ESPN Golf

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- His breakthrough season came more than two decades ago, when Paul Azinger won three tournaments on the PGA Tour at a time when that was considered a monster season.

The year was 1987, the wins came at Phoenix, Las Vegas and Hartford, and he went on to finish second on the money list and earn PGA Tour player of the year honors.

All of that, and he didn't play for the U.S. Ryder Cup team?

Due to a technicality that no longer exists, Azinger was denied a spot on the team because he had not completed a required business course that was part of becoming a PGA of America member. (Hey, the same thing happened to Jack Nicklaus in the early 1960s.)

So Azinger stayed home in Florida and the Yanks lost for the first time on home soil in the biennial competition.

"I wasn't 100 percent sure of what the Ryder Cup was at that time,'' Azinger said Wednesday at the Innisbrook Resort, where he will play in this week's PODS Championship. "I was pretty amazed at my first Ryder Cup [in 1989]. The intensity of it. The rock-star status that we got when we went to Europe. The greeting we got when we came off the Concorde.

"Sometimes you don't know what you're missing until you actually have been there. And I had no idea what I was missing.''

It's 21 years later, and Azinger, 48, is captain of the U.S. team that will take on Europe in September at Valhalla in Kentucky and try to snap a three-match losing streak.

Including the 1987 match at Muirfield Village in Ohio, the U.S. has won just three of the past 10 Ryder Cups, tying once and losing six times. Azinger played on four teams, winning twice and tying once.

Now he is charged with trying to bring back the Ryder Cup to an American squad that, without one improbable comeback in 1999, would have lost six straight times.

"Being the captain is a huge honor,'' he said. "I didn't know there have only been 25 guys who have ever been captain.''

But he hardly took the job for its ceremonial significance. Azinger, known for his tenacity as a player, sought changes to the selection criteria if he was going to take on the task, and he got them.

A new points system was put in place: Instead of points for top-10 finishes in PGA Tour events, players earn one point for every $1,000 earned, with the major championships counting double; instead of players earning points over a two-year period, only the major championships counted in 2007; and instead of getting two at-large selections, Azinger will get four, just two weeks before the matches on Sept. 19.

"I wanted to try and formulate something that would get hotter players on the team,'' Azinger said. "I feel like money is the barometer for everything we do. I really like the idea that last year didn't count much. Zach Johnson is fifth and he deserves to be because he won the Masters. I like the way it's breaking down so far. I'm really curious to see how it goes as we get going with the majors and double points.''

Azinger scanned the points list and was pleased to see the movement, the volatility, that has occurred so far this year. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk lead the standings, followed by Stewart Cink, Johnson, Steve Stricker, Justin Leonard and J.B. Holmes.

Except for the names at the top, Azinger figures there will be plenty more turnover before the end of August.

"It would be hard to make the team and not win a tournament this year,'' he said. "I think that's a good thing. I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm just saying it would be difficult for it to happen because of the way the system is.''

Azinger has been hailed as the perfect leader for the U.S. team because of his fiery demeanor -- a trait not everyone believes is necessarily his best or most-needed quality.

"That doesn't mean crap,'' said Mark Calcavecchia, who has played on four U.S. Ryder Cup teams. "Ray Floyd brought that. Hal Sutton brought that. Everybody brings that. 'Go get 'em, kick their ass.' Yeah, no kidding. We're trying. You don't have to fire me up on the first tee of the Ryder Cup. If you need to be fired up, you shouldn't be there in the first place.

"I think he'll be great," Calcavecchia said of Azinger. "He's a funny guy. The selection of him was strictly an effort to try to get everybody to relax and play their best. The only difference between the Presidents Cup [3-0-1 since the last victory in the Ryder Cup] is we seem to relax in that thing and make a bunch of putts. That's exactly what the Europeans do to us in the Ryder Cup.''

"I think he's going to be good,'' said Holmes, who's striving to make his first team and especially keen on doing so since the event will be played in his home state. "Maybe [we need] somebody in there to shake things up a bit. We need something like that. Obviously, what we've been doing hasn't been working.''

Azinger said he will simply be himself.

"I'm the captain, not the coach,'' Azinger said. "You can't rule with an iron fist, like you've been coaching these guys for two years. I just really hope that the system we have in place is going to get the right guys there.''

And once there?

"I have no idea what my personality is going to be like at those matches,'' Azinger said. "I may cellophane everybody's toilet seats before the matches start, I don't know.''

Bob Harig is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.