The indispensable golf course guide

    Writing from Chicago
    Monday, December 24, 2012

    The big day, or, as Hammond’s very own Jean Shepherd, whose “A Christmas Story” tale was only about the 324th-best thing he authored, would have written – THE BIG DAY – is almost upon us.
    Those adults fortunate enough to be gifted with a childlike wonder likely no longer yearn for an air rifle. You can put someone’s eye out with a poorly-struck golf ball as well. But those who play more proficiently – and we trust in our audience there are only those who do so – need not only the equipment that ladies and gentlemen of a certain class deserve, but somewhere to play.
    That brings us to an uncommon publication, a guidebook that covers the six golfing continents and any island large and warm enough for someone to strike a ball in anger. The title tells all in its brashness – “The Rolex World’s Top 1000 Golf Courses,” by Gaetan Mourgue d’Algue, aided by his daughter Kristel and Bruce Critchley, a former Walker Cupper now covering the game for Sky Sport in the United Kingdom.
    It should be wrapped and waiting for you under the tree on the morrow. If it is not, then count up your Christmas money, hie yourself to Amazon.com, or the publisher’s website (www.rolextop1000.com), or your favorite bookseller after you ready this, and glom onto a copy.
    D’Algue is a longtime publisher and golfer who couldn’t resist the temptation to organize 200 what are called “inspectors,” a term lifted from Michelin’s famed gastronomic guides, to pick the best courses, then rate them, then tell everyone.
    Often, such tomes disappoint. This one does the opposite. It delights, it informs, it nudges one to find a way to get to a course long rumored to be a worthy test. It presents facts and opinions, but doesn’t mix them. What’s more, it goes into great detail.
    You will find, for instance, the best hotels and restaurants within a short distance of El Rincon de Cajica, a members-only club in Columbia designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1957, and one earning an 80 score on a 75-to-100 scale from an unnamed panel of experts. Each of the thousand courses in the guide, a 1,344-page hardcover nearly two inches thick, contains such information, as well as key statistics on the course, details about the club – to play Rincon you’ll need to know a member – and a small map where the location is indicated by the simple word “golf.”
    What it does not have is lavish color photos of each course in the honey light that golf course photographers lust for. This is a thinking golfe’rs guide to the game across the world, not a book masquerading as a real estate brochure. Instead, the descriptions conjure pictures in the mind as surely as Vin Scully does describing a pickle for a pitcher in the late innings at Dodger Stadium.
    Precisely one-third of the book, 333 courses, are located in the U.S. The same was true of the first edition, issued in 2010, an expansion of a European course guide d’Algue published. We marveled at the audacity when the inaugural came off the press, and still do. Are these the 333 courses we – or you – would pick? Certainly the top courses would be on anyone list of courses to conquer, or at least attempt to conquer. Therein is some of the fun, going along and checking off courses that should, or should not, be included.
    Only 15 of the thousand courses rate 100 points – the numbers fall off in increments of five, which nothing less than a “75” listed. Most of the usual suspects are there: Augusta National, Cypress Point, Pine Valley, the Old Course. One is not: Pebble Beach, a mere “95.”
    None of those 15 at the pinnacle are from the Chicago area, but Chicago Golf Club, that sublime Macdonald-Raynor creation of the 19th century, last revamped a large fashion in advance of a 1920s Walker Cup, is at the 95 ranking, along with Medinah Country Club’s often-changed No. 3 course, the Joan Rivers of layouts.
    Phil Mickelson won’t be happy to discover that Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course, the Rees Jones renovation of which he so heavily criticized during the 2011 Western Open/BMW Championship, was given a lofty 90 ranking, the same as Butler National, Shoreacres, and Lost Dunes, a summer hangout of many golfing Chicagoans in Bridgman, Mich. And that 90 for Dubs, a Dick Wilson-Joe Lee layout, was five points higher than the 85 registered for Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Fla., generally acknowledged to be Wilson’s best layout.
    The three other Chicago-area courses listed are all private and all rated at 80: Beverly, Conway Farms and Rich Harvest Links. Gather a group of Chicago golf architecture buffs in the same room – get an extra bartender if you do so – and you’ll find that Beverly and Conway Farms will rank well ahead of Rich Harvest, if Rich Harvest is ranked at all. As the horseplayer says when his nag in the fourth race finishes after the start of the fifth race, go figure.
    Each course gets a description of some 200 to 225 words, giving the reader the flavor of the course and a bit about its history. Curiously, the guide’s essay on Conway Farms has Tom Watson graduating from Lake Forest College, which will come as news to Watson and the registrar at Stanford, where he was an All-America player. (Perhaps everyone was thinking of Conway Farms member Luke Donald, the Northwestern alum who has had a fair amount of success in recent years.) That may call into question a fact-checkers fancy, but of the other courses with which we’re familiar, that’s the only howler.
    Consider the D’Algue guide the golf equivalent of Michelin’s unmatched hotel-restaurant efforts. At $35, the price is a trifle compared to the value received. (And you may eventually be able to finance a golf trip with it; Amazon has a seller trying to peddle a copy of the first edition for $1,600!) There is nothing else like it in the game.
    
