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

U.S. escapes alternate shot with 2-2 tie

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Friday, September 28, 2012

    There was a point during the front nine of the opening matches of the 39th Ryder Cup where Europe led all four matches. And Medinah Country Club sounded like the reading room of the library down the street.
    Then the Americans rallied, and scraped out a 2-2 tie after the alternate shot competition.
    The comebacks were authored by the teams of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, and Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson.
    Mickelson and Bradley trailed Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia 1 up after eight holes, won the ninth to square the match, then won their last four holes beginning at the 12th to score a 4 and 3 victory. Bradley ran home a 30-foot birdie on the 15th to finish the match off, eliciting the loudest roar of the morning. It was the first loss in alternate shot – foursomes on the scoreboards here – for either Donald or Garcia, a combined 14-0-1 entering Friday’s extravaganza.
    The dominance of that duo in the final holes was amazing, but Dufner and Johnson were as good in the clutch. They were also 1 down after eight holes, training Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari, the only rookie Cupper on the European team. But birdies on the ninth and 10th gave Dufner and Johnson a 1 up advantage, and they held it until the 15th, when Westwood plunked his tee shot into the middle of the new pond on the right. Dufner birdied for good measure after a solid bunker shot by Johnson, and another Eurpoean bogey on the 16th brought Dufner and Johnson home a 3 and 2 winner.
    Europe’s wins came thanks to the teams of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, and of Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.
    It can’t be said that Poulter and Rose were the beneficiaries of Tiger Woods’ erratic play, because Steve Stricker saved Woods’ rump on the three occasions he was especially wayward. But Pounter and Rose won a pair of holes with birdies and three others with pars, taking a 2 and 1 victory.
    Woods’ tee shot on the first hole set the tone for his day. It sailed well to the left of the fairway, bounced off the roof of the “Captains Club” chalet, and bounced along the out-of-bounds fence, remaining barely playable for Stricker. He created a remarkable recovery, landing the ball just in front of the green for a stunning par save.
    Woods hit a wayward tee shot at the par-5 seventh, this time well to the right. It landed in a merchandise bag. Stricker managed to get the ball on the green for a two-putt birdie, and the U.S. won the hole.
    Finally came the par-4 15th. Woods, trying to drive the green, or at least come close, from the 285-yard forward tee, again double-crossed himself, going left of left. The ball hit the first chalet on a hillside to the left – one rented by Rolfing Sports, a company owned by the NBC analyst – and caromed to a cushy spot in front of the green. The also turned into a birdie, and the U.S. won the hole.
    The morning’s first match saw both McDowell and Jim Furyk play shaky tee shots, and why not, considering the setting and the number of eyeballs watching at 7:20, with the sun just creeping over the clubhouse roofline. McDowell hit a wicked hook toward the fence, and Furyk was only a few yards short of him on the same line. McDowell and Rory McIlroy took the match, 1 up, but not before no little amount of histrionics, including Furyk questioning McDowell’s right to a drop by a sprinkler head at the second green – the head referee was brought in and ruled against relief – and the two Northern Islanders running off a string of six birdies in seven holes.
    Furyk and Brandt Snedeker, nervous as a cat in a piano factory, 3 down after 12 holes, managed to square the match at the 16th with three straight birdies. Then Snedeker’s leaked tee shot into the trees on the right of the 18th hole gave Furyk next to nothing, giving McIlroy and McDowell the match, 1 up, with a final par.
    The afternoon best-ball matches are underway, and as of 2:55 p.m., three of the four American pairs are leading. Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson are 6 up on Paul Lawrie and Peter Hanson after 10 holes thanks to playing the front nine in 7-under 29, while Mickelson and Bradley are 3 up on McIlroy and McDowell at the turn. Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar are 2 up[ on Rose and Martin Kaymer through 6, while Woods and Stricker are all square with Lee Westwood and Nicholas Colsaerts.
    A full report at the end of the day; updates as warranted.
    – Tim Cronin

Woods' practice ends with a thud

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Thursday, September 27, 2012

    It’s probably not the best way to go into the Ryder Cup.
    You are Tiger Woods, and you conk a fan in the head with your tee shot on the 18th hole.
    Oops.
    One report had the fan, Larry Johnson, getting knocked out, but that could not be confirmed. But Woods apologized several times and signed a glove for Johnson, who was taken to the first aid tent near the 18th fairway.
    Memo to Davis Love III: Have Woods tee off on the odd-numbered holes and Steve Stricker handle the even-numbered holes to avoid a repeat on Friday morning when they play Ian Poulter and Justin Rose in the fourth match.

