BLOOMFIELD TWP, Mich. – Brookline, anyone? Not today. Not this time. Perhaps never again.
By dinnertime tonight, the Ryder Cup will be headed back to Europe, where it truly belongs based on the passion, pleasure and the performance the European side has displayed in the 35th matches at Oakland Hills.
The European side actually increased its record first-day lead yesterday as it forged to what can only be described as an insurmountable 11-5 lead, its largest lead ever entering the final day.
Barring a miracle of larger proportions than what unfolded before the world’s disbelieving eyes in 1999 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., where the Americans overcame what then was the largest deficit in Cup history, 10-6, to win 14½ to 131/2, the Europeans will have won the Ryder Cup for the fourth time in the last five competitions.
“We’ll have to gather up more than anybody’s ever gathered up before,” a somber U.S. captain Hal Sutton said last night.
Said Euro captain Bernhard Langer, “I knew I had a very strong team with a lot of depth, but I also knew how tough the American team was, so never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would have a six-point lead.”
“We came here as defending champions. We have the Cup with us and we want to take it back home. So far, so good.”
And so far, what a nightmare this has been for the U.S. side, which has been embarrassed on home soil – particularly at the top of its powerful lineup, where Tiger Woods lost another match yesterday, giving him a 1-3 record and adding to his already suspect career Ryder Cup record of 6-11-2. Phil Mickelson is 1-2 and Davis Love III is 1-3. That’s an unthinkable 3-8 record from the top three U.S. players.
And, making the U.S. side look even more of a mockery is Woods, supposedly a leader on this team, for the second day in a row refusing to come into the interview room, instead making his teammates have to face the tough questions.
Meanwhile, every other player from each team has come parading in to answer questions, good and bad, easy or tough. By going his own way and refusing to be equal to his teammates, Woods simply gives more credence to the theory that the Europeans will always be better than the Americans in the team format because they’re a team.
“He’s obviously disappointed with what’s gone on,” Sutton said, speaking for Woods. “He’s probably scratching his head like the rest of us are.”
How would we know whether he’s devastated, frustrated or scratching his head at all? His absence only leads many to assume he can’t wait to get on a plane and fly out of here tonight back to his hermetically sealed environment in Isleworth, Fla.
As for Sutton, a good man who’s tried desperately to push all the right buttons, his task is impossible. He won’t duplicate what Ben Crenshaw’s team did in ’99.
Despite the fact that Langer boldly said he’s “pretty sure and convinced” that his team will win two of the first three matches (Woods vs. Paul Casey, Mickelson vs. Sergio Garcia and Love vs. Darren Clarke), the U.S. players will surely show some pride today.
“You’re going to see some good golf from us,” Mickelson promised. “Now, coming from six points back, is it possible? Sure, it’s possible. Is it likely? Probably not. We don’t have anything to lose. We have, for all intents and purposes, lost the Cup, but we can still win it.”
There will be no repeat of ’99 for two significant reasons: First, this European team is its deepest in history with strong players from top to bottom and no weak links. Second, unlike in ’99, when then-captain Mark James made a huge error in not playing four of his players at all until the Sunday singles, Langer has played every one of his players at least once, so they won’t go into today ice-cold.
“I didn’t have a grand feeling at this particular time in ’99,” Sutton recalled. “That evening elevated everyone’s feelings. It was when everybody started around the room talking about what the Ryder Cup had meant to them. Each conversation got a little deeper and a little bit more touching and everybody really had their heart touched.
“You know, that same thing may happen tonight.”
Ryder Cup scoreboard
Morning four-ball
Chris DiMarco & Jay Haas (USA) vs. Sergio Garcia & Lee Westwood, match halved
Tiger Woods & Chris Riley (USA) def. Darren Clarke & Ian Poulter, 4 and 3
Jim Furyk & Chad Campbell (USA) def. Paul Casey & David Howell, 1 up
Stewart Cink & Davis Love III (USA) def. Colin Montgomerie & Padraig Harrington, 3 and 2
Afternoon alternate shot
Clarke & Westwood def, Haas & DiMarco (USA), 5 and 4
Phil Mickelson & David Toms (USA) def. Miguel Angel Jimenez & Thomas Levet, 4 and 3
Garcia & Luke Donald def. Furyk & Fred Funk (USA),
Harrington & Paul McGinley def. Love & Woods (USA),
STAT OF THE DAY
Colin Montgomerie sat out the afternoon matches, ending his record streak of 30 straight Ryder Cup matches that began in 1991.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Just hearing [the crowd] – one side is yelling ‘U’, another side is yelling ‘S’ and the other side is yelling ‘A’. It’s just goose bumps and heart pumping.” – CHRIS RILEY, Team USA