NSAN 2008
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27. 2008
SPORTS
3B
eenhaw
poster
politics
for pick
the
aged
s for
or
brings
under
ception
treated in
a
e fight
or
mexico,
rice in
United Press
PGA
ACCORIATEN DBECC
United State Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger stands next to a placard with the top eight team members at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Mich., on Aug. 11. Azinger will announce his four captain's picks on Sept. 2. The Ryder Cup will be played Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky.
Captain won't name top 4
Top choices look slim as only one has won in six months
ASSOCIATED PRESS
If nothing else, Paul Azinger deserves credit for making sure the United States fields its best team in the Ryder Cup.
The revamped criteria identifies the best Americans in a Ryder Cup year. Six of the eight qualifiers have combined to win 10 tournaments this year. The other two are Jim Furyk, steady as ever, and Ben Curtis, perhaps the hottest player
at the moment.
"If we win, I'll go down as having the lowest IQ of any genius who ever lived." Azinger said last month.
Real genius,
is figuring out what
to do with his
four captains' pic
four captain's picks.
Like it's any easier now?
Azinger believed his team would be even stronger if he could double the number of his picks to get the hottest players. But with one tournament remaining before he has to choose, he might as well put on a blindfold and throw darts.
"I'm really happy that I don't have to pick four players this morning, I can tell you that."
Of the next 25 players in the standings, only one of them — rookie Chez Reavie — has won in the last six months. The best American last week at The Barclays was Kevin Sutherland, whose only PGA Tour victory came six years ago in Accenture Match Play Championship. And if Azinger is looking for experience, only four of the next 40 in the standings have ever played in a Ryer Cup.
To offer the captain help he doesn't need, 23 golf writers were asked to submit four picks each.
The writers were told they would not be identified, but comments from one longtime Ryder Cup scribe as he struggled to come up with four picks summed up Azinger's problems.
"I'm really happy that I don't have to pick four players this morning, I can tell you that," Azinger said the morning after the PGA Championship, the old deadline for his captain's picks. "It would have been very difficult to know what to do."
PAUL AZINGER
Ryder Cup Captain
"I'm looking for the hottest players, but they don't play for the United States."
There wasn't much consensus with them, either.
Steve Stricker led the list with 17 points, followed by Rocco Mediate (15), Hunter Mahan (12) and J.B. Holmes (11). Behind those top four
were Brandt
Snedeker with
seven votes,
Sean O'Hair
with five,
then Scott
Verplank,
Woody
Austin and
Zach Johnson
with four.
Eighteen players, from
rookie Kevin Streelman to veteran
Pak Govouds, received votes.
Azinger declined an invitation to submit his four names, but he sent an e-mail saying his choices "might be narrowing." What that means is anyone's guess, although the e-mail arrived on Friday when Stricker was leading the Barclays and playing in the final group with Mahan. They combined to play the weekend at Ridgewood in 11-over par.
Holmes closed with a 66 at Barclays, but timing is everything. He sure could have used a round like that at Oakland Hills, where he shot 81 in the final round of the PGA Championship when he had the 54-hole lead.
Darren Clarke just won in Holland for his second victory in the last four months, winning the KLM Open by three shots over Paul McGinley (you remember McGinley — he's the Irishman who made the winning putt for Europe in 2002). Paul Casey was one shot out of the lead going into the final round of The Barclays and tied for seventh.
The winner in Greensboro? Carl Pettersson of Sweden. The winner
of the last two majors? Padraig Harrington of Ireland. The only American to win a major this year was Tiger Woods, who clinched a spot on the team one week before season-ending knee surgery.
Azinger said he would continue the points list after the PGA Championship "so I can look at the top 12 guys and maybe make a choice just based on that."
Of the top 25 who did not make the team, nine missed the cut at The Barclays and none finished among the top 18.
The one criteria that Azinger said might need changing for the next U.S. team is the majors, which offered double points in the current year. If any American had won the PGA Championship — including a club pro — he would have been eligible for the team.
Good luck.
The double points at majors — Azinger believes $1 \frac{1}{2}$ points would be better — enabled Curtis to make his first Ryder Cup team with his tie for second at the PGA Championship. That worked out well, for Curtis is playing as well as anyone. In his first tournament since Oakland Hills, he finished one shot out of the playoff at The Barclays.
Considering that the new points system identified the best players, was four picks really necessary?
"Maybe not," Azinger said. "I don't know. If you look down that list, I like the next four guys a lot."
He likes a lot of players.
Whether they can help the United States win the Ryder Cup is another matter.
The Deutsche Bank Championship, which starts Friday on the TPC Boston, could go a long way toward firming up Azinger's four picks. He will announce his selections next Tuesday in New York. One can only hope he doesn't have to go the way of one writer, who left this message after giving his four names.