– Tim Cronin

Remembering Tom O'Connor

    Writing from Chicago
    Wednesday, December 12, 2012

    There were two shocks upon hearing of the death of Tom O’Connor, the longtime teaching pro who doubled as the women’s golf coach at the University of St. Francis in Joliet.
    First, that he had died. O’Connor was always full of life, a twinkle in the eye, a story to tell, a player to help, a prospect to recruit for a future Saints team.
    Second, that he was 70. O’Connor, 70? The sun-kissed Irish face of his was a bit weather-beaten, as can he expected of someone who lived the majority of his waking hours outside. But 70? Go figure. He never acted his age.
    O’Connor died on Sunday, victim of an apparent heart attack. It was just over a year ago that his wife Virginia died.
    Always supportive, O’Connor was one of the first advertisers in Illinois Golfer’s print edition. Eager to see it succeed, he was looking forward to the return of the publication in 2013.
    A golf professional since 1969, soon after his tour of duty for the Marine Corps in Vietnam, the Chicago native began to focus on teaching in 1987, taking a position as director of instruction for the Joliet Park District. Three years later, he was on the teaching staff at Cog Hill, added a radio show on Joliet’s WJOL to his portfolio, and became one of the better-known teachers in the Chicago area.
    He went out on his own in 1997, opening his golf academy at Broken Arrow in Lockport, relocating it to Inwood, the Joliet Park District course on the west side of Joliet, in 2010.
    O’Connor became coach of the Saints’ golf team in 2003, a position he cherished. The team captured the CCAC Fall Classic title last year after five straight runner-up finishes. Krystal Garritson, a freshman on the team, called O’Connor’s passion for the game and the team “an unselfish journey” on www.gofightingsaints.com.
    "I will never forget when Tom first applied for the position here," athletic director Dave Laketa said on the Saints’ website. "He wanted it so bad that I think he had everyone who ever received a lesson from him contact me.  That was a lot of phone calls – I think from everyone that had ever picked up a golf club in Joliet.  I knew we couldn't go wrong in hiring Tom with that backing."
    O’Connor was the recipient of the Bill Heald Career Achievement Award from the Illinois PGA in 2009 for his success as a teacher. Five of his students have gone on to become pros themselves.
    O’Connor is survived by three adult daughters, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
    Visitation is Thursday, Dec. 13, at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, 3200 Black Rd., Joliet, from 2-8 p.m., with the funeral service thereafter.
    – Tim Cronin

