Ryder Cup team points process draws scrutiny

Two players who will be wearing U.S. uniforms at the Ryder Cup won tournaments last week, a development that would have thrilled Tom Lehman except for one minor detail.

They were his assistant captains. Corey Pavin won his first PGA Tour event in 10 years at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, and Loren Roberts captured his first major by winning the Senior British Open in a playoff at Turnberry.

Both are expected to be carrying radios, not golf clubs, at The K Club in September.

As for the 12 Americans who will try to end two decades of European dominance, that remains a work in progress.

There is no shortage of suggestions how to fix a new selection process that some see as a big problem.

This is the 21st time the criteria for the U.S. team has been changed since the Ryder Cup began in 1927, either an overhaul or minor adjustment. What the PGA of America did this time was reward those playing the best golf in the year leading up to the matches. The current year was worth four times as many points, majors counted double and there was a 75-point bonus for winning.

It sounded good on paper. But it supposedly became a problem when Brett Wetterich got hot in May, winning in Dallas and finishing second at the Memorial.

J.J. Henry, who previously tied for second in Phoenix (seven shots behind) and tied for fourth in Atlanta (14 shots behind), then won in Hartford and climbed all the way to No. 7.

Panic really set two weeks ago when John Rollins cracked the top 10 by winning against a weak field at the B.C. Open, earning more points than Chris DiMarco got for finishing second to Tiger Woods at the British Open.

Even the captain has his doubts about the new system.

The PGA of America awards points only through 10 places on the PGA Tour. Because of the burgeoning number of international players on tour, Lehman has been keeping his own chart the last two years that lists only how the top 10 Americans fared.

"With 90-plus international players, the downfall is that all of our points don't get given out," Lehman said. "Some weeks, there are three American players in the top 10. Sometimes, it's five or seven. No weeks are all in the top 10. There's a huge difference when you include the top 10 Americans versus just top 10."

Pebble Beach winner Arron Oberholser is 18th in the Ryder Cup standings. But if he were awarded points compared with other Americans in the field, he would be No. 7. One spot behind him would be Stewart Cink, who is 19th in the real standings.

That, too, sounds good on paper. But it's not like the international players showed up overnight. The PGA of America considered foreign influence when it revamped the points system in 2004, and president Roger Warren came to a sound conclusion.

"The reason we reward points in the top 10 is it becomes difficult to look at a player who finishes 24th and 25th," Warren said. "And if there's a lot of European players in the field, those are the players they're going to compete against in the Ryder Cup."