Charlotte's Patty Moore caps '08 with award

It came as no surprise recently when Charlotte's Patty Moore was again named the women's player of the year by the Carolinas Golf Association.

It will be news when Moore doesn’t win the award again.

In 2008, Moore won the Carolinas women's senior championship, the Carolinas women's match play and the North Carolina women's senior championship -- which explains why the 58-year old Carmel Country Club member was also the women's senior player of the year.

Moore also finished second in the Carolinas women's amateur championship, reached the round of 32 in the U.S. senior women's amateur and qualified for the U.S. women's mid-amateur championship.

It was the second straight year Moore has won the honor and the third time overall.

The men's player of the year was 57-year old Paul Simson of Raleigh, who shows no signs of slowing down.

Simson was the Carolinas men's player of the year in 1998 and 2005, also.

His biggest victory was the British seniors open championship in England to go with three other wins in the U.S.

To give you a sense of what it means to be the men's player of the year in the Carolinas, consider that since 1999 the list of honorees includes Jonathan Byrd, D.J. Trahan, Bill Haas, Webb Simpson and Dustin Johnson, each of whom is now playing the PGA Tour.

Duke wise to pluck talented 49ers coach

The announcement Friday that Jamie Green has resigned as men's golf coach at Charlotte to become the new men's golf coach at Duke shouldn’t have come as a great surprise.

Green has been too successful with the Charlotte program not to have drawn the attention of other programs. College golf coaches aren't as famous or as well paid as football and basketball coaches, but the system works the same way. If you're good enough, other programs will want to hire you.

And Duke made a wise choice in hiring Green, who coached the 49ers to consecutive top-10 finishes in the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2008.

In five years, Green took a Charlotte program that had never made an impact on the national stage and he turned it into a contender. Some of the talent he inherited. Some he recruited. All of it he nurtured.

It's a stinging loss for the Charlotte program. Athletics director Judy Rose had worked to secure Green's future at the school with a contract extension and program enhancements. Green, in a statement, said the decision to leave Charlotte was the toughest of his coaching career.

But when Duke - with its national stature, its Rees Jones-redesigned golf course and its extensive resources - calls, you listen. And, in Green's case, you move.

There may be hurt feelings for a while but, when the emotion subsides, there should be an appreciation at Charlotte for what Green accomplished with the program.

And there should be a goal of finding the right person to sustain the program Green transformed.

Sergio wins U.S. Open, and other predictions

Is this finally the year Sergio Garcia gets a grip on a U.S. Open trophy, at Bethpage in New York?

Before the first official shot of the 2009 PGA Tour season is struck and before John Daly can do anything else, allow me to make five predictions about things that will happen on tour this year.

Like me standing on a tee with trees left and water right, this can’t have a good outcome. But since it’s the first swing, maybe a mulligan will be in order.

1. Sergio Garcia wins the U.S. Open at Bethpage.

He’s going to win a major, probably multiple majors, and I think he gets the first one this year. If he wants to answer any remaining questions about how good he is and if he’s tough enough, a victory at Bethpage would do it.

Remember, that’s where he went through his re-gripping phase and the gentle New Yorkers were so kind to count off each re-setting of his hands. It’s up to him in New York, New York.

2. Tiger Woods comes back as good as ever.

Notice I didn’t say better than ever. That’s a big ask.

When he disappeared after the U.S. Open last June, Woods had won 10 of his last 13 worldwide starts, had two seconds and a wimpy fifth-place finish.

He says he’s better physically than he’s been in 10 years and I don’t think he forgot how to play since June. Welcome back.

3. Quail Hollow lands a major championship.

It’s just a hunch but it’s never been a secret that the club would like to host a major. The Wachovia Championship contract expires after 2014 and it’s not outrageous to think a PGA Championship could come to Quail Hollow sometime after that.

4. Tim Clark finally wins in the U.S.

For several years, the former Wolfpack golfer has been a steady presence on the global golf scene, often in major championships. To this point, however, he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event. This is the year that changes for Clark.

