American win might topple President's

Imitations don't tend to match originals, and such a stigma has been attached to the President's Cup - a takeoff of the Ryder Cup, but without the Europeans - since its inception. This week, the event moves out of the United States for the first time and the consensus is that a win by the International team is essential if it is to take its first step out of the shadow cast by the Ryder Cup.

Lee Janzen, the US Open champion who was somewhat controversially overlooked when the team was finalised in October, yesterday joined the American team in Melbourne as a replacement for Hal Sutton who was forced to withdraw on Sunday following the death of his father-in-law.

Tour veteran Sutton earned one of the 10 automatic places on the team when he won the season-ending Tour Championship, his winner's cheque for $720,000 lifting him from 17th to fifth in the qualifying table. Sutton was preparing to make the trip to Australia when news came through that his wife's father Brandt Powell had died, at the age of 58. "All of the US team are saddened by the loss suffered by Hal and his family," said United States captain Jack Nicklaus, who immediately called-up Janzen, the next eligible player.

Janzen was already in the time zone, playing a skins match in Taiwan, when he received the call-up and he arrived in Melbourne yesterday to join his American team-mates who are seeking to win the President's Cup for the third time. And therein lies the event's problem: not until America loses is it likely to be taken as seriously as other team matches. The point was acknowledged by Davis Love III who remarked: "They (the internationals) need to win one because, if they do, then we'll want to get it back."

Indeed, the President's Cup is struggling to overcome a poor image problem. Mark Calcavecchia, who is playing this week, admitted he didn't even bother to watch on television when it was first staged in 1994. "I thought the first President's Cup was a joke, but with the second one the prestige pushed up a bit. Each one that goes by will get a little better, and a little more intense. I anticipate the President's Cup to be a little more relaxed than the Ryder Cup, not quite so live and die."

However, Greg Norman argues that it needs time to mature. "Everybody says, `will it be like the Ryder Cup?' Nobody knows. History has built that up. Great matches have built that up. I guess the last 12 to 15 years, the Ryder Cup has gone to the next level because of the exposure. The President's Cup is going to have to go through that evolution."

Stage one of its progress is to take it out of the United States. "For this event to get bigger, it had to go outside America. No sporting event is any good if you don't have a home and away element. That's what builds competition. Our team is going to be pumped up this time," insisted Steve Elkington.

Indeed, there is a touch of quality about both teams: the Americans have David Duval, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Mark O'Meara, Lee Janzen, Scott Hoch, Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples and John Huston, while the Internationals have Ernie Els, Nick Price, Vijay Singh, Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, Stuart Appleby, Shigeki Maruyama, Carlos Franco, Craig Parry, Joe Ozaki, Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner.

Jack Nicklaus is captainig an American team for the first time since he had the unwanted distinction of becoming the first US captain to lose a Ryder Cup match on home soil, at his own Muirfield Village in 1987 when Ireland's Eamonn Darcy's win over Ben Crenshaw proved crucial. His International counterpart this week is Peter Thomson, a five-time British Open champion.

Certainly, events in Sun City over the weekend, where Price beat Woods after a five-hole playoff in the Million Dollar Challenge, proved rather timely as the pair will be on opposing sides this week at Royal Melbourne, a course that has drawn similarities with Augusta National as both were designed by Alistir MacKenzie. "If it were in America, it would be rated in the top two or three; it is that good," said Singh.

Also, the competition should be aided by the fact that nine of the 12-man International team ply their skills on the US Tour - yet, it remains to be seen if this third edition of the President's Cup signals its arrival as a serious rival to the Ryder Cup. And, ironically, a third successive American win (as appears likely from appraising the respective line-ups) could actually do more harm than good.

Meanwhile, an indication that the broom-handle putter may not be the answer to all putting ills (nor an implement of last resort) is that two of Ireland's top professionals are likely to be rejoining the PGA European Tour in the New Year with orthodox putters.

Philip Walton and Des Smyth have gone through a phase of putting with the broom-handle - but both were back to the short putter for last week's Links outing in Baltray and remarked afterwards that they were likely to resume competition in 1999 with the orthodox blades. "It felt good to use the short putter again," said Walton, while Smyth reverted to the short putter for the Irish PGA championship (where he was beaten in a play-off by Padraig Harrington) and is determined to stick with it.

Swedish motor manufacturers Volvo have announced an extension of their sponsorship of three tournaments - the PGA Championship, the Scandinavian Masters and the Volvo Masters - to the end of the 2002 season.

The company has been the European Tour's main sponsor since 1988 and their involvement in those three tournaments created prizemoney of £3 million in 1998 as well as a £700,000 bonus pool which was paid out to the top 15 players in the Order of Merit after the traditional season-ending Volvo Masters. However, that pool is being dropped from next season onwards and, instead, the company will operate a reward incentive for the players who do best in the three Volvo-sponsored events.