Jemsek rolls a 7 (and 7 more) with Pine Meadow

    Writing from Chicago, Illinois
    Wednesday, November 28, 2012

    Welcome to the Morning Nine as the a warmer weekend – maybe the last decent weekend of the year to play golf – sneaks up on the Chicago area in particular and the state in general:
    1. Congratulations to the Jemsek organization for winning renewal of the lease for Pine Meadow Golf Course from the Archdiocese of Chicago after a year where it first appeared their tenure at the Mundelein gem, which commenced in 1985, would be up at the end of the season. (Billy Casper Golf had been the reported favorite.)
    Instead, the new deal – seven years with an option for as many more, according to Big Three member Rory Spears – will keep the Jemsek family in control of the course at least through 2019, and potentially through 2026.
    That’s important for two reasons. First, it allows an improvement program to continue. Jemsek has brought in Golf Maintenance Solutions to advise on clearing trees and bushes out from areas where they affect air flow, and thus course conditioning.
    Like too many American parkland courses, Pine Meadow is overgrown. Trees, bushes and other flora not only get in the way of shots from wayward golfers, they stop breezes from crossing the grounds. Shadows aside, that raises soil temperature, and on bentgrass, hot, stagnant air in the summer can lead to poor turf. The clearance program will help lead to better turf.
    Second, it keeps a course with some history in the hands of a family with a sense of history, rather than merely another bauble in an out-of-state corporate portfolio.
    Pine Meadow was brought out of decades of dormancy when Joe and Frank Jemsek won the lease for what had been St. Mary of the Lake Golf Course, the private course on the grounds of the Mundelein Seminary that Cardinal Mundelein brought in architect William Flynn to design in the 1920s. For the longest time, only six original holes were barely maintained. The Jemseks had Joe Lee and Rocky Roquemore use the many of the old corridors in bringing the old course back to life.
    For more on the renewal and the improvement plan, see Spears’ website: http://spears.golfersongolf.com/
    2. Speaking of old courses, The Old Course itself is getting a makeover, not that one was needed. The R&A, the tournament wing of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, somehow convinced the St. Andrews Links Trust – it runs the municipal layout on behalf of the citizens of the Auld Gray Toon – that changes on nine holes were needed to protect the course, or the British Open, from low scores when the tournament returns there in 2015.
    Huh? Two years ago, they had several tees so far back, a couple were on the New and Eden courses that run parallel to it, and the one on the 17th was across the road that swings back to run by the 17th green – a.k.a., the Road Hole, the hardest hole on the course. Winner Louis Oosthuizen finished at 16-under-par 272, seven strokes ahead of runner-up Lee Westwood. Rory McIlroy shot a 9-under-par 63 in the opening round, then ran into a squall line on Friday and posted an 80.
    The defense at St. Andrews has been the wind since the course evolved back in the 1400s. Now R&A boss Peter Dawson thinks it needs major changes – everything from an enlarged Road Hole greenside bunker to changing the contour of the 11th green, the famed “Eden” putting surface? Piffle.
    Here, posted Tuesday on Geoff Shackelford’s splendid website, is what Alister Mackenzie thought of tinkering with The Old Course: “St. Andrews differs from others in that it has always been deemed a sacrilege to interfere with its natural beauties, and it has been left almost untouched for centuries.”
    There have been changes over the centuries, of course. A change from 22 holes to 18 holes. The addition of alternate fairways and extra tees when golf became more popular – but the double greens remained. And the course used to be played backwards, which is to say, first tee to 17th green, 18th tee to 16th green, and so on. (It still is for a few days each spring.)
    But anything else? Well, a bunker was added in the 1940s.
    Here is Brad Klein, one of the foremost architecture experts, writing about architect Martin Hawtree’s plan and the process in general on www.golfweek.com:
    “So instead, Hawtree has been commissioned to reduce the slope of that section of (the 14th green). That’s not a complicated project. But it is an arrogant approach to design, and one that deserves far more public consideration and debate.
    “Instead, the R&A Championship Committee, working quietly with the Links Trust, has announced its intent to do surgery. This is no way to run a golf course, and certainly no way to preserve the ‘trust’ inherent in a sustodial relationship. The town effectively has ceded control of a treasured asset to a private group running its own golf championship.
    “I don’t know if these changes are all needed. What I do know is the reasons given for making them are unconvincing and not enough basis for tinkering with sacred ground.”
    Next thing you know, Donald Trump, who recently opened his own course on the coast of Scotland to mile acclaim, will be poking his nose around trying to gain an R&A membership.
    Here’s Tiger Woods, twice winner of the Open Championship (old school!) at St. Andrews, on the changes to the Road Hole.
