Attention to detail is Langer's hallmark

Meticulous preparation and attention to detail will characterise Bernhard Langer's captaincy when his European team defend the Ryder Cup against the United States at Oakland Hills next week.

The 47-year-old German, twice a U.S. Masters champion and one of the coolest customers in the game, is renowned for his desire for perfection and ability to focus.

By the time his European charges lock horns with their American opponents at the 35th Ryder Cup, there is little doubt Langer will have considered every contingency for each and every eventuality.

"Bernhard leaves very little to chance and even the bit he does will have been carefully analysed at some point," said his former caddie and long-time friend Pete Coleman.

"I have never known him not to be focused and ready for whatever he is doing, wherever he is playing. He expects others to work as hard as he does but he is an instinctively fair man."

Much of this stems from the fact that Langer, a veteran of 10 Ryder Cups as a player, has not always had it easy.

Brought up in the village of Anhausen in southern Germany by his bricklayer father and waitress mother, he had a tough but loving upbringing.

Money was always in short supply for the family and the young Langer had to wear his older brother's hand-me-downs.

He caught the golfing bug at the age of eight and every afternoon would make the 10-mile return trip to Augsburg Golf Club by bicycle to work as a caddie.

"In my last summer as a caddie, I earned enough to buy myself a new bike for 250 marks," Langer wrote in his autobiography. "That impressed my parents and perhaps encouraged them to let me consider golf as a career."

Years later, having reached the pinnacle of the game as a professional, he had to battle back from the putting 'yips'.

"You freeze, you totally freeze or you just jerk," he recalled of the 'yips', an involuntary movement of the muscles.

"At times, my putting was so bad that people were coming to watch me in the manner of those who go to motor racing to see a crash.

"I have come through the yips three times," added Langer, a deeply religious man. "Technique, hard work and character have played a part but, without the strength of the Lord, I would not have made it."

Langer believes a positive attitude is the best thing he can bring as a Ryder Cup captain.

"I'm there to prepare everything, to set the path and make sure the guys have everything they need so they can focus on the game," he said at last month's U.S. PGA Championship.

"I want to bring a positive attitude and make the players feel good about their games.

"I need to be there for them, encourage them and provide the best surroundings for them to perform in," added the German, who famously missed a high-pressure putt from six feet at Kiawah Island for the U.S. to win the 1991 Ryder Cup.

"But I can only set the stage and let them loose, they have to go and perform."

Langer, controversially omitted from the European team for the 1999 showdown at Brookline, also plans to give each of his 12 players a taste of action before the last-day singles.

"I do not like any of my rookies to be sent out first time on the Sunday," he said. "I think that's almost like wasting a point, giving a point to the other team.

"I will have to work my pairings in a way that everybody will have a chance to play in the first four rounds."