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Inside the European camp: Thursday

Inside the U.S. camp:
No hints about best ball

ESPN Golf Online news services

BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Now that the suspense of which golfers will be paired up in the Friday morning round of the Ryder Cup is over, another mystery cropped up. Who will play in the afternoon round?

 Ben Crenshaw, David Duval
Captain Ben Crenshaw, right, will probably rely heavily on David Duval during the week.

The morning format calls for two-member teams of Americans to play against two-member teams of Europeans in each match. Each team uses one ball and its members take turns hitting it. There are four such matches.

The marquee matchup is Tiger Woods and Tom Lehman against Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik.

In the afternoon, there also are four matches involving two-member teams, but all four golfers play their own ball on each hole. The team of the golfer with the best score wins the hole.

Captains Ben Crenshaw of the United States and Mark James of Europe can wait until the morning matches have ended to turn in their afternoon pairings.

"If we do succeed in these morning pairings, you might see a lot of them in the afternoon, as well. But not per se," Crenshaw said.

James was more direct in deflecting the question of how he would set up his pairings.

"I don't think I should give any information about tomorrow afternoon's pairings," he said. "Sorry. You're trying to catch me in a weak moment while I was thinking of something else."


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