That is What It Is All About

Drama, passion, excitement, energy, pressure, elation, desolation, joy, and despair: last weekend’s Ryder Cup had it all. Okay, I know that it has been nearly a week since the competition finished up and that with the MLB playoffs getting started, the NFL season in full swing, and the Badgers facing two crucial home dates with Minnesota and Ohio State, golf is just about the last thing on the sports fan’s mind, but I really think I would be remiss to ignore what was truly one of the great moments in the sporting year.
With the issues facing the game’s best player, Tiger Woods, on and off the course, the resulting lack of interest in the much-hyped FedEx Cup left the Ryder Cup as the last bastion of hope for those who wanted to ensure golf maintained its hold as a major sport in arguably one of its toughest times. At the same time as Woods, the man responsible for golf’s ascension into the mainstream sports scene, largely a non-factor even in those events he did choose to participate in, the world economy continued to flounder, leaving sponsors unwilling to cut checks and bringing the growth in participation to a screeching halt. As the start of the semi-annual matches came around last week, golf was a game in a state of utter desperation.
After nearly eight hours of delays rendered Friday disastrous and broadcast schedules as messy as the water logged Welsh course itself, the Ryder Cup seemed to be quickly losing its promise as the savior of the golfing season. Saturday certainly helped, as the marathon of play brought the world’s number one back onto the scene in a big way, with Woods and Madison’s own, Steve Stricker going 2-0 in the matches completed when darkness fell. However, Saturday also set the stage for the drama that was Sunday and even more so, Monday. In just two hours of play, the Europeans responded to a two-point deficit by taking a lead in all six in-progress matches at the fall of darkness.
Despite the promise of the late Saturday charge by the European squad, Sunday brought back the rains and brought the excitement to yet another screeching halt. Facing another delay in excess of five hours, the matches were relegated to an inevitable Monday finish, the very scenario event organizers had hoped to avoid by changes made to the event format after Friday’s lengthy delay. After the rains, the European play only dug deeper into that dramatic promise, with their 5 ½- ½ victory in the final team session setting up what seemed to be an insurmountable 3-point deficit for the once-confident American squad.
When organizers try to schedule sporting events in order to maximize TV viewership, it can be safely assumed that they aren’t looking to have a 4 am Monday morning start time for the east coast. That’s what the Ryder Cup faced; just about the worst possible scenario for generating a rebirth in interest for a desperate game. Fortunately, the drama that followed took care of all that which golf had going against it.
While I did fulfill my duty as a dedicated golf fan by waking up at the moment the clock struck three here in Madison, I have to admit that my lack of optimism quickly put me into a nap that lasted nearly three hours. Already down three and seeing eight European leads up on the board, my second wakeup brought no more excitement and certainly no more optimism than the first. The next three hours, however, would change all that in a hurry.
Steve Stricker started the sudden charge, completing what on its own was a noteworthy accomplishment by overcoming a back nine deficit to defeat Lee Westwood, the top player in Europe, soon to be number two in the world and arguably the best player in the world at this moment. Even this surprise was countered by the disheartening (in the minds of an American supporter such as myself) halve between Rory McIllroy and Stewart Cink in the second match, a halve that only became possible after Cink missed a five footer on 15 and a six footer on 17, McIllroy sunk a 15 footer on 16 and a four footer 18, both for par. The third match saw Jim Furyk make a run to steal a half point from Luke Donald, only to fall short on 18. With the Europeans now needing just 2.5 points more and having comfortable leads in 3 remaining matches, it looked like just a matter of time.
Then the magic came. While not one of the matches in need of a miracle finish, Tiger Woods led the charge, overcoming an early two-hole deficit to take out Francesco Molinari 4 and 3 behind a very much Tiger-like seven birdies and an eagle in just 15 holes. After struggling mightily in team competition, Phil Mickelson got back into form, riding three straight birdies en route to a quick 4 up lead through 4 and ultimately a comfortable 4 and 2 win over Peter Hanson. Zach Johnson joined Woods in justifying his pick by weathering two birdies in the first 5 holes by Padraig Harrington and riding 7 birdies to a 3 and 2 win.
Still, Europe countered the star-studded US attack by notching another point of their own on Miguel Angel Jimenez’s first career singles victory. With Eduardo Molinari holding a 3 up lead on Rickie Fowler with just 3 holes to play and Hunter Mahan still without a birdie and trailing by 2 holes to US Open Champion Graeme McDowell through 14, the US still looked short of hope.
The excitement had returned as the European crowd sensed a home victory on the horizon, but the drama that the game needed to see out of this competition hadn’t yet surfaced. Jeff Overton completed a return from 2 down heading into the homeward 9 and closed out Ross Fisher 3 and 2. With Fowler and Mahan in desperation mode and the US still a whole point short, even the 13-13 tie at this point in the matches did nothing to create the commotion golf needed to return to the sports mainstream.
