Asia captain Naomichi "Joe" Ozaki is confident his team will cause an upset by beating Ryder Cup winners Europe at this week's Royal Trophy.
Ozaki is excited by the prospect of competing against a team with five 2006 Ryder Cup-winning players. "We will have a close match, but I have a positive feeling about my team. We have a very good chance of winning this," Ozaki said.
"They are stronger than us, they're the favourites. I'm enjoying being fired up but I'm optimistic we will show that the best team on paper doesn't always win," added Ozaki, who is a non-playing captain along with Europe's Seve Ballesteros.
Ozaki's eight-man team includes Japanese pair Toru Taniguchi and Tetsuji Hiratsuka, South Koreans Yang Yong-eun and SK Ho, Thai trio Thaworn Wiratchant, Thongchai Jaidee and Prom Meesawat, and India's Jeev Milkha Singh, who was Asia's top player in 2006.
Ballesteros's team includes four Swedes - Johan Edfors Niclas Fasth, Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson - as well as Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Lee Westwood and Anthony Wall.
Ozaki feels the course at Bangkok's Amata Spring Country Club is tough, but better suited to his team. "It can be windy off the green, so that means a player's short game must be good," he said. "The Asian boys have a very good short game."
Ballesteros, who led the Europeans to a slender 9-7 victory in the inaugural contest last year, is expecting the hosts to put up a good fight again. "Nothing is easy, there are no easy competitions anymore," he said. "All 16 players are champions and I expect the Asians to be very strong."
The three-day competition features foursomes on day one, four-balls on day two and singles on the final day.
Clarke, making his Royal Trophy debut, expects a European victory but not by a large margin. "They have a strong team and I expect it to be very close - maybe even closer than last year," he said.
Meanwhile, Michelle Wie makes her 13th start against the men at the US Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii today. Three years ago when she was 14, Wie shocked the sporting world when she scored a second-round 68 in the same event and was only one shot away from surviving the halfway cut. Current world number three Adam Scott was among those who finished behind her.
But the more she has tried the more she has struggled. In her last four tournaments lining up against the men, including her last place at the European Masters in Switzerland, her rounds have been 75, 77, 78, 79, 77, 81, 81 and 80.
But more and more are questioning the wisdom of her continuing to try, with Australian Stuart Appleby, one of her rivals in a strong field this week, even saying: "I think she came five years too early to try to play the men's tour. I think she should really just let it go for now.
"She's not ready for it. She's certainly not proving anything except that she can't play with the men at her level right now. It's getting to the stage where she'll get criticised too much and she needs to pull the plug and come back when she's 20, 25."
