Love sets it up for birdie fest

Davis Love, the US Ryder Cup captain, may be doing his utmost to give his team every possible advantage at home on the No 3 course at Medinah this weekend but the European team arrived in Chicago last night feeling just as familiar about the challenge that lies ahead.

As the host captain, it is Love’s prerogative to set up the course as he sees fit and pick the hole locations he believes will undo his European guests over three days of foursomes, fourball and singles contests this weekend.

Love spent Sunday last charting the No 3 course, which hosted the 1990 US Open and the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships, in the company of PGA of America set-up man Kerry Haigh and when team practice begins at Medinah this morning, the Europeans will find a very attackable golf course.

Love has had some fairways widened and the rough cut right back to a less than daunting 1.25 inches, conditions that put emphasis on birdie-chasing golf.

“I struggled for two years to kind of come up with a way, how do you get an advantage,” Love said last night at a joint captain’s press conference. “We have 24 of the best players in the world. They are all pretty good at adapting to conditions.

“One thing I’ve never liked is rough... I think the fans want to see a little excitement. They want to see birdies.

“I think one thing at Valhalla (in 2008), it was exciting. There was a lot of birdies. Even holes tied at birdies are more fun than six-footers tying for par.

“We want to let these unbelievable athletes freewheel it a little bit and play. Medinah is such a big, long golf course, and if the weather turns bad on us, I don’t think we wanted a lot of rough.

“You know, you’re not going to trick them by all of a sudden having deep grass. Well, they are used to that. Short grass, they are used to that. I think fair and fun and exciting for the fans on TV is the way to go.”

Nor is long-hitting any longer the preserve of the Americans with Europe’s only rookie, Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium, leading the European Tour with a driving distance average of 317.7 yards, slightly better than Bubba Watson’s leading average on the PGA Tour of 315.5 yards. Nor is there much to choose from the second-ranked team members on the list. After Watson, Dustin Johnson is fourth on the PGA Tour driving distance list at 310.2 yards, followed by Rory McIlroy, who is fifth, at 310.1.

The way McIlroy drove the ball during the Tour Championship last weekend in Atlanta, it will not be just the Americans appreciating the short rough.

McIlroy hit just 23 of the 56 fairways last week and his final-round 74 allowed Brandt Snedeker to win the tournament and sneak ahead of him in the FedEx Cup standings to scoop not just the $1.4 million first prize but also the $10m series jackpot.

“I only hit three fairways (on Sunday), and you can’t do that around this place,” McIlroy said. “So I’m glad Davis has told them to cut the rough next week.”

With McIlroy, Justin Rose, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood all competing in Atlanta, and Peter Hanson, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter making their final preparations for the title defence in Florida, European captain Jose Maria Olazabal flew in to Chicago last night with just a quarter of his team on board the Virgin Airlines charter flight — Nicolas Colsaerts, Paul Lawrie and Francesco Molinari.

Olazabal also feels the presence of the late Seve Ballesteros will be strong in the European team room this week for the first Ryder Cup since his compatriot passed away in early 2011, not least with his silhouette adorning all the Europeans’ golf bags.

There are also rumours that the famous Ballesteros blue will be worn by Europe during Sunday’s singles matches, speculation Olazabal did his best to deny.

“Well, I don’t know if I should answer that question,” he said referring to the outfits. “You know, it’s going to be, Seve is going to be there in our team in some way or form. I have to say in that regard that I talked to Davis regarding that question, and he was very understanding of it, and I’ll say no more at the moment.”

With four days still to go until the Ryder Cup gets under way on Friday, there will be plenty of time for that particular story to unravel.