Picking pairs crucial to victory
By PATRICK McMANAMON
Scripps Howard News Service
SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- Seve Ballesteros said it is the most important
duty of a Ryder Cup captain -- more important than checking the
weather, cheerleading or making sure the sweaters are packed.
"The most important thing," said Ballesteros, the
captain of the European team that will face the United States
this weekend in the 1997 Ryder Cup, "is to be right in choosing
the players to play together."
Team pairings in two formats comprise the first two Ryder Cup
days. Four teams compete in fourballs (best ball) Friday and Saturday
morning, and foursomes (alternate shot) the two afternoons. The
pairings are the captains' decisions.
Singles match play completes the competition on Sunday.
But picking pairings is considered so important that Ballesteros
even asked U.S. captain Tom Kite to reverse the order of play
on Friday. Instead of having alternate shot in the morning, the
field will now play best-ball matches. That could help Ballesteros'
younger players calm their nerves in a format that allows for
a partner to carry a teammate if needed.
"I think I know why Seve wants to do that," Kite
said. "He thinks he'll get a better feel for how the players
are playing by watching them in the morning play their own ball."
Choosing pairings is part feel, part study. Relationships are
considered, as is temperament and style of play. Captains might
even factor in whether players regularly use the same kind of
ball in the alternate-shot format.
Ballesteros and Kite both agreed that the most important factor
in choosing partners is making sure the two are comfortable together.
"The emotional side is very important," Ballesteros
said. "There is a lot of pressure out there."
Kite consulted with his players to see who they preferred as
partners. He also proposed some pairings to his players that they
had not thought of. He and Ballesteros have been tooling around
Valderrama in carts during practice, trying to see how their players
are getting along.
"You can tell by looking," Ballesteros said, "By
the way they look at each other. The way they are feeling. The
way they talk."
Pairs might not win a Ryder Cup, but it can contribute to losing
it -- something that happened in 1995 when Europe came to Oak
Hill in Rochester, N.Y., and took the Cup back overseas.
In the first session of foursomes (alternating shot), Lanny
Wadkins put Jay Haas, a straight hitter, with Fred Couples, a
long hitter. Haas kept trying to hit 10 yards longer to keep up
with Couples, and Couples kept trying to hit 10 yards shorter
to be as straight as Haas.
With both trying to play the other's game, Sam Torrance and
Constantino Rocca beat them, 3 and 2.
"Playing with people where you're saying you're sorry
all day long and telling them not to worry about it is not what
you want," Couples said.
In the afternoon fourballs, Wadkins paired Brad Faxon and Peter
Jacobsen, two players who were too similar and wound up getting
along too well. The result was they did not have the intensity
they needed, and Jacobsen mistakenly picked up and cost the U.S.
a hole. Ballesteros and David Gilford seized the momentum and
won, 4 and 3.
The pairing went against the advice Tom Watson received from
Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams prior to the 1993 Ryder Cup:
Opposite personalities make a good team.
On the flip side, the right pairing can be magical -- as Ballesteros
proved when he and Jose Maria Olazabal went 11-2-2 as a team.
Both are fiery Spaniards, but Olazabal was the younger of the
pair, and Ballesteros became his mentor.
Kite and Ballesteros said they had not settled on their final
pairings (they will be announced Thursday), but if practices are
any indication Kite will put Couples with his good friend Davis
Love -- a pairing both will like.
Kite also could have one surprise with the team's marquee player.
When the U.S. team was named, it was generally thought Tiger
Woods would be paired with Mark O'Meara, his best friend on the
tour. But the last two days, Woods has been practicing with Phil
Mickelson.
That pair would give the United States a hard-charging, long-hitting
and aggressive team. Having partners play similar styles in alternate
shot, Couples said, is vital.
"Phil might be used to hitting a driver and 8-iron on
a par 4," Couples said. "It would throw him off to play
with a guy whose drive made him hit a 4-iron to the green. It's
mentally different."
Then there is the issue of the golf ball. Different brands
have different feels.
Many golf observers think Wadkins used Couples with Haas two
years ago in part because both hit a Maxfli. This year, O'Meara
hits a TopFlite; Woods hits a Titleist.
While the two might make a good pair in best ball, where an
aggressive player can be balanced by a safe one, the adjustment
between golf balls may affect them in alternate shot.
Mickelson? Like Woods, he hits a Titleist.
"I feel very secure where I am right now," Kite said,
"and where I'm going with the pairings."
(Pat McManamon is the national sportswriter for Scripps Howard
News Service.)
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