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Sutton is perfect as Cup captain

Hal Sutton is no surprise as the next U.S. Ryder Cup team captain. He fits the PGA of America's mold perfectly.

The organization that appoints the U.S. captain likes players who have won a major championship, have played in numerous Ryder Cups and are at a stage in their careers where they are older than the golfers they captain but are still in a position to watch them play.

Sutton is all of the above. The 1983 PGA Championship winner who dueled Jack Nicklaus down the stretch, he has played in four Ryder Cups, including this year's at the Belfry, where he had a 1-1 record in trying to emerge from a lengthy slump.

In two years, when the 35th Ryder Cup matches are played at Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit, Sutton will be 46, not quite old enough for the Senior PGA Tour but able to compete with the best in the world if he chooses. Last week at the Disney Golf Classic, Sutton said he will put away his clubs the rest of this year and embark on a fitness program to get in better form for next season.

And there was no doubt he was looking forward to the challenge of being Ryder Cup captain, if asked.

"That's what we strive all of our life for, to be asked to do that," he said. "Making Ryder Cup teams, whether it's as a player or as a captain, is something you strive to do when you're young -- and when you're old. All of your life, in other words."

The PGA of America also is said to like Sutton's leadership skills. He played a big factor in the U.S. comeback three years ago at Brookline, where his 3-1-1 record was the best of any U.S. player.

But being a leader in an individual game such as golf is difficult to quantify. Pep talks and speeches don't always work. Most of all Sutton has his peers' respect. They like his competitiveness, he has won six times in his 40s and at 42 beat Tiger Woods at the Players Championship. Not many can say they went up against Nicklaus and Woods and beat them both.

As for the criticism directed at Curtis Strange, who sent off his best players last and saw them become nonfactors as Europe clinched the Cup early, Sutton said that's part of the job. "I thought Curtis did an excellent job," Sutton said. "That was a 14-man decision where everybody went (in the lineup). He and (assistant captain Mike Hulbert) and all 12 guys. ... And we felt that was the best lineup."

You get the feeling Sutton will embrace the analysis.

"If you're afraid of being second-guessed," he said, "then you better not make any decisions, because there's a lot of second-guessers in the world."

DOWN TO THE WIRE: When Ted Goin stood in a bunker beside the 18th green Sunday at the Senior PGA Tour's SBC Championship, what was about to transpire made little difference to anyone but him and Palm Harbor's Jay Overton, who didn't make the last full-field event of the season. Goin holed out for birdie, which propelled him into a tie for 14th place and about $5,000 more in prize money.

That $5,000 could have a significant effect on his life, and Overton's, in 2003. It moved Goin into the top-50 money winners on the Senior PGA Tour and bumped Overton out. Goin jumped from 53rd to 49th. Overton, who was 48th, fell to 51st, less than $2,000 behind 50th finisher Walter Morgan. Goin finished less than $4,000 ahead of Overton.

That means Goin will have partial status on tour next year, and Overton will have none. By finishing 51st Overton, who earned $345,903 in 14 events, is no better off than had he finished 100th. Goin earned $349,780 in 28 tournaments.

Overton will play in the Senior PGA Tour's qualifying tournament next month at World Woods. If he finishes among the top eight he will have full status next year.

NO SWEAT: Spike McRoy is 122nd on the PGA Tour money list and would be sweating out his fully exempt status (top 125) if it weren't for the fact that he won the B.C. Open in July the same week as the British Open. A victory brings a two-year exemption. McRoy won $378,000 at the B.C. Open but just $153,000 the rest of the year. He has made eight cuts in 23 events.

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

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