Americans up 5-3 in rollicking Ryder Cup

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Friday, September 28, 2012

    The easy way to explain Friday’s opening day of the 39th Ryder Cup Match is to use all the usual superlatives: dramatic, electric, spellbinding, thrilling, unpredictable, and so forth.
    But that would only cover the first five or six minutes.
    The next way would be to assemble a highlight package of the best shots of the day at Medinah Country Club, but you don’t have that much time, we don’t have that much bandwidth, and this site isn’t NBC.
    So settle for this, the phrase Duke Ellington created when something wowed him: Beyond category.
    That’s what the opening day of the biannual tag-team match was. Beyond category.
    There were birdies, an eagle, shots caromed off tents, holed bunker shots, Bubba Watson smacking a tee shot with the crowd cheering, and even the equivalent of a 10-under-par 62 scored by the one, the only, Nicolas Colsaerts.
    You know. The one from Belgium.
    He was about the only guy among the 24 players who didn’t waffle at some point during the day. Eight birdies and an eagle across 18 holes – yes, he played Medinah’s No. 3 course like everyone else – put him in the pantheon of Ryder Cup rookie sensations.
    A round like that hadn’t been seen in this cauldron of self-induced pressure since never.
    Could be he was oblivious. This is the first time the Ryder Cup has been seen on Belgian television.
    At the least, he was unconscious in doing what he did, holing about 253 feet of birdies – the exaggeration is small, believe it – in the course of the best-ball match he and Lee Westwood, soon to be featured on milk cartons, had against Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker.
    Remember Woods? Remember him at Medinah? Two PGA Championship appearances, two PGA Championship wins.
    He and Stricker, paired morning and afternoon, came away with nothing on Friday. Not even a by-your-leave. They were trumped – the Donald was sitting in the grandstand – 2 and 1 in the morning alternate-shot carnival by Ian Poulter and Justin Rose, then beaten by Colsaerts and, nominally, Westwood in the afternoon. Woods shot the equivalent of 7-under 65, which is the stroke-play course record, and that only got him and Stricker to the 18th hole. They halved the hole and the Europeans won the match.
    Ah, and here’s the rub for the visitors. It was the only match they won in the afternoon. That, and a 2-2 split in the morning alternate shot, when the Americans were expected by many, including this corner, to fold like road maps, put the U.S. ahead by 5-3 entering Saturday’s action.
    This, American captain Davis Love III likes.
    “There was a lot of noise this afternoon,” Love said. “It was kind of quiet in the morning.”
    Except, perhaps, for the clunk of Woods hitting the roof of a tent, the whap of him hitting a fan with a tee shot for the second day running, the rasp of Stricker picking that tee shot out of a bag, and the plink of him caroming a shot off a camera tower to a spot in front of the 15th green. And that was just in the morning. He got his game together in the afternoon, when the genius of Love’s course setup, including rough just a tad deeper than Augusta National’s so-called second cut, came into play.
    The Americans, Woods included, could hit it everywhere and either salvage par or make a birdie. That’s how Phil Mickelson could hook one into the trees on the par-4 12th, yet use his skill and carve a rising slice through two trees, over the mighty oak that guards the green, and still let it land oh so softly on the putting surface and save his par.
    Beats the old USGA chop-out from the rough, no?
    Mickelson and Keegan Bradley are the hottest item since Bogie – no, not bogey – and Bacall. They meshed like a chain link fence and ran away with their morning alternate shot match against Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia, 4 and 3. It was the first loss for either European in “foursomes” after a combined 14-0-1 record. Then Lefty and his acolyte bounced Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell 2 and 1 in the best-ball showcase, with birdies on four of the first five holes.
    Bradley splashed birdies all over the scorecard, and Mickelson finished the match off with a tee shot on the par-3 17th that was stony, a mere 18 inches from the cup. The Europeans took off their caps at that shot, Philly Mick and Bradley hugged so long they should have gotten a room, and the U.S. had another point.
    “I’ve never seen anyone drive the ball as well as Keegan,” Mickelson said. “Alternate shot was my favorite format, because I got to play the next shot. Best-ball, I had to play my own. I love playing with this man.”
    “They’re infatuated with each other,” Bradley’s girlfriend said.
    It’s a big love affair in the American team room at the nonce, even with the news that Woods will sit out Saturday morning’s alternate shot scrap, a first for him in Ryder Cup play.
    The point being, this match was expected to go one way, and it’s leaning another. The American margin is but two points, but a 4-4 split on Saturday means the U.S. will need only 5.5 points – five wins and a tied match out of 12 – to regain Samuel Ryder’s little cup. That’s what made Friday’s fireworks display, featuring everything from Woods forcing the afternoon best-ball match to the 18th with a tee shot to four feet on the 17th to Jason Dufner watching a birdie putt tumble into the cup Danny Noonan style, so important.
    Advantage, U.S.
    “I’m going to make it clear to the boys they have to step it up,” European captain Jose Maria Olazabal said. “They need to play better golf, simple as that.”
    Even Colsaerts, he of the eight birdies and the eagle? Good luck with that.
    “It’s difficult to imagine you’re going to do so well, but that is match play,” Colsaerts said. “You have to hole it because you know the guy is going to hole it on top of you.”
    As on the 17th, where Colsaerts’ 35-foot birdie putt, a curler that crashed into the hole, preceded Woods’ four-footer.
    There was even controversy, Jim Furyk questioning a potential drop for McDowell from a sprinkler head by the second green in the morning. Furyk’s notion was agreed to by the chief referee, a BBC commentator said the Americans might regret “their shenanigans,” but the match went to the 18th before McIlroy and McDowell scored their 1 up victory. They’ll see each other again on Saturday morning.
    At one point on Friday morning, all four matches were being won by Europe. Now, the question is if the Europeans can pull off something close to that. Otherwise, they’ll be training going into Singles Sunday, where the Americans should have the edge. But predictions at this address have a way, like Woods’ tee shots, of going haywire.
    – Tim Cronin

Comments

[detectivetom]

Tim, only you could throw in some Duke Ellington while covering the Ryder.

I like it!!!

Go Cougars!!!!

[detectivetom]

Tim, only you could throw in some Duke Ellington with the Ryder.

I like it!!!!

Go Cougars!!!!!!