Friday, September 24, 1999
Europe leads United States convincingly after
Day 1
By Jack Saylor
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
BROOKLINE, Mass. - Easy Ryder? Not hardly.
The American Ryder Cup players found captain Mark James' feisty
young European team more than they could handle, and the heavily
favored U.S. won only one match in trailing, 6-2, after a wild,
thrill-filled opening day of the Boston Tee Party at the Country
Club.
James' happy melding of Jesper Parnevik and Sergio Garcia led
the doughty Euros to an even bigger first-day lead than they enjoyed
two years ago at Valderrama (4 1/2-3 1/2).
Ben Crenshaw tried to pull all the captaining tricks he could.
He paired his ace, Tiger Woods, with Tom Lehman in foursomes
- and lost. He paired Woods with David Duval in the afternoon
best-ball - and they also lost.
His units managed only one win in the morning so he left that
duo - Jeff Maggert and Hal Sutton - together in the afternoon
. . . and they lost.
"Those guys played tremendous," an almost-stunned
Crenshaw said. "Our guys played well. . . . We need to see
a few more putts go in."
James was wary. "You can get the breaks and lead one day,
6-2," he said. "But this doesn't mean we're the superior
side."
The Ryder dream match, which paired Woods, 23, and Lehman against
19-year-old Garcia and Parnevik, turned into a nightmare for the
Americans.
Parnenik shepherded the brilliant young Garcia around the course
and they beat the Americans, 2 and 1, in alternate shot.
Then the 34-year-old Swede, who hones his game as a regular
on the U.S. tour, turned the opening day into his own personal
show in the afternoon as he and Garcia edged Phil Mickelson and
Jim Furyk, 1-up.
Parnevik contributed six birdies and an eagle in the best-ball
and Garcia also tossed in an eagle, chipping in from 30 yards
at the 14th hole, accompanied by his Medinah scissors kick.
"I had everything going for me today," Parnevik said.
"Phil and Jim played really well with 11 birdies."
Parnevik's only mistake was missing a six-foot putt at the
17th hole for a clinching birdie. That opened the door for an
Americans to halve at the 18th.
But Mickelson, who had played beautifully but putted miserably,
turned it back around. After missing a four-footer for birdie
at the 16th, he left the vital seven-footer on the lip, thus preserving
the Europeans' 1-up edge.
"I really thought Phil would make that putt at the last
hole," Parnevik said. "No one deserved to lose this
one - it was an unbelievable match."
The Europeans got helping hands from a variety of sources -
some key birdie putts from Miguel Angel Jiminez and fellow Spaniard
Jose Maria Olazabal, with whom he paired in an afternoon victory.
Paul Lawrie was a tower of strength all day with his fellow
Scotsman Colin Montgomerie, while Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke
staved off Woods and Duval.
The only saving grace for the Americans in the afternoon came
when Davis Love III salvaged a half at the 18th hole by holing
a 30-footer for birdie.
That snatched a half-point from Montgomery and Lawrie in a
match in which they never trailed.
The Parnevik-Garcia victory over Woods and Lehman in foursomes
seemed to set the pattern for the matches.
The U.S. team fell behind, 2 1/2-1 1/2, after the morning foursomes
and things simply didn't get better.
"Jesper was a great partner," Garcia said. "I
really enjoyed it. Their team was tough and we knew it would be
close. We shot two under in foursomes and that's very good in
the wind."
Parnevik recalled his Ryder baptism two years ago at Valderrama.
"That was great, but this was an exciting comeback,"
he said. "Sergio hit a lot of great iron shots and chip shots."
Duval and Mickelson also met an early defeat at the hands of
the Scottish tandem of Montgomerie and Lawrie, 3 and 2.
Putting woes cost the U.S. in both matches, in fact, all day.
"We didn't make any putts," Lehman said. "We
didn't really get the ball close."
Perhaps as damaging to the American ego was one of its premier
pairings, Payne Stewart and Love, played to a deadlock by European
rookies, Jiminez and Padraig Harrington.
"In match play the putts have to go down," Crenshaw
said, shaking his head. "We had a lot of them grazing the
edge."
Crenshaw, who called the day "chaotic, confusing and excruciating,"
was hopeful of a turnaround at best-ball, which U.S. players are
more familiar.
But whatever the U.S. team did, the Europeans had a topper
for it - frequently by Parnevik.
Mickelson did minimal damage because the skinny Swede, with
his cap pointed to the sky, had his putter pointed straight at
the hole.
Parnevik made four birdies and an eagle on the front nine,
holing his 142-yard wedge shot at the par-four eighth hole to
shoot 30, despite a bogey. He added two more birdies in the afternoon.
"Jesper is a perfect foil for Sergio," James said.
"He knew when to rein him in and when to let him go."
Two more days like this and that rein is likely extend the
reign of the Europeans.
(c) 1999, Detroit Free Press.
Visit the Freep, the World Wide Web site of
the Detroit Free Press, at http://www.freep.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information
Services.
|
