Message to Tom Lehman, with deference to Jack Buck: “Go crazy, folks go crazy.”

Yes, there will be newcomers on the team, four rookies to be exact. And it would be nice to for Woods to do some baby-sitting. But in terms of winning the event, it would help even more if he led by taking care of a few European opponents. He’s Tiger Woods, for crying out loud; the U.S needs him to act like it.

The same might be said of our lefthanded starter, Phil Mickelson. He will be making his sixth Ryder Cup appearance and his record is a little better than Woods, at 9-8-4 overall. But he also has not played especially well with others. Mickelson’s mark in foursomes and fourball is an unfull-Phil-ing 4-5-3. Like Woods, Mickelson will miss the orientation session Lehman has planned.

But the captain has faith. “You know, I could say the exact same thing for Phil Mickelson,” Lehman said. “In fact, I will. I’ll tell you right now. Phil is the exact same way. He has called me several times. He’s talked to me many, many times about this team and what he thinks the team needs.”

Here’s what it needs. It needs the No. 2 player in the world to bury his opponents. Mickelson has won three major championships and lipped out several more. He has 29 wins on the PGA Tour. He is, next to Woods, the most dynamic figure in the game. The U.S. team needs for him to show it.

88th PGA Championship Tiger trounces field to win 12th major Tiger triumphs by 5 |   Sound off on Tiger Celizic: Best yet to come from brainy Tiger Opinion: Intimidating Tiger of old returns Wilbon: Tiger joins Ali, Jordan in elite club Opinion: Lost year for Lefty after Open gaffe Micheel pleased with second | Donald wilts Opinion: Low scores not a major problem Lehman adds Cink, Verplank to Ryder Cup Final scores | Champions | Hole-by-hole (pdf)

It needs him to anchor his tag-team when he plays foursomes or fourballs. It needs him be the Masters Phil, not Winged Foot Phil.

In Detroit, U.S. Hal Sutton played a hunch that he could demoralize the opposition and strike a crippling blow by teaming Woods and Mickelson together for the first two rounds. When his two most celebrated players looked dazed and confused and lost both matches, Sutton looked like a fool.

But his roll of the dice shouldn’t have been a  “gamble” at all. He put the two highest ranked players in the tournament together – they should wiped the floor with their opponents - first with Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie, then with Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.

If you saw those names on a leaderboard at a U.S. Open, who would you put money on to win and place? The answer would be Woods and Mickelson every time. 

Slide show   Week in Sports Pictures Flying on the hardwood, racing on the rink, getting physical on the gridiron, and much more. more photos

The same might be said for the No. 3 ranked player in the world - Jim Furyk. The man with the quirky swing has an even quirkier Ryder Cup record. Furyk is 4-9-2 overall, undefeated in singles (3-0-1) and unsightly in team play.

Speculation is Lehman will pair Woods and Furyk together, because they meshed at the President’s Cup, but that guarantees nothing. If they bomb, as Woods and Mickelson did, will that make Lehman a fool? Most likely, Lehman will pair Mickelson with Chris DiMarco, again, because of how they perked at the Prez. DiMarco will be fired up, that’s a given. Mickelson needs to match his partner’s energy and then some.

You can talk about chemistry and coagulating all you want. And to be sure, Lehman is addressing team spirit with his pre-tournament walkthrough.

“When we go over there to Ireland, we’re going to go over there, we’re going to play some golf, we’re going to do some fishing, we’re going to drink some Guinness, we’re going to have some fun. We’re going to get our pairings all put together.”

Hey, good times. But when the U.S. goes back to Ireland for the real deal, they better have one more thing going for them, besides captain’s picks and camaraderie. They better have their best players ready to dominate.

MORE FROM GOLF

Golf Section Front

Tiger’s aura strong, at least outside the ropes Woods faces tricky test at the Heath Thousands turn out for Tiger's practice round Kerr leads LPGA to win at 3-Tour Challenge O'Hair, Villegas tied for Kiwi lead A big finish for Phil sets up high expectations Faldo receives knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II McIlroy joining the US PGA Tour next year Latest golf videos Latest player news, rumors and more Golf Section Front   Add Golf headlines to your news reader: