Europe keeps the Cup, stunning Americans

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Sunday, September 30, 2012

    Now we know what Medinah translates to in Arabic: Brookline.
    In a comeback even more improbable than the American rally at The Country Club in 1999, Europe stormed back to capture the 39th Ryder Cup Match, their hard-won 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory the result of an astonishing 8 1/2-3 1/2 takedown of the United States team in Sunday’s sensational singles session at Medinah Country Club.
    It began with Rory McIlroy almost missing his tee time and ended with the many Europeans in the gallery of perhaps 50,000 singing, “Ole! Ole! Ole!” And everywhere a European player went, the spirit of Seve Ballesteros followed.
    “Seve, Seve, Seve, Seve, Seve,” said Justin Rose in the minutes after Martin Kaymer – yes, Martin Kaymer, who had the poorest recent record of any player coming into Medinah – provided the winning point with a 1-up comeback victory over Steve Stricker.
    The biggest road comeback in Ryder Cup history was built on five straight singles wins at the front of the order. Leadoff man Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, McIlroy – who brought a new meaning to breakfast ball as he munched on a granola bar following his tee shot – Justin Rose and Paul Lawrie won their matches, knocking off Bubba Watson, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker, respectively.
    Down 10-6 at dawn, they silenced the American fans and brought the Europeans – there had to be far more than the advertised 3,000 on hand – to life.
    There was a point, just after Lawrie closed out $11.4 million man Brandt Snedeker, 5 and 3, trimming the U.S. margin to 10-8, when, if matches in progress are counted, the Americans were on the way to a 17-11 romp. It was 3:10 p.m.
    McIlroy outlasted Bradley, 2 and 1. Rose, 1 down to Mickelson with two holes to play, won the 17th and 18th with birdies from 25 and 20 feet, respectively, for a 1 up victory. It was 3:40 p.m., tied at 11-11 on the big scoreboard, the U.S. still was in position to wrest the Cup, 14 1/2-13 1/2, counting matches in progress, but Mickelson’s loss was a huge swing in momentum.
    Then the Europeans broke serve. If it wasn’t bad enough for U.S. captain Davis Love III to see Mickelson lose the lead and see Bradley fall after they were rested Saturday afternoon to be fresh on Sunday, more sour moments were to come for him.
    Jim Furyk, the veteran who failed to finish at the U.S. Open and at Firestone, frittered away a lead and watched Sergio Garcia win the 17th and 18th with conventional two-putt pars to win 1-up.
    That brought Europe its first lead, 13-12. It was 4:31 p.m., and the visitors were a point away from retaining the Cup with three matches left on the course. Jason Dufner was 1 up on Peter Hanson, Stricker and Kaymer were all square, and Tiger Woods and Francesco Molinari were all square, making it 14-14 counting the three undeclared precincts.
    Dufner held on for a 2-up victory, making it 13-13 with the knotted Stricker-Kaymer and Woods-Molinari matches still to come.
    And presently, Stricker lost the par-3 17th, failing to get up-and-down from the collar on the back of the green while Kaymer two-putted from 40 feet. Europe had another half-point in its pocket. It was 4:53 p.m. Stricker had to win the 18th or the match was over.
    He did not. Even as Woods was in the process of winning the 17th with a par, Stricker was managing to lose the last. His approach stopped 40 feet from the cup on the back shelf. Kaymer’s approach stopped 20 feet away.
    Stricker surveyed the putt and hit it so far off line, a good eight feet to the left, it was incomprehensible. Kaymer’s 20-footer rolled five feet past the cup. Stricker made his par putt, but Kaymer made his comebacker for par, clinching his match 1 up, and the Ryder Cup with point No. 14.
    It was 5:13 p.m. It was over. The Europeans had won or retained the Cup for the seventh time in the last nine matches.
    “It’s undescribable,” said Kaymer in fractured English. “I was so nervous the last two or three holes. Ollie (captain Jose Maria Olazabal) came up and said, ‘We need the point.’ But I love the feeling.”
