Posted by Jason Sobel
MEDINAH, Ill. -- Let me play the role of Tom Lehman for a few paragraphs.
For the past year, ever since the United States' thrilling Presidents Cup victory, I've looked at my team and found one underlying trend: teams within the team.
Under Jack Nicklaus' captaincy last year, Tiger Woods found his wingman in Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson buddied up with Chris DiMarco. Since I've already declared that these tandems will stick together during the first two days at The K Club, that leaves the remaining two matches during each morning and afternoon session to be filled by four of the team's other eight players.
After the aforementioned twosomes, my best remaining players are David Toms and Chad Campbell. They'd be a nice fit together, since they have a contrast in styles; Toms drives it straight and putts well, Campbell is more of a risk-reward type of guy. They played together in the final pairing of the Sony earlier this year and seemed comfortable together. Campbell didn't exactly endorse a matchup with Toms, but certainly isn't against it, saying, "He's a great guy. I really enjoy playing with him."
OK, so now we've got teams, theoretically, for three of the four matches during the first two days. Let's see, who else could play well together? Not sure I see much from Vaughn Taylor, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson or Brett Wetterich, so the final team might have to come from the captain's picks.
Eureka! Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard are my captain's selections for this year's roster. The two players are best friends. They competed together, successfully, at last year's Presidents Cup. And they each have plenty of international experience. Heck, Leonard made the Putt Heard 'Round the World in Brookline seven years ago. We could sure use some of that magic this time around.
In making these selections, I know I'm leaving off some viable candidates. Stewart Cink, Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Lucas Glover and Arron Oberholser would be a boon to any team, but they just don't fit this year's buddy system theme.
I know it will all come down to Sunday's singles matches -- as this thing always does -- but if my guys can grab a big two-day lead thanks to the exploits of our two-man teams, I'm confident players like Woods, Mickelson, Furyk and DiMarco will clinch it for us on the final day.