5. Greg Norman makes the cut at the Masters.

Just having the Shark back at Augusta will be great fun but he showed in the British Open last summer that he can still summon some magic from his game. It’s too much to ask for him to contend at the Masters but having there for the weekend would be great.

De Jonge is Nationwide Tour POY

Charlotte resident Brendon de Jonge capped a big year by being named Nationwide Tour player of the year in a vote of his fellow tour members.

De Jonge, a native of Zimbabwe who has lived in Charlotte for more than three years, had one victory, one second-place finish and three thirds in a season in which he finished second on the money list.

A graduate of Virginia Tech, de Jonge will return to the PGA Tour in 2009. He played the tour in 2007.

In other awards announced by the PGA Tour:

-- Padraig Harrington has been selected player of the year after winning two major championships. Harrington is the first European player to win the award;

-- Bernhard Langer is the Champions Tour player of the year and rookie of the year after winning three events;

-- Andres Romero captured the PGA Tour rookie of the year award;

-- And, Dudley Hart was named comeback player of the year after posting six top-10 finishes while playing on a major medical extension in 2008.

Wie, LPGA tour need each other -- badly

At 19, Michelle Wie has been through the full circle of stardom, and it's only now that she should be starting her LPGA career.

In reading through various stories from Daytona Beach, Fla., where Michelle Wie earned full status on the LPGA Tour Sunday, I was struck by a comment made by her instructor, David Leadbetter.

He said Michelle Wie needs the LPGA and the LPGA needs her.

Spot on.

It's funny how Wie seems to have been around forever and she's only 19. In fact, she's only now getting ready to start her career.

She will arrive on the 2009 LPGA tour having already lived the full circle of stardom. As a 14-year-old, Wie nearly won an LPGA major and threatened several more times before her career came unhinged two years ago.

A wrist injury started the downward spiral and it got ugly. Her game went away and so did a measure of her charm. She pulled out of a PGA Tour event with heat-related problems and walked off the course at the Ginn Tribute near Charleston, S.C., last year to avoid shooting a score so high it would have made her ineligible to play the tour the rest of the season.

Her game, which looked so great when she had the world watching her attempt to qualify for the men's U.S. Open, crumbled, taking her confidence with it.

Gradually, though, she has built back her game and when she hits the tour full time next year, the timing couldn't be better.

The LPGA Tour, which plays approximately one-third of its events outside the U.S. is feeling the effects of the economy coupled with the loss of Annika Sorenstam. Sure, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel and Lorena Ochoa are stars but they haven't shown the ability to pull the casual fan to them.

Michelle Wie can do that.

She has enormous star power. While the guidance she has received to this point is questionable -- she pushed the playing against the men thing way too far -- this is a fresh start for her.

When Wie tees it up in February at the SBS Open in Hawaii, it will be a new day for her and the tour.

Tiger Woods is POY -- in 6 starts

Padraig Harrington is a very nice man. If niceness were handicapped, he'd be about a plus-6.

He also won two major championships this year, which secured his eventual spot in the Hall of Fame and reconfirmed his place among the handful of best players in the world even if he did fizzle at the Ryder Cup.

The point of this is to exorcise a wee bit of guilt I feel about not voting for Harrington as the PGA Tour's player of the year.

But Tiger Woods wins again.

I know he played just six PGA Tour events but that was enough.

Tiger won four times, finished second once and fifth in the other event.

Remember the bomb he made on the 72nd hole to win Bay Hill?

And how about the way he came back to beat J.B. Holmes in the Match Play Championship?

Those are career memories for most guys but for Tiger they amounted to window dressing this year when compared to his victory in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

Years from now, decades from now, in fact, people will talk about how Woods won the Open while essentially playing on one leg. He did it on guts and will and with whatever that special thing is he possesses that makes him different from everyone else.

He called it his most meaningful major championship victory and Tiger isn't one to brag.
Harrington may win player of the year and it will be justified.

Vijay Singh locked down the FedEx Cup playoffs to end a good year and Camilo Villegas finally broke through. They had special seasons but, as they've heard before, they weren't Tiger.

