U.S Gets Slow Start at Ryder Cup

<br>SUTTON COLDFIELD, England (AP) _ The Ryder Cup started Friday morning with Tiger Woods and the United States getting off to a shaky start against the Europeans at The Belfry. <br><br>The three-day

Friday, September 27th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SUTTON COLDFIELD, England (AP) _ The Ryder Cup started Friday morning with Tiger Woods and the United States getting off to a shaky start against the Europeans at The Belfry.

The three-day event, postponed a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, began with Woods and Paul Azinger playing Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn in the first of four morning best-ball matches.

In ideal weather conditions, Azinger hit the opening drive 20 yards right of the fairway and over the crowd. Woods then hit his tee shot into a bunker down the right-hand side.

Clarke drove into the same bunker but followed with a superb approach to 8 feet. Woods, apparently distracted by a photographer, hit his second shot into a greenside bunker. Angry, he turned and snapped, ``Not on my swing!''

Clarke made his birdie putt to win the hole.

Next up were David Duval and Davis Love III vs. Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, followed by Scott Hoch and Jim Furyk vs. Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer, and Phil Mickelson and David Toms vs. Padraig Harrington and Niclas Fasth.

Four alternate-shot matches were set for Friday afternoon, with eight more pairs matches Saturday and 12 singles matches Sunday.

A team gets one point for a win and a half-point for a tie. The United States needs 14 points to retain the Cup, while Europe needs 14 1/2 to regain it.

Friday's opening match offered the rare matchup of Woods against two players who have defeated him in the past two years.

Bjorn, of Denmark, went head-to-head with Woods for four rounds in the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic, winning by two shots. Clarke, of Northern Ireland, defeated Woods in the final of the 2000 Accenture Match Play Championship in Carlsbad, Calif.

The morning's matches featured only two rookies: Toms and Fasth.

Fasth, a 30-year-old Swede, finished second to Duval in last year's British Open in his first major. Toms won last year's PGA Championship.

Missing from the first matches was Sweden's Jesper Parnevik, who has fallen from No. 24 to No. 61 in the world rankings in the past year. Parnevik forged a great partnership with Garcia in the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, going 3-0-1.

Parnevik was joined on the European sidelines by Paul McGinley, Phillip Price and Pierre Fulke. The U.S. players left out of the opening matches were Mark Calcavecchia, Hal Sutton, Stewart Cink and Scott Verplank.

The European team is captained by Sam Torrance, who in 1985 made the putt at the 18th hole of The Belfry that gave Europe its first Ryder Cup win in 28 years.

In case anybody wondered how much the occasion means to Torrance, the 49-year-old Scot choked up and fought back tears when asked about having his family and friends here to support him.

``Well, it means everything to me,'' he said. ``I just got real sentimental, so we'll leave that.''

Asked whether he felt more nervous as a captain than player, Torrance said, ``No, absolutely not. I'm as calm as a cucumber. I feel fantastic. I've been waiting for this moment for a while.''

He said he's ready to step back and let his players take the spotlight.

``I'm the shepherd, herding them out,'' Torrance said. ``It's in their hands from Friday morning. I can obviously do the preparation and put the pairings together, but in the end they're the boys that do it. They can take the credit. I'll take the blame.''

But Montgomerie, a fellow Scot, said the players are determined to win the Cup for Torrance.

``It means an awful lot to him,'' he said. ``He's a very emotional man and I know him very well. He's not just from the same country as me, but the same county as me in Scotland. I know what it means to him. It would be nice to finish off his career with a win for his sake.''

The Ryder Cup was postponed for 12 months after last year's Sept. 11 attacks _ a theme that dominated Thursday's opening ceremony.

A bishop recited prayers, the crowd observed a minute of silence and a lone Scottish bagpiper played ``Amazing Grace.''

``There were some that have said that the excitement would lessen for the players and fans because of the postponement,'' Strange said. ``We'll show, and all of you will show, how wrong they really are.''

The other theme of the opening ceremony was the need to bring civility and sportsmanship to the competition and avoid the unruly fan and player behavior that marred the dramatic U.S. victory three years ago at The Country Club outside Boston.

Strange recalled the words of Samuel Ryder, who in founding the competition in 1927 said he hoped the event would ``influence a cordial, friendly and peaceful feeling throughout the whole civilized world.''

``They were ambitious words,'' Strange said. ``But somehow, 75 years later, they mean more than ever. ... Guys, let's make Samuel Ryder proud.''