Green Posse

I can’t believe all the hoopla surrounding Lehman possibly making the Ryder Cup team now that he’s in contention at the International at Castle Pines in Colorado.  He’s three points out of first place and that’s not a lot to have to make up in the modified Stableford system of scoring.

While this may seem as a criticism of Lehman, it’s really not.  My main beef and personal opinion is that the “Captain” of the Ryder Cup team should be just that, the Captain of the squad and leader of the team.  One argument in favor of Lehman being a player-captain is that the team needs more experience, since it’s currently rookie-heavy.  I agree that experience will be the achilles heel of team, but that’s why the captain has two personal picks.  Think Couples and Davis Love III.  Keep repeating it.
Yes, Lehman’s record as a Ryder Cup player is very good, but that was almost nine years ago and like all of us, he’s aged and really hasn’t been all that competitive as of late.  He’s got the passion to win, there’s no doubt about that, but if he’s a player and a captain, then obviously he’s shirking some of his captain’s duties.  If I was running the Ryder Cup, then I’d forbid the captain from playing on the team. Either you’re the captain or you’re not.  Your choice.

Which leads me to…what exactly does a captain really do at the Ryder Cup?  Yes, he makes out the pairings for the matches based on some subjective criteria  and acts as cheerleader during the day.  Maybe he makes a Knute Rockne type of speech the night before the singles?  If so, why?  These are all independent contractors for 99% of the season and quite frankly, they probably don’t give this the same importance as the media would like to think.  Does that mean we should elminate the Ryder Cup.  Not at all.  I’ll have more in an upcoming column.

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