Lehman gets a cup, after all

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Posted 9:26AM on Monday, November 18, 2002

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - Tom Lehman was perfect in his three matches and helped the United States retain the UBS Warburg Cup. It wasn't the cup he wanted to win, but it's the only one he could. Lehman was bypassed as a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup, a setback he had to endure even longer when the matches were postponed one year because of the terrorist attacks. He made the most of his appearance in the UBS Warburg Cup. Lehman twice teamed with Raymond Floyd to beat Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam. Both Americans won their singles matches to go undefeated, and the United States beat the Rest of the World team by a 14 1/2-9 1/2 margin. "I got to play against the European captain, which got me as close to the Ryder Cup as I was probably going to get this year," Lehman said Sunday after a brilliant performance in a cold and vicious wind at Sea Island Golf Club. "It was a disappointment not to be on the team, but that was a year ago, and you get over it," he said. "It doesn't replace the Ryder Cup, but ... it was a fun week." The Warburg Cup was similar to the Ryder Cup in some respects. Paul Azinger holed another dramatic bunker shot, just like he did at The Belfry. This one spun sideways into the hole on the par-5 15th for an eagle that enabled him to close out Bernhard Langer, 4 and 3. Scott Hoch ran into another buzzsaw. It was Colin Montgomerie in the Ryder Cup, and Barry Lane in the Warburg Cup. Lane was the only World player who finished under par, making three straight bogeys down the stretch for a 1-up victory. Torrance and Curtis Strange mixed it up again, this time with clubs in their hands. In a match between the Ryder Cup captains, Strange got a small measure of revenge by jumping out to an early lead and winning, 4 and 3. They halved their Warburg Cup match last year, and Strange beat him a Shell's Wonderful World of Golf exhibition. Has he ever lost a match to his longtime friend? "Yeah, two months ago," Strange said dryly. "The only time it mattered." The other featured match was between the Warburg Cup captains, and World leader Gary Player atoned for last year's loss by whipping Arnold Palmer, 6 and 5. As usual, both felt like winners. "I was captain of the Ryder Cup a couple of times and there was certainly a lot of camaraderie, but not nearly as warm as it is now," Palmer said. "That pleases me very much." The warmth sure didn't come from the weather. A day after rain drenched the Seaside course, a cold, harsh wind moved into Sea Island and produced some of the toughest weather conditions of the year. No one felt it more than Eduardo Romero. Gusts up to 30 mph twice blew his ball of the seventh green, leading to a double bogey that gave Lehman the opening he needed. "Unlucky for him," said Lehman, who wound up winning, 2 and 1. Palmer remains undefeated as a captain. He won twice at the Ryder Cup, once in the Presidents Cup and both times at the UBS Warburg Cup, which has 12-man teams divided between players from the 40-49 age group and players 50 and older. Palmer got his help from both age groups. The 60-year-old Floyd improved his Warburg record to 4-0-2 with a perfect mark at Sea Island, finishing it with a victory over Seiji Emihara. Lehman, 43, had one of the best rounds of the day, 2 under through 17 holes. Matching that was the ageless wonder, 57-year-old Hale Irwin, who doesn't care what the date shows on his birth certificate. Coming off a year in which he became the first player to earn more than $3 million on the senior tour, he was tough as ever. Irwin also made eagle from the bunker on No. 15 and was 2 under through 17 holes in his 2-and-1 victory over Rodger Davis. "Pretty good," Irwin said of his round. "I just don't think that was a day that you can expect to play under par."