'We creamed them'
International team completes demolition of U.S.
Posted: Sunday December 13, 1998 09:54 AM
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Champagne flowed on the International side even before the final putt dropped AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Tiger Woods against Greg Norman was
only for show, and so was just about every other match Sunday in
the Presidents Cup. Two hours before the final putt was conceded,
the champagne already was pouring for the International team.
Call it the Massacre in Melbourne.
"They played some of the most unbelieveable golf," said U.S.
captain Jack Nicklaus. "Wow."
Relentless from the start, determined to the end, the
International team won its first Presidents Cup on a rainy Sunday
at Royal Melbourne Golf Club that the Americans couldn't leave soon
enough.
Not even Woods' 1-up victory over Norman could keep the United
States from its worst loss in the history of match play.
International 20 1/2, United States 11 1/2.
"We creamed them," said Steve Elkington.
Craig Parry, who pulled off one of several stunning shots that
carried the International team to a 14 1/2-5 1/2 lead after two days,
steamrolled past Justin Leonard for a 5 and 3 victory. Thirty
minutes later, Nick Price polished off David Duval 2 and 1, and the
celebration was on.
"We had a sour taste in our mouths from last time," Parry
said. "We wanted to have champagne in our mouths tonight."
Pour the biggest drink for Shigeki Maruyama, the might mite from
Japan who won the hearts of the Australian gallery and carried the
International team by winning all five of his matches. Only Mark
O'Meara in 1996 has gone 5-0 in the Presidents Cup.
"It wasn't a question of beating America," Price said. "It was
a question of winning that Cup. We want that trophy."
Some of the best matches of the day didn't even matter -- Woods
holding off a late charge by Norman, Fred Couples and Vijay Singh
playing to a draw and Mark O'Meara winning 1-up over Stuart
Appleby.
International captain Peter Thomson described the U.S. team as
the "greatest collection of golfers in the world" during the
opening ceremonies.
Not this week. And particularly not at Royal Melbourne.
Until Sunday, the worst loss in U.S. history was 16 1/2-11 1/2 to
Europe in the 1985 Ryder Cup at The Belfry, which turned out to be
the start of European domination in those matches. Could the
Presidents Cup be headed down the same path?
"We came in here as underdogs and came out showing the force of
International golf," Norman said.
It was vindication for an International team that had lost the
first two Presidents Cup, and proof that moving outside the United
States does make a difference.
"We used to think golf was only played in the United States,"
Nicklaus said. "We didn't even invent it. I'm not even sure how
well we play it anymore."
Despite the move to Australia, both sides said these matches
would not take on the war-like mentality of the Ryder Cup, such as
America's "War on the Shore" win in 1991 at Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
No worries.
Nick Price: "What a great feeling for us, especially after the last two times" AP | |
The United States barely managed to put up a fight, despite
having the top four players in the world rankings and eight of the
top 15 on their side.
"It's never fun to lose," said Mark Calcavecchia, who cried
after the 1991 Ryder Cup. "But if you're going to lose to anybody,
I'd rather lose to these guys rather than the Europeans."
And lose they did, in a way few would have imagine.
From the time Frank Nobilo sank a 40-foot birdie putt on the
18th to give the International team its first point of the matches
on Friday, the Americans were never in the game.
They needed a miracle on Sunday and instead got the same old
story: putts breaking away from the cup at the last minute, the
International putts falling right in the heart.
Parry, who grew up in Melbourne and has played the course under
every imaginable condition, never trailed in his match against
Leonard and took control in typical fashion. After Leonard hit a
wedge to three feet on the fifth hole, Parry dunked a 20-footer,
and all Leonard could manage was to halve the hole.
Parry made another 20-foot birdie hole on the sixth, then went
3-up on the next hole when Leonard three-putted from about 30 feet.
Right behind, Duval was tasting a similar fate.
He had a 4-foot birdie putt on the fifth to square his match
with Price, but it somehow slid by on the left. Price went 2-up on
the seventh with a 25-foot birdie putt and never looked back.
Duval made only two birdies, both on par-5s, and conceded the
match when yet another 20-footer was off line.
Price gave a high-five to his caddie, threw his ball into the
crowd and hugged assistant captain Wayne Grady before shaking hands
with Nicklaus, a losing captain once again.
Nicklaus was in charge of the U.S. team when it became the first
to lose a Ryder Cup on American soil. These matches were played on
Thomson's home turf, and he was beaming.
"This is the greatest thing I've ever done," Thomson said.
Thomson melded together a team that came from all over the
world, from Japan to Fiji to Paraguay, and six players from Down
Under.
It may have started two years ago in a cabin at the Robert Trent
Jones course, where the International team had an emotional meeting
and vowed that next time the Presidents Cup would be different.
And it was -- different country, different outcome.
"Maruyama has been outstanding," Thomson said. "He got an
enormous reception when he walked on to the tee. He'll get a bigger
one tonight when we settle down to have a drink."
The Americans had no excuses and offered none.
"They just played so well," Duval said.
The United States has been through this before. A year ago at
Valderrama, the Americans were upset by Europe in the Ryder Cup in
matches that came down to which team could read the greens, which
team could make the putts.
Once again, the Americans were helpless, hopeless and cupless.
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