Cup could be half empty for U.S. captain Azinger

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Woody Austin had heard about the website, but never saw it until Tuesday afternoon, when he got a look-see at somebody's laptop computer.

A fan in Kentucky started a site called woody4rydercup.com, a platform he hopes will help land the feisty Austin a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team in September. With the top eight roster spots to be finalized Sunday after the final round of the 90th PGA Championship, Austin enters the week just beyond the pale at No. 9 on the points list.

In a poll of readers on this unofficial website, however, fans are voting at a blistering 98.2 percent clip in favor of his inclusion on the team.

"Well, that's good to know," Austin said, tapping at the keyboard and eyeing the site.

In reality, unless Austin finishes in the top eight, only one vote matters, that of U.S. captain Paul Azinger, who on Sept. 2 will announce four at-large picks for the team.

After convincing the host PGA of America that the U.S. points system was in need of an enema, the organization agreed to double the number of captain's picks to four, which at the time seemed like a brilliant notion. Azinger believed it gave him greater latitude to select the hottest players of the moment.

Right now, the mercury reads: room temp.

What started as a potential advantage now reads like a possible handicap since, despite the points overhaul, the 17 players situated between Nos. 8 and 24 on the U.S. points list have amassed a not-so-grand total of three victories in 2008.

In fact, it's debatable which captain faces the more daunting task ahead: Azinger, who must identify four players from among a group of guys who haven't exactly torched the PGA Tour over the past few months; or European captain Nick Faldo, who has more horses than available saddles for the ride ahead.

The two-pronged European points process, which would take more time to explain than we have space, results in 10 automatic picks. Faldo, then, has two captain's picks from a group of players that, at the moment, includes longtime Ryder giant-slayers Sergio Garcia and Colin Montgomerie, not to mention young English standouts Paul Casey and Ian Poulter, both former Ryder players.

Talent and experience? Must be nice to have both luxuries. If the teams had to be settled today, it would be hard to envy either captain. Given a choice, I'd rather be Faldo, because of the top 24 on the U.S. points list, Azinger is eyeballing 17 players who would stand as Ryder rookies.

Garcia, who has as many as four more events to lock up a spot on a team that will be finalized Aug. 31, including the announcement of both captain's picks, said Faldo has it marginally tougher than his former American broadcast partner.

"Obviously Nick," Garcia said. "The only thing about the picks is with four, you make two more friends than Nick will make.

"You know, if in the future I become the captain, I'm not looking forward to that, because there's so many guys that deserve to go and he can only pick two, so you're going to disappoint a lot."

The Ryder selection system is so crazy and dissimilar, potential players from the same side can't agree which captain will be flipping the most coins.

"Right now it's probably looking like Zinger's got some tough decisions to make, obviously," Poulter said. "He's got four picks. He's got to do the right thing, and he's got to pick four good players."

In other words, Azinger asked for four picks, and they'd better play well, or everybody in stars and stripes will look amateurish. Although as Azinger so colorfully put it Wednesday, it's hard to believe the Americans can get their "ass beat" any worse than in the past two competitions, which the Yanks lost by record margins.

"I'm not saying Nick hasn't got a hard job -- Nick's potentially got three or four guys that he would like on the side and he's only got two picks," Poulter said. "But I think Zinger right now is probably got the toughest decision to make. Four picks, that's going to be difficult."

As far as Azinger is concerned, Faldo faces a more difficult task in four weeks' time.

"He's got four players outside the top 10 who are really terrific players," Azinger said. "To leave any two of those guys off the team would be very difficult."

In a backdoor fashion, this rather affirms the assertion that the U.S. is comparatively weak in its eligibility pool. Of their at-large pick quandaries, Azinger said, "(Faldo) could get tabloided to death. For me, there's not a lot of, 'Oh my gosh, how did you not pick that guy?'"

However the roster configurations pan out over the rest of this month, Azinger said that minus Tiger Woods, the Euros have a massive edge in perceived talent and momentum, despite the fact the matches will be played in Kentucky. He didn't appear to be just blowing smoke, either.

Maybe Azinger is thinking the same things we are, or he has noticed that five of the top eight players on the U.S. qualifying list have never scored a full point in Ryder competition. Or that none of the remaining three, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink, has a winning Ryder individual record. In fact, that trio has cumulative mark of 18-29-10.

Removing Woods makes the road that much steeper, and Azinger's horsepower -- based on who's in the barn and still trying to qualify -- looks overmatched.

"It puts the Europeans, without question, in the favorite's role," he said.