Spirits high in home camp

This so-called inferiority complex, long associated with amateur golfers from this side of the Atlantic, has definitely gone up in smoke. In an area of Scotland noted for its distilling practices, Peter McEvoy seems to have caught the drift that the spirit in these parts is rarely weak and, so, the captain of the Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team has been instilling some strength - by verbal means - into his charges.

Today's first day of combat (four foursomes and eight singles matches) will provide a genuine indication of whether or not all the brave talk is merited but yesterday, on the eve of the biennial encounter, it was nonetheless interesting to hear his American counterpart Danny Yates concede that his much vaunted men "are probably the underdogs."

More than that, there was a sense that the high winds - which have greeted the visitors ever since their arrival early in the week - have managed to put some doubt into American minds about how to cope with such a traditional, and exposed, links course. How else do you explain the absence of Matt Kuchar, from the opening day's singles line-up?

"He volunteered to rest," explained Yates, "and not everyone can play in all the matches anyway." Still, the decision brought raised eyebrows in the home camp, and heightened suspicions that the psychological bluster - which has transformed a team (albeit with just two survivors) that lost 6-18 to the USA at Quaker Ridge two years ago into favourites on this occasion - may be working after all.

"In the past, I think that people have been frightened of playing the Americans because they are a great golfing nation," said Gary Wolstenholme, one of only two players on the team with previous Walker Cup experience. "But, at the end of the day, they are just 10 individuals like us who have probably not had the opportunity to have the same experiences we have had. We play all over Europe on dozens of different golf courses in dozens of different types of conditions."

There is no element of fear in the British and Irish ranks. And there is certainly no inferiority complex. How could there be? McEvoy has been reminding them all week that "they" are after all, the world champions - Paddy Gribben, the lone Irishman in the side, Lorne Kelly, Luke Donald and Wolstenholme were on that Eisenhower Trophy winning team last year - and the captain's words are ringing home.

McEvoy, no stranger to the cut and thrust of Walker Cup battle, assembled his men last Monday and remarked: "Everyone knows the course. We've seen it in all weathers, and we're as prepared as we are ever going to be. The Americans are bound to be good, they always are, and it has all the hallmarks of a great match. But we have an excellent team. If we win this one, we've won three of the last six and that's salad days for the Walker Cup relative to the previous record."

Indeed, the historical statistics are very much on the side of the Americans, who have won 31 of the previous 36 encounters, lost four and halved one. However, at Royal Porthcawl four years ago, the British and Irish team used the links and conditions to their own advantage to secure a win and McEvoy is not alone in believing that his team can emulate that feat.

Gribben, meanwhile, becomes the 26th Irishman to play in this pinnacle of representative amateur golf. And the 30-year-old Warrenpoint man has been entrusted with a dual task on the opening day: he will partner Lorne Kelly of Scotland in the morning foursomes, when they come up against US Amateur champion David Gossett and Tim Jackson, who at 40 is twice the age of his playing partner, while in the singles Gribben will take on Bryce Molder, last year's US college player of the year. Intriguingly, Molder was last month invited to play a round of golf with President Clinton and shot 60.

"This has been my aim all year, to make this team, and I can't wait for it to start," said Gribben, last year's European individual champion.

Last evening, as the pipe and drum band of the 1st Battalion the Highlanders performed at the opening ceremony, the battle lines were drawn. Unusually, the British and Irish team find themselves in the position of favourites to win. If that objective is to be achieved, then it is imperative that the first day - as has happened so often in the past - doesn't turn into a stroll for the Americans. "Long gone are the days when we went into matches with the United States feeling inferior," affirmed McEvoy. The next two days will tell a tale.