This has a chance to be fun. Lots of fun. The Ryder Cup has been anything but for the Americans in recent forays against Europe, but the captain of the U.S. squad is doing his best to add some humor in the run-up to the 2008 event.

Good-natured barbs and banter have been flying between Paul Azinger and his European counterpart Nick Faldo, who used to make a nice television tandem but will spend most of this year needling each other as the matches at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville approach.

They were together last fall at an event meant to promote the Cup, and if the smackdowns counted for anything, Azinger would have staked his team to a big lead heading into the 37th Ryder Cup Matches, set for Sept. 16-21 at Valhalla.

Of course, all the ribbing won’t mean a thing when the pegs go in the ground in September.

Too bad, because Azinger clearly got the best of his former television sidekick, who undoubtedly will have more opportunities to fire his own zingers at Zinger. Azinger didn’t need long to get warmed up, especially after European Ryder Cup director Richard Hills joked that the Americans should fear not — Faldo would not be picking him as an at-large selection.

“Richard, don’t count yourself out yet,” Azinger said. “The way Nick’s assistants are dropping like flies, you may be in there as a captain’s assistant.”

Laughter ensued, but Faldo could only smirk. His captaincy was already caught up in a bit of controversy, and Azinger was referring to the resignation of Paul McGinley from the post of assistant captain last September.

That followed Faldo’s snub of the Irishman for one of his captain’s picks at an event called the Seve Trophy, a Ryder Cup-style format that pitted continental Europe against a team from Britain. Although the event doesn’t attract one percent of the interest generated by the Ryder Cup, every move Faldo made was scrutinized with an eye toward Valhalla and running Europe’s Cup winning streak to four.

To show just how important it is back home, Faldo noted that a press conference to publicize his own company might attract a pittance compared to the attention afforded the Ryder Cup. And there was Azinger with another barb.

“So the Ryder Cup is bigger than Nick Faldo Enterprises?” Azinger mocked. “That’s huge.”

And so it went. Azinger remarked that as a competitor he barely ever heard Faldo, a six-time major champion and 11-time European Ryder Cup team member, complete a sentence. “Now his voice activation system has switched on and you can’t turn it off,” Azinger said.

More laughs.

Many are hoping that Azinger is able to have the same kind of fun with the 12-man squad he leads against Europe when the Americans try to figure out how to win a competition they have not won since 1999.

Azinger has heard all the theories, listened to all the suggestions. He watched an American team that is likely to have several of the same players on his squad trounce the International squad at the Presidents Cup, an event the U.S. has lost only once in seven tries. Meanwhile, the Americans have lost five of the last six Ryder Cups.

And he is aware of the comments from several players who said they appreciated the way captain Jack Nicklaus handled things last fall in Montreal.

So, Azinger called the Golden Bear.

“I waited about 10 days after to let it sink in,” Azinger says. “I just wanted to get a feel for how he felt the players reacted to what he did. I wanted to understand his philosophy. There’s nothing earth-shattering.

“Jack’s leadership role and the respect he would command as the greatest player of all time is part of it,” Azinger says. “When he comes back and pats you on the back, I think it means more. I can’t be that guy to Tiger Woods or Jim Furyk. I just can’t be that guy. I don’t think they necessarily need that either. And remember Nicklaus was the captain of a losing Ryder Cup team and a losing Presidents Cup team. (England’s) Tony Jacklin lost a Ryder Cup (as a captain). There’s not a formula that says this is how you do it. There are two teams going head to head battling as hard as they can.”

Azinger has tried to influence a different outcome, however. He was behind a major change to the PGA of America’s team selection process, which now has players earning a majority of their points in 2008, with only last year’s majors having any impact on this year’s point standings. And instead of getting points for top-10 finishes, this year players who make the cut in a PGA Tour event will earn points based on prize money earned. The points double at the majors.

Bottom line? “I’m trying to get a hotter team,” says Azinger, who will also get four at-large selections instead of only two.

Azinger says that the notion that the Americans don’t have fun at the Ryder Cup compared to the Presidents Cup is overblown.

“When the United States team gets behind as often as we’ve gotten behind at the Ryder Cup, and as early as we get behind, I think it’s really difficult to look enthusiastic and like you’re having a great time,” he says. “And I think that was the case in Montreal (at the Presidents Cup). America got off to a great start and everybody is happy-go-lucky and they are putting each other in headlocks and Woody Austin is taking nosedives…”

There might be a few moments this year when Faldo will want to put Azinger in a headlock.

All in good fun, of course.

Ryder Cup Notebook

• The FedExCup playoffs will take a two-week break so that players can be fresh for the Ryder Cup. The original PGA Tour schedule called for the Ryder Cup to be played the week following the Tour Championship, meaning that many of the top players might have been looking at competing for five straight weeks. Now the tour will take a week off following the BMW Championship, the third playoff event, with the Tour Championship moving to a week after the Ryder Cup.

• U.S. captain Paul Azinger tabbed a couple of former captains as his assistants. Raymond Floyd, who captained the U.S. to a tie in 1989 at the Belfry, and Dave Stockton, who guided the U.S. to victory in 1991 at Kiawah Island, will help Azinger, along with PGA Tour player Olin Browne.

• Nick Faldo knows the Ryder Cup quite well. Nobody has played in as many Ryder Cups as Faldo’s 11, and nobody has played in as many matches (46) or won as many points (25). The Englishman, who won six major championships to distinguish his individual career, goes back 30 years with the Ryder Cup. He played on the first European team to win on American soil and played a big role in the resurgence of the event.

Team USA

Phil Mickelson (5,342.500 Ryder Cup points)
Stewart Cink (4,952.665)
Kenny Perry (4,480.700)
Jim Furyk (4,423.892)
Anthony Kim (4,035.296)
Justin Leonard (3,379.274)
Ben Curtis (3,120.061)
Boo Weekley (2,785.095)
Chad Campbell (Captain’s pick)
J.B. Holmes (Captain’s pick)
Hunter Mahan (Captain’s pick)
Steve Stricker (Captain’s pick)

Team Europe

Padraig Harrington
Sergio Garcia
Miguel Angel Jimenez
Robert Karlsson
Justin Rose
Lee Westwood
Soren Hansen
Henrik Stenson
Graeme McDowell
Oliver Wilson
Paul Casey (Captain’s pick)
Ian Poulter (Captain’s pick)