Azinger comes to Faldo's defense

2008-09-23

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By Simon Lewis
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) - Nick Faldo’s European Ryder Cup captaincy has been strongly defended by United States captain Paul Azinger.

Azinger leapt to the defense of his rival and former television commentary partner in the wake of a 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 U.S. triumph over Europe at Valhalla on Sunday.

The Americans won back the cup for the first time since 1999, ending a three-match run of European dominance and Azinger said he expected Faldo catch some flak, just as previous losing captains from both sides had following their defeats.

“The press will pound him over there but the captains get way too much blame when it doesn’t happen,” Azinger said. “You know, somebody’s got to win and lose.

“Everybody wants to second guess everything that Curtis (Strange) or Hal (Sutton) or Lanny (Wadkins) or Kite did. They’re blaming Tom Kite because Michael Jordan rode in the cart. He rode in the cart for one or two holes. Suddenly it’s Tom Kite’s fault? That was crazy. So, Faldo will get his. Mark James got his, (Bernard) Gallacher got his. Everybody gets it.”

Faldo was widely criticized leading up to the event for not taking Ryder Cup heroes Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke as his captain’s picks. Faldo took some heat again when he chose to backload the order for the 12 deciding singles matches.

That decision saw victories for Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell rendered meaningless as were the matches for Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington, who both lost anyway.

Azinger also defended Faldo’s decision to rest big guns Sergio Garcia and Westwood for the Saturday morning foursomes session, a move that went unexplained on Friday when the pairings were announced and led to another round of criticism.

“He only had one guy that went five matches and I only had two guys that went five matches. I did the math - if a guy plays five matches he loses about 75-80 percent of the time in singles,” Azinger said. “So I tried to avoid that and I give Nick credit for trying to avoid that rather than rip Nick for taking a chance.

“I may be wrong, I have no idea. I’m not going to justify, as I said all week, anything that he did or didn’t do.”

Azinger, meanwhile, will go down as the American captain who energized the fans at Valhalla and introduced a new team-building strategy that got previously under-performing individual golfers to act like a unit and play for country with as much enthusiasm as they do for themselves.

“I watched a documentary, it was kind of like - I won’t even tell you. I’ve had this idea for about five years, if I was ever the captain, how I would try to approach the team,” he said. “You know, we just decided to come together in small groups, that was it. Beyond that, I don’t know what else to tell you.

“We put four guys together in practice rounds and they played together every day, and they were the four guys that stayed together the whole week and they were never going to come out of their little group. That’s the way I did it. It was about how to take small groups and just to break them up.”

Azinger even extended the concept through to the singles lineup, sending his four-man practice groups together in three waves led by Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Justin Leonard and Phil Mickelson; followed by Kenny Perry, Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes and Jim Furyk and brought home by Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker, Ben Curtis and Chad Campbell.

“I wanted my four aggressive personalities and players to go out first, which they did,” Azinger said. “I wanted Kentucky and Jim Furyk to go out, and Boo, in the middle, which they did. And I wanted my steady, supportive kind of personality guys that are just rock-solid, unflappable personalities to anchor this team.

“So I just went four, four and four in my mind, and that’s how I did it. We collectively came together. We circled the table. I gave the players a couple of options and they shot me down right away. They liked the first option right away. Honestly, I had the first option in my head for probably two weeks.”

Now Azinger will have the memories of a successful Ryder Cup effort in his head for a lifetime.