Campbell, Stricker, Mahan, Holmes

by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 2, 2008 10:57 AM EDT

Those are the four men who are Captain Paul Azinger's hand picked soldiers for the Ryder Cup at Valhalla.

Let's talk a little bit about each of the players.

1. Steve Stricker - almost an automatic pick and someone I had seen as a part of this all along. He got bounced from automatically qualifying when Ben Curtis took 2nd at the PGA Championship. As TGC alluded to last night, had the qualifying ended with the Deutsche Bank, Stricker would have made the team and bounced Boo Weekley.

2. JB Holmes - a shocker pick for me even though everyone knew he would be on the team. Holmes has a win this year (same place as his first win, FBR Open) but really hasn't done much else this except be from Kentucky, know Valhalla very well, and hit the ball erratically.

3. Hunter Mahan - a guy who I had penciled in, even after his Golf Magazine interview that really wasn't that big of a deal. He posted a couple of nice finishes in the past two weeks, and I'm sure the opening 62 in Boston pretty much locked it up for him. In his last seven starts, he has 4 top 15 finishes...and 2 MCs.

4. Chad Campbell - biggest surprise of the bunch, really. Finished 20th in the standings but found his way onto the team. Had a 2nd in Houston and a 3rd in Milwaukee (beat Kenny Perry!), but has also missed 8 cuts this year. I guess a T7 this weekend got him in?

As for the guys who missed out, this pretty much sums it up from the AP:

Among those left off the team were Scott Verplank. Although he was 33rd in the final standings, Verplank is 4-1-0 in the two Ryder Cups he has played and was a favorite of some players who made the team.

Also bypassed were Woody Austin, Rocco Mediate, Sean O’Hair, D.J. Trahan, Sean O’Hair, Brandt Snedeker and former Masters champion Zach Johnson, who did not make it to the second playoff event for the FedEx Cup.

Austin finished 10th in the standings and would have qualified if Azinger did not have additional picks this year. Mediate, who became an overnight sensation after losing in a 19-hole playoff to Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, has not finished in the top 15 since then.

Your thoughts on the picks?

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Comments

any good odds to bet on the Euros ?

half a team of rookies – half a team of veterans, many with 0’s in their Ryder Cup win column – and a captain that seems as excited as a rice cake over what’s going on.

Love the Stricker and Holmes picks. How can you not like a hot putter and a huge driver – especially since they both have wins in the last year.

Don’t understand Campbell – he hasn’t had a good stretch of golf in over 2 years, and Azinger skipped some VERY deserving players like Snedeker, O’Hair, Mediate, Trahan, and Johnson. Don’t like the Mahan pick after he mouthed off the way he did.

Any chance Mickelson will step up and play a little bit of golf next week ? He isn’t exactly lighting it up in the playoffs. Another week like the last two and I think he’ll skip the Tour Championship. Now there’s an inspirational team leader.

I’ll be waving the red white and blue – but it won’t be a huge surprise if we get waxed again.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 2, 2008 12:08 PM EDT reply actions

I missed one...

…How did I miss this one ? If you’re going to take a flier on Campbell – why not go a little further down to Heath Slocum ? He and Boo Weekly were runners up at the World Cup, so we would at least have one solid team. Slocum has been playing well all year, has stepped it up in the Playoffs, and looks like he will make it to the Tour Championship again this year.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Sep 2, 2008 2:02 PM EDT up reply actions