February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Most things Nicklaus said throughout his career made sense and this was no exception. Suddenly, Europe would have access to Seve Ballesteros, a rising young German player called Bernhard Langer, and later to Jose Maria Olazabal. And suddenly, the Ryder Cup was back in business.
Following the events at Oakland Hills — joyous or calamitous, depending on your allegiance — perhaps it’s time for the U.S. team to rethink its status. After all, with Europe winning four of the last five contests, and with a record nine-point winning margin last Sunday, surely now it’s time for the U.S. to become the Rest of the World. Without Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen to bolster flagging fortunes, the pattern of enduring European supremacy is set to continue at the K Club outside of Dublin in 2006.
Far-fetched? Yes, but what can the U.S. do to prevent another humiliation? Because the next U.S. captain and his marquee players, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, have to come up with something different to avoid this ritual slaughter.
There was some complaining in Detroit that the atmosphere wasn’t quite as electric as at previous events at the Country Club in Brookline and at Oak Hill, but the home galleries were given nothing to holler about by their overpaid and undermotivated major winners.
Even if hapless Hal Sutton bungled his pairings, forgot to create badly needed team spirit among his players, and made a series of poor decisions, and even if Woods, Mickelson and Davis Love III left their A, B and C games at home, Europe’s performance was one to relish.
Marshaled so ably by Langer, who cleverly achieved the balance of having his players highly competitive and relaxed at the same time, Europe played better, putted better, battled better and in the end partied better than their sorry opponents.
If Colin Montgomerie, who must now be closing in on Ballesteros as the ultimate Ryder Cup player, sank the winning putt, and if the irrepressible Sergio Garcia was the pick of the European players over the three days, the Irish contingent yet again played a key role in this remarkable success.
Darren Clarke lost only once in his five games and missed a short putt to defeat Love in the singles. However, if his contribution was highly significant, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley produced arguably the performance of the event when they crushed Woods and Love in the Saturday foursomes.
With a final throw of the dice, Sutton had put Woods and Love together in a desperate attempt to close the gap on Europe going into the singles. At that stage of the matches, Woods and Love were regarded as America’s strongest pairing and when they moved two holes in front of Harrington and McGinley, there was just a hint that all might not be lost after all.
However, with some magnificent golf, the Irish partnership responded to run out comprehensive winners by 4 and 3. And then in the event of a U.S. comeback in the singles, Langer paid both players the ultimate compliment by putting Harrington out second to last and McGinley last if a vital point was needed at the end.
Their nerve wasn’t to be tested in the way McGinley’s was at the Belfry two years ago when he sunk the winning putt, but further wins over Stewart Cink and Jay Haas simply capped a marvelous final day as Europe raced to their expected victory.
The raucous celebrations continued for the best part of an hour around the 18th green, the European smiles in direct contrast to the expressionless American faces. “By winning the matches so often, we have motivated the U.S. team,” said Harrington, whose cousin Joey Harrington was guiding the Detroit Lions to victory in the NFL on the same day. “So we have to be careful that we’re not building ourselves up for a big fall.”
McGinley said it was an honor to be given the anchor singles position by Langer. “I’m as keen as ever about being in the team in two years’ time,” he added. “I’m very patriotic, I’m very Irish, I’ve had two great Ryder Cup experiences and now it’s coming to my home country, and I desperately want to be a part of it again.”
Harrington admitted that Europe were surprised at the margin of victory. “We would never have been so conceited to think we could have come and beaten them by nine points. This was really special, and the missing link now is that some of us have to go out now and win majors.”
On this showing, that seems likelier than ever.