Sunday, September 26, 1999
A great comeback, a great victory for America
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — With a wink of the eye and a wag
of the finger, Ben Crenshaw insisted against all odds that his
beleaguered Americans were destined to win the Ryder Cup.
On Sunday, he made a believer out of everyone.
His players took to heart his tearful talk about destiny, playing
like they had nothing to lose and finally living up to their potential.
The gallery caught on, too, stomping and cheering as the greatest
comeback in Ryder Cup history unfolded before their eyes in an
electric atmosphere that riled the Europeans.
At end of a wild and delirious day at The Country Club, Justin
Leonard, Hal Sutton and the rest of the Ryder Cup stars sprayed
champagne over a balcony and sang the national anthem with thousands
of fans still trying to grasp the magnitude of the victory.
Then, Crenshaw stepped onto a stone wall and held up a prize
far more valuable than the $63 million in revenue that threatened
to divide his team.
The Ryder Cup is staying in America.
“What transpired is a moving experience,” Crenshaw
said. “I do believe in fate.”
The Americans won 81/2 points from the 12 singles matches Sunday,
giving them a 141/2-131/2 victory and their first Ryder Cup victory
since 1993.
“We came up short,” European captain Mark James said.
“We gave it our best shot.”
As much as Crenshaw believes in fate, he played a part, too.
He sent out his six best players to create a chain-reaction
of momentum, and it paid off with six decisive victories that
swiftly turned the tide. He cried with joy when Justin Leonard
delivered the decisive blow, a birdie putt on the 17th hole that
was as long as the Americans' odds of winning the Ryder Cup.
“I never stopped believing,” a choked-up Crenshaw
said. “I'm stunned. This is so indescribable.”
That victory came on the 17th green was only fitting. Across
the street is the house where Francis Ouimet lived when he won
the 1913 U.S. Open on this course and made golf popular in the
United States.
Leonard's 45-foot birdie putt unleashed a torrent of emotion
that had been building throughout an electric day at The Country
Club, where fans cheered every American victory and every missed
putt by the Europeans.
Although one match was still on the course, the putt —
followed by Jose Maria Olazabal's miss — guaranteed the Americans
141/2 points, the amount they needed to win, but an amount few
believed they would get.
“This was history being made today, and we all wanted
to be a part of that,” said Hal Sutton, the rock-solid star
of the U.S. team who contributed 31/2 points. “This is the
greatest moment in golf right now.”
The Europeans didn't think so. They took exception to the player
celebration after Leonard's putt because Olazabal still had a
25-foot birdie putt to tie the match and keep alive Europe's fading
hopes.
“It was very sad to see. It was an ugly picture,”
Olazabal said.
“It's about the most disgusting thing I've ever seen,”
said assistant captain Sam Torrance. “This is not sour grapes.
The whole American team, and spectators ran right across the green
over Olly's line. He still has a putt to tie the hole. We could
still take the Ryder Cup home. It was disgusting.”
Crenshaw later apologized and said: “The celebration started
spilling over, and it really was not something that we need to
be proud of.”
The Americans overwhelmed Europe in the first six matches,
closing all of them out before the 17th hole.
“When you get the first matches that easily, the crowd
is going to get more involved, and that's all it takes,”
Jesper Parnevik said. “They just got huge momentum going.”
Even David Duval, who referred to the Ryder Cup as an exhibition,
showed how much it meant by repeatedly shaking his fists and cupping
his hand to his ear, asking the gallery for even more noise —
maybe too much noise.
Despite a 10-6 deficit going into the final round, despite
the fact no team has ever come back from more than two points
on the last day, Crenshaw refused to give in.
“I've felt it all week,” Crenshaw said. “I know
how these guys can play. I know how determined they are. Darned
if we didn't pull it off.”
Crenshaw had that feeling once before. He won the 1995 Masters
after the death of his longtime teacher Harvey Penick. The victory
came out of nowhere, and Crenshaw said at the time he felt it
was Penick's spirit guiding him along.
Leonard had never won a Ryder Cup match, and looked as if he
had no chance against Olazabal when he trailed by four holes with
seven to play.
Leonard won the next four holes to square the match, the last
one a 35-footer on the 15th that gave the Americans another chance
when Mark O'Meara faltered.
