Golf Tidbits: Partners are key for Mickelson, Furyk

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk are the veterans on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, having played 19 Cups combined. A key to their success this week at Gleneagles will be their playing partners.

Looking back over their 19 combined Cups, Mickelson and Furyk have played with 25 different partners and were paired together once at the 1999 Ryder Cup.

Their 23-35-10 combined Ryder Cup record has plenty to do with their lack of consistent partners.

Mickelson teamed with David Toms at three separate Ryder Cups and with Tom Lehman at two other Cups.

As for Furyk, he has never played with another player at multiple Ryder Cups. His most “successful” pairing was with Tiger Woods. They were 2-2 at the 2006 Ryder Cup.

That was his most successful pairing because Furyk doesn’t have a winning record with any partner at the Ryder Cup, but owns a 4-3-1 in singles record.

Mickelson seemed to find the right partner in Keegan Bradley at the 2012 Ryder Cup, when they were 3-0 at Medinah. They then posted a 2-1-1 record at Muirfield Village in the 2013 Presidents Cup.

That is not Mickelson’s only successful partnership. He has a winning record with three other partners – Toms, Jay Haas and Tom Lehman – none of whom is on this year’s Ryder Cup team. If U.S. captain Tom Watson is going to break Bradley and Mickelson up, he needs to choose wisely.

Mickelson went 0-1 with Furyk and Rickie Fowler, and 0-0-1 with Hunter Mahan.

As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Pairing Mickelson with anyone other than Bradley would be a mistake for Watson. And, Watson tipped his hand on Monday that he is leaning in that direction.

He said, “Keegan and Phil have great chemistry. It’s shown in the past. You have to kind of bank on past experiences, that’s part of it. Also, the way they are playing is a big factor as well. But there’s no one factor. There’s a combination of factors with me.”

Furyk has played with as many as three different partners at one Ryder Cup. That was in 2004 when he was 0-1 with each partner.

The 2003 U.S. Open champion hasn’t found that “right” partner yet, and this could be his last chance. Furyk and Mickelson are both 44 years old and this might be their last or next-to-last Ryder Cup as players.

As for his possible partners, Furyk was 0-1 with Mickelson and Fowler.

Of his 14 previous partners, only twice did Furyk play more than two sessions with that partner. Furyk and Woods played all four team sessions, while Furyk was 1-1-1 with Kenny Perry in 2008 at Valhalla, which was the Americans’ last win at the Ryder Cup.

Finding the right partner and sticking with that duo could be big for Furyk and Watson.

With his pick of three Ryder Cup veterans, Watson kept the American team with three rookies, which is the same amount as the Europeans.

Watson will need to balance working those rookies in with getting his veteran guys the amount of playing time they’ve earned. That could be a slippery slope because none of the Americans has truly earned the right to play four or five sessions since none is more than two matches over .500 in a Ryder Cup career.

Not that 44 is old for a golfer, but being 44 and playing all five sessions is another thing. Mickelson has played all five sessions in three of his nine Ryder Cups, while Furyk has done so twice in his previous eight Cups.

If Mickelson and Bradley go 3-0 in the first three sessions at Gleneagles, Watson will almost be forced to play them again in the fourth team session Saturday afternoon, something Davis Love III didn’t do in 2012.

The best thing that can happen for Watson is for some of the younger players to play well early in the event. That will free him up to play Mickelson and Furyk whenever he feels is right.

Some say the hard part is making the proper captains picks, but the reality is the hard part is just beginning for the captains. Getting the right pairings in the right formats is crucial at the Ryder Cup.

Mickelson and Furyk likely know who those partners will be already, it’s up to them to produce for captain Watson and their teammates.

CRUEL FATE AT WEB.COM FINALS SERIES

Year in and year out, there were tears of joy and heartbreak at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Q School, as it is known, was a six-round pressure cooker that players fought through to earn their PGA Tour cards. It is not that same now that Q School only gets you onto the Web.com Tour, but there are heartbreaking moments nonetheless.

Last weekend was the final event for the Web.com finals series, the Web.com Tour Championship. At the end of that event, the top 25 on the final series money list earn their PGA Tour cards for next season.

Roberto Castro was 41st on the priority list entering the Tour Championship. The priority list mixed the 25 from the finals series money list and the 25 from the regular season money list, who already earned their PGA Tour cards for next year. The 50 players from the two lists are mixed into the overall priority list to see what events they may or may not get into next season.

Castro bogeyed the 16th hole in the final round at the Web.com Tour Championship, then parred his last two holes. He ended up 51st on the priority list, finishing $31.66 behind Eric Axley for the final exempt spot.

Is Castro kicking himself for that late bogey? Or was it one of the five bogeys in his last seven holes on Saturday that did him in? Maybe it was someone above him on the leaderboard making a birdie or bogey that changed his fate.

Tough break for the 29-year-old, but he’ll still get some PGA Tour action next season after ending 135th on the money list and FedExCup list as well.

MINI-TIDBITS

– Past Ryder Cup teams have used emotional moments from outside the game as rallying cries. For example, Darren Clarke played the 2006 Ryder Cup weeks after the death of his wife Heather. Though not a player, Lance Bennett’s wife, Angela, died suddenly nearly a month ago. Bennett is Matt Kuchar’s longtime caddie, and this will be his first event back on the bag since Angela’s passing. If the American team rallies around Bennett and Kuchar this week, that could be a big factor.

– I understand the need for team captains at the Ryder Cup. Those captains need some help, so each team names vice-captains. The U.S. team has three, which is fine, but the Europeans have five. That’s one for each match and one for the guys not playing that particular team session. Even if two of them have already been captains, McGinley needs to realize that too many voices in the team room could confuse things. Three is fine, but five is totally unnecessary.

Categorized in: PGA