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Battle of words Europeans confident of Ryder Cup chances
Posted: Wednesday September 01, 1999 05:03 PM
CRANS-SUR-SIERRE, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Britain's Lee Westwood believes the American domination of last week's World Championship event has put more pressure on the U.S. team to succeed in the Ryder Cup. Westwood, the only Englishman on Mark James's European team, also maintains that the visitors' team spirit will make them a match for a far more experienced home squad at Brookline in three weeks' time. Rather than being depressed at America's apparent superiority, Westwood was in rallying mood for the European team on Wednesday before embarking on Thursday's European Masters. "I wasn't aware the Ryder Cup was strokeplay and that it came four weeks earlier than we expected," said Westwood. This was in response to a newspaper report which observed that the European team had been totally outplayed by the American squad at Akron. "The Americans are all right when they are playing for themselves. When we get the European team spirit going, it will be a different kettle of fish. "When you are playing for Europe you get something going inside you. "As far as the Americans are concerned it sounds like the pressure is building up on them to win. I don't know whether they expect to win or not, but everybody has them favorites. "The way the newspapers and television people highlighted how the Europeans were so many over par at Firestone, it just builds up more pressure on the U.S. team. Let them create statistics like that. It's just playing into our hands." Westwood is at Crans-sur-Sierre hoping to try to reduce the $750,000 gap between himself and European order of merit and rankings leader Colin Montgomerie. Montgomerie, winner of five tournaments this year, misses the event, as do another eight of Europe's 12 that are bound for Brookline. Only Westwood, Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez are playing. Nick Faldo, spurned as a wild card by James, is also playing while Germany's Sven Struver, who won this event last year after beating Swede Patrik Sjoland in a playoff, defends his title. Two amateurs in the field who might catch the eye are Raul Ballesteros, Severiano Ballesteros's nephew, who plays along with his uncle, and England's Zane Scotland, one of the youngest players to qualify for the British Open.
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