It’s Not Total Loss for Riley and DiMarco

It was Vijay Singh’s day at Whistling Straits, but for runner-up Chris DiMarco and for Chris Riley, their day will come later, at the Ryder Cup.

DiMarco and Riley bumped Steve Flesch and Jay Haas from the top 10 in the final points standings, with Hal Sutton announcing his two captain’s picks for the U.S. team today.

Sutton, who has not tipped his hand on who he might choose, probably is faced with deciding on two out of a pool of six probable choices -- No. 11 Flesch, No. 12 Haas, No. 13 Jerry Kelly, No. 14 Stewart Cink, No. 16 Scott Verplank and No. 17 Justin Leonard.

DiMarco, who moved from 15th to eighth in the final points standings, said he felt left out of the Ryder Cup discussions all week and his feelings were hurt.

“All of you guys never mentioned me the whole week, that’s all I know, so you [reporters] were my motivation for sure,” DiMarco said.

Riley, who tied for fourth, reacted with joy.

“To play for your country and everything, I got chills out there thinking about it,” he said.

Fred Funk missed the cut at the PGA Championship, but did not fall out of the top 10.

The European Ryder Cup team will be announced Aug. 23.

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Only 10 players made the cut in all four majors and only two players were under par in all four of them -- Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. Els was a combined 32 under par and Mickelson was a combined 26 under par. The next best was K.J. Choi at a combined three over and Vijay Singh at a combined four over.

The others and their combined totals were Tiger Woods at seven over, DiMarco at nine over, Flesch at 15 over, Shaun Micheel at 20 over and Charles Howell and Verplank at 23 over.

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The same as everyone else, the majors are over for Woods, but because his expectation level is completely different from everyone else’s, he had only one way to look at coming up empty this year.

“Disappointed,” he said. “I didn’t win. I felt like I was playing so well and I just didn’t ... I played decent on Thursday, but putted the ball atrociously, and that put me behind the eight-ball. A lot of room that I had to make up and I just didn’t get it all back.”

Woods needed 32 putts in his opening round of 75. He closed with a 73 on Sunday and finished at two-under 286, tied for 24th.

What’s more, his streak of majors without winning has reached double figures at 10, since he won the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.

Woods refused to talk about the precise level of his exasperation about his major-less streak.

“It’s frustrating because I didn’t win, simple as that,” he said.

Woods, who said he will work on his putting, contrasted his play in majors the last two years to the period in which he won seven of 11.

“Well, I was hitting a lot of fairways, hitting the ball close and making a lot of putts,” he said. “There’s no substitute for getting on a roll. Look what Phil’s doing this year. Ernie did it this year, or most of the year. You get on these little runs. That little stretch where I played well, I was on my little run.”

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Ben Crane made the most of his unexpected spot in the PGA Championship, tying for ninth with a 283 total and leading the list of the 10 who replaced players who had to withdraw.

Crane substituted for Fred Couples, who had to pull out because of a bad back.

There was one other replacement in the top 20 -- Matt Gogel tied for 17th, subbing for Tom Watson, who withdrew because of a neck injury.

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Whistling Straits hardly proved to be the unplayable course many players had predicted it might be.

Pete Dye, the course designer, said from the beginning that the top players would be able to shoot low scores.

“The worst thing that could happen to me is if they couldn’t play,” Dye said Sunday.

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Chip Sullivan, at one-under 287, was the top finisher among the 25 club professionals who competed in the tournament. Only three of the 25 made the 36-hole cut.

Sullivan, of Troutville, Pa., is the PGA head professional at Ashley Plantation Golf Course in Daleville, Va.

The other club pros who made the cut were Roy Biancalana of Huntley, Ill., who shot a seven-over 79 on Sunday to finish at 11-over 299, and Jeff Coston of Blaine, Wash., who finished at 13-over 301.