US golfers 'unspoiled', claims cup captain Lehman

Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman today rubbished the suggestion that America’s golfers – beaten by Europe in three of the last four matches – lack toughness and are spoilt multi-millionaires.

But he does still believe they should be made underdogs for September’s clash in Dublin.

Lehman is paying an early visit to the K Club this week, finalising arrangements for the match as well as playing the European Open on the adjoining Smurfit course.

Some prospective members of his side follow next week, before turning their attentions to the Open at Hoylake – and while Tiger Woods may not be among them, he knows the venue well from previous visits.

Lehman admitted it “just drives me nuts” when he reads that his fellow professionals are “spoiled, they travel in their private jets, they don’t have heart, they aren’t tough”.

“To me it’s so far from the truth. The US Tour has changed so much because of the influx of international players that the younger players are not just coming out of college and being huge successes.

“They’ve had to go through some of the tougher places to play in order to kind of earn their stripes. I see a lot of very, very unspoiled golfers. It’s a total misconception.”

When it comes to who will be in Lehman’s side when their qualifying ends in just six weeks’ time the current spotlight is on whether the likes of Chris DiMarco, Davis Love and Fred Couples can fight their way into the top 10 or be left needing one of the two wild cards.

DiMarco is ear-marked as Phil Mickelson’s partner after the success they enjoyed together in last season’s Presidents Cup – but he has fallen to 19th spot since injuring himself skiing in March.

While that will weigh heavily in his favour, Lehman did state: “I would say form is way more important than reputation.

“What he brings to the team is invaluable, but if he is not playing well how do you pick him?

“So my message to him is and has been ‘Get yourself in the top 10. You’ve got two months. Go do it’.”

One suspects, though, that even if DiMarco starts moving in the right direction again – he needs top-10 finishes for that under the American points system – he can probably expect a wild card.

The other main worry for American fans, of course, is how long Woods will take to get back his full focus on golf following the death of his father.

“That’s a great question, and I wish I knew the answer to that,” said Lehman.

“I think Tiger’s father was always the guy you could go to, no matter what the circumstance, who could give him the straight truth and the perfect advice he needed.

“I don’t know how you replace someone like that. You can have all kind of great friends around you and a great wife and everything, but there’s no way to replace what you lost.”

There are five uncapped players – JJ Henry, Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor and Lucas Glover – currently occupying automatic selection spots. While Lehman has great belief in them, it does not change his view that Europe deserve to be made favourites.

“I’d say we’re the underdogs, without question. But I think being the underdog is good – I have no problem with that.”

It is the position, of course, from which Europe have played so well in recent times.

The concern on the horizon Europe’s captain Ian Woosnam is that for his wild cards he may have to pick two out of Paul McGinley, Sergio Garcia (both still in the top 10 at the moment, but slipping down), Luke Donald, Darren Clarke, Thomas Bjorn, Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez and world number 30 Carl Pettersson.

But as Europe discover more strength in depth that is an inevitable consequence – and he is happy to take on the mantle of favourites.

“As things stand at the moment, I think we’ve got a big advantage,” he said.

“The Americans could have five or six players that I think have played just once in the British Open or something like that, and you could actually have four or five guys who have never played in Europe before.

“As we know, the weather can be extremely bad in Ireland sometimes! But you know these guys are great players and they can adapt to anything really.”

Among the early starters tomorrow are French Open winner John Bickerton, now 10th in the Ryder Cup table, runner-up Padraig Harrington and other leading cup contenders Paul Casey, Paul Broadhurst and Henrik Stenson.