Sergio Garcia won't change schedule for Ryder Cup prep

I had set the over/under on feuds Colin Montgomerie would start before the 2010 Ryder Cup at 5.5, but that might have been too low. Monty and Ian Poulter have never seen eye to eye, and now Sergio Garcia is making it clear that Monty is not the the boss of him, according to The Daily Mail (UK).

Monty has made it known that he will ask potential members of the 2010 side to play in the BMW Open at Wentworth, the Wales Open at Celtic Manor -- the venue of the next Cup match -- and the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles next year.

"Is the BMW a similar course to the Ryder Cup event?" Garcia retorted. "I don’t think so. If it fits into my schedule, I will definitely make an effort. If it doesn’t, you know, I’ll have to play wherever it fits my schedule."

Garcia has not played at Wentworth in the spring since 2000 and looks to have a well-settled schedule which ties him to competing in the United States at that time.

I can't wait to see Monty leading the Euros in Wales next year. No one is more passionate about the event -- the guy literally lights up when he talks about match play and the Ryder Cup. However, he should let this Garcia thing pass without comment. Garcia has proved his commitment to the Ryder Cup and has been a great teammate in past cups. If Monty's itching for a fight, he can always call up Sandy Lyle.

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Euros' man-crush on Rory McIlroy goes too far

It's OK. We understand. You're stuck in a rut. Every day seems as gray as newsprint, with nothing to look forward to except that warm pint of lager at the corner pub. You're like Bridget Jones, except you're a bloke.

Then suddenly you're swept off your feet by a young, handsome stranger who promises you a beautiful future filled with joy and wonder. Maybe he didn't say those things exactly, but you're sure he meant them. Soon the world looks brighter and you're leaving for work with a spring in your step, all thanks to this wonderful young man. Of course you'll want to praise him and protect him. But warm feelings of love give way to dark obsession, and you find yourself making allowances for him you would never make for anyone else and even ignoring your most deeply held beliefs to hold on to your beloved.

In other words, the Euro press needs to get over its man-crush on Rory McIlroy. It's one thing to defend young Rory against a questionable ruling at the Masters, but now Rory's getting off scot-free after disrespecting the Ryder Cup. Can you imagine the reaction of the UK press to an American insolent enough to call the Ryder Cup an "exhibition" and "not that important of an event for me"? Oh wait, we already know. The Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux offers a couple of examples in a pointed column about how the UK press has become apologists when it comes to their great Irish hope.

You think an American would be treated so gingerly by the notoriously biased European press that cheers in the media centre? Fat chance. Ask Hunter Mahan if he got off as lightly last summer for his clumsy second-hand analysis of the event as an over-hyped burden on the players. The Euro press wrongly assumed he would be overlooked as a captain's pick as punishment for his insolence.

Heck, Anthony Kim got skewered at a European Tour event last winter for not knowing who Europe had chosen as captain for the 2010 event.

Michaux credits McIlroy with sticking to his position on the Ryder Cup, one shared by Tiger Woods, among others. He saves his comic skewering for the UK scribes who gave McIlroy a free pass when he tipped over one of their sacred cows.

Let's just say the European Tour may soon have to employ chiropractors to tend to its media bending over backwards to defend his opinions as merely youthful naivete instead of blasphemy. They've spent so much time building McIlroy up as Europe's answer to Tiger Woods, they just never expected him to answer this question like Tiger Woods.

Maybe the UK press could use a lesson from Oprah: True love is impossible without self-respect.

Monty, Rory at odds over Ryder Cup's importance

Northern Ireland phenom Rory McIlroy raised Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie's eyebrows--if not his ire--when McIlroy suggested the Ryder Cup was an "exhibition" and not as important as individual victories.

"The Ryder Cup, it's a great spectacle for golf, but an exhibition at the end of the day and it should be there to be enjoyed," McIlroy said at an Irish Open news conference. "I think if I get on it, you know, you enjoy the week, and if you win or lose, it's a great experience and you move on from it. In the big scheme of things, it's not that important of an event for me."

When these comments were relayed to Montgomerie--Team Europe's 2010 captain and a Ryder Cup playing legend--Montgomerie said that McIlroy will feel differently when he makes his first tee shot as a member of Team Europe.

