Lehman Looks for a Winning Recipe

By THOMAS BONK

Aug. 3, 2006 12 AM PT

It didn’t go so great for the U.S. Ryder Cup team the last time, but only if you consider the most lopsided American defeat in Ryder Cup history as bad news. At the very least, it provides a starting point for the matches coming up in September, simply because it can’t be that terrible again.

In fact, Tom Lehman is almost certain it won’t. Lehman, the U.S. captain, has taken an unusual step to make sure that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and the other 10 players on the team perform up to their full potential.

Lehman has hired a team chef. It’s probably the only way to find out if it is really true that the best way to a player’s heart is through his stomach. Once they tee it up at the K Club just outside of Dublin, Ireland, the Ryder Cup takes center stage in the world of golf. It will be the moment everyone has been waiting for.

Lights. Camera. Calories.

Lehman’s chef is Dennis Trixler, a former PGA Tour pro who also knows his way around a grill. During this month’s PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club, near Chicago, the PGA of America is leasing a house to serve as some sort of hospitality playpen for the fellows who are probably going to be on the Ryder Cup team. Lehman is importing Trixler to cook up whatever the eating equivalent of a birdie might be, and he’s also bringing him to the Ryder Cup matches.

On Tuesday night, Lehman met with the Angels in Anaheim before the game against the Athletics, so it should come as no surprise that he’s throwing a few curves at Ryder Cup tradition.

This isn’t a bad idea at all. Lehman’s problem is that he inherited a situation where the current Ryder Cup tradition is losing. The U.S. hasn’t won the Ryder Cup against the team from Europe since 1999 and is 1-4 since 1995.

Besides bringing on a team chef, Lehman has hired Ralph Lauren, or at least his company, as the team’s clothier. The logo on the front of the shirts will be streamlined to feature a simple Ryder Cup trophy image and the numerals 2006 beneath. Lehman said he favors understated colors and designs and that Lauren is just the guy to bring that to the golf course, if not the backyard barbecue.

There is much work ahead for Lehman and he knows it, but he’s getting a head start now that the decisions about the food and the shirts are out of the way. He can worry about that nagging little problem of pairing players for the alternate-shot and best-ball matches that always seem to crop up.

Remember last time, the Woods-Mickelson dream pairing at Oakland Hills? Paris and Nicole get along better. By Sunday night in September 2004, the U.S. had absorbed an 18 1/2 -9 1/2 defeat, its worst since the Ryder Cup was started in 1927. In that first competition at Worcester, Mass., the U.S. prevailed against England, and afterward, players from both sides met at the 18th green and walked off together, arm in arm.

If that happens at the K Club, it needs to be in an oil painting.

In addition to winning, Lehman is promoting togetherness, which is what’s behind another of his ideas. The PGA of America picks up the tab for the parents of the Ryder Cup players so they can travel abroad to the matches. Lehman thought the harmony factor would improve if that travel opportunity were extended to include the in-laws too. And the PGA of America agreed.

That decision seems slightly hard to believe from the outside. Inviting the in-laws to the party is a good idea? And if it is, the players couldn’t afford it themselves?

Lehman also likes picking the brains of experts, so he spent two hours recently at John Wooden’s home. He’s also trying to get together with Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

On the course, the issues are the typical ones that all captains must face. Lehman said he isn’t worried about fielding a team of four Ryder Cup rookies, if that’s how it works out. He said fresh enthusiasm is a good thing.

Finding someone to play alongside Woods won’t be a problem, said Lehman, who thinks Jim Furyk or maybe Chris DiMarco would be perfect. Lehman doesn’t need to announce his two captain’s picks until the day after the PGA Championship, but he mentioned Jerry Kelly, Davis Love III, Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank as possibilities.

Europe is going to be favored, Lehman admitted, regardless of how many innovations he brings to the U.S. approach to the Ryder Cup. Lehman said he’s confident and prepared for whatever happens.

After all, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. That’s what the chef is for.

This week

*--* PGA TOUR Buick Open

*--*

* When: Today-Sunday.

* Where: Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club (7,127 yards, par 72), Grand Blanc, Mich.

* Purse: $4.8 million. Winner’s share: $864,000 and 2007 Buick Lucerne.

* TV: USA (Today-Friday, 4-6 p.m., delayed) and Ch. 2 (Saturday-Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

* Last year’s winner: Vijay Singh.

*--* LPGA TOUR Women’s British Open

*--*

* When: Today-Sunday.