    The Europeans thrived under the pressure, and the Americans, especially veterans Mickelson, Furyk and Stricker, wilted. Woods, at least, got a half-point, conceding Molinari a 3-footer for par on the 18th green after he missed a par putt himself. That made the final margin 14 1/2-13 1/2.
    And a comeback unlike another other in the history of the quest for that little gold trophy was complete. The numbers were the same as at The Country Club, but the circumstances – on the road, underappreciated, and so yawn – were different.
    “I knew it was difficult, but I truly believed we could do it,” Olazabal said. “And Seve? I think he’s proud.”
    The Europeans had a silhouette of Ballesteros on their golf bags and his heart on their minds all weekend. Thanks to skywriters, his name was often inscribed across the Technicolor blue sky the last two days.
    It can fairly be said that the revival started Saturday afternoon, when the U.S. lost two of the four best-ball matches. Had the Woods-Stricker duo beaten Garcia-Donald, and had Dufner-Zach Johnson not lost a 2-up lead and the match to McIlroy-Poulter, the Europeans’ Sunday mountain would have been even steeper.
    “We wanted to believe,” Poulter told the BBC on the 18th green as cheers abounded from all around. “We were not under any illusions of how easy it would be. But last (Saturday) night, the team room was amazing. We weren’t four down. We were even.”
    Said Chicago European Luke Donald, “We believed in ourselves.”
    The opening five matches laid the groundwork.
    Donald never trailed Bubba Watson. The American bomber, again swinging with the crowd cheering, missed the first fairway, lost the second hole, and never had a chance, not with Donald hitting 11 fairways and scoring 4-under for 17 holes.
    A day after his garrison finish, Poulter came from 2-down to skunk Simpson, winning the last two holes.
    McIlroy, who mixed his time zones and arrived in a police car – “At least I wasn’t in the back,” he quipped – 10 minutes before his tee time, emulated Walter Hagen and was 2-up on Simpson after an hour. Bradley squared the match by parring the 12th, but McIlroy birdied the 14th from 4 feet and the 15th from 3 feet to go 2 up, where the margin stayed.
    Rose was square or ahead of Mickelson until the lefthander birdied the par-5 14th from 4 feet – even as Poulter was in his downswing some 60 yards away on the 16th. But Rose’s bomb on the 17th squared the match and his heroics on the 18th won it.
    “The last three holes, I thought I had the match,” Mickelson said. “He played phenomenal there.”
    Before all those decisions were handed down, Lawrie was punching out Snedeker, whose Tour Championship and FedEx Cup titles last Sunday at East Lake Golf Club netted him $11.4 million. His failure to knock off Lawrie was a surprise, especially to Love.
    “We put our hot players out front, and our steady players in the back,” Love said. “We just missed a couple points in the middle.”
    Snedeker’s was one. Stricker’s in the 11th spot in the lineup was another.
    “When we saw the singles draw, we saw a lot of matches we could win,” McDowell said. “We got things right today with the order.”
    Lawrie had been blanked on Friday and Saturday. That was motivation for Sunday.
    “You put everything into this,” Lawrie said. “We were all so keen to put a point on the board. If I’d come away with no points and we lost, I’d be gutted. But to play 6-under-par (including an eagle to win the par-4 fifth hole when Snedeker birdied) and put a point on the board, I’m chuffed.”
    So were they all when Kaymer’s 5-footer rolled home. Fans wearing the European flag around their shoulders danced on the hill behind the 16th green, the “Ole! Ole! Ole!” song could be heard at Woodfield, and, within minutes, McIlroy, Rose and Poulter were singing while hopping about the 18th green.
    Minutes later, the European team was on the bridge between the putting green and first tee, huge bottles of Moet in hand, doing their best Dan Gurney impression by spraying the gallery with Champagne. It was the first time in Medinah history – well, at least since the first years of the club, which coincided with the Roaring ’20s, that one could walk through the bubbly on the grounds.
    “Beers and tears will be the order of the night,” McDowell said.
    For both teams.
    – Tim Cronin