Azinger already righting ship

Forces PGA to make changes,
boosts U.S. Ryder Cup chances

The foundering ship that is the U.S. Ryder Cup team has a new captain for 2008, and already Paul Azinger is proving to be a master with the bilge pump.

Before he accepted the job, he convinced the PGA of America to revamp its point system — again — give him two more wild card selections (four), and more time to make them.

We won’t expect miracles from one of the game’s most irascible characters, but he sure is off on a good foot.

“I’m going to get the blame if it doesn’t work,” Azinger said Monday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. “I would like some of the credit if it does.”

America is waiting to give anyone some credit, as long as the U.S. team starts to play up to its collective résumé.

Azinger has the personality and slightly off-center perspective on the game to wake up the moribund U.S. players, and he has already shown that he can shake up the system.

“I like the idea of being able to pick four players,” Azinger said. “I like the idea that I don’t have to pick them immediately after the PGA Championship. I have an opportunity that no other Ryder Cup captain has had, and I really appreciate that.”

While the new points system remains indescribably convoluted, suffice it to say it is based on money earned and not top-10 finishes. In the past a player could finish 11th at The Masters and get no points, but earn points for a ninth-place finish in a run-of-the-mill PGA Tour event. Now Azinger should get eight players from the top of the heap, while holding four chances to grab, in NFL draft parlance, the best player left on the board.

Azinger is a solid choice who has already advanced the U.S. cause. Now he needs to cut into all the hoopla and distractions that surround the American squad and get his men into a position where they can just play golf.

Here are some suggestions, Paul, in case you need ideas:

• Don’t waste any mental energy on meaningless details, like picking uniforms. Two white shirts, two red shirts, two blue shirts, black trousers, black shoes and black hats. Done.

• Give the wives their badges on Monday and say, “See you Sunday.” They’re not part of the team, they’re spectators. (If you can pull off separate rooms for the troops, do it.)

• Eliminate as many outside functions as possible, starting with the so-called gala. This is a golf match, not the club’s autumn cotillion. Use that time for serious golf talk with the caddies over beer and chicken wings and yardage books. Or, better yet, make it Maker’s Mark, since you’ll be in Kentucky.

• Skip the special-guest pep talks. No former presidents, no former basketball players, no former hockey players. Give the Bush and Jordan and Gretzky families their passes on Monday and say, “See you Sunday.”

• If stumped for a captain’s choice, take the bigger hitter. Past captains have always looked first for players who can chip and putt, but it’s time we turned the big dogs loose on those Euro pattycakers. Here are some good picks right now — John Daly, J.B. Holmes (Kentucky bred, and breeding counts in Louisville), Bubba Watson and, oh, anybody else averaging 340-plus. If we’re going to lose, let’s at least go down swingin’ from the heels.

• Just in case, see if you can restore Ryder Cup eligibility to American-born Aaron Baddeley.

• While you’re at it, see if you can somehow doctor Camilo Villegas’ Colombian birth certificate. South America is still America, right? You need somebody to trash-talk Sergio Garcia in Spanish. (“¿De dónde conseguiste esos pantalones amarillos? ¿De tu hermana?” “Buen putt, Alice. ¿Tu juego del marido golf?”)