Parsing captain Pavin's press conference

[bogie]

Q. What defines a good Ryder Cup player and what are some of the things tangible and intangible that you look for in making those final selections?

PAVIN: Well, what was important to me is who I thought could play well in that environment over in Wales on European soil. Obviously I like guys that are playing well. I wanted to find guys that round off the team.

Q. Did anyone play their way in or play their way out with last week's results?

PAVIN: I don't think a lot of things changed last week to be honest with you. I watched a lot of golf before that, but I didn't see much there to change.

Q. If you had another week or two, do you think it would have made a difference?

PAVIN: It's a hypothetical question which I don't like to answer, but you could look at from the PGA on, there was a lot that happened. Today was the deadline.

Q. What are the things that you will concentrate on or deal with from now until that first tee shot on October 1?

PAVIN: Obviously pairings is a huge thing. It's not going to guarantee that they are going to be playing with that person, but I want them to have a short list of guys that they can communicate with, talk with, understand and get to know better if they need to.


Source: RyderCup.com

My reaction:

Rickie Fowler: Best finishes: 2nd Phoenix, Memorial.
Stats: Driving distance 292.8, GIR 69.38 (19th), Putting 1.792 (109th), Birdie Avg: 3.40 (114th), Scoring avg: 70.62 (55th), Scrambling: 58.19.

19. JB Holmes: My guess is it came down to between Holmes and Fowler. Holmes results from the PGA on (T-24, Cut, T-11) are better than Fowler's (58, 36, 41). Holmes was a contributing part to the 2008 win.

My guess is Pavin felt Holmes was not a "road" player who the last time benefited from playing in his home state and that Montgomerie was going to grow rough as high as an Iowa wheat field.

9. Anthony Kim: Kim fit 2 of the 3 qualities that Pavin said he was looking for, but those 4 missed cuts after returning from injury legitimately sunk his chances. If he had one good to 5 or even top 10 he probably would've made it. Hopefully 2012 Kim will be there, but his enthusiasm and scrambling ability will be missed in Wales.

21. Ryan Palmer: By the third criteria I can only guess Palmer fits. Of all the captain's pick candidates by the second criteria of playing well he fit best: 2nd Firestone, T-33 PGA, T-5 Ridgewood, T-11 Boston. He probably didn't fit the first of handling the "road" whereas Fowler played well at County Down during the Walker Cup.

Holmes or Palmer needed a top 3 since the PGA to strengthen the position of getting a pick and neither player quite reached that level.

Woods is Woods. Cink is a good guy in the locker room, who doesn't have an intimidating game, but he'll rarely shoot your side out of alternate shot match. Z. Johnson 3rd at the PGA and subsequent steady play made him perhaps the easiest pick of the quartet.

Palmer had stats but not the reputation while Kim had the rep but not the stats.

To me if any of the players had an argument over Pavin's hunch pick in Fowler, it would be JB Holmes.

Holmes had good stats, but like Fowler had no wins in 2010. So the tie-break was Fowler's Walker Cup record.

Trying to read Pavin's mind--if it came down to those two, the choice was a hair-split.

In the end Pavin's choices while highly anticipated, to me ended up having little controversy attached.

[ghalfaire]

Yes, I think Fowler was a good pick. I think this kid will be fired up for these matches and is going to be tough to beat.

[JWL1957]

Pavin really pussied out on alot of his answers. Why not tell it like it is.

[zeg]

Pavin really pussied out on alot of his answers. Why not tell it like it is.

Because his job is to lead the team. Saying much about his specific thought processes can only hurt the team, either by implying that one of his picks barely made it on or by creating tension between those who did make the picks and those who didn't. I thought he did fine; I probably would have been a bit more forceful in stating that I wasn't going to get into details of specific players who did/didn't make it. Maybe that goes in a memoir well after the fact, but right now he needs to build the team.