One last shot at glory
HAVEN, Wis. – The people who run the PGA Championship like to call it “Glory’s Last Shot,” which means it is a golfer’s final chance in any year to be a major champion. This time, though, that is barely the half of it. They could call it Jerry Kelly’s Last Shot, Jay Haas’ Last Shot, Fred Funk’s Last Shot, Scott Verplank’s Last Shot …
It is more than a major for many American golfers. It is one last chance – and in a couple of cases, the last chance for all time – to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team. “And that,” captain Hal Sutton said, “is a tournament in itself.”
In many ways, the Ryder Cup can hold its own with any of the majors. In some ways, it is in a class all by itself. The competition, held once every two years matching an all-star team from the United States against a team from Europe, has become one of the most dramatic, most anticipated and most watched events in golf.
“It’s up there with the Olympic Games and the World Cup soccer,” said Colin Montgomerie, a stalwart for six European Ryder Cup teams who is trying to take one more shot at it. “We are all very proud that it’s golf that’s in that third position of audience viewing, which is great.”
Making the team for this year’s matches, to be Sept. 17-19 at Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit, has been an obsession for a number of players.
“That’s all I’ve been thinking about all year,” said Funk, 48, who never has played in the Ryder Cup and figures this will be his last shot.
The PGA Championship is the deadline to make the U.S. team, which is administered by the PGA of America, which also runs this tournament. Seven players are in the running for the final three automatic spots on the 12-man squad and a few others are hoping to impress Sutton enough to receive one of the two captain’s picks. All of which makes the PGA, which begins today on the long and quirky Whistling Straits Golf Club, more than a major. It’s like a last shot at the law boards.
“Everybody wants to make their way into the Ryder Cup. We don’t want to get the spots by someone else’s failure,” said Kelly, a Wisconsin native who was practicing at Whistling Straits on Sunday when the 50-year-old Haas made a putt at the International to move past Kelly into 10th place on the Ryder Cup points list. “Jay is the greatest guy in the world. There’s no way I’d sit there, thinking about how I want him to miss it.”
But Kelly will be crushed if he doesn’t make it, as will some of the other players who will feel extra pressure this week. The PGA will mean more than a chance for Ernie Els to overcome his disappointment at the year’s previous three majors, or a chance for Tiger Woods to end his major drought or a chance for a journeyman such as Shaun Micheel (the 2003 winner) to change his life.
It is a last shot to earn a chance to win back the Cup, which the U.S. team lost at the Belfry two years ago (the European team will be completed Aug. 23).
The Ryder Cup used to be a quaint, friendly tradition – until Europe proved a worthy rival in the 1980s. The European team won in 1985 and 1987.
“It has been a hard-fought battle for both sides ever since,” Sutton said Wednesday.
There have been hard feelings on both sides and charges of poor sportsmanship on the part of galleries.
Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry and David Toms are locks to make Sutton’s team, and Chad Campbell is almost certain to be on it. After that, it is a scramble among Funk, Steve Flesch, Haas, Kelly, Stewart Cink, Jeff Maggert and Scott Verplank. Sutton also will have to decide whether to take a chance on his friend John Daly, who could be a real wild card – for good or bad – on the team.
After the announcement of the captain’s picks Monday, someone might want to take a shot at Sutton.
“The truth of the matter is, we all need to be big boys,” Sutton said. “Let’s be grown men about this and let’s look at what our mission is really about and let’s go with it.”