"It was more a case of settling on who I didn't want than necessarily who I wanted. Good luck, Mr. Azinger."
NFL
Giants shuffle around lineup Questions still linger about Strahan's retirement status
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mathias Kiwanuka is back at defensive end for the New York Giants.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Giants linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka covers tight end Kevin Boss at the team's training camp in Albany, N.Y. The Giants moved Kiwanuka back to defensive end to replace the injured Osi Umenyiora on Monday, that decreases the already slim chances of the Super Bowl champions needing to make a push to get seven-time Pro Bowler Michael Strahan out of retirement.
The more pressing question for the Super Bowl champions is whether seven-time Pro Bowler Michael Strahan wants back in after a very brief retirement.
"They want to see if there is any interest there," agent Tony Agnone told The Associated Press. "I have to talk to Michael."
With fellow Pro Bowler Osi Umenyiora out for the season with a knee injury, the Giants contacted Strahan's representative Monday to see if No. 92 would return for a 16th season.
Strahan is on vacation in Greece. Agnone said he has not talked to him about the Giants' inquiry.
"Part of the talk was about Osi," said Agnone, who also represents Umenyiora.
Agnone described the Giants' call as a courtesy — for now — and noted the two sides did no negotiating.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Strahan turned down a $6 million contract offer in the offseason. He then signed with Fox Sports to work on its NFL pregame show.
With Strahan's status uncertain, the Giants shuffled their defense Monday and moved Kiwanuka back to end from his strongside linebacker spot.
"I was told all along that if something were to happen that this is a position I could find myself in," Kiwanuka said. "I am ready to step in and hopefully there won't be a let-down at all."
A 2006
first- round
draft choice.
"The guy still looks great, hell of a player," Favre said at the Jets' facility in Hempstead, N.Y. "I would have done whatever to try to get him back initially, but now, how could you not want him back?
General manager Jerry Reese said earlier Monday that the Giants were looking at all their options.
Jets quarterback Brett Favre, recently unretired himself, said the Giants should do whatever possible to get Strahan back.
Kiwanuka was switched to linebacker 17 months ago so the Giants could get their best 11 defenders on the field.
"As I know it, he is probably on a beach somewhere sipping on some pina coladas, so I doubt football is the first thing on his mind today."
"We are going to go forward with the players that we have," coach Tom Coughlin said. "And we are always looking for and searching for people who can help our team. And nothing is going to change with regard to that."
Whatever happens with Strahan, it seems certain that Kiwanuka is going to be a defensive lineman this season, even if Strahan returns.
Giants teammates had their doubts about Strahan returning.
"Wouldn't that be something, he comes back and we start a trend?"
"As I know it, he is probably on a beach somewhere sipping on some pina coladas, so I doubt football is the first thing on his mind today;"
said Justin Tuck, who replaced Strahan at left end.
Defensive tackle Barry Coffin said Strahan gave no indication he wanted to play again when he visited training camp in Albany, N.Y., less than two weeks ago.
JUSTIN TUCK Giants' defensive end
"He has not been bouncing back
bouncing back and forth like Favre." Cofield said. "He has been pretty happy. We saw him up here and he said he missed it but he was content. He has decided to go on to the next phase of his life so I don't look too strongly into
that (him playing again).
Danny Clark, a nine-year veteran who was signed as a free agent in the offseason, will move from weakside linebacker to the strong side to replace Kiwanuka. Gerris Wilkinson will start at weakside linebacker.
Kiwanuka started nine games at
defensive end as a rookie and had four sacks. He played in 10 games last season at strongside linebacker before breaking his leg against Detroit in November. The former Boston College product played linebacker in running situations last season, but was switched to the line in passing situations.
"It is something that he, all of us, really want, but obviously we didn't want these circumstances for him to get back." Tuck said of Kiwanau, known as "Kiwi" to teammates. "It is a good thing for him. It is a good thing for this team. He is definitely a D-lineman at heart, and hopefully he can just come back in and not miss a beat."
Defensive players got a chance to talk to Umenyiora on Monday. The two-time Pro Bowler tore the lateral meniscus in his left knee and is scheduled for surgery Tuesday.
"His spirits are still high." Tuck said. "He is another one of those infectious personalities, so his personality and his mind-state are always going to be at the utmost highest, so I am not worried about him on that point."
The RUMORS are TRUE Wednesday $1 Almost Anything ...only at The Hawk
Wednesday $1 Almost Anything
Thursday
Eminent Domain Playing at The Hawk $1 Wells $1.75 Calls
Friday
$3.50 Double Bacardi & UV Vodka drinks
$2.50 Domestic Bottles
$2.75 Premium Bottles
Saturday
Gameday bar opens 10 a.m. LAWRENCE WWW.JAYHAWKCAFE.COM 1340 Ohio • 843-9273