Ryder Cup Betting / Ralph Ellis / 12 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Corey Pavin may have been full of nerves when he made his Ryder Cup debut but the man who will captain the American team at Celtic Manor in 2010 knows what it feels like to win on foreign soil and will be determined to land victory for the visitors.

If you've ever had the misfortune to be drawn to play in the first group in a golf day you'll understand a fraction of what Corey Pavin's first Ryder Cup on foreign soil was like. First tee, everybody watching, you put the ball on the peg, keep the driver very firmly back in the bag, take out an iron and pray that you can just about keep your shot somewhere on the fairway and not hear the gallery dissolve into giggles.

That's how Pavin recalls his start to the 1993 Ryder Cup - in fact he was so frightened that he couldn't even place the ball on the tee - he dropped it onto the peg from a couple of millimetres instead and was relieved it didn't fall off.

Older and wiser, he told the tale against himself yesterday as he was confirmed as America's captain for the 2010 competition at Celtic Manor. The Americans have wasted no time after Paul Azinger ruled himself out of leading the defence of the trophy his team won at Valhalla this year. Pavin is in, appointed, and will start his preparations.

Pavin's appointment suggests the Americans mean business. He might have started that 1993 campaign full of nerves, but he came through a winner as part of the last USA side to win the Ryder Cup on foreign soil. It suggests he knows the qualities needed to do it again.

"There's no doubt that playing away presents a totally different challenge and to have played in Europe and won will definitely help me when the time comes," he tells Derek Lawrenson in the Daily Mail this morning.

"Paul Azinger and I both feel the same about this event. I consider it to be the Super Bowl of golf. I was lucky enough to win a US Open but that was a walk in the park compared to how I felt every time I played in the Ryder Cup. There is simply nothing like it in our sport. It's up to me to bring another group of players together to perform equally as well as we did in Valhalla and bring the cup back home."

That's positive talk from the leader of an American team who are currently trading at [2.22] to win the cup in Wales, while Europe are [2.06] favourites. It's an interesting contrast to Europe who have yet to settle on their leader and don't seem in any rush. Betfair's market has also gone quiet for a while and currently makes Ian Woosnam an unbackable [1.01] to get the job in his home country, although curiously he's as long as [4.9] to lay which suggests that there's still some deep discussion to come. Jose Maria Olazabal and Sandy Lyle remain the most serious rivals, and don't rule out Thomas Bjorn.

Five things you might not know about Corey Pavin

1. Born in Oxnard, California in 1959 he's one of many professional golfers to emerge from attending the University of California in Los Angeles

2. He spent 150 weeks in the top ten rankings between 1986 and 1997

3. In July 2006 he set a record for the fewest strokes to complete nine holes of a PGA tour event, with an eight under par 26

4. He was one of the first golfers on tour to embrace sports psychology, working before his one major win - the 1995 US Open - with Dr Richard Coop from the University of North Carolina

5. He also had laser surgery on his eyes in 1998 in an unsuccessful bid to stop his slide down the rankings

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