    First up? We don’t know

    The visitors have the honor in the Ryder Cup, but neither Rory McIlroy nor Graeme McDowell were sure who would tee off in the first match to get the pressure-packed three-day fandango underway.
    “We have an idea but it’s not set in stone,” said McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked player.
    “We’ll talk through how the course breaks down for us and we’ll finalize that tonight,” McDowell said.
    But McDowell had an idea of how he wanted the match against Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker to develop.
    “We’re going to use the world No. 1’s power and precision and I will just knock a few tap-ins in.”
    Furyk and Snedeker practiced together all three days. Furyk called it “just getting comfy.”
    Will anyone be comfy at 7:20 a.m.?
    “I’ll be nervous just like I know Rory will be nervous and I know Graeme is going to be nervous and I know Brandt is going to be nervous,” Furyk said. “But I’ll be excited. The crowd is going to be energetic. They’re going to be making a ton of noise.
    “I think what will be going through my mind is that I appreciated the eighth one every bit as much as the first.”

    Quite the cheering section

    The eight players not playing in the morning: Americans Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson, and Europeans Nicolas Colsaerts, Peter Hanson, Martin Kaymer and Paul Lawrie.
    Simpson won the U.S. Open, Watson the Masters. Kaymer and Lawrie have won the PGA and British Open, respectively.
    A smart captain will want to get all 12 players on the course at some time during the first day. One who didn’t was Europe’s Mark James in 1999. He kept Jean Van De Velde, Jsrmo Sandelin and Andrew Coltart in the bullpen until Sunday’s singles. All three lost their singles matches, helping the U.S. to its 8.5-3.5 Sunday romp that brought the Americans the Cup by a 14.5-13.5 margin.

    Around Medinah

    The anticipated flyover never flew over the opening ceremony. Two military planes were in the air, but the landing patterns for O’Hare come right over the course when the wind is out of the east. They were spotted on television, but the 10,000 spectators who attended saw only an unceasing supply of 747s and the like. ... Rather than the national anthem of every country represented on the European team, the European Union anthem, “Ode to Joy,” the climax of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, was played by the Chicago Youth Symphony.  That saved 20 minutes right there.
    – Tim Cronin

The pick: Europe 17, United States 11

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Thursday, September 27, 2012

    Finally, golf.
    Finally, after about seven years in the making, the 39th Ryder Cup Match becomes serious on Friday morning at Medinah Country Club. And, U.S. captain Davis Love III’s wonderful sentiment aside, this is a match neither team wants to lose.
    The Americans have lost six of the last eight Cups. The Europeans have an uncanny way of taking individual matches that appear to favor the U.S. going in, and build momentum over the first two days that the Americans can’t overcome on Singles Sunday. With 1999 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., the notable exception.
    Unless Love has a feeling come Saturday night, it’s hard to imagine anything different happening this time. Often, the Friday morning matches set a tone that rings true through the closing ceremony, when the Europeans smile and the Americans cry.
    The action starts with foursomes, which Americans call alternate shot and rarely play. The Europeans don’t play it on their Tour either, but they have a way with the matches, and the records of Friday morning’s eight players lean heavily toward the visitors taking a lead.
    With the Americans listed first and Ryder Cup foursome records for all, here are the four matches:
    Match 1: Jim Furyk (3-5-2 in foursomes) and Brandt Snedeker (rookie) vs. Rory McIlroy (1-1-1) and Graeme McDowell (1-1-1).
    This might be the best U.S. chance for a victory in the morning. Snedeker’s as hot as they come, straight out of his Tour Championship / FedEx Cup sweep. Furyk is a fierce competitor. However, McIlroy is the world’s top-ranked player, and fellow Northern Irishman McDowell is the equal of Furyk as a gritty competitor. This has the feel of a halve going in.
    Match 2: Keegan Bradley (rookie) and Phil Mickelson (2-5-4) vs. Sergio Garcia (8-0-1) and Luke Donald (6-0-0).
    Garcia is both a player and an agent provocateur in the Ryder Cup, and Donald is Chicago’s European representative. Both have exemplary records in foursomes. Mickelson? Not so much. The key for him is to make sure Bradley doesn’t get flustered if Garcia channels his inner Seve and the Europeans win a few holes early. Europe is the heavy favorite.
    Match 3: Jason Dufner (rookie) and Zach Johnson (1-2-1) vs. Lee Westwood (7-2-4) and Francesco Molinari (rookie).
    European captain Jose Maria Olazabal pairs his rookie with a gritty veteran, and they end up playing against the least experienced American team. Europe has to be favored here, but Johnson won a Masters when nobody expected him to. The U.S. would be happy with a halve.
    Match 4: Tiger Woods (4-7-1) and Steve Stricker (1-1-0) vs. Ian Poulter (2-1-0) and Justin Rose (2-0-0).
    There could be fireworks in the morning finale if Woods, who conked a spectator with a drive on the 18th hole in Thursday’s practice round, keeps it in the fairway. He and Rose have the same teacher (Sean Foley), so there are no secrets there. Woods has been paired with Stricker more than anyone else in Ryder and Presidents cups, so there’s a comfort factor there. Poulter is the wild card. Logic says Europe, 1 up, or a halve.
    The summary: Expect Europe to get 2.5 or 3 points in the morning, putting the Americans in catch-up mode.
    The overall prediction for the Cup: Europe 17, U.S. 11.
    – Tim Cronin

