Honor and Glory by North & Warren

ar nold palm er ' s gui de to t h e ry d e r c u p

woods garcia —

back at medinah after thirteen years

captains call the shots — they talk and we listen

medinah revealed — golfing shrine in the windy city

Team USA H Team Europe H Ryder History H palmer interview

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Contents

13 15 16 18 38

20 26 32 38

arnolD Palmer ForeworD

Arnold Palmer anticipates an exciting and memorable Ryder Cup at Medinah

Governor oF illinoiS ForeworD

Pat Quinn welcomes the 39th Ryder Cup to the state of Illinois

PreSiDent Clinton ForeworD

The 42nd President of the United States passes on a message to fellow golfers

DiD you Know?

who will win?

Palmer interview

aSSiStant CaPtainS

ryDer CuP SCeneSetter

love interview

olazabal interview

miCKelSon & weStwooD

Impress your friends by memorizing these nuggets of Ryder Cup trivia

The King talks about what the Ryder Cup means to him and reminisces about being both player and captain

Can Davis Love III lead the U.S. team to a famous victory and regain the Ryder Cup?

Captain America talks about the honor he feels has been bestowed on him as the son of a PGA professional

Europe’s captain remembers his old ally Seve Ballesteros and hopes for a clean and fair contest at Medinah

The two senior professionals on the U.S. and European teams will be renewing their Ryder Cup rivalry

Leading writers from the U.S. and Europe outline their theories as to why their teams will win

Once upon a time there weren’t any at all. Now there are eight—four on each side. What do they all do?

Fowler & mCilroy

The future of golf is in good hands with such exciting players likely to appear in many Ryder Cup matches

hiStory oF meDinah

How an immigrant Scottish course designer came to lay out three lots of 18 holes for the Shriners

hole-by-hole ProFileS

A detailed analysis with stunning photographs of the challenge that awaits players on Medinah No.3

wooDS & GarCia

It’s 13 years since a Spanish teenager hit a miracle shot from tree roots while chasing Tiger at Medinah

Honor & Glory

Contents

EDITOR Paul Trow PUBLISHER Matthew Squire

Team USa

130

Team eUrope

136

104

Who WaS SamUel ryder?

108

Thumbnail sketches and career details of the 12 players who will represent the U.S. at Medinah

Thumbnail sketches and career details of the 12 players who will represent Europe at Medinah

The mighty sporting oak that is the modern Ryder Cup began life as an English seed merchant’s pipedream

140

1963 ryder CUp

146

ryder CUp in piCTUreS

150

120

ConCeding pUTTS

156

126

Champagne momenTS

162

112

Arnold Palmer was the last man to captain and play in the same Ryder Cup side, nearly 50 years ago

Moments and images preserved for immortality from the origins of the Ryder Cup to the present day

Perhaps the most awkward decision a Ryder Cup golfer faces is whether or not to concede a putt

The history of France’s most famous Champagne, Moët et Chandon, predates the Napoleonic wars

150

2010 ryder CUp revieW

It was extremely wet at Celtic Manor but the Ryder Cup in south Wales was anything but a damp squib

Seve balleSTeroS

One of the Ryder Cup’s greatest competitors, the mercurial Spaniard was also a mentor and father figure

ryder CUp CaddieS

Leading caddies from both sides of the Atlantic talk about the magic of the Ryder Cup and their roles in it

The Solheim CUp

After 12 contests, the biennial match between the U.S. and Europe can claim to be the women’s Ryder Cup

fUTUre venUeS

The Ryder Cup will soon be heading for Gleneagles, Hazeltine, Paris National and Whistling Straits

ryder CUp reCordS

The results of all 38 Ryder Cup matches to have been played since 1927 plus a plethora of other facts

Silver pUTTer & ballS

A symbolic putter adorned with 24 silver golf balls will be on display in the Medinah clubhouse

