MEDINAH, Ill. - Chris DiMarco ran into Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman at Medinah Country Club on Tuesday and told him that if he earns enough points this week in the PGA Championship to qualify for the American team, his players all believe he shouldn't think twice about becoming the first American playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.
“DiMarco cornered me and said, `We've all talked about it. If you make the team, you're playing, period. No conversation, no argument from you, we're going to make you play,”' Lehman said Wednesday. “I go, `Well, that's really nice, but I'm the captain, and I get to make that decision.”'
There has been plenty of talk in recent weeks about the makeup of the U.S. team that will compete next month at the K Club in Ireland. The top 10 automatically make the 12-man squad. At the moment, five have clinched berths: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Chad Campbell and David Toms. Chris DiMarco, No. 6 in the standings, almost certainly will be a captain's choice if he somehow falls out of the top 10. The last four men currently in the top 10 are Vaughn Taylor, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich, none of whom has ever played in a Ryder Cup.
Such inexperience in an event the U.S. has lost four of the last five times and seven of the last 11 will raise the scrutiny on Lehman, who won't have to make his captain's choices until Sunday night.
He said he has narrowed his list of potential captain's choices to five or six players. Included in that group are two longtime Ryder and Presidents Cup veterans, Davis Love III at No. 15 in the standings and Fred Couples at No. 16.
Both would be popular, though not necessarily logical, choices. Love has struggled this season, with only one top-10 finish and two missed cuts in his last four events. In his favor, he was runner-up in the World Match Play event to U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, and he has played on six Cup teams, with a 3-1-2 record in singles.
“He's been a great player for a long time,” Lehman said. “It's a situation right now where he's trying so hard to make this team that he is, like a lot of other guys, probably in some ways getting in his own way. You can want something so bad that you inhibit your ability to really perform your best.”
Making a case for Couples would be more difficult. He has played on five Cup teams but none since 1997, though he played as a captain's choice on the 2005 Presidents Cup team and won his singles match against Vijay Singh. But Couples has missed the cut in three of his last eight events, has had only four rounds in the 60s since the Masters and has a balky back.
Lehman's short list likely also includes Stewart Cink, now No. 12 in points, a two-time Ryder Cup participant who has had three top-five finishes in his last five events; Jerry Kelly, No. 13 on the list who took the last two events off to make a final run at the top 10 this week, and Scott Verplank, No. 20, a member of the 2002 team with a 2-1 record in Cup play.
“More than anything, we're looking for the right two guys who can maybe fill in some of the guys that are weak with some of their strengths,” Lehman said. “We're looking for the right two guys who have real passion for the competition, real heart for the competition, guys who hate to lose.”
Lehman, 47 and currently 19th in the standings, said he has extremely mixed emotions about playing, even if he qualifies. Though he's having his best year on tour since 2001, with four top-10 finishes, and said he's hitting the ball tee to green as well as he has in years, he also has no qualms admitting he's not putting particularly well.
“The Ryder Cup is all about the short game really,” he said. “It's about heart and passion and whoever chips and putts the best. In some ways, I feel like I'd be a detriment to our team because my putting is streaky. I don't need streaky; I need good, and consistently good to great.”
Theories abound on why a team top heavy with far more top 50 players in the world rankings than its European counterpart keeps losing. Lehman has his own No. 1 reason for the Americans' lack of recent success, with an assist from retired Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who he visited earlier this year.
“No. 1 is we don't have fun inside the ropes competing,” he said. “That would be my biggest opinion. It's something I feel very pretty strongly about. Our teams have always enjoyed the Ryder Cup experience, being at the tournament, being a part of the team. But once you get inside the ropes, I feel like we've had no fun. If you don't have fun, you're not going to love it, and if you don't love it, you're not going to work hard enough to be successful. That's where I think we need to improve.”
There has been plenty of talk in recent weeks about the makeup of the U.S. team that will compete next month at the K Club in Ireland. The top 10 automatically make the 12-man squad. At the moment, five have clinched berths: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Chad Campbell and David Toms. Chris DiMarco, No. 6 in the standings, almost certainly will be a captain's choice if he somehow falls out of the top 10. The last four men currently in the top 10 are Vaughn Taylor, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich, none of whom has ever played in a Ryder Cup.
Such inexperience in an event the U.S. has lost four of the last five times and seven of the last 11 will raise the scrutiny on Lehman, who won't have to make his captain's choices until Sunday night.
He said he has narrowed his list of potential captain's choices to five or six players. Included in that group are two longtime Ryder and Presidents Cup veterans, Davis Love III at No. 15 in the standings and Fred Couples at No. 16.
Both would be popular, though not necessarily logical, choices. Love has struggled this season, with only one top-10 finish and two missed cuts in his last four events. In his favor, he was runner-up in the World Match Play event to U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, and he has played on six Cup teams, with a 3-1-2 record in singles.
“He's been a great player for a long time,” Lehman said. “It's a situation right now where he's trying so hard to make this team that he is, like a lot of other guys, probably in some ways getting in his own way. You can want something so bad that you inhibit your ability to really perform your best.”
Making a case for Couples would be more difficult. He has played on five Cup teams but none since 1997, though he played as a captain's choice on the 2005 Presidents Cup team and won his singles match against Vijay Singh. But Couples has missed the cut in three of his last eight events, has had only four rounds in the 60s since the Masters and has a balky back.
Lehman's short list likely also includes Stewart Cink, now No. 12 in points, a two-time Ryder Cup participant who has had three top-five finishes in his last five events; Jerry Kelly, No. 13 on the list who took the last two events off to make a final run at the top 10 this week, and Scott Verplank, No. 20, a member of the 2002 team with a 2-1 record in Cup play.
“More than anything, we're looking for the right two guys who can maybe fill in some of the guys that are weak with some of their strengths,” Lehman said. “We're looking for the right two guys who have real passion for the competition, real heart for the competition, guys who hate to lose.”
Lehman, 47 and currently 19th in the standings, said he has extremely mixed emotions about playing, even if he qualifies. Though he's having his best year on tour since 2001, with four top-10 finishes, and said he's hitting the ball tee to green as well as he has in years, he also has no qualms admitting he's not putting particularly well.
“The Ryder Cup is all about the short game really,” he said. “It's about heart and passion and whoever chips and putts the best. In some ways, I feel like I'd be a detriment to our team because my putting is streaky. I don't need streaky; I need good, and consistently good to great.”
Theories abound on why a team top heavy with far more top 50 players in the world rankings than its European counterpart keeps losing. Lehman has his own No. 1 reason for the Americans' lack of recent success, with an assist from retired Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, who he visited earlier this year.
“No. 1 is we don't have fun inside the ropes competing,” he said. “That would be my biggest opinion. It's something I feel very pretty strongly about. Our teams have always enjoyed the Ryder Cup experience, being at the tournament, being a part of the team. But once you get inside the ropes, I feel like we've had no fun. If you don't have fun, you're not going to love it, and if you don't love it, you're not going to work hard enough to be successful. That's where I think we need to improve.”