Poulter and the British press boil over

    Writing from Medinah, Illinois
    Wednesday, September 26, 2012

    In the United States there is the first amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press.
    In the United Kingdom there is no such guarantee. There is, however, Fleet Street, that bastion of bluster where some great and not-so-great newspapers are (and sometimes once were) headquartered, and where, if there is no news, there is no chance of blushing while making some up.
    That explains the line of questioning in the press tent on Wednesday after England’s Ian Poulter said he wanted to go out against the American team and “kill ‘em.”
    Blood in the water for the London scribes!
    Rory McIlroy, who followed Poulter into the tent, was asked if he was thinking like Poulter.
    “I think kill is a little strong,” McIlroy said. “I’d like to beat them.”
    Then came the suggestion that McIlroy, the world’s top-ranked player since winning the PGA Championship, was a “marked man.”
    “I’ve never heard that term before in golf,” said Phil Mickelson, stickhandling like Medinah member Stan Mikita. “Rory a marked man? That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
    To Mickelson, this Ryder Cup is all about love and kisses.
    “The animosity is gone because we know each other well,” Mickelson said, throwing verbal rose petals. And as he left the podium, he said to the English-accented reporter who asked about the target on McIlroy’s back, “Nice try, though.”
    Both questioner and answerer laughed.

    The $11.4-million Man

    Brandt Snedeker is, if not the hottest player on the American team, the newly richest. That title comes from last weekend’s heroics in Atlanta, where he won the Tour Championship at East Lake and captured the FedEx Cup in the process. The payday: $11,440,000.
    “It’s been a crazy couple days, to say the least,” Snedeker said Wednesday. “I beat some of the best players in the world last weekend. I feel my game is exactly where it needs to be. Friday morning can’t get here quick enough.”
    Snedeker is one of four Ryder Cup rookies on the U.S. team. The Americans have lost six of the last eight Ryder Cups, but Snedeker pays no mind to that. He has his eyes on the cashless prize.
    “The biggest thing is not to put too much pressure on ourselves because there are so many guys in that room that want to win it for Davis,” Snedeker said. “To play a Ryder Cup on home – on U.S. soil with him as your captain, you don’t want to let him down.
    “He’s done everything the right way his whole life. If anyone on this planet deserves to win a Ryder Cup on U.S. soil, he does. So now our job is not to mess it up. We’re going to try to have as much fun as we can and make him look like a genius all week.”


    McIlroy, Woods and Sunday

    No. 1 vs. No. 2. Dan Jenkins called those meetings in college football “poll bowls.”
    Until the Bowl Championship Series came along, they were never guaranteed.
    They aren’t guaranteed in golf, either. With Rory McIlroy No. 1 and Tiger Woods No. 2, the prospect of a match-play meeting in Sunday’s singles play is mouth-watering.
    But it’s not guaranteed. In the Ryder Cup, each captain submits his lineup, like a baseball manager. Davis Love III won’t know where Jose Maria Olazabal will put his players in the order of play, and vice versa, in any of the five sessions.
    For singles, with 12 spots, the odds are against such a matchup. Wednesday, Love sounded more interested in the prospect than Olazabal.
    “We’ll have to see what happens,” Olazabal said. “I know you’re eager to see that match, but I think the Ryder Cup is more important than that single match.”
    Love has played in the U.S. vs. Rest of World Presidents’ Cup, where such matches can be arranged.
    “It would be neat to sit up here and match ‘em up,” Love said. “It would be pretty good theater. It would be fun. I don’t think I’m going to be the first captain to go to the other team’s room and try to rig the pairings. But it would be fun to watch, that’s for sure.”

    Around Medinah

    If you’re wondering how many people are cramming into Medinah’s grounds, the estimated number varies between 40,000 and 45,000 a day. PGA of America officials don’t want to say, but the first total is the number of general admission tickets that have been sold for each practice and competition day. The other 5,000 are the estimated number of tickets for the 77 corporate tents, and the other 20 equivalent tents, including three “Captains Club” tents and hospitality in the clubhouse and pro shop. That makes the six-day total from 240,000 to 270,000. The White Sox should draw so well for a homestand. ... There will be a flyover during Thursday’s opening ceremony, which will likely entail the shifting of flight patterns for planes inbound to O’Hare, about 10 miles to the east. On Wednesday, with a light east wind, jets, jumbo and otherwise, were flying over the course all day. ... The European team wore shirts with the Chicago skyline outlined on the front on Wednesday, the second attempt in as many days to win the crowd over. Tuesday, they wore the bright orange associated with the Bears and University of Illinois.
    – Tim Cronin