Backlash over Ryder Cup still a mystery to Riley

Adam Candee

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 | 10:20 a.m.

The competitive zeal for golf that drives many of the world's top players is something Chris Riley freely admits he does not yet possess.

"I've always just learned to have fun and play golf," the infamously energetic Riley said. "I'm looking for that. I need a little bit of that fire in me, the, like, super-competitiveness."

Pose a few questions about his first Ryder Cup experience and the hailstorm of criticism that followed it, though, and Riley shows some fighting spirit in battling the idea that he dogged it by begging out of Saturday afternoon matches because he was too "drained" after welcoming a new baby girl three weeks earlier and not resting much during the buildup to the matches.

Although his comments at Oakland Hills drove that criticism, Riley said Tuesday at the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas that he still does not understand how it came across that he was pleading to get out of any matches.

"It's not that I didn't want to play or anything like that," Riley, a Las Vegas resident and former UNLV standout, said. "It just came out the way it came out."

Speaking at length about the Ryder Cup for the first time, Riley said he never specifically asked out of any matches and claimed he would have played had United States captain Hal Sutton informed him of an encore of his morning win with Woods.

"Obviously, not to be bashing anybody else, if (Sutton) would have told me you're going back out there with Tiger Woods, you guys are going to play alternate shot, I could have found the strength and the energy to go back out there," Riley said.

The devil may be in the semantics for Riley, whose somewhat passive aggressive approach of telling Sutton that he would play although he was physically and tactically unprepared for the alternate shot match convinced the captain to leave him out.

"I didn't even know I was going to play," Riley said. "The whole week, I didn't even prepare for alternate shot. He gave me no -- I mean, I'm not here to bash Hal because I think he was a great captain, but at no time did I think I was ever -- I mean, going there, I just had a kid, I hadn't played for three weeks."

"I was hoping to play two matches and for sure I was going to play Sunday, but I was hoping to play two for sure. All of a sudden, I was going to play three, four or five. I wasn't expecting that. I should have expected it."

According to Riley, the actual conversation with Sutton that led to the controversy took place during the morning match that he and Woods won over Darren Clarke and Ian Poulter, 4 and 3.

"I was walking down 13 and I hit it in there close and the crowd was going crazy," Riley said. "That's when (Sutton) comes up to me and he goes, 'You better get ready this afternoon.' I said, 'Man, I'm pretty tired, but I'll do what's best.' And then he threw in his line about, I was a (42)-year-old fat man and I know a 30-year-old skinny kid (can play). But at no time did he tell me I was going to go back out there with Tiger."

The "fat man" line was Sutton's reference to his own Ryder Cup playing experience in 1999, when he played five times for the U.S. squad in its only victory in the past five Cup matches. The captain used the example at the Saturday press conference in explaining Riley's absence from the afternoon matches.

"I know Hal Sutton wouldn't try to make me look bad, but I guess it came out making me look bad," Riley said. "But that's OK."

Sutton instead paired Woods with Davis Love III and the pair fell to Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, 4 and 3. NBC analyst Johnny Miller launched the first volley against Riley for his perceived refusal to play, and the national media skewered Riley as an example of what was wrong with the U.S. team in its embarrassing loss to Europe.

Riley did not understand the criticism and still does not feel that it was the big deal it became.

"The president of the PGA called me a couple of times, telling me he's 100 percent behind me," Riley said. "And I'm all, I don't even know what's going on."

He later added: "It's not like we lost by a point. We lost by nine points, so that point wasn't the deciding one."

Riley then lost his Sunday singles match, 3 and 2 to Poulter, grading himself with a B for his overall play. He finished with a 1-1-1 record and a newfound respect for the tension of the Ryder Cup.

"The pressure I felt was something I'd never felt before," Riley said. "It was like the 72nd hole of a major on every shot."

Riley also took home an unwanted souvenir from the event: An opening for a lot of ribbing from his fellow tour pros.

"I don't like to be known as someone who's too tired to play," Riley said. "I've got guys ripping me now in the locker room, asking me if I want to take a nap. But I take it all in fun."

He still managed a good-natured shot at himself when discussing the Michelin's format change from five rounds to four for the 2004 event. Riley just got back from Ireland, where the American Express Championship was held last week, and said he appreciated a Thursday start.

"If I had to tee it up (today), I'd probably be tired," Riley quipped.

Tired is one state Riley never reflects. Rocking in his chair and flipping his hat up throughout 20 minutes with the media, Riley said he does not know if he can ever truly match the overwhelming drive that consumes players like Woods and Vijay Singh.

"Their having fun is kicking butt and my having fun is ... I don't know, it's a fine line and I'm learning to try to get better at it, but it's not in my personality to be one of those gung-ho competitive ... I'm competitive, but I'm ... I don't know, I don't know what I'm trying to say, do you?" Riley said.

That clear message for which Riley searches may be the same type that Sutton was looking for that Saturday at Oakland Hills. Regardless of the debate, though, Riley enjoyed his first Ryder Cup and wants to play again.

"It was awesome," Riley said. "It was probably the best golf experience I've ever had."