Warren Blog: We must play great golf to win the cup

Heading into Sunday with a two-point lead has the U.S. Team optimistic, writes Captain Roger Warren in his PGA Cup blog. But, he stresses, no one on the squad underestimates how tough it will be to seal the deal in the closing singles.

By Roger Warren, United States Team Captain

GREENSBORO, Ga. -- At the end of the afternoon sessions, someone asked me if I wanted to share a secret I knew or show off an "I told you so" about our team's performance today.

Well, it's my job to be optimistic about this team, and if you look at this team, it's easy to be optimistic. I'm very proud of our guys and how they performed. Today was just so impressive. To capture 5.5 out of a possible 8 points today, that's just really strong -- especially if you consider how good the team from Great Britain & Ireland is and how well they are playing. But again, we have such a talented roster and nothing they achieve really surprises me.

So tomorrow, in 10 singles matches, we need to get 4.5 points to win the PGA Cup. It's not a sure thing by any means, we are going to have to play great golf. But I think we will continue to do just that. The guys seem to have this innate ability to bounce back from a bad break or a strong run by the GB&I team; to always display the heart and courage to not let a match get away from them -- and there definitely were times when a number of them could have. As a captain, that's a wonderful thing to witness in your team. I'm really proud of them; this is a great day for the American team.

With all the emotions and highs and lows that go on during the course of one match, it has been quite the adventure to experience it eight times in one day, 16 times over the course of two days. Tomorrow I guess I'll go through it 10 more times. But I would never compare what I'm going through with what the players are going through. They have shown such strength and resolve. It's a real honor to see how they fight and battle with every shot.

And as for tomorrow, without giving away too much, I am confident about the line-up I'm going to send out. Needing 4.5 points, the decision making is a little easier then if we were way behind, but the overall strategy would be the same. Let's try to get as many red numbers on the scoreboard as we can early. I think that motivates and excites each player and it just builds strong momentum for the team all over the course. Then again, the other thing that makes it easier for me is that I have 10 players that proved today that they can go out there and play.

There is one other note I'd like to make about being a team captain. When the team plays well like they did today, all of the credit will go to them. If they would not have played well, of course the pairings were bad and that's coming back to me. But that's okay, I knew that going in. But it hit home a bit more this week and I'll tell you, I didn't sleep that well last night. I may not sleep that great tonight; we have a big task ahead of us.

But I do feel good, actually great, about this team and how we stand. Tomorrow should be exciting and a lot of fun. All we wanted going into Sunday was to be in a good position to bring the PGA Cup back into American hands. I like our chances.