Monty not planning any tweaks to Cup course

NO tricks, no tweets and no teasing.

European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie set out his stall for the way he wishes this weekend’s clash with Corey Pavin’s United States team to be conducted as the two captains arrived at the Celtic Manor Resort near Newport in South Wales yesterday.

During a joint press conference on the site of the 38th Ryder Cup matches, which begin this Friday morning, Pavin looked forward to “great sportsmanship” and “just very heated competition” while Montgomerie continued his policy of running an open and fair campaign, particularly when it came to the Twenty Ten Course.

As both teams will discover this morning when they play their first practice session, the Scot has resisted the temptation to “play around” with the set-up, as was his right.

“You’re probably aware there’s a so-called home-course advantage that can be used,” Montgomerie said. “On this occasion, I haven’t played around with the golf course at all. This golf course is set up in a very, very fair manner to allow the best team to win.

“I don’t think it was right to set the course up in any other way than to what it’s been designed for; it’s a great, great golf course in super condition.

“The greens are firm. They are rolling at about 10-and-a-half, 11, which is ideal, for these conditions, and I think everything around the golf course is first class.”

When it was pointed out to the

European captain the way the Twenty Ten had been prepared reflected a typical European Tour set-up, Montgomerie replied logically.

“Well, hence to our advantage, if it is a European Tour set-up. I was hardly going to set up to a US Tour set-up.

“So it is a very fair test of golf, and something that our European Tour players will be used to in the pace of greens, and the set-up that it is. The rough is graded very fairly. A good shot will be rewarded and a bad shot will be penalised and that I think is the game of golf and that is what it should be. We are due for some breeze over Friday, Saturday, Sunday, an average of about 10 to 15 miles an hour, which I think the course set-up will favour.

“I think it’s not too tough, and yet it’s tough enough.”

Similarly, Montgomerie re-emphasised his commitment to not keeping his pairings under wraps, at least to his players, and having already publicly stated that Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy would play together, as would Italian brothers Edoardo and Franceasco Molinari while all 12 would see action on the first day.

“I can tell you all the pairings,” he said, explaining his rationale. “Doesn’t matter who pairs with who. I can tell you the whole pairings. I won’t, but I could. But it’s the order that counts, who plays where.

“But, yes, I have certain pairings. They know who they are playing with, when they are playing, and they can prepare from tomorrow for that start. I have run an open campaign and e-mailed all of the players throughout and wished them well in qualifying and how they have qualified.

“It’s been very difficult to make the European team on this occasion, the hardest I believe, ever, to make the top nine. They all deserve credit and they can all play with anybody, really... but at the same time, yes, there’s two pairings that you might well see on Friday somewhere along the line.”

Not so open will be fans’ access to the inner thoughts of their favourite golfers after both Pavin and Montgomerie revealed that the players on both sides had agreed to desist from posting on social media websites such as Twitter and facebook. Betraying a lack of tech-savvy, the 47-year-old Montgomerie said: “I’ve just asked my team not to, and they have said, ‘okay, that’s fine, we’ll start again tweetering or twittering’ – having never done it – ‘on Monday October 4’. I don’t know who tweets or who doesn’t tweet on our team, so I can’t tell you. The captain doesn’t, and whoever does, has been asked not to.”

Added Pavin, a regular twitterer: “They have the opportunity to do that next week and the rest of their lives.”