    “I think 17 is hard enough as it is,” Woods said at his tournament in Thousand Oaks, Calif., recalling cosmetic changes to the Road Bunker. “I don’t think we need to make that bunker any deeper or bigger. They seem to keep changing 17 a lot. It’s a pretty hard hole. I think it’s the hardest one on that whole property.”
    Woods said he thought changes on the second and third holes made sense because bunkers are no longer in play. For him, perhaps, but what of the rest of the thousands who play The Old Course or yearn to play it at least once?
    Martin Dempster, golf writer for The Scotsman, wrote that The Old Course “is the one place that should be left untouched by any golf course architect’s knife.”
    But under attack it is. The work has already started. The ghost of Old Tom Morris will not be pleased. For photos, check out www.golfclubatlas.com.
    3. The Old Course construction controversy commenced with the R&A announcement on Friday. Another controversy, simmering in the game for years, reaches its peak this morning with the joint USGA/R&A announcement on anchoring the putter.
    Long putter devotees are ready to holler that they’ve been using the long putter for years. Those who think it an abomination will be counting the ways until the stroke, or the long putter, or both, go the way of the stymie.
    Bet on the long putter itself being ruled legal, but anchoring of any kind determined to be verboten, as of a couple of years from now. That way, no equipment manufacturer sues.
    The news conference – from that golf capital, Orlando, Fla., headquarters of Golf Channel – begins at 7:30 a.m. CT. Analysis runs until 11 a.m. CT.
    4. Meanwhile, the USGA has been studying the effect of distance – longer balls, hotter clubs, and so forth – for what, close to 20 years? No decision has been reached, but USGA equipment guru Dick Rugge is retiring after over 12 years at the helm. Hope he leaves his notes on the topic behind for the next fellow.
    So when will the big equipment study and potential rules to inhibit, shall we say,  unnatural length, be announced? Don’t wait up for it. It’s only going on two decades. Look how long it took the Roman Catholic Church to admit Galileo was right.
    5. Congratulations to the Western Golf Association for caddie scholarships on raising $400,000 in one night at its Green Coat Gala earlier this month. Three-time Western Open winner Tom Watson was the guest speaker, and was inducted into the WGA’s Caddie Hall of Fame. That puts Danny Noonan’s induction back at least one more year.
    Now comes the heavy lifting for the WGA, which is making the BMW Championship – i.e., the Western Open – a big deal again in the Chicago area. Perhaps moving to Conway Farms Golf Club will help, even if the tournament will be a tight squeeze on that footprint.
    When you draw 45,000 (10,000 more than this corner’s original estimate) on the final day at Crooked Stick after pulling in only 49,000 for the seven-day week at Cog Hill in 2011, some kind of change is needed.
    6. In a perfect world, the Western would be back at Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook, but the all-male club recently voted to remain all-male by more than 60 percent. A 75-percent vote for changing the by-laws was needed to go co-ed.
    That not only keeps women from walking on the golf course, it keeps tournaments away from the front gate under the post-Shoal Creek rules of the PGA Tour, USGA, PGA of America and, yes, the LPGA. So much for a BMW, or the U.S. Open coming to Butler in the next generation or so – and the USGA has whispered that it would be at Butler yesterday if the club invited the USGA for an Open.
    That may find it harder to attract members in a world where family comes before getting away with the buddies for stag golf, but it’s curious to read that one member, speaking anonymously to the Chicago Tribune, said of Butler’s future, “We’re in a death spiral.”
    Really? That member should look at his club’s tax returns. As a non-profit operation, they’re public information, and the 2009 return, the most recent available, shows the club with assets of about $19.2 million, and having paid down a pair of loans down to $1.65 million from $2.075 million the year before. By any financial measure, Butler National is in good shape and can weather a brief storm.
    7. Sympathies to the families and friends of Chuck Chudek, publisher of Chicagoland Golfer in the 1960s, and former Northwestern Golf boss Nat Rosasco. Chudek, 82, and Rosasco, 83, died on Nov. 7 and Nov. 1, respectively. Each made a major contribution to furthering the game in the area, and, in Rosasco’s case, worldwide. No company sold more golf clubs than Northwestern when it was going full steam, and it did so for decades. Now, where’s that old Hubert Green-endorsed 1-iron we used to hit straight down the middle?
    8. Big Three sage and world traveler Len Ziehm has just come back from the Ozarks with fond memories of a round on Old Kinderhook, a course in Camdenton, Mo. Fun reading at http://lenziehmongolf.com/uncategorized/missouri-ozarks-old-kinderhook-is-the-place-to-go/
    9. Finally, Luke Donald, Chicago’s very own (adopted) superstar, made 90.2 percent of his putts inside 10 feet this year on the PGA Tour. That’s nothin’. We know some people that made 100 percent of their gimmes, many from about that far out.
    – Tim Cronin

