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Strange wants to keep same Ryder Cup teams

MIAMI -- The question is likely to be posed to Curtis Strange many more times before the Ryder Cup is played in September. The answer won't change.

Strange, the 2001 U.S. Ryder Cup team captain, fielded it again Wednesday after his pro-am round at the Genuity Championship. Should players be added or the teams altered in any way for the postponed matches?

"It's just not the proper thing to do," Strange said. "It's as simple as that.

"It's important to keep them the same because it's the 2001 team. The reason we're delayed a year is because of the worst disaster to ever hit our country."

From the moment the matches were postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with the announcement the teams for both the United States and Europe would remain intact, an inevitable debate ensued about whether the qualifying process should be reopened or if extra players should be added. Strange understands players could get hot this year, win a couple of major championships and not be part of the competition. And along with PGA of America officials, Strange seriously considered adding at least one player, giving each captain 13 team members instead of 12, with an extra singles match to be played the final day.

That could work, said U.S. team member Mark Calcavecchia. But he had reservations about altering the format.

"That's a tough call, to add people," he said. "You definitely can't throw people off the team. I guess you can add a few, but I don't know. I don't know if you could have any more matches."

Seve Ballesteros, captain of the victorious 1997 European Ryder Cup team, has said the system should be changed, that someone such as Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal, who won the Buick Invitational on Feb. 10, should have a chance to make the team.

Olazabal wants no part of the argument. "I had my chance to be on the team last year and missed it," he said. "The decisions are done."

Strange said he prefers it to remain as is, if for nothing but symbolic reasons. Even though the matches will be played in 2002, the U.S. team will wear uniforms that say 2001. He expects a more subdued, respectful competition.

"But once they put that tee in the ground, I think it will be as competitive as hell," he said.

And Strange keeps coming back to a thought.

"We always have to remember why we're a year later," he said. "To change, I don't think that would be right to any of the 12 players."

EARFUL: When Colin Montgomerie left the Match Play Championship in disgust last week after another perceived dose of rude American fan behavior, he vowed he would not play in the United States beyond this year.

Montgomerie had previously committed to Bay Hill on March 14-16 in Orlando and also was to play the Players Championship heading into the Masters. But now there is some doubt as to whether Monty will be in Orlando.

"At the moment he is down to play, but that was something he decided to do well in advance of what happened at LaCosta," Guy Kummings, Montgomerie's agent, told BBC Sport. "My own view is that he is loathe to be dictated to by anyone, but those are not decisions to be taken lightly and he is weighing everything up."

PLENTY LONG ENOUGH: The changes to Augusta National are a big topic of discussion this spring. With more than 300 yards added to the historic layout, many believe the Masters wanted to combat long hitters.

Defending champion Tiger Woods, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, said his discussions with tournament chairman Hootie Johnson led him to believe the alterations were not designed solely for him.

"Well, I spoke to Hootie about the changes, and the changes are not for me," Woods said. "They're for the kids who are coming up in the future. You know, I'm not that long anymore. I kind of dink it around, as you know."

Woods' "dinks" are traveling an average of 298.2 yards, second-longest behind John Daly on the PGA Tour.

WELCOME TO MIAMI: Spain's Sergio Garcia is playing at Doral for the first time and feels at home. "It's great to see that many people on a golf course rooting for you and to actually hear that they are talking Spanish," he said. "It makes a difference. It makes you feel like you are not in the States anymore. It is kind of weird, but it is nice."

AROUND GOLF: Aree and Naree Wongluekiet, the 15-year-old twins who attend the Leadbetter Academy in Bradenton, have received sponsor exemptions into the Kraft Nabisco Championships, the LPGA's first major, March 28-31. They have been given exemptions three straight years. ... David Duval enters Doral having played 13 competitive rounds this year. He withdrew from the Phoenix Open after breaking up with his fiancee, Julie McArthur, and skipped Pebble Beach and San Diego. At the Nissan Open he was tied for 10th entering the final round but withdrew because of illness. Last week he was bounced in the first round of the Match Play Championship by eventual champion Kevin Sutherland.

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