Rookies can look to statistics for comfort

DebutantsWith all the talk of rookies, the inference is that the more first-timers on either team, the weaker that side becomes. Both team captains, Tom Lehman and Ian Woosnam, have taken measures and invested significant time to bond their sides and protect the novice players, who have never before played in a Ryder Cup and some, too, who have never played in a professional matchplay event.

"Obviously the atmosphere is different," said Woods. "You're in a team format. Some of the guys haven't played matchplay before. So there are different changes in the strategy, the mental outlook. The overall concept of being on a Ryder Cup is certainly a lot different than when you're playing as an individual."

Vaughn Taylor has admitted to being famous for never having competed in a serious matchplay event in his life, while his first time to visit Europe was this year at the British Open. "We played a kind of simulated Ryder Cup with our college team," said the rookie. "So that's probably about the only match we played."

Of the 24 players at The K Club, six, or 25 per cent are here for the first time. Putting their interests at heart is therefore as much a tactical initiative as a personal gesture by the captains. With the US fielding a squad where 33 per cent are debutants and Europe with just two, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, an ill-judged assumption would be that the visiting team are considerably weaker than the more experienced home side.

The general folly of that thesis over the last five Ryder Cups is in the statistics, which indicate that rookies are not the liability people assume.

Over that Ryder Cup period from the 1995 event at Oak Hill, New York to the 2004 match at Oakland Hills, the Europeans have had 23 rookies in their squads compared to only 18 rookies during that same span for the Americans. Still, Europe has been glaringly more successful with four wins from the last five.

The only meeting that America have won in that time was when Justin Leonard sank his unlikely 45-foot putt on the last green at Brookline in 1999. That year's passionate US charge may dent the theory a little as the US had only one debutant that year, David Duval, who played four times but earned just one point. Europe had seven, their highest number of any of those last five events.

There were, however, some questions asked about how thoughtfully England's Mark James captained that European team. He didn't play three of the squad until the final day singles matches. Perhaps as a result of that Andrew Coltart, Jarmo Sandelin and Jean Van de Velde all lost.

Along with the three zero pointer players, Paul Lawrie, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Ange Jimenez and Padraig Harrington were the rookies. Lawrie and Garcia, however, earned three and a half points each for the team, a total that no other first-time Ryder Cup player has ever beaten.

The critics of this year's American side have already stated their claim that four rookies are too many to carry on the roster, if they are expecting to take the Cup back to where they believe it belongs - the New World. Yet the Europeans fielded five nervous looking players Paul Casey, Luke Donald, David Howell, Tomas Levet and Ian Poulter, at Oakland Hills two years ago to help Europe inflict what was a humiliating defeat, 18½ to 9 ½. The last time there was a score with that much distance between the teams was at Walton Heath, Surrey in 1981, when it was the same scoreline but reversed in favour of the US.

In retrospect, arguably the greatest player of all time, Woods, was probably the best person to guide this year's four US undergraduates. When Tiger first stepped up to a Ryder Cup tee box he lost to Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer in a fourball. In the first foursomes he lost with Mark O'Meara again before he and Justin Leonard halved his third match against Jesper Parnevik and Ignacio Garrido. If Woods was to prove himself it was not to be his rookie year in Valderrama as his match against Constantina Rocca ended on the 16th green, where he lost 4 and 2. Over to you, Karlsson, Stenson, Brett Wetterich, Zach Johnson, JJ Henry and Taylor.