Ryder Cup Diary

A round-up of stories from the Ryder Cup

Bush ready to boost home crew

US RYDER Cup captain Paul Azinger confirmed - or let slip if one is to judge by a couple of furtive glances after he had made the statement - that President George W Bush would be in Valhalla this week to meet the American team.

It's not clear whether he's going to offer a reprise of his Alamo speech at Brookline (1999) that was deemed the inspiration behind the Americans comeback victory, overturning a 10-6 deficit in the Sunday singles.

In fact his role in that triumph may have been overstated for he was not alone in exhorting the American team as it appears there was a rather eclectic mix of messages. Through the medium of video it was chronicled at the time that the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Baywatch star Pamela Anderson also offered a few bon mots of encouragement.

Caddies are fully catered for

PAMPERING THE players and catering for their every whim while competing in the Ryder Cup has long been an accepted practice of the biennial golfing showdown but it seems that the importance of the caddies' wellbeing has once again been recognised by European captain Nick Faldo.

He was happy to agree to a request from Sergio Garcia to bring both his caddies - Billy Foster and Glen Murray share the bag-toting duties for the Spaniard during the regular season - to Valhalla where they will split their duties between them. Interestingly, the two caddies split whatever winnings, whether on the bag or not as the case may be, in a given week, between them equally.

Faldo has also ensured the presence in Kentucky of Portrush's Dave McNeilly as captain of the European caddies, a role filled in previous Ryder Cups by Bernard Langer's aide-de-camp Peter Coleman.

McNeilly's experience (three Ryder Cups, two with Pádraig Harrington) and sense of humour will be a prized asset in the week long event.

Helpful Holtz lends a hand

IT COULD get a little cluttered in the American team room with the list of 'personalities' that captain Paul Azinger has invited to spend a little time with his team. Last night it was the turn of legendary former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, an avid golf fan and member of Augusta National Golf Club. Holtz guided 'the Fighting Irish' as they were known from 1986-1996 and during that time broke any number of records. A taskmaster and strict disciplinarian, he had the names removed from the backs of the players' jerseys to emphasise team effort.