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Rory and Tiger Set for Star Roles in Ryder Cup
Ryder Cup Is Labour of Love for Team USA
Captain Ollie Ready for Ryder Cup Raid
Rory and Tiger Set for Star Roles in Ryder Cup
PARIS, Sept 21, 2012 (AFP) - Rory McIlroy's Europe will defend the Ryder Cup against Tiger Woods and the United States at the Medinah Country Club outside Chicago next week in what has become golf's most spectacular event.
The world's top two players have been the focus of attention this week at the season-ending Tour Championship event in Atlanta with comments from Greg Norman that McIlroy intimidated Woods stirring the pot.
The Northern Irishman, who won his second major in August at the PGA Championship, and has won back-to-back tournaments in the FedEx Cup playoffs, was dismissive of the Australian great's comments.
"How can I intimidate Tiger Woods?" he said. "The guy's got 75 or 70 whatever PGA Tour wins, 14 majors.
"He's been the biggest thing ever in our sport. I mean, how can some little 23-year-old from Northern Ireland with a few wins come up and intimidate him? It's just not possible.
"I don't know where he got that from, but it's not true."
For his part Woods was predictably circumspect. "It's got to be the hair, yeah," he said jokingly, referring to McIlroy's tangled mop of curls.
Whatever the case might be, the two will undoubtedly be the headliners going into what will be the 39th playing of the Ryder Cup since its inception in 1927.
It could well be of course that, like at Celtic Manor, Newport two years ago, Woods and McIlroy will never meet on the course.
But, should the contest go down to the wire, as it did in Wales, and should captains Davis Love and Jose Maria Olazabal both select their respective talismen to anchor their 12 singles slots, the stage would be set for a clash of titanic dimensions.
Of course, as every past and present-day player will confirm, the Ryder Cup, in stark contrast to the rest of golf, is a team contest and one that has soared to towering heights since Great Britain and Ireland became Europe 33 years ago.
Europe have bossed the event for the last 17 years, winning six out of eight editions and four out of the last five, including a thrilling 14 1/2 to 13 1/2 triumph at Celtic Manor to regain the trophy.
The US line-up looks strong with 10 of their players ranking in the world top 20. But tellingly none of them - including Woods and Phil Mickelson - have a winning record in Ryder Cup play.
In contrast, eight of the 12 Europeans enjoy winning records led by Ryder Cup stalwart Lee Westwood who in seven previous appearances has won 16, halved six and lost 11.
Spain's Sergio Garcia, Englishmen Ian Poulter and Luke Donald and Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, who supplied the winning point in the final matchup against Hunter Mahan two years ago, are all Ryder Cup specialists.
The only rookie in the side is big-hitting Nicolas Colsaerts who becomes the first Belgian to play in the contest, having been chosen by Olazabal as one of his two wild cards.
The US side, in contrast, has four rookies in Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker with Love calling up veterans Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker as wild cards to lend some experience alongside Woods and Mickelson.
Many feel that the new generation of American players coming through could tilt the Ryder Cup balance back the US way, although the victorious Europe captain from two years ago, Colin Montgomerie, is not so sure.
"There has been a lot of talk this year of a new generation of assured American players, but there's a bit of swagger about this European team as well," the Scot said.
"There's a bit of attitude there - players such as Ian Poulter, Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia aren't exactly shrinking violets - and they'll need it in an environment where the US crowd will crank up the atmosphere to fever pitch."
The teams will arrive at Chicago on Monday with the first practice rounds taking place early Tuesday when the cat-and-mouse game of devining who is likely to be paired with who for Thursday's opening foursomes and fourballs will begin.
Olazabal will no doubt be ultra-cautious to avoid following in the footsteps of Nick Faldo, the Europe Team captain the last time the event was held in the United States at Valhalla, Kentucky four years ago.
On that occasion the six-time major winner was snapped by an alert photographer holding a piece of paper with his players' intitials on it.
To all intents and purposes it was his musings over who should play with who, although he comically suggested that it was in fact nothing other than a sandwich list he had drawn up.
It should also become quickly clear what kind of crowds will make their way to the course outside Chicago - a city known for the robustness and enthusiasm of its sports fans.
In contrast to the rowdy scenes that marred the 1999 tournament in Brookline, Massachusetts, recent Ryder Cups in the United States, like at Valhalla in 2008, have been noisy and nationalistic - but largely respectful of the European team.
Ryder Cup Is Labour of Love for Team USA
LOS ANGELES, California, Sept 21, 2012 (AFP) - Davis Love says a Super Bowl-like atmosphere and Medinah's home-course advantage will empower the Americans and enable them to reclaim the Ryder Cup from their European rivals.
The 48-year-old US skipper knows all about the pressure of a Ryder Cup, having competed in a half dozen, beginning with his first in 1993. He also knows about winning major championships, capturing the 1997 PGA Championship.
"It is our Olympics or our Super Bowl," said Love. "It is the biggest thing you can play in golf.
"It is not the same as the PGA Tour where you play week after week after week and then there is a major. It is more pressure. It is something where we are scared to lose and we want the Cup back."
The Americans have lost four of the last five Ryder Cups, including the last one in 2010 at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
Their last victory was four years ago at Valhalla in Kentucky and they hope playing on home soil in front of raucous partisan galleries will give them the edge this time.
"You get to the last nine of PGA Championship and you are in the hunt and you get really nervous," Love said.
"At the Ryder Cup you get really nervous on Thursday when they have the opening ceremonies and put the flags up and you realize you are playing for your country and every shot from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon is that kind of last nine holes of a major pressure."
