Ryder Cup snub doesn’t eat at Watney

While his colleagues and friends were imploding Sunday at Medinah Country Club and allowing the Europeans to retain the Ryder Cup, Nick Watney was taking full advantage of his snub by USA captain Davis Love III.

The Henderson resident was getting his game in order to try to win this week's Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Watney came in second to Kevin Na by two strokes last year at TPC Summerlin. And given the year he has had, he's going to be one of the favorites to receive the trophy from Timberlake come Sunday.

"It would be great to win at home," Watney said Tuesday. "I was close last year. I just didn't make enough putts, and Kevin did. He played great."

Here's how good Watney's 2012 has been: He was fourth in FedEx Cup points. He won The Barclays on Aug. 26 and has four top-10 finishes. In the 25 events he entered, Watney has missed the cut only three times. He is 23rd on the money list with $2,931,724 in earnings this year.

Yet he wasn't considered good enough to represent his country in the Ryder Cup.

"As a competitor, you think you can get the job done," Watney said. "But I'm not bitter. Captain Love chose who he chose, and what happened happened.

"I felt bad for the guys. They played well. But they ran into a buzz saw Sunday. The Europeans were tough."

Love said Tuesday he doesn't regret his decision to not have Watney on the team.

"Everything we did was calculated in advance," Love said. "We could have chosen several players, including Nick, who's a terrific player and a great guy. But ultimately we did what we thought was best."

Watney insists he's not going to use the snub as incentive this week. Winning at home and finishing on a high note is incentive enough.

"I know the course pretty well," he said of TPC Summerlin, which is in its usual immaculate condition for the pros this week. "I played out there on Monday, and I didn't notice anything different.

"One thing I'll try to do is not wind up in the trap at 15 (341 yards, par 4) like I did in the last round. That cost me a shot, and I'd like to have had that one back."

Watney, who will tee off at 11:10 a.m. in today's celebrity pro-am and will play with former UNLV standouts Ryan Moore and Charley Hoffman in Thursday's opening round off the No. 10 tee at 7:28 a.m., said he's excited about the tournament's future. He's convinced the move to the FedEx Cup points competition from the Fall Series will give the event a nice boost.

"I think it's going to make for a better tournament," he said. "The field will be better. There will be more excitement, and with the tournament coming at the start of the season, you'll see a lot of guys out here you might not normally see, so it will be much more competitive."

Watney said while 2012 was good, it should have been better.

"I was pretty consistent in terms of making cuts, but I didn't feel like I played my best this year," he said. "I didn't finish as high as I would have liked in some of the events.

"My goal for next year is to continue to be consistent and just finish higher on Sunday. I'm going to work on some things and be ready to get off to a fast start."

Winning on Sunday would give him momentum toward that end.

■ NOTES - Playing in today's pro-am will be former Shriners Hospitals patients Mike LaBrie and Katie Walker along with Dr. Stephen Grud, who works at the Shriners Hospital in Chicago. They will be playing with Hoffman and teeing off at 11:50 a.m. ... Na, the defending champion, will be in Love's grouping Thursday. They tee off at 12:13 p.m. from the first tee. "I promise I won't bring up the Ryder Cup," Na said Tuesday. ... To celebrate 30 years of pro golf in Las Vegas, tickets to Thursday's opening round are $3.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.