The 'Type A' Personality as captain
By JIM LITKE / AP Sports Writer
SOTOGRANDE, Spain (AP) -- The most anticipated day of the week
here on the Costa del Sol is apparently still manana.
Money that's owed, projects that were promised, repair work
that was absolutely going to be finished today -- in this sleepy
little corner of Spain, people still like to say everything will
get done ... manana.
Perhaps it was preordained then, that the wait for the complete
results from the first day of European captain Seve Ballesteros'
experiment in Ryder Cup micro-managing will spill over into ...
manana.
Ballesteros is as Spanish as they come, but he's from the north
and a definite "Type A" personality besides, so nobody
was unhappier about Friday's unfinished business than he. Or more
powerless to do anything about it.
An early morning storm that started percolating in North Africa
swept across the Mediterranean, over the Rock of Gibraltar, and
then pounded the Spanish coastline without letup for a good two
hours. That caused a 1-hour, 40-minute delay in the start of the
day's play, which explained why two of the eight matches were
still out on the course at day's end.
"Things started out well, then not so well, then it looked
bad, then it was going better, but still not great," Ballesteros
said.
"Then," he paused while a smile creased his lips,
"good."
A quick translation: The four completed better-ball matches
produced a split with the Americans (2-2). So did the two completed
alternate-shot matches (1-1). The Europeans led one of the two
remaining alternate-shot matches still out on the course and the
final one was tied. Both will be resumed Saturday morning.
After spending most of the past week outmaneuvering Tom Kite,
his American counterpart, and keeping secrets from his own team,
Ballesteros seemed glad to move on to the matches themselves.
For someone so intent on keeping the Americans from starting fast
that he probably considered stealing the laces from their shoes,
nothing but results were going to validate his means.
A day earlier, Ballesteros named his pairings for opening-round
play. He left veteran Ian Woosnam and all three rookies on the
bench. They found out by watching his announcement on television.
For a guy who fashioned a brilliant golf career by escaping from
impossible places, he found himself in a really difficult lie.
"If the job is to be here, sitting and watching the matches
on television," he said, "then I am not needed to be
the captain."
That wouldn't quite work as a job description for Kite, either.
But it would certainly come much closer.
Once the actual matches begin, a Ryder Cup captain's job is
at least as much a glorified third-base coach as an actual manager.
A captain doesn't decide when to bunt, which zone defense to
fall back into, or what changes are needed when the team goes
down a man because somebody gets sent to the penalty box. No.
A Ryder Cup captain makes up the pairings, takes them over the
officials, and waves his guys on their way.
So Friday, Kite turned up on the first tee with a few words
of encouragement for every group that went off in the first round.
And the only obvious move he made from that point on until the
end of the day was change from a long-sleeved argyle sweater into
a white sweater vest.
Ballesteros, on the other hand, stayed in the same outfit throughout
the day. But he turned up so many times in so different many places
that people started wondering whether he'd been cloned.
When Tiger Woods looked up from a six-foot putt that could
have won the first hole of his match against Colin Montgomerie
and Bernhard Langer, there, with arms folded and skepticism written
all over his face, stood Seve. When Swede Jesper Parnevik stood
in the 18th fairway and fussed over an approach shot that would
seal his match against Tom Lehman and Jim Furyk, who should turn
up to discuss the shot but Seve. The man cannot leave well enough
alone.
Parnevik recalled their brief chat this way: "He just
said, 'That's a nice lie there.' "
Parnevik wasn't looking for a second opinion at the time. Then
he threw an outstanding mid-iron shot within 15 feet of the flag.
He didn't need a second opinion on that, either. But he didn't
have time to hand the club back to his caddie before Seve was
there, clapping him on the back.
And with that, the Spaniard was off, trying to figure out how
he was going to get some playing time for the four guys he neglected
altogether Friday.
"I said everybody will play at least one match before
the singles. That's my idea right now, anyway -- but it may change
overnight," he said. "You never know."
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