"Rory will understand when; and it's not an if, I'm sure it's when, whether it's this time or next time wherever it might be and he will be a Ryder Cup player and he will understand the pressures involved and the whole scenario of The Ryder Cup will hit him very hard, yes, and he'll understand having not played in it and having not attended The Ryder Cup as yet, in his life, and he'll understand what it's about when he's part of that," Montgomerie said.

No one knows a feud like the famously prickly Montgomerie and he was careful not to start one with 19-year-old McIlroy.

"I haven't heard what Rory said, so please don't start a big war against Rory McIlroy," Montgomerie said. "He's a great player and he's a very exciting player and he's one of Europe's best young talents that we've had for many, many a year, right? All I can say to you is you ask me, is the Ryder Cup an exhibition, no, it's not an exhibition, all right. So please don't say, and hopefully, that it won't come from me, that Monty and Rory are having a war here. Please don't say that, because I haven't said that, and all I've said is The Ryder Cup is not an exhibition and it never will be."

McIlroy and Montgomerie are paired for the opening rounds Thursday and Friday, so they'll have plenty of time to talk it out. In fact, when you look at this field, which includes Padraig Harrington and John Daly, it's clear that the European Tour is the event to watch this weekend. (Sorry Valero Texas Open.)

Euro captain drama unworthy of Ryder Cup

The European captaincy of the 2010 Ryder Cup team might be the most controversial vacancy since the Del Boca Vista condo board presidency. Will it be Jose-Maria Olazabal or Colin Montgomerie? Who does Sergio want? Why does Sandy Lyle keep getting snubbed? Does the captain need to be under 50 so he can friend younger players on Facebook? If Monty is captain, will he use a captain's pick on himself?

Fascinating stuff, especially since the PGA Tour season is three weeks old and we've yet to have a sighting of the Top 4 players in the world. Here's the thing, though: it only matters to the small group of wealthy middle-aged European men who are eligible to be captain. Whoever gets the job will have no impact on Europe's chances in Wales in 2010.

Golf isn't the NFL, where coaches like Bill Belichick use players like chess pieces. It's the players who win Ryder Cups, and it's the players that lose them. "The captain stuff gets overplayed a little bit," Stewart Cink told me this past summer in a typical understatement. For all the praise heaped on Paul Azinger for leading the U.S. to victory last fall, not to mention the scorn directed at losing captain Nick Faldo, neither guy hit a single shot at Valhalla.

The captain's duties--course setup, pairings, captain's picks--are either obvious to anyone who's spent his life in the game (like a baseball manager knowing when to hit and run) or a matter of luck. You can't really know who's going to play well in a tournament, so second-guessing a captain's pick or a pairing is the worst sort of Monday-morning quarterbacking. Poor Hal Sutton got roasted for putting Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together in Oakland Hills in 2004, but shouldn't Tiger and Phil get the blame for losing their match?

The main argument for the captain's importance rests on the concept of team chemistry, like the fire Seve Ballesteros brought to Europe as captain in 1997 at Valderrama or the pods Azinger created at Valhalla. (Down-home Kentucky guys like J.B. Holmes and Kenny Perry were grouped with the similarly minded Jim Furyk and Boo Weekley, while big egos like Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson hung together in a different group.) Both men definitely added drama to the event, but I'm sure they'd both say that chemistry worked best when their guys were making putts.

Team Europe needs to get some perspective about its choice of captain. What makes the Ryder Cup special is its sportsmanship. The captaincy should award someone who contributed greatly to Ryder Cups in the past, and it should be one-and-done, no matter how well the captain's team played. Team USA got it right by picking Corey Pavin because it was Pavin's turn. Team Europe's bizarre palace intrigue is unworthy of the event. The way they're going about it now, they're probably going to ask Belichick next.

In short, pick a captain already. Please?

Captain Corey Pavin will face new challenges at Celtic Manor

Last September at Valhalla Golf Club, captain Paul Azinger and the U.S. Ryder Cup team answered one of the biggest questions in the world of golf: What would it take for the U.S. to win back the Ryder Cup after three straight losses?

Turns out the answer was, at least in part, Azinger's new and innovative strategies. He paired players with complementary personalities; he gave himself four captain's picks instead of two; he overhauled the points system so that the hottest players had a better chance of qualifying; he brought in an infusion of young talent. All those moves turned out to be brilliant, and it didn't hurt that the U.S. finally started making putts.

