Celtic duo hope to wipe gloss off golden boys

TALK about being thrown in at the deep end! Ireland's Pádraig Harrington, the European team's highest-ranked player, and Ryder Cup hero Colin Montgomerie, have been handed one of the most unenviable tasks in golf.

They lead off the European challenge in the opening session of fourballs in the 35th Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills this morning.

American captain Hal Sutton has flown in the face of all previously perceived wisdom by pairing his two greatest players, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, together and it has fallen to their lot to take on the Scottish/Irish alliance. On paper it should be a massacre with the players ranked 2 and 4 in the world up against those in 8th and 62nd places, but 18-hole match play and the sense of occasion render that kind of statistic almost meaningless.

Mickelson has been playing in the matches since 1995 and Woods made his debut in 1997. None of Sutton's predecessors regarded it as a good idea to put them together. There seemed sound reason for this. Obviously, to do so would look like a case of putting your best eggs in the one basket, thereby weakening other potential partnerships, while the relationship between the pair has frequently appeared to be distinctly on the cool side.

Be that as it may, it certainly is a huge ask for Montgomerie, who has been struggling with his game all year, and Harrington, Europe's top-ranked world player, to take on and beat the better ball of such a pair of birdie machines as the Americans.

Skipper Bernhard Langer insisted he had an inkling that Sutton would lead very much with his best foot forward and intimated that he believed Montgomerie and Harrington had the capacity to throw a monstrous spanner in the American works.

"Like Hal, I wanted a fast start because I don't want to get into a situation where I'm three or four points behind at lunchtime tomorrow," he reasoned. "I want to get into the lead and have sent out some very strong pairings. I had a bit of an idea of what Hal was trying to do and I was right. I had to put eight guys out there that I felt would get us off to a good start and it looks great on paper to me. Monty and Harrington wanted to go out first and I was happy with that. Any win is fantastic but if Pádraig and Colin could give us a good boost, it would be a great morale boost to the other players. It would really pump us up."

On the other hand, Hal Sutton will be more than a little red-faced should his two golden boys fail to deliver a point. He is demanding "quite a few birdies" from them and added: "I felt like the perception of the world was that the US team didn't bond and didn't come together as a team. I couldn't think of any other message that we could send out any louder than to put the two of those guys out first."

Mickelson has been behaving a little strangely and didn't turn up for practice for the second successive day. Sutton laughed it off, but not very convincingly, when he joked about Phil having "some different balls over on the North Course doing some things. Confused everybody." Sutton may see it in a lighthearted manner but he still didn't practice with Woods, further fuelling speculation that they are not exactly bosom buddies."

When asked if there might be drawbacks with a Woods-Mickelson axis, Langer replied he didn't know before quickly and significantly adding that "I don't know how friendly they are with each other or how well they get along with each other."

It certainly is a great tribute to the Irish players in the European squad that all three have been called up for the opening session of fourballs. The partnership of Darren Clarke and Miguel Angel Jimenez had been clearly flagged and there will be a quiet confidence that they can bag a point from their clash with Davis Love 111 and Chad Campbell. The captain, you suspect, will be bitterly disappointed by any other outcome.

"Darren and Miguel both like wine, they both smoke cigars, the chemistry between them was obvious," laughed Langer. "I think Jimenez is one of the guys in top form. He has played so well recently, it's unbelievable. He's a very underrated guy. And we know Clarke has more talent than most, hits it a tremendous distance, and when he gets hot, he's hot. The two of them, they like each other, they like playing together and interacting out there. I think they will do well."

The one mild surprise in the fourball pairings is that Langer has decided to send out Paul McGinley with Luke Donald in preference to Paul Casey. His reasons for this is that Casey and Donald are both rookies and he has been clearly delighted with McGinley's attitude before arriving here at all and with how he has performed in practice.

"I saw Paul McGinley play these last couple of days and he really impressed me," said Langer. "So I felt it might be better to send Paul and Luke out at first and see how they were doing and then give Paul Casey a chance later as the matches progress. I want him to experience the atmosphere, I want him out there tomorrow, walk a little bit and see what's going on and he'll be ready, too."

Mind you, McGinley and Donald have been pitted against arguably the two best putters in world golf in Chris Riley and Stewart Cink so they will most certainly have their work cut out while you have to believe that the Garcia/Westwood axis was set in stone for any captain after they took three points out of four at The Belfry two years ago.

Langer sees them as opposites, pointing out that "Sergio is extremely excitable and bounces and jumps and is just all over the place. Lee is different. He's very calm and nothing flusters him. They help each other along. Opponents David Toms and Jim Furyk have been out of the limelight all year and this is another match where Langer will be very hopeful of a point.