Why wasn't Pavin asked to defend Cink?

A comment written by a jrogan1 in response to this analysis, that U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin took a gamble on selecting Rickie Fowler, raised an interesting point: that Pavin was not asked to defend his selection of Stewart Cink.

"In fact, it's a stunning indictment of the lack of seriousness of the sports press that no one is openly making Pavin defend the Cink choice on the basis of past performance in the event for which he was chosen," jrogan1 wrote.

He (or she) has a point. Cink's record in four Ryder Cups is 4-7-4. He's 1-3 in singles and 2-4-1 in foursomes. Only in fourballs does he have a winning record, and at that it's only 1-0-3.

Fowler is still a curious choice, given his lack of credentials or even the point that jrogan1 made, that he "has given some indication he might excel in the Ryder cup format." Virtually all the debate regarding Pavin's picks centered on Fowler. But the Cink pick, based on his past performance, surely deserves some scrutiny as well.

-- John Strege