| Valderrama,
Spain, 24th September -
Seve Ballesteros, Europe's Ryder Cup team captain was happy and smiling last night
because he feels he has outwitted United States captain, Tom Kite in a pre-match
tactic that could give Europe a big psychological advantage. He
has persuade Kite over the matter of foursomes and fourballs to change the order
of play in which tradition has always dictated. The
tradition is that the first two days start with foursomes, followed by fourballs
but Ballesteros has managed to change that around on both days. He
told Kite that he felt the players of both teams would be stronger for the Sunday
singles if they played the less demanding foursomes on Saturday afternoon. Kite
fell for this without perhaps realising exactly what Ballesteros was up to. Ballesteros
wants to make the best start that is possible and to try to have his team ahead
from the word go and the best way to do that is to play the fourballs first. In
the last seven matches, when the foursomes have been played first Europe has not
won a single series. Three have been lost by a 1-3 margin and the other four have
been halved. Against
that, in the first series of fourball matches Europe has remarkably won six out
of the seven. two were whitewashes and four of the others were won 2½ - 1½. If
Europe can repeat that form this time then the team will certainly have an advantage
from the very start! | 
