Newsday (N.Y.): U.S. closes gap but loses Ryder Cup in final matchup

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- It turned out to be a "Wales" of a sporting event, a battle of holed putts, frayed nerves and delightful suspense that ended with the winners ecstatic, the losers proud and the crowd soaked in sprayed Champagne and satisfaction.

Europe won the 38th Ryder Cup Monday, as it figured to when it entered the extended final round with a lead but not the way it figured to, the United States alive until the final two holes of the final match.

America dominated the singles on a morning and afternoon at Celtic Manor, when the weather was as beautiful as it was awful the previous three days, winning six of the 12 and tying two.

But Europe hung on for a 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory, keeping its impressive home streak -- four straight victories on this side of the Atlantic, and six in the last seven matches here -- and reclaimed the prize the United States gained two years ago in Kentucky.

Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who won the Wales Open on this course in June and a week and a half later became the first European in 40 years to win the U.S. Open, got the deciding points for the Cup.

The U.S. team entered the day trailing 9 1/2-6 1/2 after a horrible third session Sunday, when it was outscored 5 1/2-1/2 in six matches. But with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson finally performing as expected and Steve Stricker performing as well as ever -- and rookie Rickie Fowler making birdies on the last four holes to get a half -- the U.S. team tied it 13 1/2-13 1/2.

Only the McDowell-Hunter Mahan match remained. McDowell's lead had been trimmed to 1-up when Mahan made his only birdie of the day on 15. A half in the match would have enabled America to retain the Cup. It wasn't to be.

McDowell rammed in a clutch birdie at 16, then Mahan, feeling the pressure, stubbed his chip at the par-3 17th, which McDowell parred to clinch the 3-and-1 win. The celebration was almost instantaneous.

Thousands rushed McDowell and his teammates, who didn't find security until they were led to the clubhouse balcony where, waving flags -- from Germany, Spain, England, Ireland and the European Union -- they showered the fans with magnums of Moët.

"I never felt as nervous on a golf course as I did out there," McDowell said. "The U.S. Open felt like playing the back nine with my dad at Portrush compared to that."

It was a Cup for the U.S. team too full of "could-haves'' and "what-ifs." Mickelson lost three team matches. If he had gotten even a half in any (two with Dustin Johnson, one with Fowler) the Cup would have belonged to America.

"This is my eighth Ryder Cup," Mickelson said, "and I want to try and be a leader, and the best way is through play. When I don't win any of my first three points, I felt more disappointment than I've ever felt."

Mickelson won his first four holes Sunday, and beat Peter Hanson, 4 and 2. Dustin Johnson birdied 11, 12, 13, 14 and beat Martin Kaymer, 6 and 4. Woods, trailing Francesco Molinari, won five straight holes (9-14) for a 4-and-3 victory.

It was exciting. It simply wasn't enough.

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/u-s-closes-gap-but-loses-ryder-cup-in-final-matchup-1.2335215
Copyright © 2010 Newsday LLC. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Pavin can't hide Mickelson in singles play

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- The question was more of an answer. Where, Corey Pavin, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain was asked, could he hide Phil Mickelson in today's singles?

Hide the golfer No. 2 in the world rankings? That was an indictment of Mickelson's game, which, since he has lost all three of his team matches hasn't been what was expected of him.

"There is nobody to hide,'' Pavin said Sunday. Indeed, 12 players, 12 singles, although Mickelson, going against Peter Hanson, was in the 10th match on the schedule. That's two below Tiger Woods, who faces Francesco Molinari at No. 8.

"I think that's a great spot,'' Pavin said, justifying his placement of Woods, who used to go leadoff. "I feel he is going to have a great chance to win his match.''

What Pavin said about Mickelson, who has more losses (17) than any U.S. player in the Ryder Cup -- Raymond Floyd held the negative mark with 16 -- is Phil "had a few 6-footers that were very key putts, and if he makes those, it's a different result.''

"We just haven't played well enough to win our matches,'' Mickelson conceded.

