Stay focused for Ryder marathon, Azinger tells team
The United States team, which is seeking to halt a three-match run of defeats, heads into today’s third day of practice with three days of nerve-jangling and gruelling golf ahead.
Before yesterday’s practice got underway in Kentucky, Azinger spoke to all 12 of his players, including the six rookies, and stressed the importance of keeping a clear mind on the task ahead — preparing for one of the biggest tests of their golfing careers.
“Yesterday was a long day,” Azinger said. “We spent six hours on the golf course, and that’s a long day and we’re going to go a lot faster today.
“You know, I made sure this morning when we were in the midst of the photographs, the team photos, as the players were peeling off individually, I called them back, and we all kind of huddled right in the middle of the picture taking.
“I wanted to make sure that they understood that today was still about preparation, that I didn’t want them to lose focus.
“I reminded them that yesterday was going to be the hardest day. The first day is always the toughest.
“This is not a sprint; this is a marathon. It’s a long week, and to remain focused on preparing, I wanted them to think really clearly about the golf course, about which holes they liked, about how much they liked alternate-shot and who they thought would be a good partner for them. And I’m going to get some of that feedback this evening.”
Azinger declared he had already pencilled in his Ryder Cup pairings for the first day’s play on Friday.
The captain sent out the same groups for practice yesterday as he had on the previous day and said he was happy with his 12-man team and the golf they had been producing.
He said there was little to hide in terms of his potential pairings for Friday and Saturday’s foursomes and fourballs, particularly having sent out that same practice groups for two days in succession.
HE SENT out Jim Furyk and Boo Weekley with Kentucky favourites Kenny Perry and JB Holmes once again, as he did during Tuesday’s first official day of practice, although instead of pairing the locals together, the US skipper put Perry with Furyk and sent out debutantes Holmes and Weekley together.
The second group saw Stewart Cink paired with Steve Stricker while Ben Curtis played with Chad Campbell, Cink having partnered Campbell 24 hours earlier with Curtis and Stricker.
The final group also saw the same quartet together albeit mixed up from Tuesday with world number two Phil Mickelson switching from a pairing with Justin Leonard to accompany rookie Anthony Kim, while Leonard partnered another first-timer in Hunter Mahan.
Azinger stated on Tuesday he would like to send Perry and Holmes out early on the opening day “to get the crowd rocking”, while Mickelson and Kim are rumoured to be another probable pairing.
“Yeah, there’s a pattern developing,” Azinger said of his three four-man groups. “I mean, common sense would tell you that.”
He added he would not have a problem playing any of his players on the first day.
“Who’s impressed me so far? JB Holmes has been unbelievable, he’s played terrific. Kenny Perry has been playing great; (Phil) Mickelson too. They’re all hitting it great.
“I think my dilemma is to figure out who I’m going to leave out on the first morning. That’s really the problem.
“But again, I can’t stress enough that it doesn’t matter to me really all that much what’s going on on Monday, Tuesday. I’d rather have the players playing well than playing poorly but essentially you just wait until the last minute to make a call.
“But I’m really happy with the way things are going so far.”
Asked if he had been seeing a sports psychologist this week to help him cope with the stresses of his captaincy, as his European counterpart Nick Faldo has done, Azinger said anxiety was not an issue.
“The stress of being a captain is far less than the stress of being a player,” he said. “I feel no stress as the captain at this point whatsoever.”
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