Golf Central

Bizarre golf injuries are always are favourites - but as one who hopes that the Americans will actually be able to muster up a bit of a fight this year in the Ryder Cup, doubts are beginning to crystalise as to whether captain Paul Azinger will be able to find 12 fit bodies to suit up for the US.

First of all there's the immensely talented young hick Boo Weekley, who simply needs to learn to travel better. Somehow our Southern-fried hero managed to make it all the way to China and back for the World Cup alive. But the small-town boy had trouble a-plenty on his way to Hawaii ("sorry 'bout them deer-huntin' bullets in my carry-on bag, officuh, sir").

And then, at last weekend's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in the Southern California desert, it was blood everywhere as Boo suffered constant nosebleeds. Used to the dank humidity of the Florida panhandle, Boo couldn't stop gushing blood from his nostrils in the dry desert air of Palm Springs. Asked if he'd ever had nosebleeds before, Boo said: "No sir, not unless somebody hit me in the nose." ...

And then the celebrities got into the act, trying to knock out one of the PGA Tour's best feel-good stories of the year so far. The veteran Robert Gamez was minding his own business, trying to secure his card and work into winning form, when his celebrity partner Anthony Anderson, the B-list actor from Barbershop, clocked him in the head on the tee box with his driver.

"It's a good thing I've got a pretty hard head," said Gamez.

The Americans need to learn something from their fearless captain Azinger, who keeps throwing verbal haymakers at his European counterpart Nick Faldo with abandon. Faldo is hardly offering resistance, but if he does, Azinger knows when to duck.