What Woods said after he and Steve Stricker were beaten in foursomes, 6 and 5, by Lee Westwood-Luke Donald -- Tiger's most one-sided match-play loss ever -- was: "We thought we got a little momentum with the birdie on nine Saturday,'' Woods said, "but it just didn't turn out that way.''

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/pavin-can-t-hide-mickelson-in-singles-play-1.2333243
Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Europe steamrolls U.S., takes 3-point lead

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- America is getting swept right out of the Ryder Cup. Give or take half a point.

After perhaps the worst afternoon in history for the United States in this 83-year-old competition, one only can think of Casey Stengel's inimitable line about the 1962 Mets, to wit, "Can't anybody here play this game?''

On the American squad, that is. Everybody on Team Europe can play.

Europe, which began the chill, damp afternoon trailing on the scoreboard 6-4 but leading in all six matches suspended by darkness Saturday, ended up in front 91/2 to 61/2.

The Euros won five of the six matches yesterday in a revised format which, because of yet another torrential downpour in the predawn hours, still didn't keep the Ryder Cup from being pushed to an unprecedented fourth day Monday.

Only a half point in one match, from the team of Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar in fourballs, when they tied the Molinari brothers, Edoardo and Francesco (well, the Molinaris tied them with a birdie at 18) kept the United States from a complete whitewash.

Not that it wasn't embarrassing enough to get a lousy half-point from a squad that includes the players ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world rankings, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

In foursomes, Tiger, with Steve Stricker, incurred his most one-sided match play loss ever, 6 and 5, to Lee Westwood and Luke Donald. In fourballs, Mickelson was defeated for the third time in three tries this Cup and now has more total losses, 17, than any U.S. player who's competed ever.

If the Euros pick up five points from the 12 singles matches Monday, they take back the Cup the United States won two years ago in Kentucky.

American captain Corey Pavin, sounding too much like a high school football coach, seemed less concerned with the results than the effort.

"I watched 12 men out there that fought hard and held their heads high,'' Pavin said. "They played every shot hard, and we got a couple of matches to 18 . . . so I was very proud of them. And I'm sure [Monday] they know what they need to do.''

Indeed, play better than they have, at least make more putts than they have. Whether European captain Colin Montgomerie set up the Celtic Manor course to favor his team, slower greens and narrower fairways than in the States, it is assumed players good enough to be in the Ryder Cup can adjust to anything.

Of the six matches, the U.S. team led in only one, the Cink-Kuchar vs. the brothers Molinari, which Europe tied on Francesco Molinari's short birdie at 18, the partisan crowd chanting, "Eu-rope, Eu-rope,'' or "Ole, Ole, Ole.''

In 1999, in Brookline, Mass., the U.S. team trailed going into singles, 10-6, and won, 14 1/2 to 13 1/2. "We have done it before,'' Woods reminded about a comeback, "and there's no reason we can't do it again.''

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/europe-steamrolls-u-s-takes-3-point-lead-1.2333240
Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Fowler's putt on 18th makes up for mistake

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- The rookie, Rickie Fowler, made a mistake. Then the rookie made one of the bigger putts of the first two days of this 38th Ryder Cup.

Fowler, a captain's pick for the team by Corey Pavin, was playing foursomes (alternate shot) with Jim Furyk Saturday. On the fourth hole, in the game against Europe's Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, Fowler was given a free drop from the mud in which Furyk's ball plugged.

But Fowler pulled another ball from his pocket and dropped that one, not the ball Furyk hit, resulting in automatic loss of the hole.

"It was the same kind of ball that was laying in the mud,'' explained Fowler, 21, a southern Californian who played at Oklahoma State. "I dropped the wrong one.''

Then at the 18th, after a magnificent wedge shot four feet past the flag by Furyk, Fowler dropped the putt to win the hole and halve the match.

"It was awesome to get a look at the putt on the last hole,'' said Fowler, who is known for his mop of hair and colorful attire.

Furyk and Fowler each sat out the opening fourball matches, this after Furyk winning $11.3 million last Sunday in the FedEx Cup.

"It was tough,'' said Furyk, "but four guys on each side had to do it. I was a little anxious early on. I didn't have a lot of iron shots. The one at 18, well, it's sometimes hard to get your rhythm.

