In language borrowed from talk around a cowboy campfire, Scott Verplank - an American not afraid to travel in the quest for World Cup glory - yesterday tried to put Paul Casey, England's outspoken young golfer, in his place.
"Everybody is entitled to his opinion, but I guess he's obviously got some sort of burr (thorn) under his saddle about something," remarked Verplank of the Englishman's caustic comments that Americans were "bloody annoying", and his running verbal assault on the selection of Tom Lehman as US captain for the 2006 Ryder Cup at The K Club.
"If he's really that uncomfortable or that annoyed or anything, I don't think anybody would miss him if he went back to England," added Verplank, a reference to the fact that Casey - who made his Ryder Cup debut at Oakland Hills in September - has earned a full card to play on the US Tour next season.
Yesterday, on the eve of the World Cup where he partners Luke Donald, Casey - who went to university in the US, has a home in Arizona (where he spends the winter) and who has an American girlfriend - stood over comments which included: "Oh, we properly hate them . . . we wanted to beat them as badly as possible," when referring to the Ryder Cup.
"I stand by my words," remarked Casey yesterday. "You know, Americans do have a tendency to sort of wind people up. You know, when they're chanting 'U-S-A' and there's lots of them, it just makes you want to beat them more, and that's the point I was trying to get across. They probably failed to realise it really sort of riles us and the rest of the world.
"I don't hate Americans. I have an American coach, an American girlfriend. I live in America and play many events in the US. I certainly don't hate them . . . but, like I say, they do have a tendency to wind us up occasionally.
"No, I won't be apologising to the two Americans here or to the American Ryder Cup team when I see them. I mean, for example, the Tom Lehman bit. If Lehman wins the Ryder Cup back for the Americans, it will be the best captaincy, the best appointment they have ever made. However, I don't think his appointment will be universally accepted on this side of the Atlantic. I don't think people really want to see him as captain . . . and I think a lot of people are just afraid that it might bring up a Brookline-type situation at The K Club."
This week, the American team of Verplank - who was selected after nine other players ahead of him in the world ranking declined the right to participate - and Bob Tway are rated as only fifth favourites by the bookmakers, behind Spain, England, Ireland and South Africa.
And Donald, who formed a successful Walker Cup partnership with Casey prior to turning professional, remarked: "If a tournament is outside of America, they seem less bothered to want to make the effort to field their best team.
"Not that Scott Verplank and Bob Tway are a bad team, they are obviously good players . . . but it is definitely not their best team on paper. When an event is outside of America, there's a lot of excuses from the good players that they don't want to play."
Given the war of words, it would probably do the World Cup a power of good if it so happened that England and the United States were to be paired together - and in contention - when the business end of the tournament takes place over the weekend.
