Practice pairings a hint to Woosie’s Cup plan
True to expectation, the Welsh man sent out Darren Clarke with Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington with Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia with Luke Donald and Paul Casey with his compatriot David Howell. And unless something totally unforeseen happens between now and 2pm tomorrow when he hands in his official formation, those four teams will bear the brunt of the action in the fourballs due to kick off at 8am.
Of course, that will come as a disappointment to the remaining four members who were paired together yesterday — Jose-Maria Olazabal with Robert Karlsson, and Paul McGinley with Henrik Stenson.
“I still haven’t made up my mind about the pairings”, Woosnam said. “All I’m saying is that I’m going out with the strongest pairs on Friday. I want the strongest team whether rookies or not. Monty was probably right when he said I could put all the names in a bucket and draw the pairings because the team on the whole is so strong. That could make my job harder and who I put together depends on who I think is going to give us the best chance to win.”
Woosie intends to play all twelve before Sunday unless someone admits they are out of sync with their game. “If one of my team isn’t feeling too well and doesn’t want to play, I won’t play him”, he said.
“All 12 players want to win and if someone has to stand down, I want him to say that.”
Irish fans will continue to wonder whether Paul McGinley gets a match before Sunday’s singles and, frankly, I don’t see the captain sending him out with anybody other than his close friend Padraig Harrington.
Harrington mused yesterday that the best type of pairing consisted of a big hitter with a steadier player. Having shot 23 birdies in last week’s Madrid Open at much the same time as Monty was performing reasonably well in the world match play at Wentworth, that seems to fit the bill nicely.
That also applies to a Harrington/McGinley line-up and I will be surprised if they don’t go out together in the Saturday morning fourballs.
Woosnam was possibly pointing in that direction and also strengthening Harrington’s point of view when he indicated: “You could see a long hitter like Henrik Stenson go out with an expert wedge player like Jose-Maria Olazabal. If a long hitter knocks it in the rough, he’s still way up closer to the green and accordingly the other guy has got a good chance of making the green.”
Both captains yesterday operated under an understandable fear that sending their players out in such a wicked wind could damage their swings. Of the two, Tom Lehman was less inclined to take a chance and confined his men to a kind of golf, best described as pitch and putt. The driver never left the bag and the only tees used were at the par three holes.
“It’s easy when it’s this windy to get your timing and tempo off and just hitting all the short irons seemed to be a really good thing to do”, he claimed. “So we decided to make it fun and we wanted to let the fans see the American team. We played mainly from about 150 yards in and just chipping and putting.”
Lehman wouldn’t reveal what his intended pairings for the day might have been except to repeat that the four teams he has had in mind for the past three weeks or so remain intact. So it will be Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco and David Toms and Chad Campbell for sure. I still think the US captain will then go with his two “wild card” picks, Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink, leaving the four rookies to kick their heels — at least until lunchtime.
Jose Maria Olazabal and Robert Karlsson, Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald.
Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, Paul Casey and David Howell.
Pádraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie, Henrik Stenson and Paul McGinley
No formal pairings.
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