Thousands attend first practice session for Ryder Cup
Thousands of golfing fans have descended on the K Club in Co Kildare to watch the first day of practice for the Ryder Cup.
Up to 20,000 spectators are expected to show up today in the hope of catching a glimpse of some of the world's leading golfers.
The course is currently wet underfoot and both teams are reporting concerns over "mud-balls".
Speaking at the K Club, European captain Ian Woosnam said: "It's important that the guys are honest with themselves and honest with me on how they feel they are playing.
"It's important that we go out with the strongest team on Friday morning."
Jose Maria Olazabal, meanwhile, denied rumours of a rift between himself and Colin Montgomery.
The Scot had criticised the Spaniard for going quail hunting on the week of the BMW Open, the final qualifying tournament for the European team.
However, Olazabal said today that the media made "a big thing out of a few words".
Elsewhere, US captain Tom Lehman blamed tortilla chips for the delay in his team arriving in Ireland yesterday morning.
The team's flight from Washington was delayed for three hours as too much luggage had been brought on board.
Lehman said today that he was to blame as he had packed a huge amount of tortillas due to the difficulty in finding good chips and salsa in Europe.
