European Captain José María Olazábal was greeted by United States counterpart Davis Love III as he arrived at Medinah Country Club on Monday afternoon ahead of The 2012 Ryder Cup.

Holding Samuel Ryder’s famous golden cup, Olazábal was officially welcomed by Love and the United States Official Team Party outside Medinah’s clubhouse.

Olazábal was accompanied by a line-up consisting of members of the European Team Official Party:

George O’Grady, Chief Executive of The European Tour; Sandy Jones, Chief Executive of The PGA of Great Britain and Ireland; Richard Hills, European Ryder Cup Director; Phil Weaver, PGA Chairman, and Ian Randell, Chief Executive of The PGAs of Europe.

Rival Ryder Cup captains Davis Love 111 and Jose Maria Olazabal with the symbol of Ryder Cup supremacy. (Photo – Stuart Adams/www.golftourimages.com)

In addition to United States Captain Love, the party was greeted by a line-up of officials from the PGA of America: Allen Wronowski, President of The PGA of America; Ted Bishop, Vice President of The PGA of America; Derek Sprague, Secretary of the PGA of America; Jim Remy, Honorary President of The PGA of America; and Joe Steranka, Chief Executive of The PGA of America.

Donald Larson, the General Chairman of Medinah Country Club, also welcome the European Team Official Party on behalf of the host venue.

Love 111 said:  “We are excited to be here.  I welcome José Maria and his team on behalf of the U.S. Team.  We are delighted he brought this beautiful little cup, as Ben Crenshaw always said, and it’s great that we are actually going to get down to playing some golf.

“It’s been a long two years for the both of us, but now we are excited to play golf and get this great match started.”

And Olazabal responded:  “Good afternoon, everyone.  Thank you for being here.  This is a huge week for our game and for all of us.

“I hope we will have a great time this week here.  Davis, it’s been a long wait, but the time has come. It’s fantastic to start the week here next to you and I want to thank you and Robin and everyone here for the wonderful welcome that we had today.  ”

We landed a couple of hours ago, and I have to say that the guys at Rockford Airport were fantastic.  They made our arrival really smooth, and we are delighted to be here.”