Woosie keeping cards close to his chest

IAN WOOSNAM may still be playing Ryder Cup captaincy catch-up, but he’s getting there. A man of his vast experience and innate cunning was never going to be left behind.

Yesterday his handling of reins impressed everyone who witnessed it.

He wasn’t happy with the state of the bunkers after Monday’s torrential rain and used his expertise to let the ground staff know exactly what he wanted.

Yes, it was difficult to understand why he wouldn’t reveal beforehand his fourball pairings for yesterday’s first practice round, not least because when they emerged, there was absolutely nothing surprising about them.

Two Irish men, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley; two Swedes, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson; two Spaniards Jose-Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia; old buddies Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood; former World Cup winners Paul Casey and Luke Donald; Colin Montgomerie and David Howell all playing together. Not rocket science. However, I expect to see different formations when the real action gets under way on Friday.

Woosnam is keeping his cards close to his chest for a few good reasons, not least the fact that two years ago Hal Sutton telegraphed his intention of leading with his marquee pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. His European counterpart, Bernhard Langer planned accordingly.

Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington were playing well at the time. The German put them out to crack the so-called invincible Americans. The rest is history. This time, it’s a certainty that Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk will be paired and quite probably will lead their side into the fray.

That being the case, the chances are that Woosnam will fancy the prospect of sending out Montgomerie and Harrington to repeat their exploits of 2002 and get the side off to a resounding start. It is also more or less cast in stone that Tom Lehman will send out Phil Mickelson with Chris DiMarco and I suspect Woosie would like nothing better than to take them on with the pairing of Donald and Garcia.

Accordingly, I empathise with Woosie when he commented: “You can read a little into today’s pairings but on Friday it’s important that I go out as strong as possible.”

Montgomerie is so happy with the formation of the European dozen that he believes the captain “could reach into a bucket and pick out the partnerships”. However, it’s not as easy as that and if the Welshman is true to his word, he may well be left with little option other than to leave the Swedish rookies Stenson and Karlsson and McGinley and Olazabal on the sidelines on Friday morning.

That would leave a European line-up of Montgomerie and Harrington; Donald and Garcia; Casey and Howell and Clarke and Westwood. It may be a little premature but that’s my view even with two practice days still to go.

And what of the Americans? If Tom Lehman has sometimes looked to be on shaky ground over the past couple of days, it’s been when the subject of his pairings came up. He confirmed what we all already knew by putting out Woods and Furyk and DiMarco and Mickelson together yesterday.

After that, though, it’s not quite so simple. Woosnam admitted that David Toms and Chad Campbell looked “pretty obvious” and you suspect that he will justify his “wild card” selections by pairing Cink and Verplank. That would leave an idle session for the four newcomers. The Americans appear to lack depth and that is something to which Vaughn Taylor, Zach Johnson, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterich must become accustomed.