harry emanuel's inside track
Clarke and Westwood - key men.
By Harry Emanuel, the K Club
Everything is now in place for the 36th Ryder Cup at the K Club. The opening ceremony has finished and the first day fourball pairings have been decided. They are: Woods/Furyk v Montgomerie/Harrington Cink/Henry v Casey/Karlsson Toms/Wetterich v Garcia/Olazabal Mickelson/DiMarco v Clarke/Westwood No big surprises, with the first and last pairings the expected picks pre-tournament. In explaining their other picks both captains stressed the point that the K Club is a long course at 7,335 yards and after the recent rain it will be play every yard of that and more. American captain Tom Lehman said: "Length is a really big deal." Hence he chose the two long-hitting rookies Henry and Wetterich. Lehman added that he paired Wetterich with Toms so Toms' steady influence would help his partner through any first-time nerves. Ian Woosnam meanwhile had a number of possible permutations to choose from and decided that Casey and Karlsson form a good pair: "They are both long hitters, in excellent form who hit similar shots off the tee." Woosnam hopes the Spanish pair of Garcia and Olazabal will repeat the great exploits of Ballesteros and Olazabal, who had such success in the past. He believes they are both excellent match players and their cultural bond will take them to success. The result of all this is short-hitting players such as Donald and Verplank may not see as much action this year, although both captains stated every player will get a game before the singles. Lehman is hoping, like Hal Sutton before him, that by putting his two best players together they will win and generate early momentum for the team. In 2004 the first match was the key to the whole weekend and the American plan backfired when Montgomerie and Harrington beat Woods and Mickelson. After that the Europeans never looked back. I know the American top pairing played so well at the Presidents Cup but I wonder if a stronger team would be Woods/DiMarco, with DiMarco really getting the team spirit and fire going in Tiger. This would leave Furyk to give balance to the wayward Mickelson. Lehman picked this pairing a week ago and is not one to change his mind. I hear he had picked Cink and Verplank weeks before the due date for the wild cards. He must surely be regretting leaving out Davis Love given the conditions and the balance of his team. In contrast Woosnam will be pleased to have left the moaning Dane at home especially as Clarke and Westwood have a very strong friendship which is visible for all to see. I feel this pairing and the last fourball match will be the most important and could prove to be the pivotal moment of the day and the whole Ryder Cup. Clarke and Westwood are Woosnam's wild-card picks and if they win it will provide a huge boost of confidence to his captaincy and the team. An in-form Clarke and Westwood could prove unstoppable. Lehman seems to have won the public relations battles of the captains and is seen to be a strong leader generating an excellent team spirit. Do not underestimate Woosnam though, according to Garcia: "He is doing great. He's definitely stepping up. "He's been quite chatty, he's been quite funny. It's been a very good experience so far and I'm sure he's going to keep doing a great job." The weather has been so bad that not only did my ferry get cancelled, the course was closed for a time on Wednesday and there have even been discussions about a Monday finish. The weather forecast for the weekend is: Friday - Variably Cloudy with a chance of scattered thunderstorms and showers in the afternoon. Winds 12-18mph Saturday - Partly cloudy with a chance of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Winds 12-18mph Sunday - Partly Cloudy. Winds 10-15mph. All in all, typical grey, wet, windy Irish weather but the worst is behind us and I would be surprised if the event does not finish on time. The European team feel the current conditions are to their advantage. Lehman tries to put a brave face on it by saying a lot of his players have grown up in the North where the weather is bad but admitted: "Yeah I'm certain they play in this more often than we do." The course is very soft, with further rain expected, and there is even some discussion about using lift clean and place but that will be decided by the PGA. Much has been made of this as an American-style course. The fairways are wide and there are lots of water features (water comes into play on 13 holes). Indeed it may not be the typical Irish links that many of us would like to see stage the Ryder Cup but the only players who have an advantage on this course are the longer hitters of the golf ball. It will certainly make for some interesting match-ups in the singles. The course itself has three cuts of rough with the outside cut set at four inches high. The rough is very tough around the greens. The greens themselves will be slow, reading only 10.5 on the stimpmeter. The huge advantage this course has for the Europeans is the home support. "The crowd is definitely going to be huge. I think we're going to get a lot of help from them," added Garcia. The talking has just about stopped and its time for the action. Bring it on.
