Pavin picks Woods for Ryder Cup
United States Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin has refused to rule out pairing world numbers one and two Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at Celtic Manor.
Woods and Mickelson have been team-mates at five Ryder Cups but have only played with each other twice, on the same day in 2004, losing both matches.
"I'm not afraid to put anybody with anybody," said Pavin, who named Woods as one of his wildcards on Tuesday.
"Any pairing is possible. Do I rule it out [Woods and Mickelson]? No."
It was skipper Hal Sutton's idea six years ago to send his two biggest names out as a pair at the top of the order.
 |
606: DEBATE
Golf-Junkie
|
"I told these two guys that I felt like the perception of the world was that the US team didn't bond and we didn't come together as a team," said Sutton at the time.
"I said 'I can't think of any other message that we could send any louder than to put the two of you guys out first'.
"Both were committed to it and I don't know that we could pair two guys together that were more matched for one another than those two guys."
However, in the fourballs on the first morning of the event, one went right and one went left off the first tee and Colin Montgomerie birdied the hole for a lead that he and partner Padraig Harrington never relinquished.
Despite this, Sutton stuck to his guns and Woods and Mickelson took on Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke in the afternoon foursomes and were once again beaten.
The match is best-known for Mickelson's sliced drive at the last, which forced a clearly angry Woods to take a penalty drop away from a fence and handed victory to their opponents.
Despite Pavin's pronouncement, it is far more likely that Woods will team up with world number four Steve Stricker, with whom he won four out of four matches at the Presidents Cup last year.
"I will certainly be asking the players who they want to play with and hopefully it will all work out," added Pavin.
The three-day event takes place at Celtic Manor in Newport between 1-3 October where the US will be looking for their first win on foreign soil since 1993.
RYDER CUP TEAMS
Europe: Luke Donald (Britain), Ross Fisher (Britain), Peter Hanson (Sweden), Padraig Harrington (Ireland), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain), Martin Kaymer (Germany), Graeme McDowell (Britain), Rory McIlroy (Britain), Edoardo Molinari (Italy), Francesco Molinari (Italy), Ian Poulter (Britain), Lee Westwood (Britain).
United States: Stewart Cink, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Overton, Steve Stricker, Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods.
No comments:
Post a Comment