ART DIRECTOR Leon Harris SENIOR DESIGNER Matthew Halnan JUNIOR DESIGNER Kieron Deen Halnan VP OPERATIONS Joe Velotta CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Reade Tilley EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTS Carla Richards Lola Aina ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES Jon Edwards Andy Fletcher Jason Lyon CONTRIBUTORS Clive Agran, Robin Barwick, Nick Bayly, Ross Biddiscombe, Colin Callander, Iain Carter, Tony Dear, Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com, Bill Elliott, Andy Farrell, Getty Images, Bob Harig, Leon Harris, Adam Hathaway, Brian Henry, Steve Killick, Paul Mahoney, Lewine Mair, Ivan Morris, oldgolfimages.com, Chris Rodell, Jack Ross, Evan Schiller / golfshots.com, Dave Shedloski, Art Spander, Martin Vousden SPECIAL THANKS Cori Britt, President Clinton, Danza Duffner, Doc Giffin, Governor Quinn, Michael J. Scully ENqUIRIES Editorial: jh@tmcusallc.com Advertising: ms@tmcusallc.com © TMC USA LLC 2012 The articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinions and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publishers. No responsibility is taken for unsolicited photographic or other materials.

tmcusallc.com

Honor & Glory

Patrick Drickey /stonehousegolf.com

FOUNDING CONTRIBUTOR Arnold Palmer

Proud SuPPorter of the 2012 ryder cuP

for passing down a lifetime of knowledge. The PNC Father/Son Challenge. December 13–16, 2012. At PNC Bank, we recognize the power of relationships. But then, fostering strong personal connections is how we approach business every day. It’s why we’re so proud to bring back the PNC Father/Son Challenge Golf Tournament. For generations, PNC Bank has been guiding clients through life’s opportunities and challenges. And we’re committed to helping them achieve great things well into the future.

Foreword

Arnold PAlmer Foreword Welcome to Honor & Glory, my guide to the 39th Ryder Cup matches that will take place at Medinah Country Club in Illinois, from September 28-30, 2012. It is now more than half a century since I first played in the Ryder Cup, over the links of Royal Lytham & St Annes in northwest England, yet my recollections of that far-off occasion are still much cherished and crystal clear. To this day, despite all the changes that have happened during the intervening years, I firmly believe the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship that prompted Samuel Ryder to create this transatlantic challenge in the first place remain as valid as they were back in the 1920s. Certainly, the six Ryder Cups in which I played were equally enjoyable for the quality of the golf and the courtesy and consideration displayed by all the players both off the course and in the heat of battle. Long may this attitude continue, not least because the Ryder Cup is perhaps the greatest showcase that we have in the game of golf. Today, these matches have a higher global profile than when I played in them—from the reach of today’s media coverage to all the organizational detail that has to be attended to. And yet, the players continue to give their services for free, something that I hope will always be the case, even though it is gratifying that charities are now benefiting extensively from some of the revenues. Turning to the events that will shortly unfold on the outskirts of Chicago, on a golf course that is likely to be mighty long, we have in prospect a match of classic proportions. The American team, under the captaincy of Davis Love III, will be trying to regain the trophy from the Europeans who won it back at Celtic Manor in Wales two years ago. Three of the current major champions will be at Medinah, including Webb Simpson, a graduate of my alma mater Wake Forest, who showed such nerve and poise to win this year’s U.S. Open at the Olympic Club and Masters Champion Bubba Watson. The European team, captained by Jose Maria Olazabal and spearheaded by Rory McIlroy, our new PGA champion, and Team USA look to be well matched on paper and the games between them should be enthralling, spectacular and, above all, entertaining. Whoever wins in the end, though, it is to be hoped that the greatest winner is the game of golf itself.

Arnold Palmer

Honor & Glory

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THE ORIGINAL IGINA NALL.

