Westwood return to form increases Torrance's options

Mind games is another way of describing the practice rounds which precede the Ryder Cup. On the first morning of official practice both captains sent out their teams offering hints to the pairings that will line up from Friday morning onwards. It is important, there are clues, but nothing is definitive was the gist.

There was little surprise that Curtis Strange, the US captain, sent Tiger Woods out with Mark Calcavecchia. Woods has proved notoriously difficult to pair up in team competitions but Calcavecchia, playing for the first time since 1991, is a frequent practice partner of the world No 1.

He spoke in Ireland last week of knowing Tiger well enough to be comfortable alongside the genius. Sam Torrance used an interesting device when he had two old partnerships in the same fourball but playing with new partners. Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood played all four times at Brookline but yesterday played with Thomas Bjorn and Colin Montgomerie, respectively.

Likewise, Sergio Garcia was with Bernhard Langer rather than Jesper Parnevik, who played with Paul McGinley. Garcia provided the impetus for a 3 and 2 win but the good news was that Parnevik was putting well. His driving, he admitted, was not so good but it was the putting that has caused his poor form this summer. There was even the suggestion that he had the yips. "It was just a rumour but my caddie did say it looked as if I was being electrocuted when I was putting," said the Swede, who also denied ever suggesting he might pull out of the event and trying to get the yips defined as a medical condition that would release him from the event.

It was Mark O'Meara who solved the problem of Parnevik's poor putting, having noticed that the Swede had the putter face wide open and was hooking his putts to try to compensate.

Solving Westwood's swing problems has proved harder work and Europe's No 1 in 2000 is now rated 148th in the world. But yesterday he and Monty took £200 off their opponents and the effort the Worksop man has put in on his game may be about to pay off.

"Lee is going to give Sam a nice selection problem," said Westwood's upbeat manager, Chubby Chandler. "He probably wasn't going to be playing much before Sunday but the way he is playing now you want a good Lee Westwood in your team."

Something that helped was when Westwood listened in to a clinic his coach, Peter Cowen, gave to a group of 18-handicappers. "Why don't you talk to me like that?" Westwood asked. "I can understand it when you put it like that."

Chandler said Westwood has been visibly more encouraged since a friendly game at The Belfry last Thursday which also included McGinley and Torrance. "On the back nine, Sam shared a buggy with Lee and was talking to him a lot," Chandler said. "There were a few technical things but mainly it was an arm round the shoulder.

"He played much better after that and the following day at Lindrick. It hasn't been a pretty 18 months for him but now he has a chance to draw a line under it. He's got nothing to lose. If he gets a point, no matter what he scores, he can be a hero." Torrance's selection queries may have increased after Pierre Fulke and Phillip Price had a surprise 5 and 4 win over Padraig Harrington and the in-form Niclas Fasth.

Meanwhile, during an evening of ping pong on Monday, Strange talked to his team about why the Europeans gained a four-point lead on the first two days at Brookline.

Mark Calcavecchia said: "They seem to be more passionate, more into it right out of the box. Curtis wants us to come out firing. I don't want to use the word overconfident, but maybe the US side have a 'we should win this' type thing and the next thing you know we are in a hole getting beat. We are going to try not to let that happen."