Bad weather not a concern to Captains

Although Ryder Cup organisers are preparing for driving rain and wind at the K Club, opposing captains Ian Woosnam and Tom Lehman are unfazed by the weather for this week's matches.

Both agree their teams will just have to deal with the expected downpours and gale-force conditions over the next three days.

"It is what it is," U.S. captain Lehman said before the first day of official practice on Tuesday. "That's the way our team looks at it.

"We have a bunch of guys who grew up in parts of the world where there might have been wind or rain, a bunch of guys from Texas and a bunch of guys from Florida.

"You've got a guy from Connecticut, and there's all kind of different locales in the States where you get some wind and rain. I don't think wind and rain really affects anybody much.

"Everybody has to play in it, so it's just a matter of who has the mental toughness to deal with it through to the end."

European skipper Woosnam added: "It doesn't matter where we have played over the last number of years -- sunshine, rain, whatever it is. We've all got to be prepared to what you're going to play in.

"When you're so focused on what you're trying to achieve in the Ryder Cup, I think it doesn't matter what weather you're playing in.

"What we've got to worry about is will we be able to play the golf course? If it's going to be that wet, we could be coming in."

An inch-and-a-half of rain fell at the K Club on Monday, leaving the fairways waterlogged and some of the bunkers virtually unplayable.

"Two of our players were in the bunkers today and basically just couldn't get out," Woosnam said.

"They (the greenkeepers) had to do a lot of draining to get the water out of the bunkers and they had to rough them up today to dry them out a little bit."

Briton Darren Clarke, who makes his fifth Cup appearance for Europe this week, believes adverse conditions may give the hosts a slight edge.

"To have the experience of playing in tournaments here before, where you know how the course is going to play if it gets very wet and windy," said the Ulsterman, who won the 2001 European Open held at the K Club.

"You know how certain holes are going to play more difficult than what they normally would do.

"Those conditions can only benefit the Europeans. It might not be a huge advantage but again it's a small advantage that we might need."