Pavin the way for U.S. Ryder Cup retreat to defeat?
So it's an honorarium now? The only ripple effect the PGA should be worried about is the one created by the victory. Let that ripple become a tidal wave, with crazy Captain Ahab Azinger holding the harpoon and aiming at Wales.
"The PGA of America kind of views those Ryder Cup captaincies as a real career achievement," U.S. Ryder regular Justin Leonard told the Associated Press. "When you've played as many Ryder Cups as guys like Zinger and Corey and you see how important it is to those guys, it's natural for them to want to be captain.
"They want what's best for the event," he said. "At the same time, they want to spread that around."
Nice try at diplomacy, but the last two sentences seem mutually exclusive. What's best for the Ryder would have been to make Pavin wait. If he ultimately was passed over by Davis Love or David Toms down the line, nobody outside the Pavin household would have noticed.
Imagine the buzz that Azinger -- who is so verbally unpredictable, he's like trying to juggle nitro in a moving golf cart -- would have created as he sought to defend the cup on foreign soil. Outside of their passion to win, they have little in common.
"I think Paul and I are similar in that we love the Ryder Cup," Pavin said. "The Ryder Cup is in my blood. I think if you cut my arm open, Ryder Cup would just bleed out. It's the greatest event in the world, I think, and certainly the golf world."
Now there's a pile of rhetoric, if not something with a more organic stench. Maybe Azinger should have brown-nosed a bit more? Pavin has apparently been backdoor lobbying for the job for months as the chosen successor and said he was given assurances that he would be the 2010 pick a month ago, after which Azinger had put his name back into the mix for a second helping. At that point, the PGA clearly should have reconsidered the scripted Pavin scenario.
"I think that what you have to understand is that there are many great players who have earned the right to be Ryder Cup captains," Remy said. "Should you have a repeat of a captain, chances are that somewhere down the road, one of those great players may miss that opportunity. If any one of those captains had repeated, it would have changed the future of the Ryder Cup captaincy."
Who cares? All Azinger did was change the present of the U.S. team, right? For that alone, personalities notwithstanding, he deserved a shot at rewriting the squad's future.
Nationally, the first-blush reaction to Pavin's selection has generated a near-universal yawn from those who cover the sport -- and we're the ones who have to convey the cup news to readers and fans. It could be a long two years.
Case in point: During the Ryder run-up earlier this fall, Azinger was asked about his addiction to foosball. Before he was through relating how he had stopped off at a tumbledown rural home on Monday of Ryder week to play against some Louisville locals, Azinger became the first man in recorded history to use the description "it was like a foosball crack house."
The story brought down the media house. Azinger is half-crazy and knows how to weave a good tale -- not to mention that he choreographed a reversal of the U.S. team's flagging fortunes, rewrote the selection process and rekindled some semblance of team unity.
Good luck following that act, Corey.
It seemed paradoxical that the statuesque Rockettes were trotted out by the PGA to add some zip to the proceedings. Don't recall Azinger needing any props to make his case.
After all, if style points count -- and the PGA staged the announcement at New York's famous Tavern on the Green eatery -- then explain again why was Zinger kicked to the curb?
The PGA should have used a different dance move than the one made famous by the long-legged troupe. As it relates to the one-and-done captaincy philosophy, it ought to be, one, two, three, punt.
