Faldo under pressure

With one full day to go until the start of the 37th Ryder Cup matches, time is ticking, the tension is increasing and the Opening Ceremony is only a few hours away.
Paul Azinger seems to be winning the battle of the captains. While the American was quick-witted, relaxed and amusing as he talked about his obsession with foozball (table football) Faldo was spiky, awkward and defensive. When one journalist pointed out that his list of potential pairings had been caught on camera, he made rather a bad attempt to laugh it all off, arguing it was a ‘sandwich’ order, before conceding that he had been caught out.
Some American tv station focussed in on a list which Faldo was discussing with his son, Matthew. On it was a sequence of letters: SG/LW, PH/RK, JR/IP, GMac/PC, with OW SH and MAJ running along the bottom. You didn’t have to be a very bright spark to conclude that this meant Faldo was thinking about an opening foursomes pairing on Friday morning of Garcia and Westwood, Harrington and Karlsson, Rose and Poulter and McDowell and Casey, with Oliver Wilson, Soren Hansen and Miguel Angel Jimenez left out in the cold. Quite what happened to Henrik Stenson, no one really knew. Faldo said he was on the back of the bit of paper.
Quite how significant it is that the Americans know who the European captain is thinking of pairing together on the first morning remains to be seen. What may be more important is that Faldo gives the impression of being on the verge of a nervous breakdown. One more prod tomorrow from a tabloid journalist (maybe enquiring how his relationship with his estranged wife Valerie is going – he took her to the Gala Dinner) and he may have to be carted away to the blokes in white coats.
In the opening fourball of the day, Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jimenez played in a money match against Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell and won. Garcia seems to once again be revelling in Ryder Cup atmosphere, while Harrington looks tired and slightly fed up. Maybe the constant thud of DJ Spooney’s choice of music or Poulter playing the drums has got to him. Let’s hope that changes over the next 24 hours.
At 2.00 p.m. in the afternoon, after most players had retired to the cool of the team room, four players remained on the practice ground, working on their games, all of them Europeans. The time was meant to be reserved for the Junior Ryder Cuppers, but Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel, Oliver Wilson and Paul Casey, thrashed ball after ball into the distance. They were either trying to recapture a swing which they had lost, or fine-tuning an already smooth one. Let’s hope it was the latter.
What seems clear is that Azinger will play the big-hitting J.B.Holmes and Kenny Perry in the first pairing on Friday morning, hoping that the two men from Kentucky can start well and get their home crowd hootin’ and hollerin’. It is possible this is a double bluff, but the American captain was convincing when he assured us that all 12 of his players will have played at least one match by Friday evening. Of course, if America are leading 4-0 at Friday lunchtime, then he might have to think again. Needless to say, Faldo would give no such assurance.
Just watching some of the play this morning, it is clear that the tricky part about this course is the surroundings of the greens. There are huge drop-off areas, where chipping from tight lies will be required and places on greens where you can pitch quite near a flag and roll some 60 feet away. As a result there is going to be a premium on good iron shots, and although much has been made of the fact that this is a ‘bomber’s course’, chipping and long-putting are going to be more significant than ever.
There are still rumours going around here that Tiger and Michael Jordan will make a fleeting appearance on Saturday night. Such a move could prove match-turning, and yet it could just as easily back-fire. Knowing Tiger’s conservative nature, his previous apathy for this event, and the fact that he has very few really good friends on this team, I think such a scenario is unlikely. But we shall see…