It's not about the captain
Paul Azinger will be a good captain.
The same way Tom Lehman ('06) in his straight-up manner was a good captain.
The same way Hal Sutton ('04) in his own bulldog way was a good captain.
The same way Curtis Strange ('02) in his khakis and white shirts was a good captain.
I could write the same sentences with Tom Kite ('97) and Lanny Wadkins ('95).
By won-loss record, the only great U.S. captain since the early 1990s has been Ben "I've Got a Feelin'" Crenshaw, who orchestrated a passionate four-point comeback in 1999.
You win, you're great. You lose, you can't be great. Not as a Ryder captain.
At the Tour Championship last week, Jim Furyk was describing the styles of the various captains he's played for since 1997, the organization of Kite, the feel of Crenshaw, the strategy of Strange, the communication skills of Lehman, and yet, when it comes right down to it, it's not about the captain. It's as Azinger said when he was announced the next U.S. captain on Monday. It's as Furyk said in the East Lake locker room on Friday.
In the end, it's on the players.
Sutton looks foolish because Woods and Mickelson played horrible. Kite gets "out-captained" by Seve Ballesteros when in fact the European team was revolting behind closed doors against Ballesteros. Strange gets the blame when his team can't close on Sunday. Same with Wadkins, back when this run for the Europeans started, in 1995 -- the last time a U.S. team had a lead going into Sunday.
What I like about Azinger is that he wants to shake it up. He's helped create a points system based on money, weighted even more toward the majors and the actual year of competition, that will challenge those who think they can make it on name. And he's helped create a situation that allows him to wait until the last possible minute to make his captain's picks.
With the Tour Championship butting right up against the Ryder Cup in 2008 -- nice coordination between the PGA Tour and the PGA of America -- that means the team tailor could be working on short notice to get the last uniform stitched.
But right now, it does not matter if Azinger brings the leadership skills of George Patton or the mind of Bill Gates. And it has nothing to do with the team not caring, not getting along, with an overabundance of money creating complacency, with match play vs. stroke play, and to some extent, with recent history.
As the last two nine-point blowouts have proved, the United States is not as good, not as deep, as Europe. And even from the top, there's a big gap between Woods and Furyk -- namely Mickelson, who is always tapped out come Ryder Cup time, leaving a big hole in the lineup. Don't get caught up in the news of the Azinger news conference. Thanks to the number-crunching of Golf World senior editor John Antonini, it is still the same pool of names.
The top eight from this year's team would remain the same. That would be Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, Chris DiMarco, David Toms, Chad Campbell, Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson. The next eight on the list would be Arron Oberholser, Tim Herron, Brett Wetterich, Tom Pernice Jr., Shaun Micheel, Lehman, Dean Wilson and Davis Love III.
Do you see a difference maker in this group?
The next eight would have been Scott Verplank (a captain's pick), Jerry Kelly, J.J. Henry (who made the team), Vaughn Taylor (who made the team), Lucas Glover, Fred Funk, Steve Stricker, Fred Couples and Brett Quigley.
Again, it's not like those names, or any combination, would come out looking better than what Ian Woosnam had on his lineup cards at The K Club. These are all good-but-not-great players. Remember, Woosie sat out Luke Donald (No. 9 in the World Rankings), Henrik Stenson (No. 11) and David Howell (No. 12) in the opening session Friday morning and won 2½ of the four points.
Azinger is already trying to lay down the psychological framework for the event, talking about the pressure that TV boothmate Nick Faldo will be under, how his team will bring a nothing-to-lose attitude to Valhalla in 2008, as well it should. He has even cut back on the number of official dinners, which, as Zinger said, should make Tiger happy.
At the end of the day, it's not about having Michael Jordan or President Bush there. It's not about the speeches, the dinners, the ridiculously overblown pregame and postgame functions, the team uniforms (Crenshaw's final-day shirt was the ugliest in history), the lavish gift-giving or about anything the captain does or doesn't do.
The United States has to produce better golfers, not better captains.
Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer for Golf World magazine
