James and Faldo row dominates build-up

Some people are never satisfied. Yesterday Jean Van de Velde, a peripheral figure in the Ryder Cup row between Mark James, the last captain, and Nick Faldo, said he was not sure if he would ever again try to become a member of the team.

Speaking on the eve of the Trophee Lancome here in Versailles, he blamed James for what he called "an unhappy experience" in the last match, at Brookline last year, when he was left out of the fourball and foursomes matches and lost his only game in the singles.

James, appointed vice-captain for next year's matches, has been forced to resign over comments he made in his book, Into the Bearpit, about the Ryder Cup. But that was not sufficient to prevent Van de Velde launching himself at James yesterday.

"He should have kept his comments to himself," said the Frenchman. "He holds official positions on our tour [James is chairman of the tournament committee] and I would be upset if something I said to him appeared later in a book."

Van de Velde, who admits he has read only extracts published in a national newspaper, said: "Things said in the locker-room should be between us and we should not find them repeated in public later." This disregards the fact there are no "locker-room secrets" in James' book.

Van de Velde's real grudge was spelled out when he said: "The Ryder Cup? It took me 10 years to qualify for it, but qualifying did not give me the right to play. It was a very unhappy experience and I don't want to go through that sort of thing again. I'll make my choice later on in the season, whether to try and qualify, but the world rankings are my real priority, more than the Ryder Cup."

It seems that Van de Velde has no grasp of the concept of team play, nor any regard for the fact that Europe arrived at the singles with a massive four-point lead, before losing to an incredible fight-back by the Americans.

Faldo was upset at not being picked by James to play last time, despite the fact that he was barely in the top 200 in the world rankings. After James "binned" a good luck letter from Faldo to the team, the latter mounted a campaign which saw James removed from the vice-captaincy.

Faldo also wanted James removed from the chairmanship of the tournament committee because, in Faldo's opinion, he had transgressed the European Tour's rules about being critical in public of another member. But it was pointed out, obliquely, to Faldo by Neil Coles, chairman of the board of directors of the PGA tour, that "others", who had also been guilty of such offences over the years, might have to be punished too.

Coles' message was unmistakable and there has since been less emphasis on that aspect.

Faldo and James are drawn in successive matches today and Faldo said: "If we bump into each other I'll see what he's got to say about why and what and all that sort of thing. But really it's done and dusted and we need to move on."