Tom Kite displayed the sort of conservatism that has characterised his playing career by selecting Fred Couples and Lee Janzen as wild cards on the US team for Valderrama next month.
Both are major championships winners who have experienced Ryder Cup combat to varying degrees.
Though neither player has won this season, they have shown useful form of late. Janzen, who was considered unfortunate not to have been chosen for the 1995 team, clearly gave himself a tremendous lift by finishing fourth in Kite's company in the USPGA Championship here at Winged Foot on Sunday.
Couples shot a second round of 67 last Friday but eventually slipped back to a share of 29th position with Tiger Woods, among others. Knowing the player's capabilities, however, Kite probably made his mind up after seeing Couples finish seventh in the British Open last month.
Before the announcement, an American wag commented: "I just saw Curtis out there hitting balls." And the current skipper clearly had no intention of falling victim to the sort of backlash that the 1995 captain, Lanny Wadkins, had to endure over the failure of wild card Curtis Strange at Oak Hill.
In naming his side, Kite promised an approach very different from the gung-ho attitude of Dave Stockton in the so-called War on the Shore at Kiawah Island in 1991. "I'm not like Stockton," he replied, when asked to comment on the need to regain the trophy. "I want my team to relax and have fun at Valderrama."
He added: "You don't always guarantee wins that way and I know it's going to be a tight match. But I will be trying to take the pressure off the players as much as possible, so that they can fully appreciate what should be a wonderful experience."
Kite, who made seven Ryder Cup appearances from 1979 to 1993, admitted that he considered a total of 12 players, including himself, before settling on his wild-card choices. They were headed by Tommy Tolles, who had been in ninth place in the standings before the USPGA Championship, only to be leapfrogged by Davis Love and Jeff Maggert.
Other leading candidates were Steve Jones, Mark Brooks, Paul Stankowski, Janzen, David Duval, Couples and Tom Watson, while to a lesser extent, Kite also considered Corey Pavin, Payne Stewart, Hale Irwin and himself. In rejecting 10 of these, he largely cited the lack of Ryder Cup experience or poor current form or both, for his decision.
And what of himself? "I'm pleased to have played well in the majors this year (second in the Masters, tied 68th in the US Open, tied 10th at Troon and fifth here), but I would need to have finished higher than 29th in the Ryder Cup standings," he replied."
Then he added: "But I don't think it's impossible to be a playing captain. In fact, I'm convinced it will happen some time in the future."
Nobody was prepared to claim that the current American side will be the best to have left their shores - a 1981 line-up that included Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino and Johnny Miller among others, would be difficult to surpass. But the mood yesterday was of a line-up well capable of regaining the trophy, even if it includes six members of the beaten Oak Hill side.
They are Tom Lehman, Couples, Maggert, Love, Brad Faxon and Phil Mickelson. Janzen played in the victorious 1993 side at The Belfry where he was used sparingly. In only one appearance over the first two days, he partnered Jim Gallagher to a one-hole fourball defeat by Ian Woosnam and Peter Baker and later lost his singles by one hole to Colin Montgomerie.
After shooting a second round of 67 to take the halfway lead at Winged Foot, he expressed the view that he would have to win the championship to make the team. So, he was clearly delighted to have been given the nod after a fourth-place finish.
"It's an honour to be picked," he said. "In fact I hardly slept last night after Tom (Kite) have me the news and I've been calling everyone I know, to tell them. I feel like I've won a tournament."
The 1993 US Open champion went on: "The odd thing is that while I did more to earn selection in 1995 (when he won two tournaments before the team selection and another the following week), I felt I had a better chance this year." Interestingly, his caddie, Dave Musgrove, worked for Sandy Lyle for the 1985 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. Couples, who has won five and halved four of his 15 Ryder Cup matches since losing dramatically to Christy O'Connor Jnr in 1989, took the news with his usual calm. "There are many guys who could have been picked ahead of me but I feel I have begun to play some decent golf in recent weeks," he said.
Given his skill and experience at the highest level, Couples would appear to have been an automatic choice. But as Kite admitted yesterday: "He has a lot of distractions, apart from an ongoing back problem." The "distractions" are that his father is suffering from leukaemia while his girlfriend, Thaisbren, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
Overall it is a formidable American line-up, especially with Tiger Woods at the top of the standings. He is one of only four members of the side - the others are Couples, Love and Mark O'Meara - to have played the course. "The Europeans know Valderrama like the back of their hands," said Kite.
He added: "My hat's off to Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Maggert and, of course, Davis, for being able to really pop through and perform when it counted; when they needed it. They did all the right things."
Then, by way of summing up his approach to selection, the skipper concluded: "There were 12 players that I was taking a good, hard look at through the whole of last week. I just needed somebody to tell me with shots that they wanted to make the team. And Lee did it."
