Lehman hands wild cards to Cink, Verplank
Tom Lehman today named Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank as his two wild cards for the Ryder Cup.
Davis Love will not be part of the American Ryder Cup side for the first time since 1991.
Captain Lehman handed his two wild cards today to Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank – the first no surprise, but the second considerably more so.
Verplank is given a wild card just as he was in 2002. He was the first uncapped American to be handed one then and qualified only 20th on the table this time.
Cink needed a captain’s pick for the last match. He finished 12th in the points table, but has shown more consistency in recent weeks than anybody else in the running.
Love appeared to be playing himself into the team when he was just one off the lead at the halfway stage of US PGA championship at Medinah. But he fell away to 34th with weekend rounds of 73 and 76 and played his last three holes bogey, double bogey, bogey.
Many would still have expected him to be given a wild card for the first time, but Lehman had other ideas.
There are five changes from the team thrashed two years ago.
Out go Love, Chris Riley, Kenny Perry, Fred Funk and Jay Haas and into their places come Verplank and uncapped quartet Vaughn Taylor, JJ Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich.
The last four of those are respectively ranked 57th, 74th, 37th and 61st in the world and have only limited experience internationally.
Augusta-based Taylor, 30, has won twice on the US Tour, but both came when the big names were all away playing a world championship. The Open last month was his first trip to Europe and he did not even have a passport until last year.
Henry won his first title last month at the 177th attempt and did not finish in the top 80 on the US Tour in any of the last four years.
Johnson took six years to make it into the big league, but certainly made his mark when he got there with one win and over two million US dollars in earnings. That was 2004 and the 30-year-old has not won again yet.
Wetterich, 33, was at the qualifying school last December and survived it with nothing to spare. He won his first tour title in May, 12 years after turning professional, and hung on to the 10th and last automatic place despite missing the halfway cut in the last two counting events.
But the United States also have, of course, the top three players in the world - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk – plus three more in the top 20 in Chris DiMarco, David Toms and Chad Campbell.
Woods and Furyk are expected to be partners, as are Mickelson and DiMarco. They were winners together in the Presidents Cup last year.
Toms and Campbell could be another pairing for Lehman and no European will see facing them as anything other than a tough task either.
Woods, though, has won only seven of his 20 games since making his debut in 1997 at Valderrama, Mickelson had a nightmare last time and Furyk has won only four out of 15.
Lehman said: "I slept about two hours last night. It's been a difficult decision for me to make and it's tough to call people you respect as players and people and tell them you're not picking them. It’s emotional for me. I’ve been on the side of the coin where I’ve not been picked.”
He was 11th in the table four years ago, but Curtis Strange selected Verplank and Paul Azinger instead.
“I believe the two make the team very complete. Stewart Cink has played steady golf his whole career – a strong guy, a tough competitor. And he’s played well all summer.
“I kept a supplemental list of the top 10 Americans in tournaments (the actual points list is based just on top 10 finishes in events). Stewart finished sixth and Scott ninth.
“Scott is a tough, tough, tough competitor. He can really putt and chip and I think without question he belongs.”
Lehman added that Love’s lack of form this year – no top 10 finishes since he was runner-up in the Accenture world match play in February – was the decisive factor.
Corey Pavin, one of the assistant captains, and 26-year-old Lucas Glover were the others at the top of Lehman’s short list.
United States Ryder Cup team:
TIGER WOODS
PHIL MICKELSON
JIM FURYK
CHAD CAMPBELL
DAVID TOMS
CHRIS DiMARCO
VAUGHN TAYLOR
JJ HENRY
ZACH JOHNSON
BRETT WETTERICH
*STEWART CINK
*SCOTT VERPLANK
(* indicates wldcard picks)
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