Picking Ryder Team an Overriding Concern for Both Sides

It’s nearly last call for the Ryder Cup, and you can be certain that guys like Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Jeff Maggert, Steve Jones, Mark Brooks and Paul Stankowski are paying very close attention.

The last event to pick up points to make the U.S. team is the PGA Championship in two weeks. With only a little time left, we’re far

enough along in the process of fielding a team to play Europe in Spain in September to figure a few things out.

1--It’s going to be a very inexperienced team: Tiger Woods, Justin Leonard, Jim Furyk, Scott Hoch and Tommy Tolles are rookies. Tom Lehman, Brad Faxon and Mickelson have played once.

2--Tom Kite desperately wants Mickelson and Love to make the 12-player team on points. Mickelson and Love are Nos. 9 and 10, the last two spots that automatically qualify, and the U.S. captain doesn’t want to be forced to use either or both of his captain’s picks on them.

3--Love is a cinch to make the team, even if Kite has to choose him. Kite confirmed Love will be on the team.

4--Fred Couples is as close to being a lock as he can be right now, although with his chronic bad back and his father’s illness, it’s not totally done. Kite did not confirm Couples as a certainty.

5--Corey Pavin is going to stay at home unless he does something dramatic (and soon), such as winning the PGA, or at least coming close. Kite hinted at this.

As for Maggert, Jones, Brooks and Stankowski, they’re not in the top 10 and they’re probably going to have to play themselves onto the team to make it, although Maggert is at least a potential captain’s selection because he has Ryder Cup experience.

Seve Ballesteros, the European captain, has his own problems. His job would be much easier if Jose Maria Olazabal hangs on to the No. 10 position in points, which would allow Ballesteros to use his captain’s picks for Nick Faldo and Jesper Parnevik, with Padraig Harrington and Sam Torrance as outside possibilities.

The 32nd Ryder Cup will be held Sept. 26-28 at Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain.

TOM TOM

So where does all this leave Tom Watson? At 47, the four-time Ryder Cup player and team captain in 1993 is 17th in the points standings, but he finished tied for 10th in the British Open at Troon, where he unveiled a new putting stance suggested by his . . . 14-year-old son, Michael.

After playing together in Scotland, Michael persuaded his father to putt more like Jack Nicklaus--crouching down, opening up his stance, pushing with his right arm. Watson said after the British Open that he hit his short putts better than he had in years.

The question is whether Watson can be counted on to do the same thing under the rigors of the alternate-shot format at Valderrama and how such a potential drawback plays out when weighed against the obvious experience factor.

Anyway, Watson says he is pumped. He is playing the Sprint International this week, then the PGA, to try to impress Kite.

“I want to give him a reason to pick me,� Watson said.

Now, as for the experience factor, is it overrated? It was in 1995 at Oak Hill, where the U.S. team lost. The U.S. Ryder Cup rookies there were 11-6 and the veterans were 11-15-1.

JUSTIN TIME

The new British Open champion said he has had a rollicking time since his victory at Troon, but Leonard is back at work this week at the International in Castle Rock, Colo. He said there hasn’t been only one special moment to remember.

“I’ve got about three hours of special moments,� Leonard said.

His flight home from Scotland was noteworthy because Leonard kept being awakened to sign autographs. He said it was difficult to sleep anyway since he had stored the Claret Jug trophy in the airplane’s storage closet and kept getting up to look at it.

OUR MR. BROOKS

Anybody seen Brooks?

The 1996 PGA champion, who won three tournaments last year, finished third on the money list and made 23 cuts in 29 starts, is having his worst year since 1989.

Brooks has played 21 times, missed eight cuts and has one top-20 finish in a full-field event. This isn’t the way to get ready to defend your lone major title, which he will do in two weeks at Winged Foot.

There are signs that Brooks may be coming around, though. He finished tied for 40th at Hartford, an improvement over his previous three tournaments, in which he missed the cut. Brooks finished the tournament at one-under par, only the second time he has done that since April.

NOT MILLER’S TIME

All right, so Johnny Miller didn’t make much of a splash in his Senior PGA Tour debut. He tied for 44th and made $3,700 at Park City, Utah, in the Franklin Quest Championship.

Miller, who turned 50 in April, finished at one-under 215, the same score as 62-year-old Jimmy Powell and four shots worse than Don January, who is 67.

The problem, according to Miller, was what drove him away from golf in the first place: “lousy� putting.

Said Miller: “When you get in there as close as I did so many times and end up one under, it’s almost a crime.�

WINNERS, LOSERS

For what it’s worth, Stewart Cink won his first PGA Tour title at Hartford when he went for the green instead of laying up on the 71st hole after his drive bounced off a cart path and made par . . . and Maggert bogeyed the 72nd hole when he drove into the rough, hit his approach into more rough, hit a wedge onto the green and two-putted.

Maggert, who began the last round with a two-stroke lead, finished in a three-way tie for second. It was Maggert’s 10th second-place finish in five years.

“Disappointed, certainly. Angry, yes. Angry at myself,� he said.

