Dinner offers Stricker, Kuchar time to unwind, relax with teammates

NORTON, Mass. -- As recently as four years ago, Matt Kuchar was playing the Nationwide Tour. A year later, the former Georgia Tech All-American was battling to keep his PGA TOUR card.

Kuchar, though, has made solid, steady progress, so much that the man who won The Barclays on Sunday now finds himself with a realistic shot at winning the FedExCup and the PGA TOUR's Player of the Year award. Not to mention, he's just made his first Ryder Cup team and found himself sitting with six of his teammates at a dinner in Providence, R.I., Wednesday night.

"Ryder Cup, gosh, really was something that I thought was outside of my realm for a couple years," Kuchar said. "... So to have qualified for the team, anytime you can put the American flag on and represent your country, it's an awesome thrill.

"... Just to hear some of the stories about how nervous people get but how much fun it is at the same time, to have the team camaraderie and to have the nerves so bad you can't hit the shot on the first tee that you have to say, 'You hit it; I can't do it' is exciting, to be put in that situation and see how you handle it."

Steve Stricker, fresh from ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, was there in the restaurant Wednesday night, as well. A veteran now of two Ryder Cup and two Presidents Cup teams, Stricker said he enjoyed hearing what Pavin expected of his players.

"He kind of wanted to get our feelings on who we liked for the picks that he needs to make this coming week," Stricker said. "But basically (it was) just to get together and put things out on the table and get our feelings out there in the open and be together."

Stricker believes that Pavin is considering quite a few players for the four picks he will announce in New York City on Tuesday after the Deutsche Bank Championship concludes. What happens this week in the second event of the PGA TOUR playoffs for the FedExcup could have an impact, too.

"I think he's got a pretty good idea who his picks are going to be," Stricker said. "I think he still has some questions. I think it depends a lot on what happens here this week, and he wants to have some players step up and show him something, I think."

When asked who he would pick, though, Kuchar took the high road. "I am not sure, and I think I'm going to leave that one alone," he said, grinning. "There are a lot of good players, and you hate to leave anybody out, so I'm going to leave that one alone."

Just as the Playoffs might help Pavin in making his final selections, the pressure-packed, four-event finale to the PGA TOUR season also keeps the rest of the team at the top of their games. Players like Phil Mickelson and European Captain Colin Montgomerie, among others, have indicated the Playoffs have been integral to the Americans' success of late in international competition.

"I agree 100 percent with you that it gets us there, it gets us playing at a high level," Stricker said. "There's big time fields, great competition, so it's an opportunity to keep on working on your game under tournament conditions, which is always more beneficial than just being at home whacking it around with buddies or by yourself. ... I totally agree that that's a positive for us.

KRIS BLANKS TOILED in the hot sun on Wednesday under the watchful eye of Brad Faxon. Blanks hadn't exactly put out an SOS -- yet -- but he was grateful for the advice of one of the PGA TOUR's best putters.

After all, the third-year TOUR pro ranks 190th in putts per round (with an average of 30.4), 183rd in putting and 230th in total putting. Even so, he's had three top-10s this season, which is a testament to his driving accuracy, where he ranks 38th, and ball-striking ability as he stands 16th in greens in regulation.

So when Blanks saw Faxon and his good friend Rickie Fowler chatting on the putting green Wednesday, he seized the opportunity.

"I was basically trying to stay as close as I could and see if I could up some things," Blanks said with a smile. "... It's cool for a person like him to try to help us out as much as he can. It was good to talk with him and run some of my ideas by him and see if I was on the right path or talking crazy."

Faxon, who was the player consultant at TPC Boston, said he was glad to give his friend some advice. "I just said one thing to him," Faxon reported. Was it the magic potion? "You'll have to ask him," Faxon said.

More than any specific revelation, though, Blanks said he was simply reassured and reaffirmed. Faxon told him his grip, posture, set-up and stroke were fine so the key is to concentrate on speed and getting the ball to start on line.

"So now I don't have to worry about is my stroke good because he said there's nothing that he would see that funamentally as a deterrent to me hitting good putts," Blanks said. "Now it's just me focusing on trying to hit as good a putt as I can.

"If you hear a guy like him say it, it makes you feel better."

Blanks was so frustrated with his putting that he had actually went left-handed at the Turning Stone Resort Championship last month. It's nothing new for Blanks, who joked that he is "amphibious" like former N.C. State basketball player Charles Shackelford once said.

Blanks, who was a switch hitter in baseball and can shoot a basketball left-handed "pretty good," had also putted left-handed in 2007 when he played his way onto the Nationwide Tour. He switched after using more than 70 putts in the first two rounds of his first Hooters Tour event in 2007 and went on to finish second in his next start.

Blanks doesn't plan such drastic measures for the rest of the Playoffs, though. He'll start the Deutsche Bank Championship in a 91st spot and in need of a big finish to advance. He is trying to concentrate on the process and hitting good putts -- right-handed -- rather than worrying too much about the end result.

"Unfortunately, it's hard to not see some of your stats," Blanks said. "They're thrown in your face everywhere you go. I've got friends who are always telling me this, that and the other. I'm pretty much dead last in putting. A couple of times I've thought I can putt pretty good left-handed what's the worse that can happen? I'm last right now.

"That says a lot for the other parts of my game, though -- if I could be not so great at one thing at the moment and still be here, still have my card locked up. So I'm trying to look at it that way but it's still frustrating."

DEUTSCHE BANK HAS extended is agreement with the PGA TOUR and will sponsor the Deutsche Bank Championship for two more years. And the tournament has added a local presenting sponsor in EMC˛ Corporation, which is headquartered in Hopkinton, Mass.

"As I've said all along and really for the last eight years, we've had an amazing experience with the TOUR, and it's been an absolute home run for us in every way," Deutsche Bank CEO Seth Waugh said. "We think about it in terms of our brand, we think about it in terms of our clients."

Waugh said he felt the addition of EMC˛ will "raise the bar" again.

"As I always said, we're proud of what we've built but we don't have an enormous pride of authorship, so we're open to ideas," Waugh said. "EMC˛ has been one of our founding partners from the beginning, so really the way to think about it is them stepping up their involvement. It will still be the Deutsche Bank Championship, and the presenting local sponsor, which there will be various benefits to that, will be in the form of EMC˛, and we think this partnership will guarantee that the Deutsche Bank Championship will be in New England for a long time to come."

PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said the continuity of the relationships behind the Deutsche Bank Championship are key to its success.

"As Seth mentioned, the relationships have been the core of what's built this tournament, and when we have all the best players in the world playing in these Playoffs, it's important to have a tournament staged at the quality level that we've seen here in order to communicate that effectively here and around the world," Finchem said. "And that's what this partnership has provided.

"As far as Deutsche Bank goes, going back to the early days of having a vision of incorporating not just the fans, the sports fans in this terrific sports town but also really bringing in the business community from Boston, and it's been a very strong performance. The founders, representatives really are a cross section of the business community in this area of New England, and it gives the tournament a lot of strength.

"EMC˛, who has been involved in the tournament since the early days, also has a past history with the PGA TOUR directly, so we're very pleased with Billy Scannell and his executive team for their commitment, as well. It all adds up to a very positive development for the PGA TOUR generally and for the Deutsche Bank going forward in a very special way."