It was at this moment on the sunny Welsh afternoon when Rickie Fowler decided to make his mark on the 2010 Ryder Cup matches. Just 21 and only a year into his professional career, the winless Fowler was no doubt one of the most controversial captain’s selections in Ryder Cup history. After sitting out the opening session, the change in format forced all twelve players into the fire and kept Captain Corey Pavin from hiding his hunch pick on the bench. Fowler certainly didn’t help Pavin’s case early on, costing himself and partner Furyk a hole in their opening foursomes match after he inadvertently played Furyk’s ball and forced an automatic loss of hole. However, Fowler showed that unseen something that Pavin somehow saw in picking Rickie, joining Furyk in a return from 2 down with 8 to play against stalwart Westwood and PGA champion Martin Kaymer to square the match, finishing off the improbable halve with a clutch six footer for birdie on the closing hole. And while he and four-ball partner Mickelson did square their match with Kaymer and Poulter after being 3-down early, the European duo was too much and Fowler’s 2 and 1 defeat brought back the criticism of Pavin’s choice.
Four down through 12 and 3 down on 16, Fowler seemed like he would do nothing on this Monday to quiet that criticism. Even a pressure-filled 6-iron to ten feet on 16 to push the match onto the 17th did nothing to further the case for the former Oklahoma State Cowboy. A quality tee shot on 17 left Fowler with a 20 footer and Eduardo Molinari’s two-putt from 30 feet left Rickie with an opportunity.
Then the Cup really began. After three rain-filled, exhaustion-plagued days of competition left the US squad on the brink of disappointment, their youngest and most inexperienced member brought hope back to the American side and injected a dose of drama into the competition unequaled perhaps since Tiger’s 20-footer on the final hole at Torrey Pines in ’08, another event that coincidentally came to a Monday conclusion.
Still, the Europeans were in control. Mahan and McDowell were both greenside off the tee on 15 and with the US needing a whole point to retain the cup, even halve by Mahan would not be enough unless Fowler finished off the improbable comeback. The US cause was in even bigger trouble when Molinari split the fairway after the young Fowler drove into the left rough. Molinari provided a spark of hope with a poor layup into the right rough, but he drew a good lie and still seemed in complete control. McDowell flubbed a chip from the rough right of 15, only to drain a clutch 15 footer for par and throw the pressure right back on the Mahan, who was still looking for his first birdie of the match.
Fowler laid up to the right fairway and both players hit the green, with Molinari facing a 40 footer and Fowler down in the match and still 15 feet away. After a clutch 2 putt by the Italian, Fowler had yet another chance to inject a serious dose of energy into the growing drama that had suddenly sprung up from what had at one point seemed to be a mere formality. In what under victorious circumstances would have no doubt been one of the great feats in professional golf, the Ryder Cup and PGA Tour rookie drained the right to left slider, electrifying even the pro-European crowd and bringing the Ryder Cup down to the final match for the first time since 1991 at Kiawah.
After draining an underappreciated (in the face of Fowler’s simultaneous action at 18) tester at 15 to cut the match deficit to just one, Hunter Mahan stepped onto the 16th tee with the almost unfathomable knowledge that the hopes of a team and a nation rested squarely on his shoulders. Nowhere else in the sport is this situation possible. Halve the match and you become a national hero. Fall short and, unfairly in many respects, become remembered in the same light as Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters champion who will never shed the legacy of his missed six footer at Kiawah 19 years ago.
In hindsight, it is obvious that we are going to talk about Mahan succumbing to the pressure of the situation and of McDowell’s birdie, ultimately losing the match after the flubbed chip on 17. But let’s not forget where this match stood. All day, Mahan was struggling with his game and using all his available energy to stay within an earshot of the very much in-form McDowell. Mahan knew from the opening tee that although the cause may be lost before his turn in the spotlight came around, victory on his part was a must if the comeback was going to be finished off. Down three heading into the singles, everyone on the US side knew that the anchor would have to pull off a win and Mahan was the player man enough to accept the challenge.
While struggling throughout the match, going without a birdie for the first 14 holes, Mahan worked a true wonder in even keeping that match in the balance as long as he did. Although he ultimately failed to perform under the heat, Mahan accepted the challenges of the anchor position and did his job in making that role relevant to the outcome of the matches.
So while we may remember Hunter Mahan’s performance in the 2010 Ryder Cup for that flubbed wedge in front of 17, let’s not fail to remember that without Mahan gritting out his own struggles to stay within one heading to 16, these matches would never have had the drama and excitement they ultimately had. Hunter Mahan’s performance was among the most important performances this year for the game of golf. Even though the rain relegated the event to a USA Network finish in the most unpleasant of time slots, the grit and determination of Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan brought the game of golf very much back into the mainstream sport scene. The cup may be in Europe at the end of the day, but thanks to the drama of Monday morning, those on both sides of the Atlantic can share in the memories of a event that was in the end all that is great about sport itself.