Haas and Cink complete Sutton's line-up

Ryder Cup 2004: No more Mr Nice Guy? Yesterday, in downtown Milwaukee, American captain Hal Sutton named tour veteran Jay Haas and Stewart Cink as his wild cards to finalise the US team for next month's Ryder Cup match with Europe at Oakland Hills.

If his selections would hardly instil fear into the Europeans, Sutton left no one in any doubt he was determined to regain the most prized team trophy in golf.

"In the past," said Sutton, "US teams have played to be politically correct. This time, I'm going to do it differently. I'm going to play guys that I think will win this thing."

Indeed, his selections - overlooking the form demonstrated by Justin Leonard in the PGA, a player with two Ryder Cup appearances and who broke European hearts at Brookline in 1999, and also bypassing 11th-placed Steve Flesch - were something of a statement from the captain, who watched on Sunday as Chris DiMarco and Chris Riley played their way onto the team at Whistling Straits.

Haas, now 50, has played in two Ryder Cups, in 1983 and 1995. On that latter occasion at Oak Hill, Haas was beaten by Philip Walton in the decisive singles match, but yesterday he remarked, "I don't have any score to settle. I've never felt the need to atone."

Eventually finishing 12th in the US qualifying table, Haas was 10th going into the PGA only to be overtaken by DiMarco and Riley. He knows what to expect, though. "I remember back in the 1983 match, the final day was just like playing in a practice round, there were so few spectators. It has changed enormously since then. It was so intense in 1995. I was surprised to see how much different the Ryder Cup had become and I'm sure it has jumped in intensity even more."

Cink, meanwhile, played in the 2002 match at the Belfry and it would seem a touch ironic that, given he is most remembered for missing a tiddler in the 2001 US Open which cost him a place in the play-off won by Retief Goosen, Sutton pointed to the player's short game and his putting ability as the main reasons for swaying his selection.

He did, however, win the MCI Heritage earlier this season and, in a year dominated by international winners on the US Tour, that was a factor in his selection.

After flying to Atlanta from the airport in Sheboygan after finishing tied-17th in the PGA, Cink's first act was to turn on his mobile phone. When there were no messages, he sensed the worse. However, 15 minutes later, he took a call from Sutton, who simply said: "Let's do it!"

Although Sutton is looking forward to the challenge of regaining the Ryder Cup, he admitted there was "a dark side" to the captaincy and that was having to overlook players who badly wanted to be on the team. Still, the only phone call of commiseration he made was to Scott Verplank, who finished 16th on the US final standings.

"I was worried about his ankle problem," conceded Sutton, in explaining why he decided not to give him a captain's pick.

Of the others who were overlooked, Sutton referred to Jerry Kelly as "a fighter", while British Open champion Todd Hamilton, who has two wins this season and who won four times in Japan last year, had "won on two courses that were the opposite of Oakland Hills."

In standing by his selections, Sutton added: "Time will tell . . . we're four weeks away from the match and it's only then that we will know if I am right or wrong."

A few weeks ago, Sutton took a phone call from one of his vice-captains, Jackie Burke, who reminded him of the need for good putters for this Ryder Cup match. "They don't give away trophies on the fairways, only on the greens," Burke told him. And Sutton claimed yesterday he had taken this on board in choosing his wild cards.

"Oakland Hills is not the monster it once was," remarked Sutton.

The American team will have five rookies - Kenny Perry, Chad Campbell, Fred Funk, DiMarco and Riley - for the match which takes place on September 17th-19th, and Sutton believes they have every right to be favourites. "If you add up the world rankings," he said, "you'll see the US team is pretty strong. We're heavyweight contenders. The message (to Europe) should be we've got 12 good guys who wanted to make that team. We've got 12 respected golfers . . . and our mission is to go play golf like gentlemen and champions."

Sutton added: "We are hungry. We've only won three of the last nine Ryder Cups and we need to turn the tide a little bit. I've also suffered a couple of singles defeats to Bernhard so, if I couldn't beat him with my clubs, I'll just have to out-captain him."

Of the Europeans, Sutton observed they had "punched above their weight" over the past couple of decades. "The Americans," he said, "are going to be up to the challenge. We're going in with a mission and we won't settle for less (than winning). Right now, I'd settle for a win, whether it's by half a point or half a dozen points."

The theory on recent Ryder Cups is the European team have meshed better than American ones. Sutton is intent on getting rid of the milk and cookies image that has afflicted US teams. "I'm going to make my team look like they drink beer together at night and play golf together during the day," he claimed.