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The result of Tom Lehman's U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy will be played out Septem-ber 22-24 at Kildare Golf and Country Club in Ireland, but his legacy began well before the competition. Lehman was named captain of the team nearly two years ago and almost immediately went to work on changing the perception of the U.S. team as one that didn't care. "There is nobody more passionate and cares about it more than I do," Lehman said during a roundtable discussion with the Los Angeles media last month. "Maybe as much, but not more, so my passion for the Ryder Cup is pretty strong. I think the guys know that." The last U.S. victory was in 1999 and Lehman was a member of the team that shocked the Europeans on the last day to win. The previous two contests, however, have been dominated by the Europeans and the criticism has been directed mainly at captains Curtis Strange (2002) and Hal Sutton (2004). Both had a dominating style and perhaps too heavy of a hand. There were some decisions that were questioned. Don't look for Lehman to rule by committee, but he will be looking for input from his assistants, Loren Roberts and UCLA grad Corey Pavin. "I think it has to be one person who makes the decisions. That's the captain, because he's the one who makes the final decision," said Lehman, whose ties to the Southland include co-designing Arroyo Trabuco in Mission Viejo and The Farms in Rancho Santa Fe. "But I definitely believe that if you're smart and you're wise, then you get good advice from the people around you. You listen to them. I think that's one thing I do, I listen to the people around me. If I think it makes sense, you know, we'll discuss it further. At the end of the day, it's my decision, it's my gut instinct, and I just think having them around will help me make better decisions." One of Sutton's most criticized decisions was pairing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. That proved to be a disaster and Lehman said he will work on pairing guys who will be effective together. "I've had conversations with everybody, and one of the toughest things I think you have to know is how to approach each guy," Lehman said. "Some players, you give them a challenge, kind of tick them off a little bit and they respond. Some guys, you've got to be encouraging." Despite having several new faces on the team, Lehman is confident the U.S. will be focused and ready to play. "I see the guys going the extra mile and making the effort to be prepared, to be ready because they want to go in and do well," Lehman said. "So if we don't win, it's not going to be because they don't care. It's not going to be because they didn't make the effort. It's going to be because the Europeans played better." Lehman spent some of his time in the area with former UCLA coach John Wooden, who told him about his legendary Bruins teams and how the players learned to work together to get the job done. "I walked away from that two hours with this incredible sense of the goodness of [Wooden]," Lehman said. "That kind of thing attracts you and it makes you a better person. What helped make his teams so good is the people around him became better people and better basketball players. In terms of how it affected me, I hope I can make the golfers around me feel like that when they walk out of the Ryder Cup." n John Reger has been covering professional golf since 1995. If you have a question or comment, e-mail him at cascribe@aol.com. |
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