Foreword

STATE OF ILLINOIS

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 62706

Pat Quinn

GOVERNOR

September 25-30, 2012

Greetings! As Governor of the State of Illinois, I am proud that the Land of Lincoln, with its long history of excellent sporting traditions, has been selected to host The Ryder Cup Matches. This prestigious event will draw participants and spectators from across the globe to The Medinah Country Club, which boasts world-class facilities and has hosted many national events. Athletic achievement in the international community fosters a sense of inspiration and pride within our towns, states and country. As a joint competition between PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, the Ryder Cup provides an opportunity for worldclass athletes to showcase sportsmanship and international cooperation through competition on a global stage. I wish the very best of luck to both of the teams competing during this tournament. I would also like to offer a special welcome to those traveling from outside of Illinois for this event. During your stay, I encourage you to explore and discover the many sites and attractions that this great state has to offer. From historic landmarks and world-renowned museums, to first-class dining and theater experiences, to the scenic beauty of our small towns and prairies, there is truly a wide array of interests represented across Illinois. On behalf of the people of Illinois, I offer my best wishes for an enjoyable and memorable occasion. Sincerely, Pat Quinn Governor

Honor & Glory

Forewords History

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Feature

ryde r c u p

DiD you Know? O

ver the past few decades, the Ryder Cup has been the embodiment of a guessing game: Which team’s going to win this time round? Who’s going to be paired with who? Who isn’t going to be paired with anyone? Who’s going to win the decisive point? What will the players’ wives wear at the opening ceremony? Will the captains remember the names of all their players? What excuse will the losing captain come up with? How gracious will the winning captain be? Will the players’ rainwear keep them dry? What role will the crowd play in the outcome? What would Samuel Ryder make of it all? The Ryder Cup is now 85 years old, so now is the time for another guessing game. How much do we all really know about this biennial transatlantic contest? More headlines are written and column inches filled during the week of the Ryder Cup than any comparable week in golf, with the possible exception of the Masters. As historians never tire of telling us, knowledge is power. So if you want your fellow golf fans to look up to you as a fount of great knowledge, what greater power could you have than a superior knowledge of the Ryder Cup? Here is a sample of facts you might want to memorize—the sort of trivia that all wannabe well-informed Ryder Cup connoisseurs should have poised at their fingertips when clubhouse and bar-stool chat turns to the most captivating event in golf...

HonoR & GloRy

100% Record The golfer on top of the lid of the famous gold trophy is not Samuel Ryder himself, but Abe Mitchell, the English professional who taught Ryder to play golf. Mitchell was due to play in the inaugural contest in 1927, but withdrew with appendicitis. However, he did play in the next three matches.

Jimmy Demaret, with six wins from six matches in three appearances between 1947 and 1951, has the best 100 percent record in the Ryder Cup, only because Jackie Burke (1951-57) and Gardner Dickinson (1967 and 1971) lost their very last singles matches. Those results left Burke with a 7-1-0 record and Dickinson with 9-1-0.

First captains 50 Years The captains for the very first Ryder Cup at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts were Walter Hagen (U.S.) and Ted Ray (GB&I)

Between 1935 and 1985, the American team was only beaten once, in 1957, although it should be noted that no matches were played for 10 years due to World War II

Noble Lanny

Barnes Double

Sam Torrance was forced to miss the singles round in the 1993 Ryder Cup at The Belfry after sleepwalking into a plant pot. Lanny Wadkins, one of the more experienced U.S. players, volunteered to sit out the singles rather than see any of his teammates disappointed.

Unfancied Anglo-Scot Brian Barnes beat Jack Nicklaus, then at the peak of his powers, twice in the singles on the final day of the 1975 Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley, Pennsylvania.

Last Player–Captain

Arnold Palmer, in 1963 at East Lake Country Club, is the last person to act as a player-captain for either side in a Ryder Cup match.

$1.8m bonus More than $1.8 million was raised for a total of 54 separate charities from the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor

Most Successful Line-up The most successful Ryder Cup line-up ever in terms of major victories was the 1981 U.S. team at Walton Heath. Eleven of the 12 team members won majors and the 12th, Bruce Lietzke, went on to win a Champions Tour ‘major’, the 2003 U.S. Senior Open.

