Woosnam's choices on the money in Ryder Cup
Captaincy not entirely smooth sailing, but Woosie steadies team on course
 Eddie Keogh / Reuters European Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam perhaps drank his celebratory champagne too fast Sunday, but that was the only adversity he faced on the course during the Ryder Cup. |
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STRAFFAN, Ireland - Standing on the balcony, the celebration in full swing, Ian Woosnam took a big swig of champagne. Way too big, in fact. It came spewing out of his mouth and bubbling through his nose.
That was, to be frank, the most adversity the winning Ryder Cup captain faced all week.
His European team wrapped up an 18½-9½ victory over the Americans on Sunday. Well before that, most golf experts were calling this the best European team ever.
After watching it come together, the only question was: Who couldn’t have led this team to victory?
“The proudest moment of my life,” Woosnam called it. “When you’ve got 12 fantastic players and a back-room staff I’ve got, it made my job very easy.”
For the record, though, Woosnam’s captaincy wasn’t all smooth sailing.
He took criticism from the European press for not being as accessible or amiable or interesting or organized as his American counterpart, the losing Tom Lehman.
Woosie’s biggest pre-event news came earlier this month, when he made a splash by choosing Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood as his wildcard players, then hamhandedly telling Thomas Bjorn, one of the players he passed over, about the choice rather casually at a pub.
Although Woosie’s delivery might not have been ideal, the choices he made certainly were.
Westwood teamed with Clarke to win both their fourball matches. Westwood got half points with Colin Montgomerie in both foursomes games, while Clarke stood on the sideline and smoked cigars. On Sunday, Clarke and Westwood won in singles.
Nearly all of Woosnam’s decisions looked like winners. It’s what happens when you’re coaching the better players.
“I think you look at the scoreboard, and that says everything about Woosie as a captain,” Clarke said.
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He came in with what NBC commentator Johnny Miller said were “12 guys — three of them are firing a 50-millimeter cannon and nine guys are shooting BB guns.”
To his credit, Lehman stayed away from any disruptive decisions, like in 2004 when Hal Sutton paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together, saying, “I felt like history needed it. I felt like the fans needed it. And most of all, I felt like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods needed it.”
That pairing went 0-2 on the first day, and the whole idea was widely credited for leading to the avalanche that resulted in an 18½-9½ loss.
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He kept Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods together for all four team matches, and they won only two. He put Phil Mickelson with Chris DiMarco three times, which produced no wins. But when he paired Mickelson with David Toms, Lefty lost there, too.
Lehman benched rookie J.J. Henry twice even though Henry was playing well. He also used a captain’s choice on Scott Verplank but only used him in one of the two-man matches. Verplank complained Saturday, and Lehman appeased him by making him the last player to go out in the Sunday singles.
Those on the American side dreamed Verplank’s match against Padraig Harrington might be very important. It wasn’t. Verplank won it anyway to finish the week 2-0.
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The Europeans did. And Woosnam looks like a genius.
“I’ve had some criticism over the last few months, but that’s gone and past,” he said. “We got the victory we wanted. I had 12 terrific guys to help me through it.”
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