Captain Pavin Taking His Time Getting Around To Talking Ryder Cup Strategy With Captain Azinger

I went down to Newport Beach for the Toshiba Classic Pro-Am day to interview some geezers outside the coveted demos. Lunching with Ben Crenshaw, we were joined by Paul Azinger and Ron Braund. You may recall it was Braund who helped Azinger develop the pod system that was so influential in the underdog American's triumphant 2008 Ryder Cup win at Valhalla. Azinger and Braund have a book coming out in May that promises to offer some pretty shocking revelations about the system and in particular, how Azinger made his Captain's picks.

Now, I didn't highlight this during the Northern Trust Open because I was busy counting spectators, but during Captain Corey Pavin's Ryder Cup press conference, I asked if he had consulted with his predecessor.

Q. Have you talked with Paul Azinger and reflected with him on how he structured and led the successful challenge?

COREY PAVIN: Well, I've talked to a lot of captains. I hope to talk to Paul here in the future. We've tried to connect up and it hasn't happened, but I hope it will shortly. I'll see him out on the Champions Tour a lot this year, and I'm sure we'll have some chats.

But I like to get input from everybody, not only from captains but from players that have played, players that might make the team. I'm going to be talking to a lot of different people and get a lot of different thoughts, and again, when those 12 players are assembled, I'll have a much better idea how to go about pairing them, and I'll as well be talking with Davis, Paul, Jeff and Tom about how these guys will mesh together.

So after lunch today I saw Azinger again and asked if he'd heard from Captain Pavin yet.

"No."

Is it me or that just a little strange?