COINCIDENCE?

Tammie Green won the LPGA tournament at Warren, Ohio, in a playoff. On the fifth playoff hole, Green beat Laura Davies with an eagle. The name of the tournament is the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic. It had to be staged, didn’t it?

PLAYER AT 61

Gary Player, who won his third British Senior Open last weekend in Portrush, Northern Ireland, dedicated his victory to Ben Hogan.

“He had been my idol since childhood,� Player said of Hogan, who died Friday.

Player made his first attempt to qualify for the British Open in 1955 at St. Andrews, two years after Hogan, 40, won the only British Open he played, at Carnoustie in 1953. Player, who was 19, failed to qualify at St. Andrews. He remembers hitting a low hook about 20 yards on the first hole and the comment made by a Scottish golf official wearing a kilt as he looked on:

“What’s your handicap?� the Scot asked.

“No, I’m not an amateur, I’m a professional,� Player said.

“You must be a hell of a chipper and putter,� the Scot said.

These days Player is busy with course design, including projects in South Africa, where some of the hazards are crocodiles. Another course is called Leopard Creek, which plays through part of a game preserve.

“It’s best not to drink while playing there,� he said.

Player, who will be 62 in November, won nine majors and 21 PGA Tour events beginning in 1958, many of the events played under less than ideal course conditions.

“That’s just the way things were then,� he said. “Nobody will ever remember that except people my age, and most of them are dead.�

BULLISH ON STOCKTON

Dave Stockton’s first PGA Tour victory was the 1967 Colonial, a tournament that Hogan won five times, and also the one in which Stockton tied Hogan’s course record and broke Hogan’s 36-hole record score by four shots.

In the locker room after the second round, Stockton said Hogan walked past without saying a word. Stockton quietly seethed. The next day, the 25-year-old Stockton shot a 74 and fell into a tie for the lead.

“I’m sitting at my locker on Saturday and I hear this guy asking where Dave Stockton’s locker is,� Stockton said. “Around the corner comes Ben Hogan. He walks up to me and says, ‘Dave, I know you expected me to congratulate you yesterday, but I just wanted to let you know that you got your bad round out of the way. You can go out and win this thing tomorrow.’

“I said, ‘Whoa, Ben Hogan thinks I can win. Maybe I’ve got a chance at it.’ �

Hogan was right. Stockton won that one and 10 others, two of them PGA championships. Now 55, Stockton also won the 1996 U.S. Senior Open. The 1998 Senior Open will be played at Riviera Country Club.

KUEHNE KEEN

Two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Kelli Kuehne, who plans to try LPGA Tour qualifying school, has the best scoring average on the Futures Tour. Even though she has played in only three events and eight rounds, her 72.0 stroke average is best. Kuehne is No. 30 on the money list with $5,435.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Tickets are on sale for the U.S. Senior Open to be played at Riviera Country Club, July 20-26, 1998. Call (888) 794-6498 or write the U.S. Senior Open, Riviera Country Club, 1250 Capri Dr., Pacific Palisades CA 90272. A clubhouse season pass is $200, but $175 if ordered before Dec. 31. . . . Drew Carey will entertain at the 15th benefit fund-raiser for the California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation, Aug. 15 at Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park. Details: (562) 947-1199.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ryder Cup Points

Standings for the 1997 Ryder Cup to be played Sept. 26-28, at Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain. The top 10 will qualify for the 12-man teams and captains Tom Kite and Seve Ballesteros each will select two other players (through July 27):

UNITED STATES

1. Tiger Woods, 1165.000; 2. Tom Lehman, 1016.286; 3. Justin Leonard, 888.500; 4. Jim Furyk, 837.500; 5. Mark O’Meara, 801.250; 6. Brad Faxon, 727.500; 7. Scott Hoch, 711.246; 8. Tommy Tolles, 689.285; 9. Phil Mickelson, 659.286; 10. Davis Love III, 657.166.

11. Jeff Maggert, 579.280; 12. Steve Jones, 579.280; 13. Mark Brooks, 549.750. 14. Paul Stankowski, 503.334; 15. David Duval, 470.000.

EUROPE

1. Colin Montgomerie, Scotland, 825,400.78; 2. Darren Clarke, N. Ireland, 576,890.35; 3. Ian Woosnam, Wales, 505,574.69; 4. Lee Westwood, England, 430,658.17; 5. Bernhard Langer, Germany, 371,577.96; 6. Per-Ulrik Johansson, Sweden, 330,035.30; 7. Thomas Bjorn, Denmark, 327,011.59; 8. Miguel Angel Martin, Spain, 324,400.30; 9. Costantino Rocca, Italy, 309,605.29; 10. Jose Maria Olazabal, Spain, 261,834.06.

11. Padraig Harrington, Ireland, 258,015.04; 12. Paul Broadhurst, England, 255,644.68; 13. Sam Torrance, Scotland, 230,291.21; 14. Mark James, England, 229,509.86; 15. Roger Chapman, England, 222,022.45.