Azinger holding all the aces

Ryder Cup:  Four times they clashed and not once did Nick Faldo, Europe's record points-scorer, get the better of Paul Azinger when they went head-to-head in the Ryder Cup - not even after he holed-in-one at The Belfry in 1993.

And that is clearly how the American intends it to remain, on and off the course, now they are rival captains.

It will count for nothing come next September, of course, and we should remember that Europe have won the last three matches - the last two by record nine-point margins - but Azinger has clearly edged Faldo in making a smoother start to his job.

Azinger asked for and was given a huge shake-up in the way the Americans pick their side, making it much more of a sprint next season rather than the two-year marathon which brought the danger of having players on board whose form had dipped.

Faldo has already lost one of his two assistants with the resignation of Paul McGinley and while stating he was happy with what he saw and learnt at the Seve Trophy, the inescapable fact remained that 12 stars - an entire Ryder Cup team, in other words - turned the match down.

Azinger could not wait to make capital out of what has been happening when he and Faldo came together at Valhalla, next year's venue, on Monday.

Talk of assistants "dropping like flies" and urging a reporter to ask a question about Montgomerie again when Faldo said he had not heard it, no opportunity was missed to have a little dig.

All good fun - or does it go deeper? According to an article in America's Golf Digest magazine in 2002, just before Azinger made his cup return after an absence of nine years, he had "long lived with a memory of Faldo's dismissive voice".

According to Azinger's father Ralph, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, it stemmed from the 1987 Open at Muirfield, when Faldo won the first of his six majors thanks to Azinger finishing bogey-bogey.

"Paul donated that British Open to him," the father stated, "and what does Faldo say? He says 'tough luck, old boy'. Maybe that was nice British talk, but those words grated on Paul. He wanted to make Faldo eat his words."

Now he is trying to do what he can as a captain to influence things - and, it seems, playing a good hand at the moment.

As one would expect from someone who last year competed in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.