Azinger: Same 12 is fine
United States Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said he would be happy to have an unchanged team to take on Europe.
The Americans have lost the last three matches, the last two by the record score of 18.5-9.5, yet Azinger does not believe it is necessary to bring in fresh faces for this year's match at Valhalla.
The veteran of four Ryder Cups said his priority is to assemble a team of players who are in form, and that could mean the same 12 players.
"New blood is fine if it shows up but I can't say anything other than that," the 48-year-old said as he prepared for this week's Tampa Bay Championship.
"If it's the same guys, I'm more than happy. I'm not looking for different faces. But if different faces show up, then that's going to be great.
Good year
"If it's the same guys, then I think they are the right guys because it would be difficult to make this team and not have a really good year.
"If it's all the same guys, I think they will want it really bad," added Azinger, who won his only major title in the 1993 PGA Championship.
"I know that they don't like the results. I will take whoever it is. Everybody wants to change the outcome. They got a taste of it. Tasting defeat the way they tasted it, is just a bad feeling."
Azinger has revamped the American selection process following the embarrassing defeat at the K Club in 2006 and will be allowed four wild card selections instead of the usual two.
There will be eight automatic qualifiers, with performances in the major tournaments more heavily weighted than before.
"I wanted to try to formulate something that would get hotter players on the team," he said. "Money is the barometer for everything that we do so I felt like money was the way to do it, and what we've done is convert money to points.
"Every $1,000 is one point, and the majors are double the money. I like the way that it's breaking down so far."
Azinger has nothing but praise for Europe who have won five of the last six Ryder Cups.
"You have to give Europe a lot of credit," he said. "Those guys rise to the occasion and play fantastic during the matches, for whatever reason.
"They're representing their Tour, maybe that's what it is. And they make every putt. Why do they do that? I don't know. Maybe somebody will give the secret away."
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