Cat and mouse continues as captains refuse to reveal battle plans

RIVAL captains Hal Sutton and Bernhard Langer continue to play cat and mouse with each other in the build-up to the start of the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.

With the 35th match getting under way in the morning with four fourballs, to be followed in the afternoon by four foursomes, neither Sutton nor Langer is prepared to show their hand. Sutton is being especially stubborn. Although he admitted knowing what his teams would be, he said even the players themselves won’t be informed until some time this morning.

He did stress, though, that “it is extremely important to get off to a great start and when we announce our pairings, you’ll see that has weighed heavily on my mind. I’ll put out the guys I think can get it done.”

Langer was a little more forthcoming if only because yesterday’s practice rounds consisted of fourballs over the opening nine holes and foursomes coming home, and the pairings indicated the way he might be thinking.

Everything is liable to change but I suspect it would be close to the mark to envisage a fourball line-up of Darren Clarke and Miguel-Angel Jimenez, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald and Paul Casey.

That would leave Paul McGinley, Thomas Levet, David Howell and Ian Poulter to sit out the opening session and two of that quartet, Howell and Poulter, could also miss the afternoon.

The likelihood is the Clarke-Westwood partnership will be revived having been scotched by Sam Torrance at The Belfry a couple of years ago. I suspect McGinley will come in alongside Harrington and Jimenez and Levet and Donald and Garcia are likely to complete the line-up.

It would seem more logical to pitch the two Spaniards together but the reality is they don’t get on well - not at all, some close to them would claim.

In those circumstances, it obviously makes sense for Langer to send out Garcia and Westwood as a pair, just as happened in four sessions two years ago when they won each of their first three outings and only lost on the 18th against Tiger Woods and Davis Love.

A Clarke-Jimenez alliance hardly sounds like one made in heaven but both are fierce competitors, share a love of the same expensive cigars and are extremely particular about the red wines they been known to quaff.

Montgomerie and Harrington were partners in the afternoon fourballs on the second day in ’02 and defeated Phil Mickelson and David Toms at the 17th.

Donald and Casey are just as keen to play together as Harrington and McGinley and enjoyed a 100% record in Walker Cup foursomes in 1999.

The current speculation is that Montgomerie will be rested in tomorrow afternoon’s foursomes when Donald is likely to go with Garcia, an axis that appeals to their captain.

Phil Mickelson, who a fortnight ago switched his woods and golf balls from Titleist to Callaway, apparently because the former wouldn’t increase his contract after he won the Masters, didn’t practice yesterday. He practised at Oakland Hills for 7½ hours on Monday but successfully begged off yesterday because he never plays on the Wednesday before a major championship into which category he places the Ryder Cup.

Unlike the four majors, however, Wednesday of this particular week happens not to be the eve of the start of the competition.

“I told him to absolutely not change his routine, you do what you have to do,” said Sutton.

“I’ll tell y’all right now, these guys have earned every point on their own. Nobody else did it. We are all one team. We do it the same way. If anyone needs a pass, he gets a pass.

“Let’s see the positive side of this. Phil thinks the Ryder Cup is a major championship - so if I were going to write this article, that’s the way I’d write it.”

Sutton and Langer have both been very diplomatic so far but the German made it clear that he wouldn’t like to see any of his team opting out. He would “only consider it if [the player] feels adamant about it and thinks he would perform better if he takes the day off.

“But I don’t know any of my guys who would take a whole day off just before a big competition”.