After leading the United States Ryder Cup team into a trouncing by the Europeans, captain Hal Sutton admits to having lost some desire to compete on the PGA tour in 2005. The last event Sutton competed in was the Chrysler Championship in October where he failed to make the cut. At the time, Sutton expressed a desire to leave the turmoil of the Ryder Cup behind him and get back to playing golf. However, he recently said, “It’s tough to get back. I’ll be honest with you I’ve lost a little desire.” Sutton is not the first Ryder Cup captain to experience such feelings. Of the five captains that preceded Sutton, only Tom Watson was able to finish in the top 150 on the PGA tour’s money list.
Sutton’s two years of time consuming captaincy in the years preceding the Ryder Cup certainly contributed to his diminished focus. However, Sutton also dealt with a nagging injury in his left palm which required surgery earlier this month. There are also off course distractions tugging at Sutton such as his burgeoning golf course design business and charity work with the Hal Sutton Foundation which just approved plans to build a children’s hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. While playing golf used to be Sutton’s number one priority, he now says: “One thing I learned by not playing as much this year as I normally do is that I can live with that… But right now, I’m content with the things I’m working on.”