There's only one Tiger.

When you can beat the best in the world in the U.S. Open on one leg, you've answered all the questions.

PGA Tour tries, again, for dramatic finish

Now that the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs have been reconfigured again, we know something for certain -- but that's been the problem all along.

Unlike the first two seasons of the FedEx Cup playoffs where the winner had been determined before the Tour Championship was played, the 2009 version of the playoffs guarantees no player, not even Tiger Woods, will be able to have locked up the big playoff check before the end of the Tour Championship, which will be played Sept. 24-27 in Atlanta.

Sounds like an improvement.

The FedEx Cup has fizzled in its first two years because Tiger and Vijay Singh have bleached the drama out of the four-event playoff by locking down the overall championship before it could build to a big finish. They've done it by playing spectacular golf but, in the process, they undercut the idea of a dramatic finish at East Lake before the PGA Tour fades beneath football's glaring light.

Under the new twist, it won't be possible to win the $10-million bonus before getting to East Lake. At least that's the idea.

The new format announced by the PGA Tour on Tuesday includes a handful of changes. Among the most significant:

-- The season-long points race won't end until after the third playoff event. Previously, it ended prior to the playoffs with players being seeded for the final four events. Next year, season points will accumulate through The Barclays, the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship. After the BMW, only the top 30 will advance to the Tour Championship but only after the points have been reset.

-- Only the top 125 in points will advance to the playoffs, a reduction from the 144 who advanced the first two years. The top 100 will qualify for the second event and the top 70 will reach the BMW.

The FedEx Cup hasn't suffered because of bad golf. In fact, it has had some great shows, including the Singh-Sergio Garcia playoff this year and Camilo Villegas' double-shot finish this year.

The playoffs won't ever attract March Madness-like attention and they haven't come close to doing for golf what the Chase has done for NASCAR. But they keep working to make the system better. They seem to be on the right track.

Gaston CC plays persimmon for a day

Have you ever wondered how you'd play if you if had to go back to the equipment that was considered state of the art back in the 1960s and '70s?

What if you had to trade in your 460cc driver for a persimmon-headed model with a head that looked about as big as a tennis ball?

The members at Gaston Country Club got a taste of it Saturday.

As part of the club's 50th anniversary celebration, members played with persimmon drivers, old-school irons and balata golf balls.

They played golf with the stuff that made Jack and Arnie famous.

And it made them appreciate the advances in golf club technology.

"Absolutely," said Walter Gray.

The long drive contest was won by a 257-yard poke by a young player who can usually hit a 3-wood that far.

That's how things have changed, in case you've forgotten.

Just finding the equipment was a challenge. An e-mail campaign rustled up enough sets of vintage irons that every foursome had a set.

Gray played with a set of 1961 Wilson Staff Dynapower Fluid Feel irons with the original grips and shafts. They're available on e-bay for $20 if you're interested.

They bought 30 dozen Titleist balls with balata covers they found on the internet and no one was in a hurry to start playing those again any time soon.

"Those balls would fall out of the sky like a shot duck," Gray said.

It was, Gray said, fun for a day.

On Sunday, though, everyone went back to their modern equipment.

Erik Compton: A golf story with heart

The most emotionally compelling story in golf this year doesn't end with someone holding a trophy.

It ended, at least for the moment, last Saturday when 28-year-old Erik Compton (right, in a file photo) missed advancing to the finals of PGA Tour qualifying school by one shot.

It was probably the three-putt par from 20 feet on the 16th hole that did Compton in during the final round of the second-stage qualifier where he finished tied for 22nd, knowing only the top 20 finishers (and ties) would advance.

Still, the achievement far outweighs the disappointment.

That's because on May 20, Compton underwent a 14-hour heart transplant that saved his life.

It was his second transplant, his first coming when he was 12 years old, and six months later Compton was chasing a spot on the PGA Tour. His is a remarkable and inspiring story. A former All-American at Georgia, Compton was bitterly disappointed when he talked to reporters after his near miss finish in Florida last Saturday.