The cup was clinched on No. 17 when Leonard's 45-foot birdie
putt banged into the back of the cup and dropped.
Olazabal birdied the 18th to halve the match, but by then the
American celebration was well under way. Leonard led the U.S.
team in spraying champagne around the 18th green where the Stars
and Stripes was waving.
The Americans wound up winning 81/2 points out of 12 singles
matches, its biggest margin since 1979. The Americans won by a
rout that year, but this was different. They needed every point,
every putt.
Europe, which looked so dominant in building what appeared
to be an insurmountable lead, ran out of gas. Parnevik and Sergio
Garcia, 3-0-1 while paired the first two days, were beaten back
by David Duval and Jim Furyk.
It was the first time all week the 19-year-old Spaniard, the
youngest player in Ryder Cup history, couldn't muster a smile.
Crenshaw hammered home his belief in fate during an emotional
team meeting Saturday night in which every player spoke passionately
— even Duval.
“I told them to go out and kill 'em,” Duval said.
He did his part, winning six of the first eight holes against
Parnevik in a 5 and 4 victory.
Sutton, rock-solid all week, was holding back tears after he
crushed Darren Clarke.
“My only comments last night were if we do down, let's
go down with all our oars in the water,” Sutton said.
They pulled with all their might, tugging against history in
waters thickened by pressure unlike any other in golf, perhaps
in all of sport.
It was the seventh consecutive Ryder Cup that was decided by
no more than two points, dating to the 1985 matches that signaled
the switch over to European dominance.
So close was this Ryder Cup that no team match ended before
the 17th hole, the first time that has happened since 1969. Singles,
as usual, was another matter.
The Americans have won the singles matches all but five times
in Ryder Cup history, and all but twice since 1957.
The roars that rocked The Country Club, from Sutton's first
birdie on the second hole of the second match to Leonard's clinching
birdie putt in the afternoon, carried the Americans to their stunning
charge.
“I never knew how good it feels to win the Ryder Cup,”
Tiger Woods said.
The 30,000 fans could see it up. The gallery was a dozen deep
around tees and green, not an inch of space along any fairway
under brilliant blue conditions.
All of a sudden, the Americans had the look of a winner, not
a team afraid to fail once again. Instead, muscles tightened on
every European face, the players celebrating with charged-up emotion
instead of the childlike joy they exuded the first two days.
“An amazing experience,” Tom Lehman said.
Duval, Sutton, Lehman, Love, Woods and Phil Mickelson led a
ferocious charge that made Crenshaw's lineup look like a brilliant
move.
Lehman, who has never lost a singles match in the Ryder Cup,
never missed a green in his 3 and 2 victory over Lee Westwood.
Sutton never blinked when Darren Clarke chipped in for birdie
on the first hole. He looked over at his wife and winked, hit
to 20 feet on No. 2 and sank the birdie putt, the first of three
straight holes he won in a 4 and 2 victory.
Jarmo Sandelin, Jean Van de Velde and Andrew Coltart made their
Ryder Cup debut under the most intense pressure. European captain
Mark James did a nice job hiding Europe's weakness for two days,
but they failed to survive their baptism by fire.
“I think we were outplayed, I don't think we were outmanuevered,”
James said. “I don't think tactics would have made much difference.”
Mickelson, Love and Woods set them down in order without so
much as working up a sweat. Only Woods had something that resembled
a struggle. He didn't take a lead until the seventh hole, but
buried Coltart with a 40-foot chip-in on the next hole.
Still, the improbable comeback was still very much in question.
Montgomerie, Olazabal and British Open champion Paul Lawrie had
control of their matches, and O'Meara was struggling against Padraig
Harrington.
Needing only to halve his match, O'Meara made a crucial par
putt on the 17th, then chopped the 18th hole to lose his match
— the first win for Europe all day.
But Leonard, who never led in his match, showed the kind of
clutch putting that carried him to the British Open at Royal Troon
in 1997, and The Players Championship a year later.
The 17th hole was the final blow of the greatest comeback.
Ever the historian, Crenshaw took Leonard into the clubhouse and
showed him a photo of the 17th green, where Ouimet all but clinched
his U.S. Open victory over British stalwarts Ted Ray and Harry
Vardon.
Now, there's another piece of history to add to The Country
Club. The United State is a Ryder Cup winner once again.
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