ryder secret lies with team spirit
Europe's team spirit is unquestioned.
By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer
Ian Woosnam already knows the biggest challenge which faces him and his European team when the 36th Ryder Cup begins at the K Club. It is the backlash of Detroit. Two years have passed since Colin Montgomerie sank the three-foot putt at Oakland Hills which consigned the Americans to an 18.5-9.5 record defeat in their own back yard which shook them to the core. Remember, it was a United States team boasting five major winners against a European side with not a single major to its name. Yet Europe came as close as any sporting side to cracking the secret for which every coach who has ever assembled a team dreams. They made the sum of their parts surpass the talent of the individuals who formed their total. That is the task which Woosnam will endeavour to emulate in Ireland. Make no mistake, however, it will be the hardest-fought Ryder Cup in the history of the competition. American golf was humiliated in Detroit. It became the laughing stock of sport as then-captain Hal Sutton sent out Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the opening fourballs and declared he had the 'Dream Duo'. It turned into one of the most vexed sporting partnerships in living memory - two men who disliked each other going about their work with distracting scowls and sullen body language, let alone some of the worst golf of the entire weekend. United States current captain Tom Lehman will have learned much from that. There is no way Lehman - as Sutton did - would allow Mickelson not to practise on the eve of the matches just because that was his routine at the majors. No chance he would consider pairing on a whim two players whose individual rivalry was so volatile. There is no more passionate or patriotic golfer than Lehman. He proved that at Brookline, even if it did manifest itself with him being saddled with the tag of ringleader for the disgrace at the 17th green when the American entourage trampled over the putting line of Jose Maria Olazabal. Lehman will dwell on the need to avenge Detroit, to make amends for the humiliation by forging a common bond. It will not be easy. Increasingly, Europe have become a dominating force in the Ryder Cup as the differences between each side of the Atlantic have become starkly apparent. Week by week, the Americans, with their private jets, their individual courtesy cars and their swanky hotels go their different ways, while the Europeans tend to use the same practice facilities, stay in the same accommodation, share the same transport. As Montgomerie explained: "We all travel together and spend a lot more time together than the US team as a whole. "We tend to play for each other and that's huge. When we win you can see how delighted we are, not individually, but as a team. It's most important to have that feeling." Europe are entirely comfortable in each other's company and while that would amount to little without the talent to back it up, now that the depth of skill on the European Tour has never been greater it is a seismic combination. In Langer, Woosnam as captain has a tough act to follow. Langer was coach, motivator, public speaker, father confessor, all roles executed with supreme dignity even if one of the abiding memories of the last Ryder Cup was the captain showered in champagne, wrapped in the European flag on the shoulders of Thomas Levet. Woosnam will be different, pithy, feistier, but hopefully no less inspirational. Most of all he must seek to emulate Langer's feat in getting everyone on the European side to make a contribution, each player winning at least one point in Detroit. Win or lose, however, the fact is that the Ryder Cup has become one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the sporting calendar and is now third behind only the World Cup and the Olympics in sporting significance. Last time it was played in a superb sporting spirit, on the course and behind the ropes, with America desperate to live down the memory of Brookline. At the K Club the Irish will put on a welcome like no other in the whole of sport. The hospitality will be supreme. Who will win? Well, expect Woods and Mickelson and the rest to fight harder than ever to regain their pride. Do not expect another huge margin of victory, despite the USA fielding four rookies in JJ Henry, Vaughn Taylor, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich, the latter who has never made a half-way cut in a major. The chances are it could even go to the last singles match on the Sunday, hopefully with Woods and Montgomerie marching up the 18th fairway with the cup still up for grabs. But my bet is that at the end it will be Woosnam deluged in champagne after another European victory. The Americans have the major personalities. Europe have the team.
