Saturday, September 18, 2004
Europe needs only three singles wins today to retain the trophy.
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Sergio Garcia removed the flag from the 18th hole and waved it over his head. Padraig Harrington tossed his glove and cap into crowd that draped itself in European flags and sang "Ole, Ole!" from the top of its lungs. Darren Clarke lit up another cigar.
There was no need to wait for this juggernaut of a European team to celebrate at the Ryder Cup.
Today looks like a mere formality.
"I never in my wildest dreams would have thought we would have a six-point lead," captain Bernhard Langer said. "We came here as defending champions. We have the cup with us and we want to take it back home. So far, so good."
So far, it's been awesome.
The pivotal point
Two English rookies in their Ryder Cup debut delivered the pivotal point Saturday morning. Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Europe's reliable stars pounded the Americans in the afternoon.
When it was over, Europe had an 11-5 lead -- its largest ever -- and needs to win only three of 12 singles matches to capture the cup.
"It is possible? Sure, it's possible," Phil Mickelson said of an American comeback. "Is it likely? Probably not. For all intents and purposes, we've likely lost the cup. But we're going to try and win it."
It was the largest two-day lead since 1967, when Ben Hogan opened the Ryder Cup by introducing his team as "the 10 greatest golfers in the world."
The best 12 this week at Oakland Hills belong to Europe.
In order of qualification
U.S. captain Hal Sutton will send out his players today in the order they qualified -- from Woods at No. 1 to Stewart Cink at No. 12. Whenever a team is this far behind, it usually puts its best players at the top of the line-up to try to create momentum. Trouble is, Sutton has no idea who his best players are at this Ryder Cup.
Woods, Mickelson and Davis Love III have earned only one point. Jim Furyk and Chad Campbell don't have any.
Maybe that's why Sutton didn't bother to wag his finger and offer an ominous prediction that "I've got a good feeling about this," a la captain Ben Crenshaw at Brookline in 1999 when he was behind 10-6.
Sutton looked beat. He was out of tough talk.
"I pushed them as hard as I could," he said. "We almost responded this morning, and we lost energy after that."
Does he believe the Americans will win?
"I believe in my heart that they can," Sutton said. "Whether they will or not is another story."
Outplayed home team
Europe has so thoroughly outplayed the home team that Paul Casey asked to go off first with hopes of playing Woods, telling Langer he has beaten him in the two tournaments they have played this year.
After the Americans staged an impressive rally in better-ball matches -- they had the potential for a sweep -- Europe staved them off behind Casey and David Howell, who won the last two holes against Campbell and Furyk for a 1-up victory that sent a surge of confidence through their teammates.
"It changed everything," Langer said.
Europe poured it on by winning three of the alternate-shot matches, none bigger than Harrington and Paul McGinley overcoming an early deficit to whip Woods and Love.
"I didn't see a way out for us," Harrington said. "Paul said to me going up the second hole, 'Look, we're in trouble here. We shouldn't be playing against these guys; we should be playing the course. From here on in, we'll shoot under par.' And that's what we did."
Woods and Love bogeyed four out of six holes in the middle of the match and lost, 4 and 3.
Mickelson, benched in the morning after his poor play Friday, joined David Toms for the lone U.S. victory in the afternoon, 4 and 3 over Thomas Levet and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
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