His life could have changed had he reached the finals of tour school. He admitted to thinking about health insurance and family matters and other things while he was playing and how could he not? The pressure, he said, was too much.

But Compton is alive and playing golf, looking forward to his wife giving birth to their first child in February.

The disappointment will fade. His life, thankfully, will go on.

Wachovia Championship: An awkward leftover

It will be strange next spring to have the Wachovia Championship played at Quail Hollow when Wachovia, at least as Charlotte and the rest of the country has known it, no longer exists.

The word awkward comes to mind.

There's still so much smoke swirling around the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger that it will take time for everything to be sorted out. Certainly, there are more important matters to be considered than the name of a golf tournament.

However, the announcement last week that the Wachovia name will remain raises questions.

Is it as simple as not having enough time to redo the branding of the event that led to the decision to keep the name as it has been through the first six years of the tournament?

Or does it suggest that perhaps Wells Fargo isn't sold on taking over the title sponsor role of the tournament?

I don't know.

It would seem an ideal way to become a part of the community where there are plenty of bruised feelings.

My guess is if Wells Fargo were to choose not to continue in Wachovia's role, the tournament could find another sponsor. There's another big bank in Charlotte that might be interested if it were asked. Again, I don't know but it would seem a logical question if sponsorship became an issue.

I do know a handful of naming options were considered before the decision was made to stick with the Wachovia Championship. And the decision to keep the name of an essentially defunct brand hasn't been popular with many associated with the event.

The tournament itself should be fine. The organization that runs it -- Champions For Education -- is committed to keeping it among the elite events on the PGA Tour. The top players will be here again next spring and in future years. The quality won't suffer.

Golf tournaments change names all the time. It's the nature of sports marketing these days.

This one seemed immune to that happening. Ultimately, though, it wasn't.

The Wachovia Championship name will live for one more year.

Beyond that, who knows?

Love's place in golf Hall probably secured

Davis Love III probably secured his place in the World Golf Hall of Fame Sunday when he won his 20th career PGA Tour event.

He’ll get my vote next year.

Love (right, with Mickey) was likely to get in anyway but winning a 20th time – at age 44 after a two-year winless stretch – reinforced the quality of his career and provided another milestone for anyone who wants to quibble about numbers.

When Love was in Kannapolis recently, he talked about his desire to end this year on a high in hopes it would springboard him into 2009. That’s what he’s done.

Now he gets to play the Mercedes Championship at Kapalua, where he’s typically played well, and he has a realistic chance of playing his way onto the Presidents Cup team next year.

Tiger pitches Asheville course he's designing

Tiger Woods, who has already spent a significant amount of time at High Carolina near Asheville, put the sales pitch on approximately 1,000 people who stopped by to see him Saturday at The Cliffs community where he is designing his first American golf course.

Woods, who said he still isn’t sure when he’ll return to competitive golf after knee surgery in June, unveiled the layout of the new course, which is scheduled to begin construction next year.

The course will play 7,500 yards from the back tees but Woods has designed six sets of tees to accommodate players of different skill levels. He has also made an effort to design the greens so that players will have the option of running shots into the putting surfaces rather than having forced carries.

Walking will be encouraged at High Carolina, where Woods has reportedly hiked the property extensively, even after his surgery. The course is expected to open in the fall of 2010.

'Two Gloves' closes strong

It was nice to see Tommy ‘Two Gloves’ Gainey finish second Sunday at Disney World after a disappointing season.

Gainey didn’t win enough money to keep his tour card for next year but he exempted himself into the final stage of qualifying school where he may be able to play his way back onto the big tour. If not, he’ll be able to play the Nationwide Tour.

On Daly, Augusta, Quail Hollow ...

Catching up on a few things in the golf world:

- John Daly said this week that the fact he spent 24 hours in a Winston-Salem jail last week sobering up "wasn't that big of a deal."

Daly was found outside a Winston-Salem Hooters restaurant at 2 a.m., after the restaurant had closed. Daly admitted in a wire-service story that he was drunk, but he had planned to go back to his bus to sleep. He said when he was found, he was asleep with his eyes open and slow to wake up. That led to a 911 call.

