Davis Love III says the Americans are a little gun shy after losses in both the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup.

The stakes are rarely higher, the emotions never more raw than playing for a flag.

"It's extremely important that people know what we're playing for," U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw said. "We're playing for our souls. If a player is going out for a picnic, this is not it."

No, this isn't a picnic. It's not even an exhibition, a term used by Tiger Woods and David Duval over the past couple of months.

The Ryder Cup has been known to cause grown men to cry. Major championship winners have reached a crucial point in a match and couldn't work up a spit. Mark O'Meara won two majors in 1998 and said neither compared with the pressure he felt in the Ryder Cup.

After two months of haggling over where all the Ryder Cup revenue is going, and after two years of wondering how the Cup wound up on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean yet again, the U.S. team will face pressure like never before.

A victory by Europe would be its third in a row, and the first time it has won back-to-back Ryder Cups in the United States. Another loss by the Americans would leave them without a cup -- and with a lot of explaining to do.

"If we lose this year after the Presidents Cup and losing the last two Ryder Cups -- and after all that controversy over money -- well, it's going to be bad," Davis Love III said. "So, we can't lose. We just can't lose."

That's the kind of attitude Crenshaw wants when the 33rd Ryder Cup matches begin Friday at The Country Club.

The Americans have a history of beating up on the British in Boston.

The last time a major golf event was contested in Boston, Curtis Strange beat Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1988 U.S. Open.

And it was Francis Ouimet, the 19-year-old from the other side of the tracks, who beat British stalwarts Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 U.S. Open and first helped make golf popular in America.

RYDER CUP AT A GLANCE

What: 33rd Ryder Cup matches. When: Sept. 24-26. Where: The Country Club, Brookline, Mass. The course: Founded in 1882, golf began 10 years later when the first six holes were built. One of the five founding courses of the USGA, and only club to be host of six USGA competitions -- three U.S. Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three U.S. Women's Amateurs, two Walker Cup matches, a U.S. Girls' Junior and a U.S. Junior Amateur. Site of America's first great triumph in golf -- Francis Ouimet beating British stars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray to win the 1913 U.S. Open. Length: 7,033 yards, par 35-36--71. Defending champion: Europe. Series: United States leads 23-7-2. Last time: Inspired by captain Seve Ballesteros, Europe won six of eight points on the second day to build a 10½-5½ lead. The Americans rallied in singles, but Europe retained the cup with a 14½-13½ victory at Valderrama. Tiger Woods, Justin Leonard and Davis Love III, who had won three of the four majors in 1997, were a combined 1-9-3. Europe's five rookies accounted for eight points. Captains: Ben Crenshaw (United States) and Mark James (Europe). Notable: Europe has won or retained the Ryder Cup five of the past seven matches. Television: USA: Friday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. ET; NBC: Saturday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. ET; Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. ET.

Never mind that Europe has won or retained the Ryder Cup five out of the past seven matches. This U.S. team is just like all the rest, stacked from top to bottom with Love, Woods, Payne Stewart, Tom Lehman, Hal Sutton. The only Ryder Cup rookie happens to be Duval, the No. 2 player in the world.

"The pressure is on us, for sure," O'Meara said. "How many times have you said the European team is overwhelmingly stronger than the Americans? They've always had everything to gain and not a whole lot to lose, and we've always had a lot to lose and not a whole lot to gain.

"Hopefully, this year it's going to be the American team that's going to come out on top. Because if we don't, I imagine we'll get pretty well hammered."

As tough and experienced as America looks, Europe has a lot of fresh faces.

Mark James, a former Ryder Cup rebel who never does anything by the book, passed on Langer and Ian Woosnam in filling out a team that includes seven rookies.

Gone are the illustrious "Fab Five" -- Faldo, Langer, Woosnam, Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle -- one of whom has been part of every Ryder Cup team since 1977.

In their places are players like Paul Lawrie, an unknown Scotsman until winning the British Open when Jean Van de Velde crashed and burned on the last hole at Carnoustie. Van de Velde will be at The Country Club, too, along with other rookies young (19-year-old Sergio Garcia) and old (35-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez).

"On paper, they should be caddying for us," Stewart said. "But that isn't what this is about. It's about bringing your game to the event, and they bring it."

Who in America knew much about Christy O'Connor Jr. until he laced that 2-iron into the 18th green to beat Fred Couples in a crucial match in 1989? Or Philip Walton, the Irishman who earned the winning point at Oak Hill in 1995?

Europe had five rookies on the '97 team and they accounted for eight points.

"Every year, we hear how much better we are and we believe it and then we lose," Love said. "This year you hear the same things, but now we're gun shy a little. We don't believe any of that stuff about them being the underdog."

No reason they should. Even though the United States has better players who have won more majors, the Match Play Championship at La Costa proved that 18 holes of match play offers no guarantees.

And one only has to look back two years to see that Woods, Love and Justin Leonard -- who won three of the four majors that year -- all lost their singles matches in a 14½-13½ European victory.

"You can put together a team that on paper may not be as complete," Woods said. "But the fact that it's match play ... it's 18 holes of anything-can-happen. And anything can happen."

That's what Colin Montgomerie, the new leader of Europe, is counting on.

"We have a young team, but a team that you American press and public might not know," the Scotsman said. "I think we might surprise a few people."

The youngest player in Ryder Cup history is one of the most well-known -- and well-liked -- on the European team. Garcia is the most dynamic player in golf since Woods, that 23-year-old grizzled veteran. Like Woods, he is a monster in match play, the kind of guy who could look someone in the eyes on the first tee and already consider himself 2-up.

"We'll have to give everything to beat the Americans," Garcia said. "They are definitely the favorites, but that's good for us. We've got a great team, and I can promise a fight to the death."

That kind of attitude is what the United States will try to recapture, not an easy task for a team that seemed divided in the past two months over a popular topic in America -- money.

The PGA of America will raise $63 million from the matches, with a net profit of about $23 million. O'Meara, Duval, Woods and Phil Mickelson have been among those asking that a portion of the profits be designated to the charity of their choosing.

Perhaps Sutton summed it up best.

"I hope we've all pulled together, and we're there for one common denominator, which is to win that Ryder Cup back -- whether we get paid to do it, or whether we have to pay them to do it," he said.

Crenshaw wishes this whole money mess would just go away, although he rekindled the controversy on the eve of the PGA Championship by publicly mentioning four players who he felt were more concerned with filling the cup than winning the Cup.

He apologized the next day, saying he needed his guys at their best.

"You can better believe I want them front and center in Boston," Crenshaw said. "My God, I've got to have them."