Ryder Cup skippers banking on singles to win
Allan Kelly
Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo both expressed their satisfaction with
the line-ups for Sunday's singles which will decide the fate of the 37th
Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club.
In keeping with tradition, both skippers handed in a letter
containing the order their 12 players would go out in without knowing
what the other had chosen.
The ensuing matchups are often crucial to the final result and can
mean the difference between success or failure for the opposing
skippers.
With the Americans leading 9-7 after two days of foursomes and
fourballs, Azinger has opted to send his big guns out first.
Explosive rookie Anthony Kim leads the way against Sergio Garcia
followed by in-form Hunter Mahan up against Paul Casey, Justin Leonard
against Robert Karlsson and senior player Phil Mickelson taking on
Justin Rose.
Faldo has spread his talents more evenly with top ranking Padraig
Harrington in the anchor match against Chad Campbell, preceded by Lee
Westwood against Ben Curtis and top-scorer Ian Poulter against Steve
Stricker. "We've got our 12 guys out in the order we wanted them," said
Azinger.
"There was a little bit of a discussion about it, and we kind of had
a big group huddle. "I already had this in my mind that this is how I
wanted to do it, and I was just getting a little confirmation.
"Anyone who tried to make it any different, I just explained to them
why I thought they might be wrong."
Azinger said that the first four players he was sending out were all
aggressive players, but he had never given a thought to making
crowd-pleaser Boo Weekley the lead-off man.
Faldo said that despite his side's two points deficit he thought it
was an even contest for Sunday's singles.
He also defended his choice of putting out last Padraig Harrington,
who has won the last two majors, after being reminded that in 2002 US
skipper Curtis Strange assigned his big guns including Tiger Woods to
the later slots and as it turned out the match was done and dusted
before they could finish their ties.
"We've thought long and hard about this. It's been an extremely tight
match so far," he said. "Padraig wanted to go there." In the other ties
Kenny Perry goes up against Henrik Stenson, Weekley takes on Oliver
Wilson, JB Holmes faces up to Soren Hansen, Jim Furyk opposes Miguel
Angel Jimenez and Stewart Cink matches up to Graeme McDowell.
The 12 singles ties start at 1603 GMT going out at 11 minute
intervals.
The United States needs to reach 14.5 points to win back the trophy
while 14 points will do for Europe to retain it.
LOUISVILLE, Sunday, AFP |
