Presidents Cup:USA captain Fred Couples believes his team's greater experience and a shared nationality will be the keys to continued success over the Internationals at this week's Presidents Cup in San Francisco.

Couples will lead the United States at Harding Park having adopted a team from Jack Nicklaus which has lost only once and tied once in seven meetings in the Ryder Cup-style event with the Internationals, led this week for the first time by Greg Norman.

“Like Greg, we have great team players,” Couples said. “We have great guys, a lot of guys, probably more so on my team have played in more Presidents Cups, so they know what’s going on. We have hit on this a bunch.

“He’s got guys from other countries, other places, so it’s a little more difficult. I think we all understand that.

“But for myself, my team is out there having a great time just like Greg had talked about his team enjoying it. The team room has been phenomenal. We have all been here only a day, but I’ve been here since Friday night with a couple of guys.

“Thursday can’t get here quick enough for me.”

Norman admitted that his team, drawn from his native Australia, South Africa, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and South Korea, was lacking in a shared identity but the language problem was not a major concern.

“What’s difficult is having the idle conversation,” Norman said. “When you sit in a locker room with all one flag, you can talk about... what do you think about what the President is doing, what do you think about healthcare, or what do you think about sport, and what do you think about the play-offs. You can really get a great connector going in that way.

“From our perspective, my perspective, you just have to make sure that they feel included with everything. And when you have a conversation, you have to make sure that they know exactly what you’re saying.

“You would probably be surprised, some of them, you probably think they don’t

speak good English or they don’t understand what’s going on; these guys, they

know what’s going on,” he said with a laugh.

Norman has three rookies in his side - Camilo Villegas of Colombia, shock US PGA champion Y E Yang of Korea and Japanese teenager Ryo Ishikawa.

Yang, though, is brimming with confidence following his final-round heroics at Hazeltine in August when he overhauled Tiger Woods to become the first Asian-born major champion and he said he would relish a return battle with the world number one in Sunday’s singles.

“Tiger is going to probably come out with a vengeance if he is teamed up against me the final day.,” Yang said “I will try to play with a similar strategy to try and play my own game, and I won’t try to force anything.

“I will try my best definitely, but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to force anything or try to put any loftier expectations on myself. It’s going to be tough, but I’ll try to keep my calm.

“Every game is probably in essence the same, whoever I’m playing against, whoever the team is. So bring anybody on.”

Pairings for opening foursomes(USA first, all times Irish)

8.10 pmA Kim / P Mickelson v M Weir (Canada) / T Clark (South Africa)

8.22pmH Mahan / S O'Hair v A Scott (Australia) / E Els (South Africa)

8.34pmL Glover / S Cink v V Singh (Fiji) / R Allenby (Australia)

8.46pmK Perry / Z Johnson v A Cabrera (Argentina) / C Villegas (Colombia)

8.58pmT Woods / S Stricker v G Ogilvy (Australia) / R Ishikawa (Japan)

9.10pmJ Furyk / J Leonard v R Goosen (South Africa) / Y Yong-eun (South Korea)