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Fall Guys Still feeding off a special Sunday in Brookline, a U.S. juggernaut took no prisoners at the Presidents Cup
By Alan Shipnuck
Think this Presidents Cup was a snooze? Get used to it. The U.S. is back -- with a vengeance -- and last week's record 21 1/2-10 1/2 shellacking of an overwhelmed International team is only a taste of what is to come in these annual team grudge matches. (Yes, this kind of dominance will be visited on the Ryder Cup, too.) On Sunday afternoon the Americans officially regained possession of the Presidents Cup on the 15th hole of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, in Manassas, Va., when Davis Love III closed out a hapless Ernie Els during the anticlimactic singles session. Truth be told, this Prez Cup was probably won on Sept. 26, 1999, the day of the Americans' historic final-day comeback win at the 33rd Ryder Cup. With that awesome unleashing of talent and willpower the Yanks exorcised the demons of Choke Hill (the '95 Ryder Cup), the Pain in Spain ('97 Ryder) and, most embarrassingly, the Blunder Down Under, the '98 Presidents Cup in Australia in which an apathetic U.S. squad, miffed by having its Christmas shopping interrupted, suffered what had been the worst defeat in the history of international team competition. Of the galvanizing performance a year ago at the Country Club, Tom Lehman says, "Something changed that day. It was a turning point, and we're still feeling the effect. In every other event before that, it felt like we got out-teamed. Now we're the ones making each other better. We're the ones inspiring each other. You look at this team, and there are a lot of young guys. I don't know if we can win every Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup for the next 10 years, but we're going to be very tough." Seconds Hal Sutton, "It's an exciting time to be part of American golf." Not only are the Americans the most talented players in the world, but now they're also the most fearless. Not only is the U.S. the deepest team, but now it's the most cohesive, too. At this Presidents Cup the Americans excelled in every format and showed the kind of blood lust that was a marked departure from the usual slap and giggle of the Presidents Cup. The Americans devoured the Internationals in all five foursome matches last Thursday, and by the end of play on Friday the lead was 10-5. By Saturday night the margin was up to 14-6, and needing only 2 1/2 points from the 12 singles matches on Sunday, the Yanks instead rolled up 7 1/2. What was scary about this U.S. team was its balance. Ten players won at least three matches, and two of the unbeatens were rookies, Stewart Cink and Kirk Triplett, who were so supernatural in teaming for three victories that they may as well have been touching rings and chanting, "Wonder Twin powers activate." While the Internationals clearly didn't play their best -- particularly their stars, Els and Vijay Singh, who were being fitted for goat horns after going a combined 1-9 -- it didn't matter. This U.S. squad was unbeatable. "It was a magnificent performance," said Peter Thomson, the gracious captain of the International team. "This seems to me to be as powerful a team as you've ever had." Sorry, Thommo, but it's only going to get worse for you and the boys. The American go-to guys, Love, 36, and Phil Mickelson, 30, are in their primes, and the team game seems to bring out their best. After a flawless 4-0 performance, Love has a 12-5-2 record in the Prez Cup to go with a 3-1 mark in Ryder Cup singles. Mickelson, meanwhile, is so wolfishly competitive that he was sent out in last week's opening match and, along with Lehman, set the tone for all that would follow with a 5-and-4 filleting of Steve Elkington and a toothless Greg Norman, the pairing that used to be the Internationals' most potent. That Lehman was batting leadoff was no surprise, given that he and Sutton are the U.S.'s emotional leaders. Both are playing some of the best golf of their careers despite being over 40, and even if they don't qualify for the next couple of Cups, you can be sure they'll be captains' selections. Complementing this core Fab Four was a collection of valuable role players, notably Jim Furyk, 30, a steady, flinty competitor who went 3-1 last week and is now 4-0 in singles in the Ryder and Presidents Cups. Cink and Triplett, the heroes among the "tail-enders" -- Nick Price's term for the less glamorous players--are testaments to the depth of talent on the U.S. tour. In this era of inflated purses, a Cink or a Triplett can get rich without any serious ambition, but both have realized that team events like the Presidents Cup can define a career. "I pushed hard to make this team," says Triplett, 38, who won his first Tour event earlier this year in Los Angeles. "There is a perception that this event is not important to the players, but I can assure you it is very significant to me, and it was significant for a number of others who tried like heck to make the team but didn't quite get here." Among the U.S. stars conspicuous by their absence were Justin Leonard, the hero of last year's Ryder Cup, and two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, one of the best players on the '97 Ryder Cup team. The battle to be considered one of the 12 best American golfers gets more competitive every year. That should guarantee that our national teams are stocked with motivated players at the top of their games for a long time to come. As valuable as the Kirk Tripletts of the world are, every team needs superstars, and the most noteworthy development of this Presidents Cup was that the U.S.'s slumbering giants, David Duval and Tiger Woods, finally seem to have been roused. Neither seemed fully engaged in a team competition before, but last week they won six matches between them. Duval putted like it was 1999 and displayed the kind of ebullience he hadn't shown since he heaved his wraparound shades into the crowd at the Country Club. Woods hadn't played since his win six weeks ago