Spanish king opens 32nd Ryder Cup
By STEPHEN WADE / AP Sports Writer
SOTOGRANDE, Spain (AP) -- Spanish King Juan Carlos II opened
the 32nd Ryder Cup, but the biggest applause Thursday was for
Seve Ballesteros, the European captain who landed the matches
for his native Spain.
"It is our responsibility to insure that the integrity
of the game is upheld," Ballesteros told a crowd of about
10,000 people on the practice range in front of the Valderrama
clubhouse. It was the first time the Ryder Cup was played outside
the United States or Britain.
The ceremony, replete with traditional guitar strains from
southern Spain and prancing Andalusian horses of the royal school,
lasted just over two hours.
The seven national anthems took 10 minutes to play and blared
down the fairway. But actually seeing the ceremony was another
matter -- most of the best seats were saved for dignitaries like
the king, Queen Sofia and George and Barbara Bush.
Dozens of fans perched in the gnarled oak trees that line the
course to get a better view. Periscopes, selling for $50, were
as numerous as the unfurled American flags and flags from the
European side.
Of the Americans, Fred Couples and Tigers Woods got the biggest
applause, and Woods, Davis Love III and Tom Lehman raised clenched
fists when they were introduced.
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CAPTAIN'S CHORES: Three of Tom Kite's players requested some
time to catch up on sleep. Seve Ballesteros, meanwhile, is trying
to speed up one of his men.
"Mark (O'Meara), Tiger (Woods) and Tom (Lehman) all requested
the opportunity to sleep in, and that's fine," Kite said.
"Their time is budgeted from minute to minute, and they really
don't have time to catch their breath."
Ballesteros was asked about pairing the slow-playing Bernhard
Langer with the quick Colin Montgomerie.
"We have a problem here," Ballesteros joked. "We
all know how Bernhard plays. I always thought if we put Langer
in the first match at 9 o'clock in the morning we'd all probably
miss lunch. I think Colin has to walk a little slower on the course
tomorrow."
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BRING ON TIGER: Colin Montgomerie, hammered by Tiger Woods
in a head-to-head matchup five months ago in the Masters, wants
another shot.
"I think there's a few of us who would like the opportunity
of playing Tiger," Montgomerie said. "At the Masters,
we would all want to avoid him because I think we would all lose.
But 'round here, it is different.
"It's like comparing a clay court to a grass court in
tennis. You get Thomas Muster on clay he would beat you, but on
grass, well, you have a chance."
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ODDS AND ENDS: Uta Ortiz-Patino, the wife of the billionaire
owner of Valderrama, Jaime Ortiz-Patino, fell and broke her wrist
Thursday at a gala dinner where former President George Bush was
a guest. ... How's this for a long putt? American Ryder Cup player
Brad Faxon sank an 8-1/2-mile putt on the flight to Spain on the
Concorde. That's the actual distance the supersonic jet traveled
in the time it took the ball to roll down the 120-foot aisle.
... Coral, one of Britain's top bookmakers, is predicting a record
$8 million being bet on the Ryder Cup in Britain. One punter in
Manchester has dropped $48,000 on the Americans to win. The winning
bet would net $110,000. "The big backer clearly believes
he is betting on two certainties," said Coral spokesman Simon
Clare. "But as any gambler knows, there is no such thing
as a certainty."
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