Saturday, September
28, 2002
U.S. pulls into
a tie with Europe on second day
By STEPHEN WILSON
AP Sports Writer
SUTTON COLDFIELD,
England (AP) - Tiger Woods teamed with Davis Love III for two
victories Saturday, helping the United States pull into a tie
with Europe after the second day of the Ryder Cup.
The Europeans started
the day with a 4 1/2-3 1/2 lead.
After the teams split
the morning's four alternate-shot matches, the Americans won two
and halved one of the afternoon best-ball matches to draw even
at 8-8.
The United States
will be favored going into Sunday's 12 singles matches at The
Belfry. The Americans need 14 points to retain the Cup; the Europeans
need 14 1/2 to get it back.
It's the first time
the two teams have been tied after the first two days of team
matches since the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, S.C.
Since 1985, the Americans
have won the Sunday singles six of eight times.
Woods lost twice
Friday, dropping his career Ryder Cup record to a miserable 3-8-1.
A day later, things
were much different.
He and Love beat
Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn 4 and 3 in the morning, and overtook
Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood at the 18th hole for a 1-up win
in the afternoon.
"Davis and I
are good buddies, and it's nice to go out with a buddy,"
Woods said. "We played well. We gelled well together. It
was a lot of fun competing at this level."
"We have good
chemistry," Love said, "because he's the best player
in the world. You can't judge the strength of a player by his
Ryder Cup record. You never know what's going to happen in match
play."
In the second match,
Woods had seven birdies, as well as two putts of less than 7 feet,
which he didn't have to take.
"It's a fun
feeling to have a guy out there you know can make it," Love
said. "With Tiger you know he's going to make it. It's a
fun feeling to have a partner like that who just keeps pouring
in one after the other."
With the Europeans
holding a 6 1/2-5 1/2 lead after the morning session, Mark Calcavecchia
and David Duval _ 3-down after seven holes _ evened it up by beating
Niclas Fasth and Jesper Parnevik 1-up.
Then, Colin Montgomerie
and Padraig Harrington put the Europeans ahead by a point with
a 2-and-1 win over Phil Mickelson and David Toms.
Woods and Love, 1-down
against Garcia and Westwood, made their move at the 17th as the
Europeans faded under pressure.
After Love chipped
in from the fringe for birdie, Garcia missed a crucial 3-foot
putt to lose the hole and leave the match all square.
At 18, Garcia and
Westwood came up short again, both getting bogeys. After Love
made a 5-foot putt for par, Westwood had a 4-footer to tie, but
the ball slid past the hole to the left.
Garcia threw his
ball into the lake in anger.
With the score now
tied at 7 1/2, Scott Hoch and Jim Furyk met Clarke and Paul McGinley
in the last match.
Hoch made a 12-foot
putt at the 17th to go 1-up with one to play, giving the Americans
a great chance to finish the day with a 1-point lead.
But after McGinley
made par, Furyk and Hoch faced difficult putts to halve the hole
and win the match. Furyk's 15-footer slid by, and Hoch just missed
from 8 feet.
Woods closed out
his morning match with a 4-foot putt at the 15th hole, securing
only his fourth win in 13 career Ryder Cup matches.
"Being 0-2 yesterday
wasn't exactly a great feeling," he said. "It was tough
sleeping last night."
The Woods-Love win
put the American team ahead for the first time, 5 1/2 to 4 1/2,
after Mickelson and Toms won the opening match 2 and 1 over Cup
rookies Pierre Fulke and Phillip Price.
But the Europeans
won the next two matches to finish the morning with a 6 1/2-5
1/2 lead.
Garcia and Westwood,
who won their two matches Friday, continued their inspired partnership
by beating Stewart Cink and Furyk 2 and 1 to even the overall
score at 5 1/2. It was an ugly match, with eight bogeys and just
three birdies.
"Maybe we struggled
a bit today, but that goes with the pressure of trying to win
as many points as you can," Garcia said. "It wasn't
the greatest match in Ryder Cup history, but we managed to win
it."
In the morning's
final match, Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer won 1-up in a drama-filled
contest against Scott Verplank and Hoch.
With the match all-square,
Montgomerie made a 6-foot birdie putt at the 17th to go 1-up.
At the 18th, after Langer left his approach at the bottom tier
of the massive green, Montgomerie left his 45-foot putt just inches
from the hole to clinch the win and put Europe back in front.
"It was one
of those mornings when any of the matches could have gone either
way and 2-2 was probably about right," European captain Sam
Torrance said.
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