Ryder team ‘getting stronger’

DARREN CLARKE claims it will take more than a change in captaincy to reverse a trend that has seen Europe win four of the last five Ryder Cups.

Sat, 06 Nov, 2004 - 00:00

John Lewis

Clarke was speaking before beginning his second round in the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

"We've got a great bunch of young players coming through and the more they get to play on the PGA Tour, the better it's going to make our Ryder Cup team," Clarke said.

Like many other leading Europeans, he plays a global schedule, which he believes helps younger players in Ryder Cup play. "They're more and more experienced, playing events against the guys they're trying to beat in the Ryder Cup," he said. "The intimidation is not there because they are playing more around the world."

Tom Lehman replaced Hal Sutton, who was sharply criticised after the Americans' loss this year, as US captain.

Clarke, who powered this year's winning European team, approves of the selection of Lehman but is not quite sure how important the captain's role is.

There is a school of thought by many including Jack Nicklaus that the Ryder Cup captaincy is overrated.

"I think Tom will be very good," said Clarke, who is likely to be on the European team that will try to make Lehman's week miserable in Ireland in a little under two years. "He's a highly respected player, he's won a major, been in the heat of battle in quite a few Ryder Cups. In terms of how important (captains) are, everyone is slightly different. The ones I have played under, two of them were quite similar, Mark James and Sam Torrance, and the other two have been completely different, Seve (Ballesteros) and Bernhard Langer.

When it was suggested to Clarke that anyone could have captained Europe to victory earlier this year in Michigan, he dismissed it as a hypothetical question.

"Maybe we would have won (with anyone as captain), maybe we wouldn't have," he said.

"All we know is we won with Bernhard as captain." Meanwhile, English duo Matthew Woods and Marcus Higley share the lead going into the final round of the European Tour qualifying school stage two at the El Bosque Country Club near Valencia.

Woods posted a third round 67 for a 12-under aggregate of 204 and was joined on that mark by Higley, 30, who also fired a 67. Welshman Stuart Manley and Ireland's Colm Moriarty stayed on course to claim one of the 31 qualifying spots up for grabs as they both posted rounds of 70 to share 20th place on 210.

But Richard Finch, who shared the lead overnight, tumbled back into the melting pot with a damaging 76 which left him tied for 26th on 211.

At Emporda, Euan Little cemented his place at the top of the standings.

USPGA Tour Championship, East Lake GC, Atlanta

(Gbr unless stated, par 70):

133 Jay Haas (USA) 67 66

135 Stephen Ames (Can) 69 66

136 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 66, Tiger Woods (USA) 72 64

138 Jerry Kelly 67 71 (USA), Mike Weir (Can) 69 69

139 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 68, Mark Hensby (Aus) 69 70, Zach Johnson 68 71

(USA)

140 Darren Clarke 67 73, Carlos Franco (Par) 72 68

141 David Toms 68 73 (USA), John Daly 69 72 (USA), Scott Verplank 74 67 (USA),