Results Change Look of Ryder Cup Team

Not only did David Toms win his first major, collect $936,000 and move past $8 million in career earnings, he also earned a place on the Ryder Cup team, bumping Tom Lehman off the points list.

Toms moved from No. 14 to No. 5; and Lehman, who missed the cut, fell out of an automatic spot on the squad from No. 10 to No. 11.

There weren’t any other changes in the top 10, although it could be significant that Chris DiMarco fell from 11th to 13th and Steve Lowery moved from 22nd to 12th.

Curtis Strange chooses his two captain’s picks today and speculation centers on Scott Verplank and DiMarco with Lehman considered a dark horse. Strange is high on Verplank, who hasn’t played Ryder Cup but is well-versed in match play because of the Walker Cup and the U.S. Amateur.

Regarded as a tough competitor and a good putter, Verplank may be an easy choice for Strange after tying for seventh at the PGA with rounds of 69-68-70-67 for a 274.

“I needed to play good and have good rounds to give Curtis something to think about, and I did that,” Verplank said.

“It just depends on what Curtis is looking for. I’ve played decent every week. I’ve only missed one cut in the last year and a half. I’d love to make it. I think I’d be a great team member. But if he goes for other people, then, unfortunately, I’d have to understand that.”

Stewart Cink, who dropped from ninth to 10th in the points, hopes Strange chooses DiMarco. After opening with rounds of 68-67, DiMarco finished at three-under 277.

“I’d love to play on the team with Chris,” Cink said. “It’s up to Curtis.”

Lehman has one top 10 since the last week of January and has missed three consecutive cuts. He is, however, a proven Ryder Cup performer, which Verplank and DiMarco are not.

Know you have not seen the last of Shingo Katayama and his cowboy hat. Katayama’s tie for fourth after his closing 70 puts him in the field for the Masters.

Maybe he will wear a green lid in April.

The first-tee marshal was Frank Bell, 90, a member of the Atlanta Athletic Club for 53 years whose locker was two down from Bobby Jones. Bell, a former advertising executive, was host to Jones and his father many times at functions at East Lake Golf Club.

Said Bell: “I still have the letter that Bobby wrote to me telling me that he had to decline an invitation to dinner. Bobby was getting his illness at that time.”

Jones had syringomyelia, a rare spinal disease.

Bell said he is working on a book that he is calling “A Determined Cuss.”

“I am writing it to let people everywhere know that you can succeed if you try,” he said.

Tom Watson won eight majors, but never the PGA Championship. Watson, 51, tried for the 29th time this week and closed with a 70 and a 72-hole score of five-over 285.

Watson, who tied for ninth at last year’s event at Valhalla, says he isn’t through yet, although he’s probably going to have to win the Senior PGA Championship--as he did last year--to get in the 2002 event at Hazeltine.

Watson says he’s game.

“I love playing in major championships,” he said. “I’ll come back as often as I can.”

Watson missed the cut at his other two majors this year, at the Masters and the British Open.

He’s 38, he has been a pro since 1987, he has played in 10 PGA Championships and he should know better, but Colin Montgomerie showed what can happen to even the most experienced player if you forget to count: You get disqualified.

Montgomerie signed an incorrect scorecard Sunday, signing for a 71 that included a par three on the seventh, where he made a bogey. Andrew Oldcorn kept Montgomerie’s card, but it’s the player’s responsibility to check his card.

Montgomerie made $2,000, given to players who make the cut but do not submit a 72-hole score.