anything it’s subscribing to the often-individualistic world of the touring professional, a crime those of us in the media are also culpable of on occasion. Truth is, a full dance card may not be a player’s favorite part of Ryder Cup week but it’s part of the process. Like uncomfortable pairings and conceded putts.
“Both teams do the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you run a marathon every night,” said Stewart Cink, who has played on six Ryder and Presidents cups (three each). “Whether both teams are doing nothing or both teams are doing a lot, I don’t think it has any effect on the outcome.”
Mahan has a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to crack the top eight in points. If he doesn’t, he probably shouldn’t wait by the phone for Azinger to call to offer him a “Get out of jail free” card.
“The whole thing that got lost in (the story) is that I would love to make the team,” Mahan said. “That was my goal at the beginning of the year.”
Posted: 7/31/2008
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