Golf:American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin joked today that Colin Montgomerie must be cleverer than him because he needs only three vice-captains. Pavin described Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn as "great picks" by his opposite number.
And Pavin, who will have Tom Lehman, Davis Love, Jeff Sluman and Paul Goydos assisting him at Celtic Manor, quipped: “Colin must be quite a bit smarter to only have three.”
“Each of us are going to do what we think is best,” added former US Open champion Pavin, in Carnoustie this week for the Senior British Open. “I picked four because I wanted to have an assistant captain walking with each group in the four matches the first two days and to keep an eye on things.
“That’s just my choice and obviously Colin felt three was enough. I had my reasons for picking my assistants and I’m sure Colin has his. I think they are excellent, excellent people to have out there helping.
“I think it depends on the captain and what he’s asking — I’ll be asking a lot of advice. During the week it’s very important, I think, for the assistants to take a load off of me.
“My main focus is to make sure everything is prepared for the players and they have nothing to worry about but play golf and focus on trying to win some matches.
“But you can’t manage everything. There’s too many things to manage as a captain and that’s why I chose my assistants. I knew they were very capable of doing anything that I asked them to do, and doing things that I don’t ask them to do that they see need to be done.”
It was pointed out to Pavin that Europe now has nine players in the world’s top 20 and America only six, but he responded: “I think we have got four of the top five. If you played it on paper it would be interesting, but we don’t and it doesn’t seem to matter where the rankings are, the matches are always close and competitive.”