With no place to go, Daly was taken to the Forsyth County facility where he had a day to sober up.

What a waste.

- Augusta National announced this week a few minor changes to the golf course. Nothing dramatic was adjusted with most of the work being done to some tees and rebuilding a few greens to put heating and cooling systems underneath.

The first tee was adjusted, adding a few yards to the front and taking a few yards off the back to alleviate some spectator congestion in the area. The hole will now measure 10 yards shorter at 445 yards.

Additional yardage was also added to the front of the seventh and 15th tees, which leads to the thought that perhaps the course will play a bit shorter and, hopefully, easier in April.

-- Still no verdict on the name of the Wachovia Championship for next year. There's a chance it will keep the Wachovia Championship name for 2009, but it seems more likely to become the Wells Fargo Championship. It would be nice if Quail Hollow were in the name, but that seems unlikely.

- It will be worth watching how many PGA Tour players point their schedule toward the European Tour to take advantage of the super big bucks available in the Road to Dubai sweepstakes that's been created. Phil Mickelson says he intends to become a member of the European Tour in the future but won't this year. The tour requires a player to tee it up 12 times but the four majors and three World Golf Championship events get you more than halfway there.

The $10-million prize that will be available in Dubai has turned the heads of several top players.

- I knew the so-called Fall Finish wouldn't get much attention, but it's been almost invisible. It ends this week, but to most people it never really started.

Honestly, how much golf have you watched since the Ryder Cup?

Wachovia Championship to get name change?

Catching up on a couple of things:

Despite all the problems swirling around Wachovia, Charlotte's PGA Tour event will return in 2009, though likely with a different name.

Organizers have received written assurance from corporate officials that the tournament will continue despite the problems of the title sponsor.

It's important to know that the tournament organization and the title sponsor are two different things. The tournament is owned and operated by Champions For Education. Wachovia pays a fee to put its name on the event.

If Wachovia goes away, as seems likely, I would expect Wells Fargo or Citigroup to put its name on the event. Citigroup just became presenting sponsor of the Presidents Cup through 2013 so it already has a presence on the PGA Tour.

Should the new company decide it doesn't want to remain title sponsor, the combination of Quail Hollow and the early May date would make finding a new sponsor easier than it might be for other events.

Tournaments change names regularly. The Wachovia Championship didn't seem like one that would change but it will. The good news is the tournament will continue here with all its special touches.

-- Charlotte resident Brendon de Jonge continues to lead the Nationwide Tour money list entering the last four events of the season.

De Jonge has already secured his spot on the PGA Tour next year but finishing as the tour's leading money winner would guarantee him a spot in The Players Championship and pretty well assure he's in any tournament he wants to play (aside from the majors) next year.

The Nationwide Tour plays the next three weeks then takes a week off before playing its tour championship the first week of November in McKinney, Tex.

Next Ryder Cup captain should be ...

Now it should be Jay Haas's turn as Ryder Cup captain.

The next matches are two years and an ocean away -- in Wales -- but already there's speculation about who the next American Ryder Cup captain will be.

There's a natural wave of emotion to bring Paul Azinger back but he looked surprised when asked about the possibility Sunday evening.

If Azinger will do it again, great. But I'm guessing he'll turn it over to someone else. American captains have traditionally been one-term guys, plus Zinger will be 50 in two years and the Champions Tour awaits.

So the PGA of America should forget its unwritten rule that captains should be major championship winners, preferably PGA Championship winners, and give Haas an honor he deserves.

He's still in touch with the PGA Tour players, has a great touch with people and has earned it. When you've received the Bobby Jones Award from the USGA, the game's highest honor, you're worthy of a Ryder Cup captaincy.

Haas played in several Ryder Cups and he'll be one of Fred Couples' assistants at the Presidents Cup next fall in San Francisco, so he'll be perfectly suited.

Couples won't get it because of his Presidents Cup captaincy. Corey Pavin has been mentioned as the next Ryder Cup captain, with Davis Love in four years, when he'll be 49.