$5,000 Shirt Steve Pate sold the maroon shirt adorned with photographs of past U.S. teams that he wore on the final day of the 1999 Ryder Cup for $5,000 at a charity auction. With a distinct lack of deference to captain Ben Crenshaw, who dreamt up the design with business partner Jeff Rose, Pate said: “It was either that or use the shirt to dry my car.”

Oldest Survivors

The two oldest surviving U.S. Ryder Cup players—Doug Ford, 90, and Jackie Burke Jr., 89—can pull seniority on the two most senior Europeans—Christy O’Connor, Sr. and John Jacobs, who are both only 87.

HONOR & GLORy

Feature

RydeR Cup RefleCtions photo: Brian f Henry

Honor & Glory

Fresh from watching one compelling international sports event—the 2012 Summer Olympics—Arnold Palmer sat down in his office in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to talk with Chris Rodell about another: The 39th Ryder Cup. He recalls his experiences as a captain and player, sticks his neck out about who might win at Medinah, and looks forward to celebrating a U.S. victory with a customary glass of vodka

Question: You didn’t make your Ryder Cup debut until 1961, by which time you had already won three Major championships. Why the delay? Ap: In those days, the PGA was still requiring what you might call a probationary period before a tournament player could become a PGA member and be eligible to compete for a spot on the Ryder Cup team. I didn’t get my membership until it was too late to compile enough points to make the 1959 team, even though I had won five times [during that qualifying period], including the Masters. So, in effect, the PGA said [that] I was not qualified to make the team, that I didn’t belong. The funny thing was that they gave me a spot in the 1958 PGA Championship because I had won the Masters that year. Q: Still a little bitter? Ap: It was a sore point for me for a long time. I had to sit at home and watch my friends play while I couldn’t. I was pretty hot about having to sit out the Ryder Cup until 1961. Q: Who was your most difficult opponent in the Ryder Cup? Ap: Peter Alliss always gave me a real dog fight. Like a lot of Europeans, he played a nice, controlled fade, shaping his shots from left to right. I had to work my tail off just to halve him. He was very tenacious and I enjoyed playing against Peter. He is a nice man. Q: Which ‘team’ format did you prefer—foursomes or four-balls—and why? Ap: I didn’t really have a preference. I enjoyed them both. Q: What was your attitude towards conceding putts to your opponent? Ap: I think I was generous in conceding my opponent’s putts and I think that was in the spirit of the Ryder Cup. Its original intent was to bring players from both sides of the Atlantic together for friendly matches. The competition was always fierce, but there were never any real antagonisms. That was the way it was with conceded putts, too. Sure, there’d be some gamesmanship—giving away all the easy ones until one counted—but that’s just part of the game. In general, both sides did a lot of friendly conceding. Q: The 2010 Ryder Cup was badly disrupted by the weather and had to finish on a Monday for the first time. Do you think the event is being played too late in the year, especially as diminishing daylight is also a potential issue? Ap: Moving the event to earlier in the year is something they may want to consider. Nobody wants to see a Monday finish and the length of matches and the shortness of the days they’re played on can lead to that unwanted result. Q: Do you think the authorities should be stricter with players who play slowly in Ryder cup match play? If so, what potential penalties would you put in their power? Ap: Slow play’s a real problem in golf at all levels. With the professionals, it’s a problem because how do you punish the slow players? They’re all making so much money that fines don’t deter. That leaves stroke penalties for chronic slow play. But that’s going to take a lot of spine. Q: Have you kept all your bags and equipment from the six Ryder Cups in which you played? Ap: Yes, I still have them all. Seeing them brings back so many great memories.

