Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409160062
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GAINESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Australian, ranked 117th in the world, was selected Thursday by International captain David Graham, to team with Nick Price in today's opening four-ball matches at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club course.
Hughes and Price will be opposed by the United States' Fred Couples and Davis Love III, Ryder Cup veterans who have teamed together to win the World Cup the past two years.
In other matches, it is: Corey Pavin and Jeff Maggert vs. Australia's Steve Elkington and Fiji's Vijay Singh; Jay Haas and Scott Hoch vs. South Africa's Fulton Allem and David Frost; John Huston and Jim Gallagher vs. Australia's Craig Parry and Robert Allenby; and Tom Lehman and Phil Mickelson vs. New Zealand's Frank Nobilo and Australia's Peter Senior.
In arriving at the pairings, Graham announced his team first for the odd-numbered matches, with American captain Hale Irwin selecting first in the even-numbered matches.
Hughes, who joined the International team early this week after Norman withdrew, ``is unknown to almost everybody but is a very, very talented player,'' Graham said in explaining his decision to put him with Price, the Zimbabwean who ranks as the leading player in the world.
``The last two days in practice, he has made more birdies than any other player on my team,'' Graham said.
``I think putting him with Nick, he won't feel like he has to go out and carry anybody.''
Irwin had no hesitation in naming Love and Couples as their opposition. The decision had been made earlier, he said.
``It's obvious that Nick is the biggest star here, so we knew they would have a star pairing,'' Irwin said. ``We wanted to put some heavyweights against them. Davis and Fred have proved time and time again they make a very good team.''
The four men not paired in the opening matches - Tsukasa Watanabe of Japan and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe for the Internationals and playing-captain Irwin and Loren Roberts for the United States will see action in the afternoon under a rule that requires all players to compete every day.
The five afternoon matches will be foursomes, in which each two-man team plays alternate shots on the same ball.
The same format, four-balls in the morning and foursomes in the afternoon, will be followed Saturday. The competition ends Sunday with 12 singles matches.
Each match is worth one point. In a departure from the Ryder Cup - the extremely popular biennial match between the United States and Europe and pattern on which these matches were founded - the singles matches cannot end in a draw. If the players are even after 18 holes, they continue play to a result.
In another departure, the team matches cannot end in a tie. If the event is even after all 32 matches, one man from each team will go out in sudden death to determine the outcome. The captains' decision on that player does not have to be made until Sunday morning.
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.