Belfry rocked by earthquake

THE FIRST explosion on the first day of what everybody hopes will be the "friendly" Ryder Cup was heard yesterday morning.

But it had nothing to do with the pending golfing duel between European and the United States but rather it was an earthquake that struck the West Midlands early on Monday morning.

It measured 4.8 on the Richter Scale with its epicentre at Dudley a short few miles from The Belfry. A few chimney pots and slates went crashing downward but if there was a tremor or two at the Ryder Cup venue, they went largely unnoticed by European captain Sam Torrance even if he did admit with a wicked grin: "I'm a heavy sleeper and I was asleep. But there was something going on, I didn't know if it was the wife or what it was. But Jesper Parnevik got a fright. He ran out on the balcony, starkers I believe. Pity there wasn't a cameraman around".

Quick as a flash, Torrance's counterpart Curtis Strange was in to ask if the building always shook when Suzanne [Mrs Torrance] got a little frisky. "Only if I respond", wisecracked Torrance.

Yesterday's initial press conference contained a lot more of the buddy buddy stuff with both captains clearly intent on playing down the possibility of further outbreaks of jingoism that marred the most recent meetings of the teams at Brookline in 1999 As always, the Americans are favourites. As always, they try to transfer the heat to the Europeans. It will be always thus.

"You always know you can expect a tremendous challenge from the European team", gushed Strange. "Look at the past, in the last 86 points, it's split, that will tell you how equal it has been since 1985. Over confidence? Not if I have anything to do with it. We take the preparation over the next three days very seriously and we know we have to be ready".

It's a journalist's task to try and find out what's running through the minds of the captains where their foursomes/fourball combinations are concerned. Hardly surprising, neither is showing his hand nor will they until shortly after lunchtime on Thursday. Typically, Torrance uses his dry sense of humour to keep the queries at bay ... "I have some fixed pairings in my mind that were pretty much what I had last year. Seve and Ollie are playing the first match. I was actually half way through doing my practice partnerships for Tuesday when I forgot I had this press conference".

Torrance, of course, was highly critical of the shenanigans that took place on the 17th green at Brookline in the Leonard Olazabal match in '99 and to give him his due, he didn't shirk any questions relating to crowd and player behaviour.

"You probably can't get a more tension filled atmosphere than the Ryder Cup", he said. "It's also probably the most loved format in golf. But tensions do run high every now and then, every six or seven years somebody just bubbles over and you realise you've done something wrong and you start over. That's what we did for this Ryder Cup before September 11 intervened. To the spectators, I say just be fair. Support as loud as you want but never when someone is swinging or just before they swing. Let's have the true etiquette of the game for which we all understand".

Strange indicated that the captains had some kind of unified vision on the way things should be handled before September 11 caused the year's postponement and that nothing will change this time around.

"Everything was well under control and we agreed completely on what we wanted to do", he stated. "I think it starts with our friendship. Everybody knows that. It's been well documented. And that helps. It filters down through our players to the public through the press. We're going to be fine. We're going to see a great match, a hard fought match. Hey, that's what the Ryder Cup is. If people didn't get excited and didn't root for their team, then it wouldn't be as much fun. There seems to be a perception out there that it's only the members of the European side who are struggling for form and that is why the Americans are 7 to 4 on favourites to retain the trophy. In truth, several of their leading players are going through a lean spell as well and few more so than David Duval, who would undoubtedly have been one of their keymen had the matches gone ahead as planned twelve months ago. David Duval will be o.k. when Thursday comes. We all have those problems, Sam has them, I have them. We've all read many, many times about whether these are the 24 players who should be here. First of all, these are the 24 who should be here because they all qualified to be on the original 2001 team.