Sergio and Tiger on course to be Ryders of the storm
They are the strong men, the keymen, in either side and while Woods is the runaway world number one, and Garcia is fifth, both have the kind of inspirational qualities that can prove crucial once the gun goes at 8am Friday morning.
The propaganda war is now well underway and Jesper Parnevik yesterday entered the fray to compare Garcia with his fellow Spaniard, and one of the great Ryder Cup exponents, Seve Ballesteros.
“He is perfectly capable of taking over this team like Seve did in the past,” said Parnevik. “You have to remember he’s only 22 but he’s the guy who has to play well on this team if we want to win and I think he’s up to the task. He’s our number one player and I’m 100% certain he’s going to play all five matches.
“It’s a big responsibility and very tiring. I remember Valderrama when with the bad weather we might have had only three or four minutes between rounds, you had a quick bite of a sandwich and you stepped on the tee again. You got to the golf course at 6 o’clock in the morning and left at 8.30 at night.
“It is tough, but the way Sergio is playing right now, I don’t think he’s going to feel very tired because he’s so intense in these matches.”
Given that he concentrates largely on the US Tour these days, very much to the detriment of the European circuit, one might have expected Garcia to be ambivalent about the outcome this week. But he’s a proud Spaniard and while he has had his differences with Ballesteros, especially about his non-appearance in the Seve Trophy last April, Garcia would like nothing better than to be spoken of in the same terms as Seve where the Ryder Cup is concerned.
“I think this event stands right up there with the majors,” Garcia said. “It’s a team event and if you win, you win as a team. We have a captain. We all look up to him. There’s always Colin and Darren, they played a lot of Ryder Cups. They probably feel like I’ve been playing well and that they can probably jump on my back and I’ll try to carry them. But it’s not only me. There are about four leaders out there and we will all try to help our team as much much as we can.”
Garcia and Parnevik claimed 3½ points from their foursomes and fourball matches in 1999 but all of that took its toll on the Spanish-Swedish alliance and both were well beaten in the singles, Garcia by 4 and 3 in his clash with Jim Furyk.
“Unfortunately, I felt a little tired on the Sunday.
I spent so much energy during the week and I was so young and maybe not experienced enough. It was my first Ryder Cup and I was looking forward to it. I got really excited and I’m looking forward to this one.”
It sounded like there was an old head on young shoulders when Garcia spoke of any advice he could pass on to the rookies in the European team.
“When you give it your best, it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose,” he said. “That way, it’s easier to play well. Sometimes they play better than you but you just give it your best shot and don’t worry about anything.”
It is more than a little surprising that Woods’ Ryder Cup record reads a moderate played 10, won 3, halved 1, lost 6.
Europe will be desperate to see that he doesn’t improve on this but yesterday you sensed a steely determination in the American and he was quick to play down the significance of what the tabloids described last week as his preference for winning the Am-Ex rather than the Ryder Cup.
“I said I had a million reasons for saying that but of course I was trying to be funny,” said Woods.
“Things were taken way out of context. People read that and say, oh my God. But if you saw the videotape, and how I said it, you would say, oh, OK, I understand.”
Having got that off his chest, Woods turned to the question of his desire to play a leading role in an American victory this week.
“Anything can happen and that’s the most challenging thing about the Ryder Cup.”, he said. ” I’ve played well and I’ve gotten beat and I’ve played poorly and won. In 18 holes matchplay, anything can happen. It’s not 72 holes where consistency usually wins. This is a boat race for 18 holes and guys with less experience can go out there and get hot. And guys with more experience can get hot as well.”
Woods accepted that the Europeans once might have been more passionate about winning the cup, that they wanted to prove that their tour was as good as the American circuit.
“That’s why you saw the atmosphere the way it was,” he suggested. “That’s different now that the fields are deeper on both sides. This generation of players may not have the same outlook as the past generation but nevertheless they’re still very passionate about the Ryder Cup.
“The US rookies this year have a lot more experience than when I first played in 1997. That was my first year as a professional. These guys may be rookies in the Ryder Cup sense but they’re not rookies when it comes to playing professional golf and competing at the highest level. They know how to handle pressure. Back in ’97, I was pretty nervous and I was lucky enough to be paired with my best buddy (Mark O’Meara). He kind of nursed me around Valderrama.
“Because of what happened last time, we all have a better understanding of what needs to be done this time. The fans out there today were praising our good shots and that’s the way it should be.
“ I’m not the rah-rah type, that’s not my personality, but I’ll be giving it 100% and everyone on the team knows that.”