Now the biggest question facing Corey Pavin, who was introduced Thursday morning as the next U.S. captain, is this: Will he follow Azinger's winning strategies at Celtic Manor in 2010?

"I think Paul and I are similar in the fact that we love The Ryder Cup," Pavin said Thursday. "There's going to be a lot of things I'll be thinking about, and a lot of strategies and a lot of plans I'll be working on, over the next two years. I have a few ideas already."

Pavin added that no matter the details, "it will be my system," and said that he'll have to make some changes because the U.S. team will be the visitor in 2010. "Obviously, having played over at The Belfry in '93, it's a different challenge, as I said, and there's going to be some different things that need to be done."

Pavin's approach makes sense. He will consider the strategies of Azinger, and several former captains, but it will be a new year and a new team, so he needs to find his own path to victory. Here are some of the new challenges Pavin will have to factor in:

Winning with Tiger: There is little doubt the team dynamic is different when Woods is around. Granted, it's much easier to have fun when you're winning, but this year's American team -- especially Boo Weekley and Anthony Kim -- seemed looser and more inspired than nearly any other in the Tiger era. Pavin will face the difficult task of finding a partner for Woods -- Anthony Kim and Jim Furyk will be likely choices -- and coping with the hoopla that surrounds one of the most famous people on earth. It will be interesting to see how Pavin integrates the world's greatest individual star into the team.

The good news for Pavin is that he and Woods became close at the 2006 Ryder Cup, when Pavin's duty as assistant captain to Tom Lehman was simply to "be with Tiger."

No Home Crowd: Azinger had the advantage of the raucous Louisville fans, who were thrilled to cheer for a U.S. team that included Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes. Pavin's team won't have that advantage. The U.S. has only won twice in Europe since 1981, and Pavin was on the last team to do it in 1993. Unless Davis Love III makes the team, Pavin won't have a single player on his squad that has won in Europe.

Course Setup: The yet-to-be-named European captain will be able to work with the superintendent at Celtic Manor to set up the course to his team's advantage. At Valhalla, Azinger chose wide fairways, penal-but-playable rough and slower greens. Pavin will have very little, if any, input on course conditions.

Despite those three challenges, Pavin will have one major advantage over his predecessor. The defending team starts with a half-point advantage.

"It's nice to have a little cushion there," Pavin said.

Azinger deserved another chance as Ryder Cup captain

In 1949, Ben Hogan captained his second consecutive United States Ryder Cup team. No one else has had a second straight term since, and it's clear that Paul Azinger is not going to follow in The Hawk's footsteps. That's unfortunate.

While some people felt that Azinger stirred the pot a little too aggressively at Valhalla, it's tough to deny that he did a lot of things right too.

Before heading to Kentucky, Azinger overhauled the qualifying process to give himself a better chance of fielding a team of hot players. He also got the number of captain's picks changed from two to four, giving himself more versatility in filling out his lineup.

Once he was in Kentucky, Azinger's management of the event, his team and the local crowd would have made Jack Welch proud. He moved the foursomes matches to the morning sessions and the fourball matches to the afternoon. On practice days, he split his 12-man team into three four-man pods to help the golfers bond and  learn more about each other's game. He encouraged his players to toss commemorative pins into the crowd as they prepared early in the week, choreographed the pep rally held on Thursday night, and implored the whole Bluegrass State to become the 13th Man.

The players bought in, the fans bought in, and on Sunday evening the champagne flowed as the United States celebrated its first Ryder Cup win since 1999.

Having done all that—and with the American players lobbying for his return—Azinger should have had the 2010 job if he wanted it. And according to the AP, Azinger was considering it, but Corey Pavin will almost certainly be named the next Ryder Cup captain when the PGA of America makes its official announcement Thursday.

Fair or not, Pavin, another feisty player who excelled under Ryder Cup pressure, is going to be compared to Azinger. It will be a tough act to follow. Any lingering resentment European golf fans feel toward Azinger will be directed squarely at Pavin, who won't have control of the course setup as the visiting captain in Wales. The U.S. shouldn't count on any help from Mother Nature, either—unlike Louisville, Wales in early October is cold and wet.

