So my “exceptionally well-placed source” (and it truly was) proved incorrect, and Rocco Mediate was not chosen by Paul Azinger among his four captain’s picks for the upcoming Ryder Cup – and this puzzles me to no end.

One of Zinger’s choices, Steve Stricker, seems a no-brainer.  Stricker is currently ranked eighth in the world and has demonstrated consistently better form – by a wide margin – than any of the other candidates over the last two seasons.  To overlook him would have been a travesty.  Another choice, Hunter Mahan, is also difficult to flatly refute.  Though he’s got only one Major championship top-10 finish (in 12 career starts) on his résumé, Mahan is ranked 36th in the world, has generally been showing solid form, and has both Presidents Cup (2207) and Eisenhower Trophy (2002) experience internationally.  Not an inspiring choice, perhaps, but Mahan’s qualifications were as stronger (or stronger) than all candidates save Stricker.

But then things get murky.  Choice number three, Chad Campbell, is currently ranked 57th in the world but has played relatively well of late, logging three top 10s in his last seven starts, dating to early July.  Of course two of those came at conspicuously light-field events (the John Deere and U.S. Bank Championship) and Campbell’s form generally remains well shy of its 2003 peak, when he enjoyed a few moments as a consensus “Next Big Thing.”  In the end, however, Campbell’s two previous Ryder Cup appearances (2004 and ’06) likely swayed Azinger, and it is, one supposes, hard to refute that sort of thinking.

But J.B. Holmes?

Holmes, Zinger’s largely inexplicable final choice, has a PGA Tour résumé that essentially consists of winning the same event (the FBR/Phoeinx Open) twice.  He has no Ryder Cup experience (though he did play in the 2005 Walker Cup), is ranked 56th in the world, and cannot be considered on any degree of great form, with zero top 10s (against five MCs and only one finish as high as 20th) since May’s Players Championship.  Further, he is among the least popular players (among his peers) on Tour – and that should count for something in this, the rare chance to compete in a team format.

Would I have chosen the super-affable Rocco instead?  Absolutely.  Or two-time Ryder Cupper Scott Verplank, or Sean O’Hair, or Brandt Snedeker.  Indeed, the choice of Holmes might appear to make sense at only one level – that he’s a Kentucky native and the event will be played in Louisville – but the last time I checked, the PGA of America seldom struggles to sell Ryder Cup tickets.

Indeed, that may be the only reason they continue to hold the event.