ESPN.com - Golf Online - PGA Championship 2000 - Begay, Cink nail down Presidents Cup bids

ESPN Golf Online news services
Sunday, August 20

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Notah Begay IIIand Stewart Cink won the tournament within the tournament -- qualifying for the Presidents Cup -- at the PGA Championship on Sunday.

	Presidents Cup standings
	Player	Points
	1. Tiger Woods	20,002,228
	2. Phil Mickelson	8,010,929
	3. Hal Sutton	7,465,100
	4. David Duval	7,309,397
	5. Davis Love III	6,563,112
	6. Tom Lehman	5,257,042
	7. Jim Furyk	5,032,764
	8. Notah Begay III	4,554,526
	9. Kirk Triplett	4,525,664
	10. Stewart Cink	4,453,949
	11. Loren Roberts	4,365,004
	12. Chris Perry	4,255,520
	13. David Toms	4,215,040
	14. Justin Leonard	3,744,870
	15. John Huston	3,733,513
	16. Rocco Mediate	3,470,457
	17. Jeff Maggert	3,421,912
	18. Dudley Hart	3,177,471
	19. Franklin Langham	3,058,307
	20. Dennis Paulson	3,024,200

The event was the last chance for a handful of players to compile enough points, based on earnings, to make the 12-member team. Begay and Cink earned the final two automatic bids available.

Captain Ken Venturi will make two wild-card picks on Monday.

The Presidents Cup matches will be held Oct. 16-22 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainsville, Va. The international team will be made up of foreign, non-European players.

Begay had a final-round 70 and finished the tournament in eighth place at 10-under. The finish earned him $145,000 and vaulted him from 11th to eighth in the points standings as he traded places with Loren Roberts, who finished the tournament 2-over.

"I knew I couldn't get my putts in, so that was the main thing on my mind," said Begay, who will once again play on a team with fellow Stanford graduate and two-time PGA champion Tiger Woods. "There's no Olympics for golfers, so it's the closest thing. I'll be proud to wear the red, white and blue."

Cink entered the tournament 10th in the points standings, and his 8-under total was good enough to keep him there.

"This is a major, and that was more important than the Presidents Cup team. I didn't want to just play this as a Presidents Cup qualifier, but it's hard not to," Cink said. "This is a goal I've had all year and this is the final event for it."

Roberts wasn't optimistic about earning one of Venturi's wild-card picks after a final-round 73.

"I really wanted to make the team this year," Roberts said. "I've been playing really consistent all year. But it's been a long summer and unfortunately, I ran out of gas one week too soon."

Chris Perry started the tournament 12th in the points standings and stayed there after a final-round 69 left him at 3-under for the tournament. He hopes Venturi considers intangible factors when he rounds out the team.

"I was an ice hockey player growing up and was captain of my team. I'm a fighter and a grinder," said Perry, who was 27th on the PGA Tour money list entering the week. "I scratch and claw for as much as I can get out of a round."

Perry said a berth would be especially satisfying since Ben Crenshaw left him off the Ryder Cup team in 1999. Crenshaw picked Tom Lehman and Steve Pate, even though Perry finished fifth on the money list and posted 14 top 10 finishes that year.

"I've made it known since then that my next goal was to win tournaments or to make the Presidents Cup," Perry said. "(Venturi) has got a tough job and I don't know if he's going to go off the board and pick somebody. I just would really would like to be part of a team atmosphere."

Kirk Triplett, who finished ninth in the points standings after a final-round 72, said Venturi would be smart to make his wild-card picks players who have never been on the team. Top players like Woods and David Duval bring different perspectives than newcomers, he said.

"It'll be good for the other guys on the team to have guys who are enthusiastic about playing," he said. "We'd all be relative rookies whereas everybody above us has played in a number of these things. They look at it more as a duty, probably, than something they're really excited about."

Perry said that's what would make him a good choice.

"I don't know if a lot of other players have stressed that point, but I really want to play on the team," Perry said. "I've been in the hunt a lot (in tournaments) and yeah, I haven't come through a lot. But get me in an atmosphere like that and I'm going to be like a Payne Stewart or Hal Sutton. If they just want me sitting on the sidelines, that's fine. I'll be out there cheering with my pom-pons ready to go."

The International team was decided on Sunday as well, with Retief Goosen narrowly edging Robert Allenby for the 10th and final spot. International selections are based on the World Rankings, since eligible players are from a variety of tours.

The 10 qualifiers for the International squad are Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Nick Price, Carlos Franco, Stuart Appleby, Michael Campbell, Mike Weir, Shigeki Maruyama, Greg Norman and Goosen.

Those just missing out were Allenby, Jumbo Ozaki, Joe Ozaki, Angel Cabrera, Craig Parry and Steve Elkington.

Campbell, Weir and Goosen will be playing on the team for the first time.