Celtic Manor Diary

A Ryder Cup miscellany

Taking the money: GMac and Rory get Molinaris back 

GRAEME McDowell and Rory McIlroy ended up on the wrong end of their World Cup duel with the Molinari brothers, Edoardo and Francesco, when they went head-to-head in China last year.

Yesterday, they gained a tiny bit of revenge. "Myself and Graeme took a bit of money off the Molinaris which was nice, got them back for the World Cup," quipped McIlroy. The wager, though, hardly broke the bank for the millionaires golfers: it consisted of £50-£50-£50 on the front, back and overall. The two Ulstermen bagged the lot, and the bragging rights that went with it.

Toilet humour

ENGLISHMAN Luke Donald turned down an offer of a lift on the official US team flight from Atlanta on Sunday night after the Tour Championship.

"They said they had room for me, but only in the toilet . . . I declined," said Donald.

Fan Barroso: EU man here

TEAM Europe will have a new flag-waving supporter cheering them off the first tee on Friday. José Manuel Barroso - the president of the European Commission - will be speaking at the opening ceremony tomorrow night and will remain on to watch the golf the following morning.

Club news: Dustin plans to keep driver in the bag

BIG-hitting American Dustin Johnson – the man who lost out on a play-off in the US PGA for grounding his club in a bunker – doesn’t expect to have the driver, his favoured club, in use too often during the Ryder Cup.

Johnson said: “On this golf course, there’s bunkers that are well-placed and you navigate around them. “The rough is very deep. If you miss the fairways, unless you’ve got a really good lie, you’re not going to be able to knock it on the green.”

In fact, DJ didn’t reach for his driver once on the front nine on his first round over the course yesterday and only used it twice on the back.

By the numbers

17 – The number of years since the US last won the Ryder Cup in Europe, at The Belfry in 1993.

6 – The number of points won by Jimmy Demaret in his three Ryder Cups (1947-'49-'51) which gives him the only 100 per cent record in the match's history.

12 – The longest gap between Ryder Cup appearances is 12 years, achieved by three players: Don January (1965-1977), Hal Sutton (1987-1999), Jay Haas (1983-1995).

51 – The oldest player to appear in the Ryder Cup was Raymond Floyd in 1993, when he was 51 years and 20 days old.

"We're here to do a job. We're focused on winning back the Ryder Cup. It's a very classy team room. It's got a jukebox that only plays music at a certain level, background music if you like. There are no toys in there."- Paul McGinley, European vice-captain, on the lack of distractions in the team room.