Captain adds Haas, Cink to U.S. Ryders
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
As it always does, the two-year scramble for one of the coveted 12 American Ryder Cup spots came down to the last day. Even beyond the last day.
It is, indeed, a strange process that only a flaming masochist could love: Players' nerves are rubbed raw, their competitive capacity stretched to the limit, just to qualify.
And to what end? Well, for the right to be subjected to even more harsh circumstances come next month.
A day after Chris DiMarco and Chris Riley persevered relentlessly on the final day of the PGA Championship to qualify for the American team that will host the Europeans at Oakland Hills, just outside Detroit, in September, oldtimer Jay Haas and Stewart Cink were selected by Hal Sutton as his captain's picks for 2004.
"We're four weeks away from determining whether I made the right decision or the wrong decision," said Sutton, who, in selecting Haas and Cink, left players such as Steve Flesch, Jerry Kelly, Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard on the sidelines.
Haas was not a difficult selection in that he had been in the Ryder Cup top 10 right up until the final day of the PGA, when he shot a 77. He finished 12th in the point standings and previously had played in the 1983 and 1995 Cup matches.
Cink is a more tenuous pick. Both Flesch and Kelly accumulated more points than Cink but Sutton said he was swayed by Cink's recent form (three recent top-10 finishes) and the fact that neither Kelly nor Flesch has experienced the intense Ryder Cup pressure. Cink played on the 2002 team that lost to the Europeans at the Belfry in England and won one of his three matches.
Sutton was nervous about adding another rookie into the mix since he already has five team members who have not been in this arena before. DiMarco, Riley, Kenny Perry, Chad Campbell and Fred Funk are newcomers, though DiMarco, Perry and Funk played on last year's Presidents Cup team that tied the Internationals in South Africa.
The anchors of the team were all shoo-ins. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love, Jim Furyk, Perry and David Toms all nailed down their spots long ago. Campbell also was more or less certain of a berth in advance of the PGA.
But players such as Flesch, Kelly and Haas were bumped out of the top 10 on the final day. Justin Leonard, who made one of the most famous shots in Ryder Cup history, capping the American comeback at the 1999 Cup in Boston with a 45-foot putt on the 17th hole against Jose-Maria Olazabal, would have qualified if he only had been able to beat Vijay Singh in the playoff on Sunday, finished well back in the points race. Even though Leonard's big putt in 1999 guaranteed the U.S. a victory, it should be noted that Leonard never has won a match in Ryder Cup play. He only halved that match against Olazabal and is 0-3-5 overall.
"He played a great championship," Sutton said, "but I couldn't pick him just because of one tournament."
It had been widely believed that Sutton had been favouring Verplank as a selection but his hopes may have been dashed when he twisted his ankle on Friday during the second round of the PGA at Whistling Straits.
LIMPED HOME
Verplank had shot a 67 in the opening round but, limping on that bad ankle, struggled to rounds of 76, 77 and 73 in the final three rounds.
"I called Scott," said Sutton. "Obviously he was disappointed. I was worried about his foot and ankle. There were many deserving people and he was one of them."
Despite the fact he hasn't won a tournament since 1993, Haas has played brilliantly the past two seasons and he is relishing a chance to wipe out the memory of his loss in his singles match against Philip Walton in 1995 at Oak Hill in Rochester. Haas bogeyed the 18th hole that day, allowing Walton to clinch the Cup for the European side.
The European side won't be finalized for two more weeks. They will be led by international stars Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Darren Clarke and Thomas Levet but their roster once again will be filled out by some names unfamiliar in North America.
No matter. While the Americans would seem to always have a huge advantage on paper, it is on grass that the matches are played and that's a medium where the worth of the European teams always seem to become more than the sum of their parts.