Players to Orrick, Player of Year to Malm

    Writing from Galena, Illinois
    Tuesday, October 9, 2012

    The winds were capricious at Eagle Ridge Resort and Spa on Tuesday, but Steve Orrick had been there and done that.
    “It was about the same wind today as yesterday,” Orrick said after his 3-under-par 69 brought him a total of 4-under 140 and a two-stroke victory in the Illinois PGA Players Championship. “It was a good club to club-and-a-half wind, and it shifted from with you to against you. You had to time your shot.”
    Orrick’s timing was perfect, with three birdies on the inward nine of Eagle Ridge’s North Course to overhaul runner-ups Garrett Chaussard and Travis Johns, from Cog Hill and Twin Lakes, respectively. That finished a 2-under 142, Chaussard via a second-round of 4-under 68, Johns with a 69.
    It was Orrick’s third Players Championship title in five seasons, and his second Illinois major of the year. He won the Illinois PGA at Stonewall Orchard in August.
    “A good year,” said Orrick, head professional at the Country Club of Decatur.
    Better than that. There are only four majors open to state pros each season. Orrick didn’t play in the IPGA’s Match Play, which comes in May, and missed the cut in the Illinois Open.
    Orrick, 35, did everything but win the Player of the Year title by winning on Tuesday. That ended up in the steady hands of Curtis Malm, an assistant pro at St. Charles Country Club who had already locked up the Assistant Player of the Year crown. He’s the third to win both in a season.
    “Curtis was just a little better than me,” Orrick said.
    Malm was also better that Johns, who needed to win the Players and an 18-hole stroke play tournament at Schaumburg Golf Club to capture the title, given Malm’s tie for sixth. Malm first burst on the scene by winning the 2000 Illinois Open as an amateur at Royal Fox Country Club, but much has changed since then.
    “Now I’m more consistent,” Malm said.
    That showed in his finishes in this year’s majors. He opened the season by winning the Match Play, was fifth in the Illinois Open, and second in the Illinois PGA before his aggregate of 3-over 147 knotted him with Mike Haase of northwest suburban Boone Creek Golf Course for sixth. (Glen Oak’s Matt Slowinski was fifth, at 2-over 146.)
    “To win the Player of the Year, you have to win one major,” Malm figured.
    It worked for him.
    
    Around Eagle Ridge

    Katie Dick’s day was made when she aced the 13th hole, a 144-yard venture from her tee. Alas, because of the elevation change, the Bryn Mawr assistant didn’t see it roll up to the edge of the hole, and then tumble in. The group ahead, Chris Gumbach, Jim Marinelli and Alex Praeger, gave her the play-by-play when she arrived at the green. ... Orrick cashed a check for $1,600, much of the purse put up by Harris Golf Cars.
    – Tim Cronin

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