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Nationality drives Woosnam's pairings

19/09/2006

Europe captain Ian Woosnam has given a strong indication as to his pairings for Friday's opening of the Ryder Cup, grouping players wherever possible with someone from the same country.

In today's practice session Irishmen Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington ignited some fervent home support at the K Club, while Swedish duo Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson have also been paired together.

Paul Casey and Luke Donald, Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood and Spaniards Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal made up the three remaining practice pairs, with Woosnam admitting that it was likely these pairs would remain come Friday's fourballs.

"I think you can read a little bit into that. It's important that I go out as strong as possible on Friday morning, and I think as I said in the team room last night, it's important that the guys are honest with themselves and honest with me about how they feel like they are playing," he said.

Woosnam said it was a "deliberate" strategy to pair nationalities, as he felt that the golfers from the same country "naturally go straight together".

"The Swedish guys play a similar sort of game. They are both long hitters and are good if they miss the fairways because they are good at getting out of the rough and obviously they speak Swedish and they get on great together," the Welshman said.

The European captain added that the partnership of Olazabal and Garcia, which is surprising given the often frosty relationship between the two, was reminiscent of the former's link-up with Seve Ballesteros, except "this time Olazabal is the leader and Garcia is the young up and coming bull".

During today's practice round, Clarke was approached by friend Tiger Woods, with the two golfers embracing for several seconds.

The world number one's father Earl died from cancer earlier this year, while the Englishman lost his wife Heather to the same disease in August.

US captain Tom Lehman's practice pairings yielded no surprises, with Woods lining up with Jim Furyk, while David Toms and Chad Campbell were paired together.

Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco, Stewart Cink and JJ Henry, Scott Verplank and Brett Wetterich and Zach Johnson and Vaughn Taylor were the remaining US pairs in today's practice sessions.

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