"We were down the entire match. To come back and get a half was big for our team.''

The two were split in the subsequent fourball matches which were unfinished, Furyk joining Dustin Johnson - they were 1-down to Padraig Harrington and Ross Fisher through eight - and Fowler pairing with Phil Mickelson. They trailed Ian Poulter-Kaymer, 2 down after four holes.

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/fowler-s-putt-on-18th-makes-up-for-mistake-1.2331549
Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): After good start, U.S. sputters as Europe roars

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

NEWPORT, Wales -- Team America suddenly looked like Team Bewilderment. The Ryder Cup was being wrenched away. The only thing able to stop Europe on this long day's journey into night was, well, night.

"It's a shame it got dark,'' Luke Donald said. "We would have liked to keep going.''

Donald is an Englishman. Who won the NCAA championship for Northwestern. Who lives and plays in the United States. Who is on the Euro squad.

And his team was leading in all six matches that remained unfinished Saturday as the competition, dissected by a more than a 7-hour delay Friday, was reworked into a format that had golfers going from 9 a.m. to 6:50 p.m., and that still might not be enough.

There are four partnership sessions for the Ryder Cup. Two finished, sort of, and the United States was in front 6 to 4. But six more matches, two foursomes (alternate shot) and four fourballs (better-ball) hadn't finished. Europe is in front in every one of those.

After they conclude Sunday, assuming another storm doesn't rip across south Wales, then the 12 golfers on each team play singles.

"I just wanted to get even at eight points apiece before singles,'' said Colin Montgomerie, the Euro captain. The probability is he'll be ahead.

Eldrick Woods stopped playing like a Tiger. Phil Mickelson hasn't even started to play like Lefty. And Donald, Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell have been rolling in putts practically all the way from London, 120 miles to the east.

"Well, momentum is a wonderful thing in Ryder Cups,'' said Colin Montgomerie, the European captain, "and it's evident that momentum clearly is with Europe at the moment, although the [posted] score favors the States.''

In the two foursomes still going, Donald and Westwood were 4 up over Woods and Steve Stricker, and it was 5 up before Stricker got a win on the last hole played, the ninth; and McDowell and Rory McIlroy, the two from Northern Ireland, were 3 up over Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan through seven.

In fourballs, Harrington and Ross Fisher were 1 up over Jim Furyk-Dustin Johnson through eight; Peter Hanson-Miguel Angel Jimenez 2 up over Bubba Watson-Jeff Overton through six; brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari of Italy 1-up over Stewart Cink-Matt Kuchar through five; and Ian Poulter-Martin Kaymer 2 up over Mickelson and Rickie Fowler through four.

"I have not seen points given in matches that were through four, five, six seven holes,'' said Corey Pavin, the U.S. captain, seeking optimism. "We have to try to turn momentum back in our favor.''

But how? The Woods-Stricker twosome was unbeatable in last fall's Presidents Cup in San Francisco. At this Ryder Cup it won both the fourball, which finished Saturday morning and the subsequent foursomes. But it couldn't do a thing in the third match, beginning with the first hole.

"I think Tiger's playing well,'' Pavin said. "Obviously Steve and Tiger didn't get off to a very good start [in the third match]. It happens.''

Mickelson and Dustin Johnson lost both matches, so Pavin split them up -- Mickelson pairing with Fowler, Johnson with Furyk -- for the third, but that wasn't working either.

"Everybody thought it was a pretty good pairing,'' Pavin said of Mickelson-Dustin Johnson. "Just didn't get it going. Why? You've got me. So change it up.''

What changed for Europe was on the greens. Fisher, an Englishman, birdied three, four and five, in his partnership with Harrington, who started off with a birdie.

"I felt there wasn't enough passion on the course,'' Montgomerie said. "It was a very important two hours of play this afternoon. I just felt we needed to get the crowd on our side. The crowd wasn't getting involved enough, because we weren't involving them enough.''

The crowd was into it quickly enough.

And the U.S. team was falling out of it just as quickly.

- - - - - -

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/after-good-start-u-s-sputters-as-europe-roars-1.2331479
Copyright © 2010 Newsday. All rights reserved.