Jay Haas should be the next American captain.

Boo's influence more than words

The word is compatibate.

And the American Ryder Cup team can thank Boo Weekley for it.

Leave it to Boo to throw out a word that really isn’t a word to describe what made this Ryder Cup team different from the last three that, apparently, didn’t compatibate.

Boo couldn’t exactly define what compatibate means when asked Sunday night but it means something like 16 ½ - 11 1/2 , which was the final score at Valhalla Golf Club.

Maybe the Ryder Cup comes down to nothing more than which team plays the best. There is a strong correlation between holing putts and winning trophies, no matter which trophy is at stake.

But U.S. captain Paul Azinger had a plan that first popped into his mind a few years back when he was watching a documentary. If he ever captained the Ryder Cup team, Azinger decided he would use the concepts he learned from the documentary, which suggested breaking big groups into smaller groups.

With 12 players on his team, Azinger broke them into four-man groups for practice rounds, team matches and, I’m guessing here, seating assignments at dinner.

It was easy to pick out the groups.

The alpha group included Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan and Justin Leonard. Funny, how they were the first four guys to go out in Sunday’s singles.

The second group included southerners Kenny Perry, J.B. Holmes Boo Weekley and Pennsylvania native Jim Furyk, who was an adopted southerner while in Louisville.
Those four, coincidentally, went out in the middle of the singles lineup.

The final group – Stewart Cink, Steve Stricker, Ben Curtis and Chad Campbell – the mild-mannered, quiet guys went at the end.

“I had to sell it to the players and they were, to a man, behind this,” Azinger said.
See what happens when you compatibate?

Europeans rally in morning, trim U.S. lead

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Despite the decision by captain Nick Faldo to rest stars Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, the European team closed the gap on the United States in Saturday's morning session at the Ryder Cup, cutting the American lead to 7-5 entering the afternoon four-ball play.

The Europeans got a huge boost from the team of Henrik Stenson and Oliver Wilson, who rallied from 4-down to upset Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim 2 & 1.

Europe also got help when Miguel Angel Jimenez and Graeme McDowell won the 18th hole to salvage a tie against Justin Leonard and Hunter Mahan.

Ian Poulter and Justin Rose easily defeated Stewart Cink and Chad Campbell 4 & 3 while the American's only win came in a 3 & 1 decision by Jim Furyk and Kenny Perry over Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson.

“We're digging deep,” McDowell said. “We're over here to win the trophy.”

Faldo's strategy to sit Garcia and Westwood, saying he wanted fresh legs in the morning matches, could have backfired with the Europeans starting the day three points behind.

When Mickelson and Kim began misfiring, however, the momentum shifted. The Americans lost six of the last 11 holes in the match, often creating their own problems with wayward tee shots.

“For Stenson to turn that match around with Ollie Wilson, that is just fantastic,” Faldo said. “I said, ‘Just chip away, one at a time, one at time' and he really looked after Ollie Wilson. Just unbelievable.”

- Ron Green Jr.

MJ shows up as Ryder Cup spectator

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In his blue jeans, white T-shirt and white Ryder Cup cap, Michael Jordan spent Friday just the way he wanted – watching the Ryder Cup matches at Vahalla Golf Club.

Jordan, who has attended every Ryder Cup since the 1997 in Valderrama, Spain, intends to spend the weekend at Valhalla before returning to Charlotte in advance of the Charlotte Bobcats’ preseason training camp.

“It’s my favorite event (outside of basketball),” Jordan said while watching Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim play Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson Friday morning.

“I love the competition. There’s no money. It’s all about pride. Every shot makes somebody happy or sad.”

Jordan said he’s been in Louisville since Tuesday, playing golf with friends before the matches began Friday.

Next fall, when the top American professionals face the International team in the Presidents Cup matches in San Francisco, Jordan is expected to be an assistant on captain Fred Couples’ staff.