With four rookies this year and 10 of the top 16 ranked players in the world there will be no shortage of firepower for the US team that will play Europe at Chicago's historic Medinah course September 28-30.
This is the first time the event will take place at the Medinah Country Club but the golf course is no stranger to international tournaments having hosted five major championships.
"It is going to be a great event," said American Steve Stricker, who is making his third-straight appearance in the Ryder Cup. "From what I heard is they sold out of just about everything.
"I know the Chicago area is going to support it tremendously. We lost it last time at Celtic Manor and we want to get that back. Everybody will be fired up and it should be quite a scene and a lot of fun.
"It is the best golfing spectacle we have. There is so much history."
Love also named Scott Verplank and Jeff Sluman as his vice-captains for the USA team which comprises eight qualifiers and four captain's picks.
Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar grabbed the seventh and eighth qualifying spots as the final round of the PGA Championship capped the points table for selecting the US team.
Tiger Woods led the standings and Bubba Watson finished second.
Also qualifying were Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Zach Johnson. Dufner, Bradley and Simpson will be making their Ryder Cup debuts.
Love filled out the team with his four wildcard picks on September 4, adding Stricker, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson and Brandt Snedeker.
That mean't there was no room for Hunter Mahan, Nick Watney or Rickie Fowler. Mahan looked poised to make the team but finished near the bottom at Firestone and missed the cut at the PGA Championship.
Stricker, who is ranked 10th in the world, is a steady influence and a great partner with Woods.
"We get along. Our games are somewhat similar but different if you know what I mean," Stricker said. "We chip and putt well and get it around the course well.
"Obviously he hits it a lot further than I do and has a lot more other talents than I do. But the basic principle is we are good with one another and we understand one another.
"Our short games are good and when you put guys together with good putting then they are tough to beat."
Stricker expects that his experience and competitive fire will help him adjust to the super-charged atmosphere of a Ryder Cup.
"You find an inner calmness," he says. "Guys get through it. When you make one, you want to make another."
Johnson and Snedeker earned their way in a three-week tryout which Love watched closely.
"You can't argue with the golf that Brandt and Dustin have been playing," Love said.
Love also said they plan to set Medinah up so that it gives the USA the upper hand.
"It's going to look like a major championship because Medinah is a big old golf course, with big trees and obviously big tents," Love said. "It's going to look like a major, but it's going to play probably easier than a major.
"That benefits our team. We're a long-hitting, freewheeling, fun-to-watch team."
Captain Ollie Ready for Ryder Cup Raid
PARIS, Sept 21, 2012 (AFP) - Jose Maria Olazabal says he is no Seve, but he believes he has the firepower to emulate his great friend and countryman and lead a successful European defence of the Ryder Cup at Medinah.
After almost single-handedly reviving the biennial competition in the 1980s with his flair and fierce determination, Seve Ballesteros was omni-present on home Spanish turf at Valderrama in 1997 when he captained another European victory.
Olazabal was in the team on that occasion just as he had been alongside Ballesteros in many of his greatest triumphs in foursomes and fourballs.
Now, 16 months after Ballesteros died from a brain tumour, it is his turn to lead from the front, but this time on foreign soil.
The 46-year-old, who like Ballesteros hails from the northern Basque region of Spain, insists that his approach will be different.
"It's very difficult to compare to Seve in any way," he said. "He was really all over the place (at Valderrama) - I don't know how he managed to be in so many places at the same time to be honest.
"He was very close to the players, sometimes a little too close, trying to hit the shots. I'm not going to go that far."
Whatever approach he does take, Olazabal, twice winner of the Masters, but whose career was dogged by a rheumatoid condition in his feet, is already sure of total respect and support from his players.
"There will never be another Seve in terms of a talisman. The next best thing is to have Olazabal as the captain. He will deliver the Seve message," said former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher.
"He is not a golfer who is branded up like other golfers. He has very high morals, he won't sell himself. He is very strong-minded and this will come out next week."
The 12-man team Olazabal brings with him to Chicago on the face of it looks as good as any in recent times.
Gone are such as Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington, all stalwarts of the European team for the last 15 years.
But in have come a golden generation of younger European players who are now in their prime - Luke Donald, Justin Rose, Martin Kaymer and above all else the current best player in the world, 23-year-old Rory McIlroy.
Put them in the mix alongside such Ryder Cup rocks as Lee Westwood, winning his eighth cap, Sergio Garcia, taking his sixth, and Graeme McDowell who ensured the winning point at the 17th hole in the last match out two years ago at Celtic Manor, Newport and you have a powerful brew.
Eight of the 12 players have winning records in the Ryder Cup (against none in the US team) and recent history is on the European side having won six out of the last eight contests and four out of the last five.
Montgomerie also believes that Olazabal, who was one of his captain's assistants at Celtic Manor, got it right with his two wild card selections choosing Ian Poulter and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, who will be the only rookie in the European side.
"With Ian Poulter a shoo-in, the only decision Jose Maria had to make was between Padraig Harrington and Nicolas Colsaerts," the Scot said.
"In the end, he concluded that Colsaerts' combination of form and power was worth more than Harrington's experience in the event. Some people might disagree with his choice, but I'm not one of them. I think Olazabal made exactly the right call."
The European team has eight different nationalities this time with four English, two from Northern Ireland and one each from Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Scotland and Italy.
It also contains the youngest player in this year's competition - 23-year-old McIlroy and the second oldest - 43-year-old Paul Lawrie of Scotland.