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6: Europe's Ryder Cup triumph Posted: Monday December 23, 2002 12:01 PM
Even with home advantage, few people gave the European team much chance of winning back the Ryder Cup. While the U.S. could bring most of the world's best players to The Belfry in September, the decision to stick with the teams selected prior to the event's postponement in 2001 had left Sam Torrance's side looking well past their sell-by date. Colin Montgomerie, Europe's top player for most of the decade, was playing the worst golf of his career and struggling for fitness. Lee Westwood, so reliable a year ago, had slipped outside the top 100 players in the world. The Europeans started brightly enough, with particularly strong performances from Sergio Garcia and the resurgent Westwood, staying ahead for most of the first two days' pairs matches. But by Saturday evening the U.S. had leveled the match at 8-8 and team captain Curtis Strange could look forward confidently to the Sunday singles, traditionally his team's strength. Torrance, however, had other ideas. In a bold -- perhaps reckless -- tactical move, the Scot stacked his strongest players at the top of the order in a bid to put points on the board and increase the pressure on the Americans. Montgomerie led the way, thrashing Scott Hoch 5 & 4 to take his tally for the tournament to four-and-a-half points, with Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer also securing early wins. With Tiger Woods stranded at the back of the day's action, the U.S. never recovered. Welshman Phillip Price, ranked 119th, beat world No. 2 Phil Mickelson and it was left to unheralded Irishman Paul McGinley to clinch the victory, sinking a 10-foot putt to rally from two-down and halve his match with Jim Furyk before plunging into the lake at the 18th to celebrate. Torrance was rightly hailed as the architect of European success, yet it was not so much his decision on Saturday night to risk all on the early singles matches as his supreme motivational abilities that laid the basis for his player's triumph. Coaxing the best from each and every one of his players, Torrance proved the power of teamwork to transcend ability, even in the most individual of sports. --Simon Hooper
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