Team America loses to Europe in Ryder Cup

By PATRICK McMANAMON

Scripps Howard News Service

SOTOGRANDE, Spain -- The U.S. Ryder Cup team everyone expected finally showed up on Sunday.

Problem was, it was too late.

Tom Kite's 12 had dug itself too deep a hole, and though they fought back fiercely in Sunday's afternoon singles, they could only manage a should-have, could-have 14-1/2 -- 13-1/2 loss to Europe at Valderrama.

The Ryder Cup stays in Europe, thanks to the magic of Seve Ballesteros and a disastrous second round of fourballs and foursomes, when Europe won six of eight points.

"We're all very disappointed," said Kite, the U.S. captain who asked former President Bush to give his team a Saturday-night pep talk. "Had we played poorly and been blown out it might be easier to take. But to play as well as we did and perform as admirably as we did makes it very, very difficult."

The United States won eight of 12 points in the singles, and almost turned around a five-point deficit. But almost wasn't good enough, and it left some members wondering.

"We didn't come here to lose," Justin Leonard said.

"I didn't see personally, looking at the lineups, how they could beat us 1-on-1, mano a mano," Tom Lehman said. "I didn't see it before, I don't see it now. But you put them together and combine them, the sum is greater than the parts.

"They play great together."

Kite said the Europeans' knowledge of Valderrama -- site of the season-ending Volvo Masters, the final tournament on the European Tour -- made the difference, as his team missed several short putts and did not chip as well as the Europeans.

"I have no regrets or second-guess of anything I did," Kite said, "with the exception of being a little stronger in my request to encourage guys to come to Valderrama. I tried to ask them to come before the British Open if it fit in their schedule.

"I was not forceful enough and did not get enough of them here."

He later added: "I honestly believe that the only reason we got beat is they knew the golf course and we didn't."

Ballesteros respectfully disagreed.

"I don't think the Americans lost this Ryder Cup," he said. "I think the European team won it."

And he's probably right. Europe played well Friday, dominated Saturday and won some early key matches Sunday.

Down 10-1/2 -- 5-1/2 when the singles began, Kite tried to topload his team to get some early momentum. His first four singles players were Fred Couples, Davis Love, Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard.

Couples was the only one to win. Love and Woods lost, and Leonard tied -- after leading 4-up on the front nine.

This year, Woods won the Masters, Leonard the British Open, Love the PGA. But none fared well in Ryder Cup match play.

Woods finished 1-3-1, and lost to Constantino Rocca 4 & 2 on Sunday.

Love went 0-4, losing his singles match to Per-Ulrik Johansson.

And Leonard finished 0-2-2 despite playing some good rounds.

The three combined for a record of 1-9-3, while Rocca went 3-1, Colin Montgomerie 3-1-1, Bernhard Langer 3-1 and Jose Maria Olazabal 2-2-1.

"It shows the character the guys here have," said Nick Faldo, who with 25 points has the all-time Ryder Cup point record. "The American tour is far, far bigger as far as the dollar, but we have a lot of character on this team."

Consider, too, the three other U.S. big guns -- Tom Lehman (1-1-2), Fred Couples (2-2) and Phil Mickelson (1-1-2) -- and the top six U.S. players combined went 5-13-7.

"It's called golf," Woods said. "You can't always win."

Though Rocca and Johansson put a hurting on the U.S., Leonard's match against Bjorn proved critical because of what it could have been.

Leonard took a 4-up lead after four holes, then three times had leads on the back nine. But he could only halve his match, making the score 13-9 Europe.

That half-point swing proved huge later, as the United States cut the lead to 13-11 behind wins by Lehman and Jeff Maggert.

But Brad Faxon lost to Bernhard Langer after missing a short birdie putt on 17. Langer's point gave the Europeans 14 (of 28) points, and Europe knew it would retain the Cup (defending champions keep the Cup in ties). Europe won the Cup on the last hole of the last match, when Montgomerie halved with Scott Hoch.

Ballesteros becomes the first non-British or Irish captain to win the first Ryder Cup on the continent, and the first European to win the Cup as a player and as a captain.

"I don't think I can have any more," Ballesteros said. "I won the British Open, I won the Masters, I won a lot of tournaments around the world. But there is nothing like this."

(Pat McManamon is the national sportswriter for Scripps Howard News Service.)