Joe Bonamassa

By DEREK LAWRENSON Golf Correspondent at Celtic Manor

Those with a taste for blood and gore wanted this Ryder Cup to begin with Tiger against Rory. The European captain wanted it to begin with Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

But for the past six weeks Lee Westwood has nursed his ailing body with one purpose in mind, and that was to stand on the first tee and lead off Europe's quest to regain Samuel Ryder's gold cup.

Such is the esteem in which the finest English golfer since Nick Faldo is held by his captain, there was no way Colin Montgomerie was going to deny him.

And so this 38th edition will begin not with a grudge match or the flags of Northern Ireland flying high, but with a gesture of profound respect for Europe's No 1 and Europe's most recent major champion, as Westwood (below) and Martin Kaymer are charged with the honour and responsibility of setting the tone for getting the trophy back.

Waiting for them will be the formidable American pairing of Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Talk about meeting firepower with firepower.

Do sports fans with satellite television need any more incentive to set the alarm clock early? Do those privileged enough to have a ticket need any more excuse to pack their waterproofs and their singing voices?

There's plenty more following the announcement of an opening series that left Europe feeling supremely confident and Americans shaking their heads in puzzlement.

Europe's four pairings were exactly those predicted in Sportsmail a week ago, but who could have guessed America's line-up?
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Keeping dry in the clubhouse on the first morning will be the man who has just won $11million at the FedEx Cup and another who went five matches unbeaten at the last Ryder Cup. In place of Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan will be rookies in Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton. Who could have predicted that?

Certainly not the opposition captain.

'It's safe to say Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald did not expect to play two rookies in the anchor match,' said Montgomerie.

'Any scenario you think of piles a lot of pressure on two inexperienced players. We could be trying to make it 2-2 or go 3-1 ahead. Giving that task to Bubba and Jeff is, well, a bit strange really.'

While one captain is playing a blinder the other really ought to be hauled off the pitch. After all that military nonsense from Corey Pavin on Wednesday, how unfortunate that he should look around the stage at the opening ceremony and find one of his team had gone missing in action.

'An Open champion, too!' chortled Montgomerie.

Honestly, when you're charged with the task of announcing your team, how can you forget to mention one of them? Stewart Cink could have been forgiven for feeling neglected when he won The Open last year and all the plaudits went to Tom Watson, but this was something else again. Just as well for Pavin that Cink is one of life's good guys. If it had happened to Tiger, he would have probably caught the next flight out of town.

Here's more strangeness from Pavin. This will be the first Ryder Cup Tiger Woods has played in since 1999 in which he will not be the lead hitter on the opening morning.

Did Pavin go looking for Rory in putting Tiger off in the third match? Well, you wouldn't expect him to answer that one, would you? Anyway, instead of Rory, Tiger and Steve Stricker have found Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher instead.

Poulter was the European star of the last Ryder Cup and what a chance he and Fisher now have to be the stars of the opening series. No-one will expect them to win, not against an American pairing who went unbeaten in four matches at the last Presidents Cup. Well, no-one bar Montgomerie, the thousands who will follow their every shot and, most importantly, the two players themselves.

Fisher might not make the same headlines as Poulter but he doesn't fall short when it comes to self-belief.

'Tonight we will have a few inspired speeches, get a good night's kip and then go out there and give it to them,' he said. Poulter added: 'It's going to be just incredible, isn't it?'

Splitting the top match and this one will the fulfillment for McIlroy and McDowell of a dream they have cherished from the moment the former left the amateur world and joined the paid ranks three years ago. They will play Matt Kuchar and, er, what's his name again - oh yes, Stewart Cink.

This couldn't have worked out better for the home pair, for while Kuchar has had a wonderful year, he looked exhausted at the Tour Championship last week.

Europe, therefore, will be bitterly disappointed if they don't come out of the opening series with at least a one-point lead. It might not sound anything with 24 points still to play for and it isn't in real terms. But past experience has shown the team leading after round one have a massive psychological advantage.

Indeed, in the 15 Ryder Cups to have been staged since the continentals were invited to the party in 1979, only twice has the team that lost the opening series come back to win.

No wonder Westwood wanted to bat first, then. Anybody else and it would have been a difficult decision for Montgomerie. He was fully aware how good McDowell and McIlroy were when playing first at the Seve Trophy last year.

But, in a team as good from top to bottom as Europe's, Westwood is still Montgomerie's main man. It took guts to ask to play first, 11 weeks since he last played competitively, safe in the knowledge that a star pair would provide the opposition. A lesser man would have wanted to hide. But Westwood is desperate to get rid of the sour taste from last time, when Sir Nick Faldo took all the wind from his sails. Now he has a captain who will believe in him to the end, and by his side will be the brilliant German who Montgomerie believes is a future world No 1.

No-one from Europe will be too unhappy that the weather is predicted to be bad at the start. It certainly won't dampen the spirits of those who will gather at first light for what is truly among the best this sport has to offer - the opening shots on the opening day of the Ryder Cup.

Europe begin with the captain resplendent and the opposition worrying whether in Pavin they have another Faldo, a cold fish who tries to reinvent the wheel with his strange selections.

Pavin could do with Tiger motivated and Mickelson and Johnson at their best. He could do with a couple of rookies turning convention on its head.

Anything else, and the knives will be out. Win this opening series, and one-up for Europe will start to feel more like one hand on the trophy.