Europe Takes Lead After Ryder Cup's First Day
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By Thomas Bonk
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
11:16 AM PDT, September 22, 2006
STRAFFAN, Ireland — They landed in water, behind trees, in slimy mud and ankle-high grass, on cart paths, under flags and sometimes the golf balls even traveled where they were supposed to go, on the fairways and greens of the K Club.
And when the second day of the Ryder Cup gets underway Saturday, the U.S. has got to believe that a lot more of those balls are going to reach the hole more quickly than they did on a wet and wild Friday.
Look at it this way, the U.S. won the first match of the day -- and didn't win another. They halved four others, lost three more and trail Europe, 5-3.
Not long after Jim Furyk's swing cracked and he sent his approach to the 18th hole into a pond — the unlucky 13th ball to get wet — a rainbow appeared on the horizon. Maybe there's some good luck on its way because Furyk and Tiger Woods didn't have much of it in their afternoon alternate-shot match against Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald as Europe took a two-point lead that could have been better or a whole lot worse.
Garcia-Donald pinned a 2-up defeat on Woods and Furyk, who had as many 6s on their scorecard as birdies, three of each.
Woods-Furyk won their first match of the day, but as far as marquee performances, the reviews were mixed for the U.S. At the same time, who could have expected Chad Campbell and Ryder Cup rookie Zach Johnson to come from three holes down with three to play and halve their match with Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley?
And then there was Colin Montgomerie, calmly rolling in a six-foot putt to halve his match with partner Lee Westwood at the 18th hole and make Phil Mickelson-Chris DiMarco accept only a half point even though they held a 1-up lead after 17 holes.
The other alternate shot match was also halved. Stewart Cink-David Toms were hard-pressed to find many birdies — only two in the last 13 holes — and they split a point with David Howell-Henrik Stenson.
It could have been a lot worse and has been recently. When Woods-Furyk defeated Montgomerie-Harrington, 1-up, in the morning best-ball match, it broke a seven-match first-day losing streak for Woods.
In the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills, Woods and Mickelson got the ball rolling on the first day by getting bumped off by Montgomerie and Harrington, a defeat that was so devastating you could almost hear air escaping from a flat tire. It wound up as the most lopsided U.S. defeat in Ryder Cup history, an 18½- 9 ½ pounding.
But with Woods-Furyk getting the first point and then Cink and J.J. Henry coming from three holes down to halve their match against Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson, the U.S. deficit was only 2½ - 1½ in the morning. After morning play at Oakland Hills, the U.S. had exactly one-half of a point, so it was an improvement, even though a small one.
Casey's 50-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole evened the morning match today, but Henry, a 31-year-old Ryder Cup rookie, was an unexpected surprise in his pairing with Cink and they played the back nine in six under.
"To turn it around on the back was great and hopefully give us some momentum for tomorrow and Sunday," said Henry, who had another unexpected surprise in store when he was benched by Lehman for the afternoon matches.
Another Ryder Cup rookie, Brett Wetterich, didn't do much to help Toms in their morning best-ball match against Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal and the Spaniards trampled them, 3-and-2. Mickelson and DiMarco also lost their first match, 1-up, to Darren Clarke and Westwood.
Clarke was clearly emotional, playing just one month after his wife died of cancer.
"I was nearly crying," he said. "That was amazing, the hugs from [Mickelson] and [DiMarco] as well on the first tee, and the reception I got, I'll never forget that."
It turned out to be a wet and wild morning at the K Club, where a total of 10 golf balls landed in some kind of pond, lake, river or creek. Woods had the first one, when his five-wood tee shot at the first hole never hit dry land but did connect solidly with a lily pad.
"I snapped it," he said.
If he had the strength, Woods might have snapped the tree on the first hole in the afternoon alternate-shot matches, where Furyk knocked his tee shot and left Woods to figure a way out. The ball was at the base of the tree, with the green on the other side. The only option Woods had was to flip his club upside down and swing left-handed. The ball moved forward about three yards.
They started with a double bogey and it wasn't until Woods made back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th -- the team's first birdies of the match -- that they pulled even with Garcia and Donald.
Garcia knocked an iron to within three feet at the 17th and Donald made the birdie putt to win the hole after Woods could get no closer than 18 feet with his approach. Needing to win the last hole to halve the match, Woods drove the ball into the fairway, but Furyk swung poorly, his hands flying off the club, the ball diving into the water.
thomas.bonk@latimes.com |
