Ryder Cup advice: Don't underestimate Europe
By RON SIRAK / AP Golf Writer
SOTOGRANDE, Spain (AP) -- If the Ryder Cup were played on paper,
you could stick this one in an envelope and mail it in right now.
The United States wins in a walkover.
Fortunately for Europe the game is played on grass, and it
will be no major surprise if the Ryder Cup stays on this side
of the Atlantic when the final putt falls on Sunday.
Jot down the pros and cons for each team and it seems as if
there is barely a reason to tee it up Friday at Valderrama Golf
Club.
The U.S. team has hot players in Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard
and Davis Love III. It has an intimidating player in Tiger Woods
and it has unflappable veterans in Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara
and Tom Lehman.
So how could Europe possibly keep the Ryder Cup?
For one thing, the expected never happens in this competition.
In no other golf event do so many great players hit so many
bad shots. In no other golf event is the pressure as intense.
And in no other golf event is as much dependent on team play as
in the Ryder Cup.
It is truly an event where the sum of the parts can be greater
than the individual components.
"I think on paper we are the underdogs and although we
are the defending champions, they look stronger than us,"
Bernhard Langer said Tuesday. "But in match play anything
can happen."
Ah yes, match play. And alternate-shot play. And better-ball
play. Throw in the quirkiness of the Valderrama course -- which
the Europeans know much better than the Americans -- and the pro-European
gallery and there is all the makings of an upset.
"In match play it doesn't really matter how strong a team
it is or how weak a team it is," Ian Woosnam said Tuesday.
"I believe that if Seve gets his pairings right, then any
team can win this."
Woosnam, who is playing in his eighth Ryder Cup, is a perfect
example of the beauty of team play and the unpredictable nature
of match play in this competition.
Woosnam has never won a singles match in the Ryder Cup -- losing
five and halving two. Yet he has four wins and two halves in nine
alternate-shot matches and has won nine better-ball matches and
halved another, losing only once.
"It's all about getting players to play together who can
flow together and score well together," Woosnam said. "That's
the secret, I think."
If Tuesday's practice pairings were any indication, Ballesteros
will try to use his veteran players to ease his five rookies through
the pressures of Ryder Cup play.
Colin Montgomerie, playing in his fourth competition, played
with newcomer Darren Clarke and Nick Faldo, competing for a record
11th time, played with rookie Ignacio Garrido. Woosnam and Langer
both also went around with rookies, the Welshman playing with
Lee Westwood and the German paired with Thomas Bjorn.
The two Swedes -- Jesper Parnevik and Per-Ulrik Johansson --
played together, despite the fact that Johansson's appearance
in 1995 is their only Ryder Cup experience.
Jose Maria Olazabal and Costantino Rocca, two veterans, rounded
out the European practice pairings.
"The experience of the seven players plus the new energy
of the other five players makes it very positive," Ballesteros
said. "I don't think I could have a better team."
There is that word again -- team.
Before dismissing the European team too easily, consider this.
The European players have been in a total of 35 Ryder Cups
compared with 14 for the U.S. players. And while having a losing
11-17-7 record in singles matches, the Europeans have been overwhelming
in the team events, being a combined 33-17-5 in alternate shot
and 27-24-6 in better ball.
The U.S. players are only 6-9-0 in alternate-shot play and
9-7-3 in better-ball. They are 5-7-2 in singles play.
There is one other factor that could help the European team
squeeze out the 14 points it would need to retain the Ryder Cup
on a tie or the 14-1/2 needed to win it outright -- Ballesteros.
If any captain could be worth the extra point that could decide
the Cup, it is Ballesteros.
"Seve is very emotional and very excitable," Woosnam
said. "He'll be running around like a headless chicken, I
think. That's good, and for the young guys to see someone so excited
like that just might give them a buzz as well."
And if that happens, the Europeans just might give the United
States a surprise.
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