If Pavin and the United States team come through with a W against another stacked European team, everything will be grand. But if he and his team lose, the second-guessing over not giving Azinger another captaincy will be as loud as the chants of "Ole, Ole, Ole!"

(Photo by Robert Beck/SI)

Harrington says rift with Sergio is over

The European team lost the Ryder Cup this year, but at least one good thing came of the week in Kentucky: a thawing in the relationship between the continent's top two stars, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia.

The relationship between the pair had been frosty since the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie, when Harrington defeated the Spaniard in a playoff. Garcia's subsequent press conference set a new standard for petulant whining, as he bemoaned his bad luck and suggested he was battling greater opponents than just the field. Things didn't get any warmer this summer when Garcia stumbled down the stretch at Oakland Hills, allowing the Dubliner to claim his third major title at the PGA Championship.

It is worth noting here that the cause of Sergio's anger toward Harrington wasn't due to a sucker punch or a slur against his momma. It was simply because he lost, fair and square. And he didn't much like that.

But Harrington has told the Irish Independent that the two healed their rift in Kentucky at the urging of fellow team members.

"It certainly has been difficult between me and Sergio. Things definitely got a little bit tense there, but the Ryder Cup really helped," Harrington said. "We spent the week in each other's company, played a couple of practice matches together and he got to say his piece, things he wanted to say all along."

So what exactly did Sergio want to say? Perhaps 'Well done!' or 'Congratulations, Paddy!' or perhaps even 'Sorry I acted like a jerk.'

Um, no.

"Some of the lads eventually drew it out of him and he got to tell me that he really wanted to smash that putter over my head," the Irishman revealed. "That was what I really wanted to hear and, though the Ryder Cup didn't do much for Europe, it did do a lot for me and Sergio."

(Photo: John Biever/SI)

Boo Weekley gallops onto the Tonight Show

Boo Weekley, who made quite an impression at the Ryder Cup this year, made an appearance on Leno last Thursday. His entrance was reminiscent of his gallop down the fairway during the Sunday singles matches last month, and he was as big a hit on late night TV as he was at Valhalla.

Win the Ryder Cup, feel the love

ATLANTA -- There is still not much buzz at East Lake, but those who made it to the course on this sparkling, breezy afternoon are saving their throatiest ovations for a select group of 10 -- the U.S. Ryder Cup team members who are in the field.

Steve Stricker was greeted on the first tee with chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A," while Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Jim Furyk were all greeted loudly and warmly.

Perhaps the most raucous ovation of all (and we're using the term raucous very loosely here; tickets are still available) was for none other than Anthony Kim, the 23-year-old spark plug who's fresh off thrashing Sergio Garcia in the Sunday singles matches. Kim bogeyed the first hole, but he's got the largest gallery on the course right now. Will he be ready to challenge Tiger Woods for both popularity and trophies next summer?

Incidentally, Vijay Singh, your 2008 FedEx Cup Champion, bogeyed the 1st, but did not putt with a bunker rake. Furyk wedged in from the fairway for eagle on the 1st and birdied the 2nd for the early lead. Only seven players in the 30-man field are currently under par ... Ryder Cup hangover anyone?

Ryder Cup players still feeling effects of Valhalla

ATLANTA -- Ten of the 12 players from the triumphant U.S. Ryder Cup team are at East Lake for the Tour Championship this week. (Fan favorites Boo Weekly and J.B. Holmes finished outside the top 30 in FedEx points and didn't qualify for the limited-field event.) There's no question those 10 players rolled into Atlanta a little frayed after a week of intense pressure, followed by fervent celebration. A few players spoke candidly about the challenge of getting mentally prepared for the FedEx finale after the exhilarating experience.

"It's weird kind of going through that and then having to come to such a big event like this," said 26-year-old Hunter Mahan. "It's a great field, good golf course ... it may take a round or two to actually get back into the flow of playing tournament golf again."

"I think we'll be fine," Chad Campbell said. "Might be tough getting back into things, but once you start to feel it again, it'll fall into place."

Jim Furyk added: "We're all a little bit worn out after last week. I found that at 38 I don't recover like I did at 23. I knew that, actually, but I've proven it once again."