Woosie Was (Almost) Flawless

Hello. Ian Woosnam deserves a lot of credit for his Ryder Cup captaincy. Here's what he did:

1. Choose Darren Clarke as a captain's pick. All he did was go 3-0 and capture the imagination of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. If there have ever been cheers on a golf course bigger than the ones on the 1st tee and his closing hole every day, I can't remember them.
2. Choose Lee Westwood as a captain's pick. Even Thomas Bjorn can't argue with Westwood's 3-0-2 record.
3. Play all his players on Friday. This meant having Clarke, David Howell (2nd on the European Order of Merit) and Luke Donald sitting for a match. Can you imagine Tom Lehman sitting Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk for a match? Neither can I.
4. Playing all his players again on Saturday. This meant the above players plus Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal got some rest. And everyone played at least 3 matches, whereas the Americans had 3 players who only played two matches.
5. Put the Sunday lineups together so Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke had the best chance of winning the clinching match. As it turns out, he was only one match off, as Luke Donald clinched victory.
6. Install a team first mentality. It was evident all 3 days.

In fact there was only one thing Woosnam needs work on, it's drinking champagne from the winning bottle. His first drink ended up coming out of his mouth and nose. I probably would've done the same.

For those who think Tom Lehman did such a great job (and I'm not one of them as you can see from Tuesday's blog), ask yourself if Ian Woosnam would've done a better job with the Americans. I think so too.

Regards,

Steve