The Last Couple Does Not Include Couples

Here’s the story on filling out the Ryder Cup team: Many were called and two were chosen.

Ben Crenshaw, the U.S. captain, announced Tom Lehman and Steve Pate as his two at-large selections Monday, but he also had to telephone Fred Couples, Lee Janzen, Bob Estes and Chris Perry to tell them there was no need to pack their bags for The Country Club in suburban Boston next month.

A two-time Ryder Cup player, Lehman was considered a lock, but Pate was a mild surprise. The 38-year-old golfer from Agoura Hills was asleep Sunday night when Crenshaw called him.

“I obviously didn’t know I was going to be picked,” Pate said. “He could have picked anyone else and they all could have been good picks. I’m glad it was me.”

Many thought it would be Couples, a five-time Ryder Cup participant, but Couples was graded down because he has played only three times since early June.

“You’ve got to consider his schedule this year,” Crenshaw said. “How many times did he play?”

In the end, Crenshaw decided against Estes and Perry because they lack Ryder Cup experience, and against Janzen because he hasn’t been playing well.

Crenshaw said he also considered Steve Stricker and Hale Irwin.

Lehman built his schedule around trying to make the team on points. He wound up No. 12 on the list, behind Estes, after finishing tied for 34th at the PGA, his ninth tournament in the last 10 weeks.

Estes just missed replacing Jeff Maggert at No. 10, falling 13.75 points short. The 33-year-old 12-year pro needed to finish no worse than a tie for fifth but tied for sixth instead.

However, Crenshaw said telephoning Couples was the toughest call he had to make.

“He has just not played enough this year,” Crenshaw said. “To weigh all this is just agony.”

Pate was on the winning 1991 U.S. Ryder Cup team, but played only one match after injuring his ribs when the team limousine in which he was riding was involved in an accident.

“He deserves another chance,” Crenshaw said.

It also doesn’t hurt that Pate tied for eighth at the PGA and is having the best money-making year of his career. He tied for fourth at the Masters, finished second at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic when David Duval shot a 59 on the last day, and he was fourth in the Anderson Consulting match-play event at La Costa.

And, in the 1988 U.S. Open at The Country Club, Pate tied for third.

When Crenshaw added it all up, it was more than enough to convince him.

“He’s a wonderful, solid pick,” Crenshaw said.

Lehman and Pate will be joining qualifiers Tiger Woods, Duval--the only Ryder Cup rookie--Payne Stewart, Davis Love III, Mark O’Meara, Hal Sutton, Justin Leonard, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Maggert the weekend of Sept. 24-26 and the U.S. team seems intent on showing up with a solid, unified front.

Crenshaw said the compensation issue is no longer something to be considered. Jim Awtrey, the chief officer of the PGA of America, said Saturday that a plan will be in place to allow the players to donate money to charity by the end of the year.

“This issue is behind us,” Crenshaw said. “Regardless of what happened this week, we have to be a team. That’s very simple. That’s non-complex. Unification is a big part of this and it’s done.”

Lehman, who played on the last two U.S. teams, said he’s satisfied with the way the matter has been handled, but there is something that bothers him more:

“I’m sick and tired of being on a losing team.”

Europe won the Ryder Cup in 1995 at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., and kept it with a victory in 1997 at Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain.

European team captain Mark James will announce his two at-large picks Sunday night, after the BMW International Open in Munich.

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Ryder Cup Team

Tom Lehman and Steve Pate were named to the U.S. team Monday. The first 10 automatically qualified to play at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Sept. 24-26:

Player: World rank

Tiger Woods: 1

David Duval: 2

Payne Stewart: 7

Davis Love III: 3

Mark O’Meara: 9

Hal Sutton: 15

Justin Leonard: 12

Jim Furyk: 14

Phil Mickelson: 11

Jeff Maggert: 20

Tom Lehman: 23

Steve Pate: 32

RYDER CUP

United States vs. Europe

Sept. 24-26

The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.

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