Vincent Publishing - Index

Vincent Publishing - 2008 Travelers Championship Magazine - Index

“If the captain’s picks don’t play great, then more blame can be put on me,” he
said. “Once you submit the final list, you’re stuck with it. How many times will I
change my mind over those picks in the final days?”
PHOTO: (RIGHT) RYDER CUP
CAPTAINS, PAUL AZINGER, LEFT
AND NICK FALDO, RIGHT.
52 This is the new era.
And wasn’t that a slightly cold exchange between the
two of you at April’s Masters on the clubhouse lawn
as you tried to explain yourself and that interview days
earlier with an English paper?
Faldo, as anyone close to the game knows, has always
been a self-centered player, one who was so singleminded
in his career that he made many enemies,
but it was also what made him the winner of six major
championships.
Time, Azinger inferred in April, has not changed that,
only adjusted Faldo’s persona to fit his new career in
television.
Such a critique shouldn’t be surprising given the
Ryder Cup history between the two.
They were heated rivals once their paths crossed in
1989 at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.
Along with Chip Beck, Azinger teamed to defeat
Faldo and Ian Woosnam 2&1 in second-day fourballs.
Two years later in the U.S., Azinger and Mark
O’Meara defeated Faldo and David Gilford 7&6 in
second day foursomes.
“I was very lucky because I was able to play their stars,”
said Azinger of those back-to-back matches. “You
can play in four or five Ryder Cups and not play their
top players. My first match was against their stars. In
’89 Chip and I played Faldo and Woosnam and they
were 9-under par after 14 holes and got beat. We
were 11-under par.”
Fast forward to 1993, again at The Belfry, when
Azinger and Fred Couples halved with Faldo and Colin
Montgomerie in first-day four-balls. In final-day
singles, Azinger and Faldo halved a match highlighted
by a late hole-in-one by the Englishman and an 18th
hole birdie by the American to square the 18 holes.
Azinger, as a player, is 2-0-2 vs. Faldo, surely a sore
point with the European Ryder Cup captain.
The next round, however, will be a more important
victory, perhaps the most important victory to either.
Regardless of the outcome, said Azinger, the
experience of being a Ryder Cup captain will be worth
it. Regardless of whether he is vilified or praised,
nothing will change his perspective of the matches.
“Right now it’s not a lose-lose situation,” he said,
realizing U.S. teams are 1-6 in the last seven biennial
competitions. The lone U.S. victory since 1995 came
at Brookline Country Club in Massachusetts in 1999.
“I don’t know if it ever was that way. It’s a great honor
to be a captain. Once the losing streak started, the
captain got the blame. If a group of players get outperformed,
how can you blame a captain who is
sitting in a cart? Give the other team some credit for
playing well.”
Azinger has taken steps to minimize any possible U.S.
stumbles.
He’s surrounded himself with two former captains as
assistants in Dave Stockton and Ray Floyd, who won
and halved their matches as captains, respectively.
Azinger also did some research and found two things
that needed tweaking in the U.S. system, judging
from past results.
He felt the U.S. needed to double its captain’s picks
from two to four on the 12-man roster and needed to
flip the foursome matches to the mornings, where the
Americans have been more point productive.
“I didn’t do much homework on the records,” he
said, taking little credit for the call, just recalling his
memories of past competitions.
Official Championship Magazine