Captains resolved to healing wounds

Relations between the two superpowers have been somewhat strained of late, but the leaders of the respective sides got together this week for a bit of civil gamesmanship that appears, at least for the moment, to have produced a cordial detente.

No, not George W Bush and Vladimir Putin. We're talking about Curtis Strange and Sam Torrance.

For this particular summit meeting, the 2001 Ryder Cup captains engaged in a friendly match over Peter de Savary's spectacular new Carnegie Abbey links on the shores of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay on Tuesday afternoon. For drama and excitement, the made-for-television event had all the drama of a US Open play-off, as Strange led from wire to wire to win 74-76 in a medal-play game taped for inclusion on the Shell's Wonderful World of Golf series later this fall.

Strange pocketed $100,000 for his day's work, (double what Torrance earned), but any attempt to view the outcome as a harbinger of things to come at The Belfry this September would be misplaced. The last time two sitting Ryder Cup captains played one another on the Shell series was back in 1997, when Tom Kite kicked the living spit out of Severiano Ballesteros (65-74 on Seve's home course in Spain), but it didn't help much when the teams got to Valderrama later that year.

The convivial atmosphere stood in marked contrast to the last time the Americans and Europeans faced off on a golf course, less than 100 miles removed from Tuesday's venue. Torrance, in his role as Mark James' vice-captain at the 1999 Ryder Cup, had been among the more vocal critics of the war-dance the American players performed across the 17th green at The Country Club following Justin Leonard's dramatic putt (while Jose Maria Olazabal stood forlornly awaiting his chance to equalise), but two days ago the Scotsman declined a chance to restate his objections. "Brookline is over," he said. "I don't want to go back to it."

Strange, by contrast, came as close to an apology for the 1999 episode as has yet been uttered by an official US Ryder Cup representative. Although he was not present (he was home in Virginia, watching on television) for the appalling breach of sportsmanship, Strange said this week: "I'll admit it. In the pure sense of golf etiquette, we crossed the line." In the hope of blunting the pugnacious attitudes that have characterised recent Ryder Cups, Strange and Torrance have decided to revive an abandoned tradition - the Sunday night post-match "victory dinner," attended by both teams.

"We're going to have all 24 players sit down and eat and have a few drinks together when it's over," said Strange. "When I mentioned reviving the Sunday night dinner to Sam, he told me he'd been thinking the same thing. It's going to be a little more informal than it used to be."

Strange represented the United States in six Ryder Cups, while Torrance played in eight, in addition to his role at The Country Club two years ago. Both men know that their toughest task may be blunting the lingering bad feelings on both sides following the emotional displays that attended the last event. The fact that the two adversaries are old friends may help.

"We're good mates, and we've been good mates a long time," said Torrance. "And we'll carry that through the teams."

"Everybody knows how well Sam and I get along," added Strange. "Twenty-six years ago when I went to Europe for the first time at the age of 20 or 21. I had dinner with Sam the first week I was there."

"That was only because I liked your missus," Torrance interrupted with a smile. "I still do."

Of more concern to the two captains may be the selections of their respective sides. Given their propensity for wholesale collapses on Sunday afternoons this year, Strange was asked if he was concerned about the recent form of Phil Mickelson and David Duval. "Where are they ranked in the world?" asked Strange by way of reply. (Second and seventh, actually.) "There's your answer."

And while the last thing Strange needs is one more shaky putter on his team, Stewart Cink's third-place finish in last weekend's US Open vaulted him to eighth place in the US points table.

Torrance forthrightly admitted that he may have an even bigger problem. The European skipper noted that while the current top five European players (Pierre Fulke, Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, and Thomas Bjorn) all appeared to be on solid ground, "the next six or seven could all change in the next few months."

And Torrance, for one, hopes that they will, if only to alleviate a looming nightmare in selecting his captain's picks.

"If it were done right now I'd have a major headache," said Torrance, "because Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie, Jesper Parnevik and Bernhard Langer would all be out."

At the same time, asked about the attendant pressures of captaining in a Ryder Cup, Torrance said "It's a hell of a lot easier than playing in one." Tuesday's match was a light-hearted affair, with Peter Allis and Jack Whitaker roaming the fairways alongside Strange and Torrance.

Now, you might assume that the contest would provide a perfect lead-up to September's confrontation at the Belfry, but in actuality the telecast won't be shown until October 2nd - a week the Ryder Cup has been played. Asked if he wished it could air before the matches, Torrance had a quick reply. "No!" The European captain shook his head. "Jesus, he won! Do you think I'm stupid?"