TOM LEHMAN

The Ryder Cup is everything golf should be. It’s pride, it’s passion, it’s emotion, it’s nationalism. It’s competition in its purest form.

I think we’ll be underdogs going into the Ryder Cup. After what happened at Oakland Hills in 2004, I don’t see how we can be favourites really. Everything came together for the European side and our team had nothing in return.

I think I may be the only golfer who has hit the same spectator TWICE on the same hole.

I was playing in the US Open at Bethpage and I pushed my drive out right. Anyway it hit this guy in the leg and bounced into the rough. So I went over to see if he was OK and he smiled and said he was. But the ball was in a pretty bad place. So I got a wedge out, put it back in my stance and tried to hack it out. But I stone-cold shanked it and it went straight into the same guy’s chest. He wasn’t smiling then. There was some pressure on the third shot, I can tell you.

Europe’s team spirit counts for a great deal. I remember David Feherty when he played at Kiawah Island. It was his first Ryder Cup and he’d been paired with Sam Torrance for the game against Lanny Wadkins and Mark O’Meara. When he reached the first green, he had a 20-foot putt that he nervously left six feet short and about four feet wide. Sam took him aside and said: “If you don’t pull yourself together, I’m going to join them and you can play all three of us instead.”

I’ve been on winning Ryder Cup sides and I’ve been on losing Ryder Cup sides.

Let me tell you, it’s much more fun when you win. Much more fun.

Getting shot at at Augusta may sound like something out of an action movie but it was a bit overblown really.

Nobody got hurt. Mind you, it’s not really the kind of thing that happens every day, especially not in the world of professional golf.

Team morale is key.

In 1999 at Brookline we were losing badly, really badly, but we all felt to a man that we could still do it. Ben [Crenshaw] did a great job of keeping us up and maintaining that belief. That’s what I want from my team. I want that spirit. I want each player to look around the locker room at the other 11 players and have absolute confidence in their ability.

I’m not afraid of having so many Ryder Cup rookies in my team.

Nick Faldo was a rookie in the Ryder Cup once upon a time. So was Seve Ballesteros. So was Jack Nicklaus. You have to start somewhere.

Being captain isn’t just about picking the pairings. I even have to find the right company to make our uniforms and have some input into the design. My wife’s been helping me out and we’ve gone for Polo because it’s a classic American brand.

Those shirts at Brookline [in 1999] certainly divided opinion but I liked them.

They were very Hollywood. Very American. People can say what they like about them but nobody can really say that they didn’t work, can they?

I have no idea who would play me in a film of my life.

I’ve never really given it any thought. Christopher Walken? (long silence)…well... (long silence)... I like Matt Damon films and he can certainly play a bit. There’s something about Ben Affleck too. Brad Pitt? I don’t know if he plays but why not?

If a burglar broke into my home I’d have to go at him with a lob wedge.

Maybe I’d open my stance and get him up and out quicker. I’d get more spin too.

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