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Difference was on the greens says Lehman
2006-09-22
U.S. captain Tom Lehman believed the score after the first day of the Ryder Cup on Friday could easily have been the other way round if a few more putts had dropped for his team. "They were all very tight matches," Lehman said at news conference. "We didn't make a lot of putts and that was the difference between the two teams. "Then we hit a couple of bad shots instead of good shots and the result is 5-3 (to Europe)." Lehman drew encouragement from an often see-saw opening day, adding: "Looking at the positive side, there is a pretty fine line between no point, half a point and one point and group by group you could see it. "For instance, one guy's ball lands on a TV tower and he was able to make par. Things like that create momentum and we didn't get that kind of break." America's captain praised wild-card Stewart Cink and rookie JJ Henry for hitting back from three holes down in the morning against Europe's Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson to salvage a half, saying: "It was huge, huge comeback for those guys. "I told them at the 13th tee 'I don't want to see their team first on the tee for the rest of this day' and they responded." Unlike rival captain Ian Woosnam, Lehman did not use all his 12-man team, leaving out his other wild-card Scott Verplank and the only rookie not to play, Vaughn Taylor. Verplank has been suffering back problems recently but Lehman made no reference to it when he said: "I really liked the teams we sent out. We are committed to playing the best teams we can and that's what we are doing." With Lehman reiterating he will play all his team before the Sunday singles, Verplank and Taylor will see duty on the second day.
Europe charge into Ryder Cup lead (2006-09-23)Europeans lead after Day 1 of Ryder Cup (2006-09-22)Difference was on the greens says Lehman (2006-09-22)Woosnam hints at likely European fourball pairings (2006-09-19)Micheel expects Ryder Cup-style atmosphere in final (2006-09-16)
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