“I heard I have no choice,” Jordan said. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

Mickelson gets wish, is paired with Kim

When Anthony Kim qualified for the U.S. Ryder Cup team earlier this year, Phil Mickelson quickly called captain Paul Azinger and asked to be paired with the Wachovia Championship winner.

“I said, ‘Way to go out on a limb, Phil. You want Anthony Kim, really?” Azinger cracked after announcing the pairings Wednesday afternoon.

Mickelson got his wish, pairing with Kim to face the powerful European duo of Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson in the first match at 8:05 a.m. Friday.

If there was a surprise to the pairings, it was that Azinger elected not to pair Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes in the first match, as he hinted he might.

Instead, Perry will play with Jim Furyk in the final morning match against Europe’s top duo, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood.

“It just made sense to me that it would be a really solid pairing,” Azinger said.

Azinger added that he will play all 12 players on Friday, meaning Boo Weekley, Steve Stricker, Ben Curtis and Holmes will play in the afternoon best-ball matches.

Faldo wouldn’t make the same commitment about playing all of his players on Friday.

“I’m not going to make any promises or assumptions or anything,” Faldo said.

The United States has not led after the morning session since 1991 and has not led at the end of a day since its famous winning comeback on Sunday in 1999.

FRIDAY'S PAIRINGS

- 8:05 a.m.: Phil Mickelson-Anthony Kim vs. Padraig Harrington-Robert Karlsson.

- 8:20: Justin Leonard-Hunter Mahan vs. Henrik Stenson-Paul Casey

- 8:35: Stewart Cink-Chad Campbell vs. Justin Rose-Ian Poulter

- 8:50: Kenny Perry-Jim Furyk vs. Lee Westwood-Sergio Garcia

Missing Tiger, hidden dagger?

So how much does it matter that Tiger Woods isn't part of the United States Ryder Cup team this year?

Think about that for a second. He's the best player in the world by far, he's an intimidating presence and he's a good teammate, even if he isn't the rah-rah type in the room.

Of course, it makes a difference that Tiger isn't here at Valhalla.

Are you kidding?

I know all about his 10-13-2 record in these matches. That's not great.

But, no offense to Chad Campbell or Ben Curtis, but wouldn't you rather send Tiger out than one of them?

Captain Paul Azinger has Tiger on speed dial this week but not in his lineup. I doubt Azinger will ring Tiger to chat about the events but you never know.

Without Tiger, the Americans have another motivational tool at their disposal, as if they didn't have enough already given the recent history of this event. Imagine the satisfaction of taking down the favored Europeans without Tiger.

It's tougher without Tiger. But not impossible.

State secrets revealed at Ryder Cup?

During the Wednesday Ryder Cup practice session at Valhalla Golf Club, a television camera zeroed in on a sheet of paper held by European captain Nick Faldo as he talked with his team.

The image showed Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood paired together as were Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson while the other names were listed in no particular order.

It, of course, set of a frenzy of speculation that Faldo's Friday morning pairings, at least the first two, had been discovered. Alert the CIA. Mobillize the Secret Service. Call captain Azinger.

Faldo tried to tap-dance around the issue during his daily press briefing, saying first it was a sandwich list ("who wants tuna, who wants beef, who wants ham") then later said they are pairings for Thursday's final practice session.

Part of the fun in the run-up to the matches is how the captains will pair their players and how the pairings will fall. Unlike the Presidents Cup, where captains are privy to each other's selections, the Ryder Cup pairings are treated like state secrets.

It would be a bigger shock of Faldo doesn't pair Garcia and Westwood together Friday morning than if he does. It's what almost everyone else would do.

Captains like to play coy and may do that with their teams in order to minimize the disappointment to the four players who must sit out during each session prior to singles.

Azinger has been elusive when asked specifics but has made it clear he wants to put Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes together and, if he does, he'll put them out first Friday to start the fun.

He may put Boo Weekley with Jim Furyk and Anthony Kim with Phil Mickelson.

The plan, Azinger said, is for all 12 Americans to play Friday. Faldo said he intends to play all of his players on the first day too. But, Faldo added, the matches start and things change.

That's part of the fun.