Woods, Mickelson to join U.S. Cup team at K Club

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have
rearranged commitments with sponsors and will join the rest of
the U.S. Ryder Cup team on a trip to the K Club in Ireland next
week.

Captain Tom Lehman has organized a charter flight to take
his 12-man team on a two-day reconnaissance of the Ryder Cup
venue after this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

“We’re all going there as a team to hang out, relax and
play a little golf,” world number one Woods told reporters
after firing a three-under-par 67 in Thursday’s opening round
at Firestone.

“Most of the guys haven’t played the golf course very much
and maybe I can help out and pass on a few titbits that I’ve
learned over the years of playing there.”

Woods has been a regular visitor to the K Club, playing
practice rounds there along with a bit of fishing in his
build-up to British Opens.

When Lehman initially planned the Ireland trip, Woods and
Mickelson were the only likely absentees because of previous
commitments.

“I’ve seen the K Club enough, but I just wanted to be with
the guys because we are going as a team,” Woods added.

Lehman, attempting to end a run of four European victories
in the last five Ryder Cup matches, has made the U.S. team’s
unity a priority for the September 22-24 showdown.

“I would say the one thing I’m most excited about is our
guys are already together,” he said. “They’ve been aiming for
this for two years.

“It’s now really a simple case of the eight guys who have
been there before, who have been parts of Ryder Cup teams and
Presidents Cup teams, embracing the four guys who haven’t and
making them feel comfortable.”

The four rookies on Lehman’s team are Vaughn Taylor, J.J.
Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich.

Lehman and company are scheduled to depart for Ireland from
Cleveland on Sunday night before returning on Wednesday morning
for next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston.

“We’ll get a lot of things accomplished and our practices
will mean something,” Lehman said. “They are not going to be
out there just knocking balls around.”