at the Canadian Open, and although he was rusty, he proved that his passion can transcend medal play. (Before last week this rugged individualist was an uninspired 5-9-1 in a pair of Ryder Cups and one Presidents Cup.) Woods landed the most devastating blow of the opening day. He was teamed with his old Stanford roommate, Notah Begay, in a heavyweight bout against Els and Singh. Clinging to a one-up lead on the 16th hole, Woods buried a 20-foot par putt to steal a halve, save the match and break the spirit of poor Els, who has seen this sort of thing before. Woods admitted after the match that he had been "a little tight," which was a good thing because it meant that he cared. Els cares, deeply, and on Thursday night gave his teammates an impassioned pep talk. Thomson -- the MVP of the week's press conferences with his glib asides -- described the scene: "Everybody gave him a rousing cheer, and we all had another beer." Thus fortified, the Internationals won four of the five Friday morning four-balls, all in blowouts, to close the U.S. lead to 6-4 and briefly inject a little pizzazz into the proceedings. Begay-Woods were part of the drubbing, losing 3 and 2 to Shigeki Maruyama and Carlos Franco, but at least Tiger went out with a roar. On the par-4 15th he airmailed the green with his approach, and when a nearby TV reporter intoned into his microphone, "Tiger hit it into the water," Woods turned to him and said, "No s---." It didn't take long for the Internationals to lose the momentum. Leading off the Friday afternoon foursomes, Cink-Triplett made seven birdies in a decisive victory over Robert Appleby and Stuart Allenby (or is it the other way around?). As sizzling a pace as Cink-Triplett set, they weren't the only stars of the session. Paul Azinger and Loren Roberts, captain's picks who also proved to be handy fill-ins, made six birdies and an eagle in 13 holes, dispatching Franco-Maruyama 5 and 4. Lehman-Sutton had six birdies in the first 11 holes in trouncing Michael Campbell-Retief Goosen, while Begay-Woods racked up three birdies and an eagle in winning the first six holes in their blowout of Els-Singh. Over the first two days the U.S. won nine of the 10 foursomes -- previously a team weakness -- which led Thomson to declare the alternate-shot format "goofy golf" and dismiss it as "a bloody English invention for old ladies in golf clubs." Lehman saw it another way. "It's the truest test of teamwork," he said. "It's about working together and picking up your partner when he needs it." Down five points heading into Saturday's final five four-balls, the Internationals needed a major rally but were blunted from the beginning. In the day's first match Furyk-Sutton roared to a 6-and-5 victory over Campbell-Norman. Said Sutton, "Jim said this was a very Southern remark, but I made the statement, 'We're going to start the fire, and everybody else is going to throw some gasoline on it as they come by.'" The powerhouse teams of Lehman-Mickelson, Duval-Love and, yes, Cink-Triplett all followed with victories. The only U.S. loss of the day was suffered by Begay-Woods in one of the most spirited matches of the Cup. One down to Singh and the partner who was carrying him, Goosen, Woods sidled up to Begay on the 13th tee and nearly pressed his cheek into his pard's. "Let's bury these boys," Woods growled. He would top Singh's eagle with one of his own on the following hole, the par-5 14th, and then make a kick-in birdie to win the 15th, but Goosen was too much down the stretch, and he and Singh took the match 2 and 1, setting up the two best grudge matches of the Sunday singles. With the ownership of the Presidents Cup all but wrapped up, Singh-Woods took center stage, particularly after a testy exchange on the 4th hole. In with a bogey, Woods made Singh putt out an eight-footer for birdie, which left the Fijian shaking his head. Singh then ran his putt two feet by the cup, and Woods stood at green's edge, arms crossed, haughtily staring a hole through his opponent. Singh was so miffed at being made to putt again that he began muttering under his breath to his caddie, and therein lies the rub. Singh's bagman, Paul Tesori, had showed up on the 1st tee with a hat that had TIGER WHO? emblazoned on the back. Was that extra motivation? "Oh, yeah," Woods said. Singh and Woods were still battling when Love polished off Els, officially lifting the Americans to victory. "He said, 'Congratulations,' and I said, 'It's not over yet in this match,'" Woods said. "I didn't want him to let down." Woods mercilessly closed out Singh 2 and 1, making five birdies and an eagle over the final 13 holes. Begay, too, was grinding it out to the end in the day's final match, against Goosen, an elegant player who joined Franco, Price and Mike Weir of Canada as the only Internationals to show any mettle. (The other eight guys would have had trouble defending the Solheim Cup.) Begay had his own motivation. On Saturday night the Americans had decided that their goal was to surpass the 20 1/2 points the Internationals had finished with in 1998. Two down at the turn, Begay stormed back to take the lead with a birdie at 17. Both teams gathered behind the 18th green to await the outcome. The assembled Internationals seemed not crushed by the defeat but rather resigned to its inevitability. They had lost to a superior team, and they knew it. The Americans, meanwhile, quietly chatted amongst themselves, trading tales from their matches. There would be no over-the-top celebrations this time, no champagne-soaked shirts to toss to the crowd. The victory had brought not catharsis but confirmation. These potent U.S. players had proved to themselves, and to the rest of the golf world, that they are every bit as good as they showed on that magical Sunday last September. Finally the last match reached the green, and with a deft chip Begay left himself a six-inch putt for the victory. Goosen stepped in and ended the Presidents Cup, fittingly, with a concession.
Issue date: October 30, 2000
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