Coop assisting Pavin

NEWPORT, Wales -- In addition to his assistant captains, United States Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin has another longtime friend and adviser helping him out at Celtic Manor.

The gentleman seen alongside Pavin in a cart out on the course is Dr. Richard Coop, a respected sport psychologist who has worked with Pavin -- and many other players, including the late Payne Stewart -- on the mental side of golf.

A retired professor of educational psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Coop was a co-author of the groundbreaking book The New Golf Mind with Dr. Gary Wiren in 1978 and wrote Mind Over Golf in 1993.

-- Bill Fields