They take their game to a level sometimes that they didn’t know they had.”In the Ryder Cup I’ve seen Tiger shoot 64 – and lose. Some of those losses on his record, well, I’ll tell you, he didn’t play badly I feel very strongly that the Tiger is ready. No corner in all of sport has the capacity to move the spirit – and engage the sporting instinct – more upliftingly than the battle for this old golden trophy.Back in Gleneagles in 1921, Sam Ryder thought he was initiating no more than a friendly contest which would enhance transatlantic golf relationships when JH Taylor led Great Britain and Ireland to a 9-3 victory over Emmett French’s Americans. No, he read the last written words of the commander of the Alamo before it was overrun by the Mexican army.This week, Ben Crenshaw’s successor as US captain, Hal Sutton, produced another American icon at his team meeting – the basketball legendMichael Jordan – when the fervent talk was of the pressing need to avenge the 151/2-121/2 victory achieved by Europe at The Belfry two years ago.Sutton, who as a playing member of the US team at Boston spent much of his time whipping up the crowd, has also said this week, while pointing to the American flag on the back of his shirt, “Anything I can summon up, that’s what we’re going to do.”All of this might seem a touch disturbing but for one single, shining, redeeming fact. His appearance as an official guest of the American PGA will be the familiar underpinning of a golf match that since the early Nineties has, apart from growing into a centrepiece of world sport at its most spectacular, increasingly become a barometer of middle America’s self-regard.Maybe that was not quite what Hagen, who led the United States to four victories between 1926 and 1937, or the founder, the amiable St Albans seed merchant Sam Ryder, had in mind, but the reality was implicitly accepted when the organisers extended their invitation to the former president. Langer should use those examples to make sure his players do not expend all their energy by Saturday night..

The 35th Ryder Cup was formally launched on the magnificent Oakland Hills course, burnished by the vivid shades of the American fall

Walter Hagen, the father of professional golf, who said we should always take time to smell the flowers, might just have detected a whiff of cordite here yesterday when the 35th Ryder Cup was formally launched on this magnificent course burnished by the vivid shades of the American fall.
It could hardly have been otherwise in the martial spirit now gripping the nation and the fact that heading for the latest golfing battleground was the 41st president of the United States, George Bush Snr. And, with an ugly strike looming, who knows if ice hockey’s Stanley Cup will ever be hoisted in celebration again?These events rarely live up to the hype; the Ryder Cup often exceeds it. But two of those occasions brought victories when they were trailing at Oak Hill in ‘95 and tied after two days at The Belfry two years ago. “McGinley has been awesome the last few weeks and here in practice,” Langer said. The real anomaly is that Woods has only won two of 12 fourball matches in both the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, a quite unfathomable statistic.Harrington and Montgomerie were put together for the second session on Saturday at The Belfry and beat the Americans’ top pairing that week of Mickelson and David Toms. Langer went with another successful pairing from two years ago in the shape of Sergio Garcia and Westwood, who will play Jim Furyk and David Toms.Finding a partner for Clarke was straightforward as Miguel Angel Jimenez, who is in the form of his life, should prove to be a reliable foil. Luke Donald and Paul Casey were expected to reunite their Walker Cup partnership but instead Langer has opted to pair Donald, the only European rookie on parade, with Paul McGinley, the hero of the Belfry.

There would be some hell to pay.”While either team’s success is not solely dependent on one player’s fortunes, Sutton knows he has to get the best out of Woods, who has only won five of his 15 games in the Ryder Cup. “Woods and Mickelson, that’s the best America can do right now and it’s going to be dramatic. But we can win and if we do it will have a dramatic effect on the day. It could be important for Team Europe.”Pairing his team’s best two players may appear to be overkill, and also curious given a past in which neither was particularly enamoured of the other. “We came here to win.”Langer strongly suspected Sutton’s decision, which brings to mind Sam Torrance’s positioning of Montgomerie at the top of the singles order two years ago “He’s done a Sam and all credit for that,” Montgomerie said. Hal Sutton revealed one of golf’s worst kept secrets in stating his intention to regain the Ryder Cup by pairing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in this morning’s top fourball.

In a classic opening to the 35th encounter, they will line up to play one of Bernhard Langer’s strongest possible combinations: Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie.
Sutton decided on his lead partnership as soon as he had been given the job of US captain almost two years ago, although he only told the two players on Wednesday night.”There is a perception that the US team doesn’t come together as a team and I couldn’t think of a louder message than to put those two guys out first,” Sutton said. We have three days of it here.” That makes it at least three times better than a Super Bowl.If only more Americans paid attention.Dave Lagarde is the golf correspondent of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Those are the things that make the Ryder Cup so special.Hal Sutton, the US captain and a knowledgeable sports fan, says it is one of the most exciting competitions in the world.”That’s because it’s prolonged,” he said “The Super Bowl is over in three hours. As a sportswriter who has covered more boring Super Bowls than I care to count, several pedestrian World Series and one forgettable NBA Finals, I believe the Ryder Cup tops them all.None can match the electricity in the air on the first tee today None can match the tension.