"It was amazing - the golf was spectacular on both sides and our guys came out on top, " said Azinger.
But then the Americans went on a decisive roll and Azinger's middle-order delivered the Ryder Cup by winning the next four matches.
Faldo's team was beaten 16.5 to 11.5 by a U.S. squad led by Paul Azinger, the country's sole Ryder Cup triumph since 1999.
Talking in New York on Friday, Pavin congratulated his predecessor Azinger on a job "very well done" and said he was very excited.
When Azinger took over he persuaded the USPGA to revamp the qualification process to base it exclusively on money earned, with more weight on the four majors.
Roseann Siderits, a local coordinator for the Christian Coalition who worked for Cremeans in the past two elections and as recently as January, is raising money for Azinger.
"It's just that you communicate differently here than you do at other tournaments, " said Paul Azinger, the former U.S. Ryder Cup captain who is commentating this week for ESPN.
Pavin's selection follows an unsuccessful attempt by US players to persuade Azinger to carry on in the role, having guided them to their first victory in the biennial event since 1999.
And Azinger, who changed the qualifying system to have four wildcard picks instead of two, then delayed his final selection to give the contenders more time to play their way into form.
Azinger was hailed as a mastermind for overseeing the victory, but Montgomerie says the biggest difference between the two captains that year boiled down to the contrasting expectations they faced going into the tournament.
The United States, desperate to avoid a fourth successive Ryder Cup defeat at Valhalla in September 2008, have revamped their selection system, doubling the amount of wildcard picks from two to four for skipper Paul Azinger.
Two years later, in 2008, then-U.S. captain Paul Azinger was determined to make similar changes, including having a tree limb cut down after one team member found it was disrupting his tee shot on the 16th hole.
The Ohio Right to Life Committee recently endorsed Cremeans and is planning to do mailings or other grassroots work on his behalf, while the Cincinnati-based political action committee, Family First, has thrown its support behind Azinger, another opponent of abortion.
But former Rep. Frank A. Cremeans, whom Strickland edged by 2 percentage points in 1996, and insurance salesman Mike Azinger are both tapping a constituency that has already helped decide GOP primaries in California and Illinois this year: grass-roots conservatives.
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