Ryder Cup Notebook: Tiger Woods ... Sings?

On the course they were swinging, in the lockerroom they were singing. Those crazy Americans, trying to loosen up for this Ryder Cup, goaded one another into singing their alma maters' fight songs on Tuesday, and Tiger Woods' rendition of the Stanford fight song was ... well, we'll let Scott Verplank explain: "I wouldn't recommend he go to a recording studio or anything."

Tuesday was the first day of practice for the European and American teams that will begin battle in the Ryder Cup on Friday. Both teams sent their players out in pairs, in some - but probably not all - cases signalling who will be playing with whom.

The practice pairings on the European side were Colin Montgomerie/David Howell, Robert Karlsson/Henrik Stenson, Jose Maria Olazabal/Sergio Garcia, Paul McGinley/Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey/Luke Donald and Darren Clarke/Lee Westwood.

The American practice pairings were Tiger Woods/Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson/Chris DiMarco, Chad Campbell/David Toms, Scott Verplank/Brett Wetterich, Stewart Cink/J.J. Henry and Vaughn Taylor/Zach Johnson.

Meanwhile, DiMarco says the U.S. side is using criticism of the team as motivation. What criticism? Well, Johnny Miller called this U.S. team "probably on paper the worst Ryder Cup team we've ever fielded." Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly agreed, calling Team USA "the single worst team we have taken to a Ryder Cup."

More stories from Tuesday at the Ryder Cup:

• Monty ready to share the load
• The three challenges of being a Ryder Cup captain
• Donald says watch out for U.S. rookies
• "Nationwide Tour" two words that rile Europeans
• U.S. must ditch slow-starters label, says Furyk