European captain Nick Faldo has explained the reasons behind his decision to rest Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood for the first time in their Ryder Cup careers.
Garcia is unbeaten in foursomes with eight victories and yesterday's half with Westwood, and the duo have been joint top points scorers in each of the last two contests.
Westwood and Garcia had each played in every session of their cup careers until Saturday (27 and 22 consecutive matches respectively) and Faldo's move looked an extraordinary gamble with his side seeking to come back from a three-point deficit after the opening day for the first time.
But ahead of the second day's foursomes at Valhalla the six-time major winner explained: "Sergio was tired. He was on antibiotics last week and he was shot by yesterday lunch-time. Lee has whopping great blisters on his feet from his new shoes.
"This week is a gruelling week on the body. Sergio wanted to be rested. Lee definitely didn't but I wanted him to be. We still have 20 points to play for.
"I wanted to keep players fit and strong. The days of going all five matches in this event...the fewer guys the better."
One area in which Faldo and Westwood were in agreement was in criticising the behaviour of Boo Weekley yesterday, who was trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy.
"The timing is important," Faldo added. "We are more than happy they are creating this atmosphere but when your opponent still has a shot to play and you intentionally pump it up, that's the thing some of the guys were a little bit upset about."
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