With four unheralded rookies currently in his team, and with his two leading wildcard candidates, Davis Love and Fred Couples, struggling to justify a phone call from the captain, Lehman's chances of wrestling the Ryder Cup back from Europe after the debacle of Oakland Hills appear as slim as ever.

And the clock is ticking.

After The International which concludes in Colorado this evening, the PGA Championship at Medinah is the USA's final qualifying tournament. "There's this Ryder Cup-itis, where people want to be on the team so bad they get so focused on earning points that it's like trying to make cuts, " said Lehman recently. "I talked to a couple of players and they said they want it so badly they find themselves getting into position and shooting 73 on Sunday, finishing 12th or 15th, and can't quite seem to get those points."

Lehman could have been talking about Lucas Glover who hasn't hoovered up any points since the Wachovia Championship in May and who has slipped out of the top 10 and down to 13th place in the standings. Last Sunday, he was in the final group of the Buick Open with Tiger Woods, but found the pressure too much and fell away to finish a disappointing 15th.

"I've been thinking too much about this thing in September we all know about, " Glover admitted. "That took its toll."

There were contrasting fortunes for Vaughn Taylor who made a 40-foot putt on the final hole to earn a tie for fourth place which moved him from 11th to seventh in the list. If Taylor, who has been talked up by Lehman as a feisty competitor, hadn't made the putt he would only have moved up to 10th.

The one ray of light in the past couple of months has been the re-emergence of Chris DiMarco following injury. Not that DiMarco has exactly been consistent . . . and he was off the pace in the early stages of The International . . .

but an impressive secondplace finish behind Woods at the British Open moved him up to sixth in the table.

"I'll be really up front, getting Chris DiMarco back in there is a huge boost to our team, a huge boost, " Lehman said. "I can't even begin to tell you how big that was, because he's the passionate outspoken guy that you need.

He's the guy that's going to be in the locker room chestbumping you and stuff like that. That's what he does and our team needed that."

With Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Chad Campbell, David Toms and DiMarco assured of their places, there are possibilities in the coming week for someone to push Taylor, JJ Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich . . .

who occupy the remaining four places . . . out of the team.

Lehman wouldn't object if players with Ryder Cup experience such as Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink were to take advantage of the large amount of qualifying points available at the PGA Championship, but it seems that most of all he would like to see a spark of form from one, or both, of Love and Couples.

"I think I've gotten to the point where the easiest thing to do almost is to decide which guys I wouldn't pick unless they got their spot, " said Lehman. "I'm really looking for guys who are going in the right direction with their game. If they were 25th three months ago, and now they're 15th or end up 12th, if they're improving. It's a tough call though."

Love, who is playing just his fourth tournament since the beginning of June, is currently in 14th place in the table, while Couples, who has played even more sparingly, is in 15th. With rookies making up nearly half his team, Lehman knows that Love and Couples represent the experience he badly needs.

Love has played in the last six Ryder Cup matches while Couples has five appearances to his name, but neither are "going in the right direction" to use Lehman's words. The captain might opt for the player who finishes 11th in the standings, and one other, as his two wild cards, or he might go further down the table to the likes of Verplank or Cink.

America's 10 qualifiers will be settled at the end of the PGA Championship, with Lehman announcing his two picks tomorrow week.