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AP Golf Notes

Most experienced Ryder Cup players in deep slump

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Posted: Wednesday September 01, 1999 12:42 AM

Jose Maria Olazabal is hoping he can do more damage in the Ryder Cup than he did to that hotel room wall after the the U.S. Open. Steve Munday/Allsport

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AP) -- With the matches only a month away, the weakness of each Ryder Cup team may be the most experienced players -- Jose Maria Olazabal and Mark O'Meara.

Olazabal will be playing on his sixth Ryder Cup team, more than any other European. But the Masters champion has not been the same since breaking his hand when he hit a hotel room wall in frustration after the first round of the U.S. Open.

He missed the cut in the British Open and the PGA Championship, and finished 40th in a field of 41 in the NEC Invitational last week.

"It doesn't matter how I am playing. Everybody is expecting me to do well at the Ryder Cup," Olazabal said. "That's not going to change this year."

Olazabal has had a horrible time off the tee, which wasn't a big factor at Augusta National but could hamper him at The Country Club.

"Obviously, I'm not hitting the ball well," Olazabal said. "But there are three more weeks before the tournament starts, and I'm going to take a couple week off. And that, hopefully, will rest my mind."

O'Meara and Payne Stewart lead the American team in experience, each playing in his fifth Ryder Cup.

O'Meara hasn't done quite so poorly as Olazabal. He certainly hasn't punched any hotel walls. Still, he hasn't had a top-10 finish since The Players Championship the last weekend in March. He missed the cut at the U.S. Open and British Open, and he never broke par at Medinah in finishing 57th in the PGA Championship.

"I'm not a happy camper the way I'm playing," O'Meara said after a 71 in the third round of the NEC Invitational, in which he said he hit only three or four good shots.

"But we've got 12 guys on the team," he added. "If I'm not playing well, I told [captain Ben] Crenshaw that I'd tell him. When I get there, if I feel like my game is not up to par, I'll tell him. I don't have any problems sitting down. If someone is playing better, put him in."

Tom and Barney

Tom Watson heads to the Senior Tour next week, and he's taking Barney Adams with him -- or at least his company.

Watson, who has been club shopping the past year since ending his 25-year relationship with Ram, has signed a contract with Adams Golf. Watson has been playing the Adams woods the past month. He also has experimented with its new irons.

"I like them very much. I like the stability of them," Watson said. "But more importantly, I like Barney Adams. ... I think he has got some good vision as far as new product is concerned.

"I see the company growing and I hope to add to that growth as far as the exposure to Adams Golf."

World Cup duo

Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara, neighbors and practice partners in Florida, will represent the United States in the 45th World Cup that will be played Nov. 18-21 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It will be the first time for both players in the World Cup, a stroke-play event in which both scores are combined each day. The United States has won 21 times, including four victories apiece by the Fred Couples-Davis Love III and Jack Nicklaus-Arnold Palmer teams.

Woods and O'Meara is a natural, but it could have been even better.

David Duval was offered a spot on the team as The Players Championship winner, but he declined since he prefers not to play at all in November and December.

Woods will not be going over to Malaysia without a fee. One source close to the situation said the U.S. team will get roughly $1.5 million in appearance fees, with Woods getting what was described as "Germany money." Woods received $1 million to play the Deutsche Bank SAP Open, which he won.

Nick Faldo and David Carter of England are the defending champions.

O'Meara's secret

Mark O'Meara wishes Ben Crenshaw would have kept his mouth shut -- not his remarks before the PGA Championship, which recharged the controversy over the Ryder Cup revenue issue, but what he said after in announcing his captain's picks.

In making the surprise selection of Steve Pate, Crenshaw noted that O'Meara had called him on his cell phone to remind him that he and Pate tied for third at The Country Club in the 1988 U.S. Open.

"I was disappointed that got out in the press," O'Meara said. "It doesn't make me look too good with Lee Janzen, Fred Couples or anyone else. He asked me what my philosophy was on the picks, and I gave him my philosophy. But he didn't have to tell you guys."

O'Meara said he had to apologize to Janzen and tell him he wasn't specifically lobbying for Pate as a captain's pick.

"I think Steve Pate is a good pick. If I was captain, I might have picked Steve Pate," O'Meara said. "He didn't need to use me to justify his picks."

Divots

How will Tom Watson prepare for the Senior Tour? He is said to be getting married on Wednesday to Hilary Watson, the ex-wife of former PGA Tour player Denis Watson. "I am neither confirming nor denying that ... but I think you get the drift," Watson said. ... Sergio Garcia, who has played 13 tournaments in the 19 weeks since turning professional, will take the next three weeks off before the Ryder Cup and probably won't play in America the rest of the year. ... Distance was more important than luxury for Mark O'Meara at the NEC Invitational. The former Masters and British Open champion stayed at the Comfort Inn two miles from Firestone instead of Glenmoor Country Club like most of the other players. ... Tiger Woods said Bryon Bell, his childhood buddy who caddied for him at the $5 million Match Play Championship to earn money toward medical school, is still trying to get accepted to a school. ... Allegheny Country Club in Pennsylvania will be host of the 2001 Senior Women's Amateur.

Stat of the week

The entire U.S. Ryder Cup team is in the top 30 in the world rankings this week. Europe has only six players in the top 30, and four players ranked 65th or lower.

Final word

"I always like watching the nitty-gritty match coming down ... where guys are struggling to make double bogeys. If you like root canals and hemorrhoids, you'd love it there." -- Nick Price on the Ryder Cup.

 

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