Ryder Cup: A U.S. pick tests team chemistry

September 2, 5:09 PMGolf ExaminerDave Seanor

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In his gambit to reverse America’s Ryder Cup fortunes, Paul Azinger used his four captain’s picks on three rookies and a quiet man.

The Ryder Cup is all about chemistry, as the close-knit Europeans have proven during victories in five of the last six encounters, including back-to-back blowouts. Which is one reason Azinger sought, and was granted, four players of his own choice – double the number of captain’s picks allotted since the U.S. began taking advantage of them in 1989.

The rookies, at least technically speaking, are Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan, and J.B. Holmes. The quiet man is Chad Campbell, who won one of six matches in the aforementioned embarrassments at the K-Club and Oakland Hills.

Many are high on Holmes, a bomb-and-gouge specialist who, as a former University of Kentucky standout, has familiarity with Valhalla Golf Club, the Ryder Cup venue in Louisville. Azinger is banking on Holmes to pass the chemistry test. Good luck.

J.B. is surly, painfully slow on the course and not particularly well liked by his PGA Tour brethren.  His experience on the international match play stage includes the 2005 Walker Cup, won by the United States, and two appearances in the Palmer Cup (an annual college event pitting America vs. Europe). Holmes went 2-1 in the Walker Cup, but was confounded by the notoriously short-hitting and ultimate gamesman Gary Wolstenholme before winning their singles match 1-up, then was trounced in singles, with the Cup in the balance, by the unheralded Matt Richardson, 5 and 3 on Day 2.

No beefs here with Stricker or Mahan. Both nearly played their way onto the team via points. More important, both have what it takes to win in match play.

Stricker is a fighter, having rebounded from lean years in 2003-05, when he couldn’t crack the top 150 on the PGA Tour money list.  He won the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in 2001, knocking off Padraig Harrington, Scott Verplank, Justin Leonard and Nick O’Hern along the way. His record in two Presidents Cups (2007, 1996) is 5-5-0.

Mahan went 2-3-0 as a Presidents Cup rookie last year, twice teaming with Stricker to win foursomes matches. He was runner-up at the 2002 U.S. Amateur (match play) and twice played in the Palmer Cup.

To Azinger’s credit, he went with Mahan despite the latter’s ill-advised remarks in a Golf Magazine interview last month. Mahan suggested that the regimentation and commercialism of the Ryder Cup soon might prompt players to refuse to play because “the fun is sucked right out of it.”

The choice of the low-key Campbell is either a testament to the depth of U.S. golf, or lack thereof, depending on how you look at it. Ranked 61^st in the world, Campbell has quietly posted six top 10s in 24 Tour starts this season. This will be his third consecutive Ryder Cup; his record is 1-3-2, with a lone victory in singles against Luke Donald in ’04. But Campbell is scrappy, having dominated the Hooters Tour for three seasons before winning a Nationwide Tour “battlefield promotion” (three victories) to the PGA Tour in 2001.

Getting back to the chemistry lab, my advice to the U.S. captain wouldn’t have included Holmes. In the wake of such dispirited efforts in Ireland and Detroit, without Tiger in the mix, and having an unprecedented four picks with which to experiment, Azinger really could have put his stamp on this team. Instead, he made the politically correct play and chose the local guy.

For my money, the winning ingredient would have Rocco Mediate, hero if not winner of the U.S. Open. The Roc is unabashed about his long-suffering desire the make the American Ryder Cup squad, and this likely was his last chance. True, Mediate wasn’t within a J.B. Holmes drive of making the team on points. His selection would have been the biggest surprise since Sarah Palin.

But at Torrey Pines, Mediate displayed the kind of grit our Ryder Cup teams have lacked for so long. Azinger could have awarded more points for intangibles. Alas, he didn’t.