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United States' big three did not come through in clutch
By Timothy Dwyer / Knight-Ridder Newspapers
SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- When you look for reasons why the United States lost the Ryder Cup, all you have to consider is the play of three men. Three guys who are considered the top golfers in America, each of whom won a major this season.
PGA champion Davis Love 3rd, Masters champ Tiger Woods, and British Open winner Justin Leonard were supposed to lead the United States to victory here at the Valderrama Golf Club.
What they did was play horribly. Combined, the big three had a record of 1-9-3. Sunday, when the U.S. team needed them to lead the charge back from a huge deficit, they choked on the pressure. Together they were 0-2-1. Only Leonard managed to come up with half a point, halving his match with Thomas Bjorn.
If either Love or Woods had won his match, the United States would have returned home with the Ryder Cup.
Love, who played a flawless final round at the PGA Championship just six weeks ago, was a dismal 0-4 on the Costa del Sol. Woods, whom everyone expected to dominate match play -- as he had as an amateur -- was 1-3-1. And Leonard, whose controlled style should have served him well at this tight course with tiny greens, was winless -- 0-2-2.
The United States needed a miracle comeback Sunday. Down to the Europeans, 10-1/2-5-1/2, after the conclusion of the rain-delayed foursome matches, captain Tom Kite made out his singles lineup with a fast start in mind.
Fred Couples was in the leadoff spot. Then came Love, Woods and Leonard. The thinking obviously was to let the big guns jump-start the team and gain the momentum to enable their teammates to charge for the win.
Couples had lost the continuation of a four-ball match Sunday morning that dug the hole a little deeper for the United States. He wanted to get an early start in the singles gunfight so his ailing back would not have time to tighten up. When he walked to the first tee, he was totally relaxed.
Couples did his job. He went ahead of Ian Woosnam on the first hole and kept the heat on the entire way, closing out the 39-year-old native of Wales on the 11th.
"We were so far behind," Couples said, "that I wasn't nervous at all. There was no pressure at all."
Couples and Woosnam have played each other many times before in match play and had joked on Saturday that they would tell their captains they wanted to go third in the singles so they could face each other one more time.
After staying with Couples for the second and third holes, Woosnam was regretting the match by the fourth, a par 5.
Couples hit his drive into a fairway bunker. He smacked the ball out of the bunker to 14 feet above the hole.
Woosnam was on the green in 3. He lined up a 12-foot birdie putt. He bent his stocky body over the ball, took a practice swing, and then tapped the putt into the hole.
Former President George Bush was watching from his knees just left of the green. Holding hands with his wife, Barbara, he watched as his sometime golfing partner, Couples, strode purposefully toward the ball. Birds chirped from the cork trees ringing the green, and it sounded like a symphony in full play.
Couples tapped the ball softly. It was a perfect line. He began walking toward it when he knew it was good. He raised his hands in the air.
"I had that shot on four," he said later, "and it was huge. (Woosnam) sank his birdie putt and I hit my eagle, and it was like I was telling him that birdie was not going to be good enough."
Couples birdied the next hole, a par 4.
"Way to go, Freddy," Bush shouted.
On the par-3 sixth, Couples' ball landed 4-1/2 feet from the pin. Bush hooted. The former president was asked whether he had given Couples golf lessons.
"I've taught the boy everything I know about golf," Bush said, smiling, "but today he's on his own."
Couples sank his putt to go up by four holes. He began to watch the scoreboard to see whether the big three who had followed him onto the course were keeping up their end of the comeback.
Love was in the second group against Per-Ulrik Johansson. He took the lead on the first hole, lost it on the second hole, and then played uninspired golf, losing his match by three holes.
Woods was in the No.3 spot in the order, versus Costantino Rocca. He lost the first hole, the third and fifth. That put him three holes down. With the way Woods made a habit of coming back in the U.S. Amateur Championships, he couldn't be counted out.
The United States needed Woods to roar back from his deficit.
Couples finished his match and stood just off the 11th green looking at a gigantic scoreboard. "I just hope the rest of the team comes through now," he said.
Woods fell apart on the ninth hole, though. His approach shot was short right of the green. He chipped on to within about seven feet. Rocca's second shot was also short. He chipped to within 20 feet of the pin.
Rocca lined up his putt. The crowd in the grandstand stood. Fans were eight and nine deep behind the ropes. Short and hefty, Rocca bent slightly at the waist over the ball. He had exactly the right line. The ball dropped in, and the crowd exploded.
"Rocca! Rocca!" they chanted.
Woods looked shaken. He took a long time to settle on his line. He took his usual three practice swings, his putter going back and forth with the steadiness of a grandfather clock pendulum.
Then he left the putt short.
"He hooped it," Woods said later, "and I missed. I was trying to claw my way back into the match, but that was a big momentum breaker."
Woods made the long walk from the ninth green to the 10th tee, in front of the ornate clubhouse, with his head down. There would be no comeback for Woods.
The United States needed a win and a half from the big three to win Sunday, as it turned out.
Leonard, starting fourth in the lineup, went out fast, winning the first four holes. But after nine, his lead was down to one hole. After 10, everything was even. And that's how it ended.
The rest of the U.S. team played superb, starting with Couples. It almost managed to pull off what would have been a miracle comeback.
But the Americans came up short, and it is clear why: The big three, the three guys who were supposed to set the tone and carry the day, played small on a day they needed to be larger than life.
And you need to look no deeper than that to discover why the U.S. team lost the Ryder Cup in the rain on the Costa del Sol.
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(Timothy Dwyer is a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Write to him at: The Philadelphia Inquirer, 400 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19130.)
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