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US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III is confident that the way the course
at Medinah is set up will favor his side in the biennial tournament
that begins next week.
Simply put, the rough has been decreased and the greens are fast.
"It's going to look like a major championship because Medinah is a big
old golf course, with big trees and obviously big tents,'' Love told
reporters Monday. "It's going to look like a major, but it's going to
play probably easier than a major. That benefits our team. We're a
long-hitting, freewheeling, fun-to-watch team. And I think it's going to
be fun to watch.''
The European team has bossed the Ryder Cup in the last twenty years, but
Love thinks the time has come for his charges to turn the tables,
particularly on home turf where the Americans have dominated in previous
years.
"We've set it up the way we think fans will like it,'' Love said.
"People probably don't believe that, but we set it up so that it's fun
to watch. You don't want to see players chipping out and putting for par
at the Ryder Cup. You want to see birdies. You want to see excitement.
TV is going to like it. We had four players up there in the last week,
and they loved it.''
Not everyone is carried away by Love's assertions, Lee Westwood, a
stalwart of the European Ryder Cup team, is bullish in the face of
reports that Medinah will favour the hosts.
"I've yet to see a setup that favors one team or the other,'' Westwood
said. "You can play on a field that's 200 yards wide. It's who holes the
most putts.''
While admitting that the visitors are strong in this discipline, Love is
confident his side are going into this on a real hot streak and with
players at the top of their game.
"They putt better than us, it seems like, in the Ryder Cup,'' Love said.
"That's why I'm excited going in this year that our guys seem to be
putting well, playing well. There's a reason we picked guys that were
hot with the putter.''
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