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 'We can't lose' Americans feeling pressure to bring Cup home
Posted: Saturday September 18, 1999 05:35 PM
BROOKLINE, Massachusetts (AP) -- After two months of haggling over revenue and wondering how the trophy wound up on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean again, the Americans will take another stab at regaining the Ryder Cup. A victory by Europe would be its third consecutive title, and the first time it has won two straight Ryder Cups in the United States. Another loss by the Americans would leave them without a cup -- and with a lot of explaining to do. "If we lose this year after the Presidents Cup and losing the last two Ryder Cups -- and after all that controversy over money -- well, it's going to be bad," U.S. golfer Davis Love III said. "So, we can't lose. We just can't lose." That's the kind of attitude U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw wants when the 33rd Ryder Cup matches begin next Friday at The Country Club. The Americans have a history of beating up on the British in Boston. The last time a major golf event was contested in Boston, American Curtis Strange beat Englishman Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1988 U.S. Open. And it was 19-year-old American amateur Francis Ouimet who beat British stalwarts Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 U.S. Open and first helped make golf popular on the Western shore of the Atlantic. Only this time, the Americans are far from underdogs. Never mind that Europe has won or retained the Ryder Cup five out of the past seven matches. This U.S. team is just like all the rest, stacked from top to bottom with Tiger Woods, Payne Stewart, Tom Lehman, Hal Sutton, Davis Love III. The only Ryder Cup rookie happens to be David Duval, the No. 2-ranked player in the world. "The pressure is on us, for sure," O'Meara said. "How many times have you said the European team is overwhelmingly stronger than the Americans? They've always had everything to gain and not a whole lot to lose, and we've always had a lot to lose and not a whole lot to gain. "Hopefully, this year it's going to be the American team that's going to come out on top. Because if we don't, I imagine we'll get pretty well hammered." As tough and experienced as America looks, Europe has a lot of fresh faces. Englisch captain Mark James, a former Ryder Cup rebel who never does anything by the book, passed on Germany's Bernard Langer and Welshman Ian Woosnam in filling out a team that includes seven rookies. Gone are the illustrious "Fab Five" -- Faldo, Langer, Woosnam, Spain's Seve Ballesteros and Scotland's Sandy Lyle, one of whom has been part of every Ryder Cup team since 1977. In their places are players like Paul Lawrie, an unknown Scotsman until winning the British Open when Frenchman Jean Van de Velde collapsed on the last hole at Carnoustie. Van de Velde will be at The Country Club, too, along with other rookies both from Spain: one young, 19-year-old Sergio Garcia, and one old, 35-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain.
"On paper, they should be caddying for us," Stewart said. "But that isn't what this is about. It's about bringing your game to the event, and they bring it." The United States has had the names, just not the victories. Two year's ago, Woods, Love and Justin Leonard -- who won three of the four majors that year -- all lost their singles matches in a 14 1/2-13 1/2 European victory. "You can put together a team that on paper may not be as complete," Woods said. "But the fact that it's match play ... it's 18 holes of anything-can-happen. And anything can happen." That's what Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, the new leader of Europe, is counting on. "We have a young team, but a team that...[the public outside Europe] might not know," the Scotsman said. "I think we might surprise a few people." The youngest player in Ryder Cup history is one of the most well-known -- and well-liked -- on the European team. Garcia is the most dynamic player in golf since Woods, who is all of 23 years old. Like Woods, he is a master at match play. "We'll have to give everything to beat the Americans," Garcia said. "They are definitely the favorites, but that's good for us. We've got a great team, and I can promise a fight to the death." That kind of attitude is what the United States will try to recapture, not an easy task for a team that seemed divided in the past two months over a popular topic in America -- money. The PGA of America will raise $3 million from the matches, with a net profit of about $23 million. O'Meara, Duval, Woods and Phil Mickelson have been among those asking that a portion of the profits be designated to the charity of their choosing. Perhaps Sutton summed it up best. "I hope we've all pulled together, and we're there for one common denominator, which is to win that Ryder Cup back -- whether we get paid to do it, or whether we have to pay them to do it," he said. Crenshaw wishes this whole money mess would just go away, although he rekindled the controversy on the eve of the U.S. PGA Championship by publicly mentioning four players who he felt were more concerned with filling the cup than winning the cup. He apologized the next day, saying he needed his guys at their best. "You can better believe I want them front and center in Boston," Crenshaw said. "My God, I've got to have them." He sounded like a man desperate to bring the cup back to America, a feeling his entire team might do well to adopt.
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