Ryder Cup Captains Have Been Hands On

LOUISVILLE, Sept. 17 -- In 1995, Paul Azinger was recovering from radiation treatments for career-threatening lymphoma, and instead of playing in the Ryder Cup, the winner of the 1993 PGA Championship was working as an analyst for NBC at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.

Azinger was assigned to follow a Sunday singles match between American Tom Lehman and Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, and a dispute arose involving a conceded putt. Ballesteros, the master of Ryder Cup gamesmanship, was at it again, and Azinger, standing next to the green with a group of reporters, appeared ready to drop his microphone and insert himself into the fray.

It never came to that. The contretemps was resolved somewhat amicably, and Lehman eventually went on to win the match. Azinger has since laughed about the incident, but his passionate reaction that day surely left an indelible impression on any witnesses.

Fast-forward 13 years, and the same passion and emotion remains evident at this week's 37th Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club. Azinger, now the captain of the U.S. team, is charged with finding a way to end Europe's run of three straight victories and five in the last six meetings. Standing in the way is another formidable European team captained by Nick Faldo.

Azinger and Faldo have been longtime foes on the golf course and only recently could be considered friends. They shared a broadcast booth for several years as golf commentators with ABC Sports, and over the past year, they have appeared together in countless public appearances, news conferences and photo shoots. They even held some head-to-head contests of their own in golf, fishing and poker aired last week by the Golf Channel, but there is nothing manufactured about the intense competition that will begin here Friday morning.

Asked to describe his relationship with Faldo, a six-time major champion, when both were in their playing primes, Azinger said: "I don't know anybody who had a relationship with Nick 10 or 15 years ago, so I'm probably not that different from anybody else. I didn't know him very well. . . .

"He's a different guy. Our relationship is pretty good. I mean, he's from another world, completely different than I am. I thought we got along in the broadcast booth and we've spent time together, but we're going to be really competitive against each other."

Azinger also would like to believe his American team will be far more competitive this year than it was in the last two events. One of his first acts as captain was to persuade the PGA of America to radically change its qualification process for players to make the team, a system that now emphasizes a player's performance in the same year as the Cup, instead of the two years in between events. He also asked that only the top eight qualify on points, leaving him with four captain's choices, two more than in years past.

"I felt like the selection process was kind of antiquated," Azinger said this week. "We were losing and I've tried to make some necessary adjustments to win the rematch. . . . We had a 2 1/2 -year system in place. Some guys would make the team based on a previous year's performance and show up not playing all that well."

Azinger also has tried to keep things light and lively this week. On Monday night, the team toured the Muhammad Ali Museum, and Ali, a Louisville native, might pay a visit to the course to meet the team. Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, an old pal of Azinger's, is hanging around the American side and likely will offer a pep talk or two.

Azinger and his players have been handing out Ryder Cup pins to the Kentucky crowds he's calling his "13th Man" and have made it a point to sign as many autographs as possible. On Thursday night, he and the team also will attend a pep rally in downtown Louisville, where they'll fire T-shirts out of air guns into what is expected to be a massive throng.

"I know it's going to be an energized crowd" at Valhalla, Azinger said. "So to that point, we're going to embrace them."

Faldo doesn't appear all that frantic either, though he hasn't been terribly open about what he's been doing to keep his defending champions occupied. He took them out to the first tee Tuesday after a photo shoot for a team picture and addressed his players for several minutes, telling them how much confidence he has in them. He also asked them to visualize their opening tee shots Friday, a technique he often employed himself.

Faldo has taken heavy criticism throughout Europe for leaving longtime stalwarts Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke off his team, particularly because current team veterans such as Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood openly lobbied for them to be his two captain's choices. But Faldo has said he's thrilled with his 12-man team and has no regrets.

"Nick Faldo has his own ideas," former European Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart, here covering the event as a radio commentator, told the Scotsman newspaper this week. "With Faldo, it has always been about him, both as a golfer and a television analyst. I'm sure one reason he omitted [Clarke and Montgomerie] is they would be big characters in the team room. I question whether Faldo will have the skills to pull the team together, but I think the team will pull together irrespective of who the captain is. Nobody needs to be fired up for this match."

Said Faldo: "I love being big mother hen to this lot. They're a special bunch. . . . I'm very confident I won't damage the team. . . . I've got a dozen characters in there. I'm the quiet one in the team room."