I think it was more Tiger's decision. Lehman made an effort to get Tiger motivated for the matches and allowed him to hand pick his partner. Figuring a happy Tiger is better then telling him how it is going to be and have him disatisfied. I also think that Lehaman tried hard to find guys everyone was comfortable playing with as opposed to ones games mixed well and that formed the best team. Tiger has a terrible record when paired with anyone besides Furyk.

I also thought it was amusing that Tiger was widely qouted as telling Lehman "do not worry about our rookies I will take care of them" My thought when reading this would be if you want to do that then be paired with one and win with someone who is not the second ranked player in the world. I think Lehaman would have been esctatic if Tiger said "give me a rookie that will make birdies in 4 ball and a rookie who will hit fairways and a great putter in alternate shot. "

To me Tiger (also Nike) is very much aware of golf's history and is motivated on how he will end up fitting into the record books when his career is over. Tiger is motivated by becoming the greatest golfer which means winning majors and in some respects avoiding a losing individual Ryder cup record hence requesting to be paired with USA's next best player.