Honor & Glory

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dave Marr and Arnold palmer measure putts to establish the order of play at Royal Birkdale in 1965. Above: three of palmer’s Ryder Cup bags

Q: What are your fondest playing memories from the Ryder Cup and who was your favorite partner? Ap: Just having the opportunity to represent my country on those occasions is my fondest memory. Thinking about it still gives me a lump in the throat. As for playing partners, Dave Marr was always a good buddy of mine and a great partner. He always kept me loose and laughing. Billy Casper and I were very competitive, too, but we made for great Ryder Cup teammates. Jack Nicklaus was a great partner. We had a great individual rivalry, but we had a lot of success as a team, not just in the Ryder Cup but in other team events like the World Cup. Q: You didn’t play in the 1969 Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale. What was the reason for that? Ap: Simple. I didn’t have the points and back then there were no captain’s picks. Q: How did you cope with being the U.S. captain as well as a player back in 1963, only your second playing appearance in the Ryder Cup, at East Lake? Ap: Cope? It was all a lot of fun. I enjoyed all the aspects of playing and captaining at once. I had a really great team and enjoyed working with all the players. And getting to play, too, made it even more special. Q: Did you feel at the time that it was a dual role unlikely ever to be repeated, or did it seem quite normal? Ap: It never occurred to me it was anything unusual. I was happy to take it all in and have fun with it. Q: How difficult was it for you to decide which of your players to leave out and which to pair together? What criteria did you apply to both decisions? Ap: That’s probably the most difficult aspect about being captain. And those are the kinds of decisions that make or break Ryder Cup teams. As captain, I looked at all the factors: the personalities, the strengths, the weaknesses and, most importantly, just who I thought could help our team to win. Q: Most golf fans assume that all match-ups in the Ryder Cup are randomly selected by a draw. Was that the case in your day or has there always been some manipulation of the draw to produce some box-office contests? Ap: Getting marquee match-ups was part of it. But the Ryder Cup is always going to be a compelling match no matter who’s playing.

“the ryder cup’s supposed to be about sporting competition”

Q: What other memories do you hold from 1975 when you were the non-playing captain over a course, Laurel Valley, with which you have a close association? Ap: That was very special to me because it was my last direct involvement with the Ryder Cup team and I was flattered to be selected captain. We had a sort of Dream Team that year with Nicklaus, Gene Littler, Lee Trevino, Ray Floyd, Billy Casper—I think it was the strongest team the U.S. ever fielded. Nicklaus was at the top of his game then, too. That’s why it was so surprising when Brian Barnes beat him in the morning singles. When we had the team meeting at lunchtime, the players urged me to give Jack another shot at Barnes. I did and Barnes beat him again in the afternoon. Jack took a lot of good-natured razzing about that afterward, even though we won the Ryder Cup rather easily.

Honor & Glory

Q: Are you happy with the current playing format of the Ryder Cup or would you like to see it emulate the Presidents Cup and enable every player to play in every round of matches? Ap: I don’t think I’d change a thing. The format works as well as it’s ever going to and I think the great competition proves that. Q: How much time did you spend, both as a captain and as a player, fraternising with the opposition? In the case of your opposite number as captain, did you spend as much time together before the match as they seem to today? Ap: We spent a lot of time together and it was always very enjoyable. We competed against them a lot and were on friendly terms already. That’s what it’s all about. The Ryder Cup’s supposed to be about sporting competition. There are times when it gets pretty heated—and there’s nothing wrong with that—as long as the players and the fans remember to honor the spirit of the game. Me, I loved the Ryder Cup. It’s about playing for something more than money. It’s about playing for your country. That meant the world to me. Q: Which was the most exciting Ryder Cup you’ve ever seen or participated in, and why? Ap: There have been so many great ones but for sheer drama, it’ll be difficult to top the 1991 event at Kiawah Island when it came down to Bernhard Langer’s final putt with everything on the line —and he missed. Q: How do you assess the qualities of the two captains, Davis Love and Jose Maria Olazabal, and what do you think each will bring to their teams? Ap: Well, they’re just two great guys and veterans who can be counted on to motivate their teams and get the best out of them. Q: Medinah is one of America’s outstanding courses and the scene of two of Tiger Woods’ PGA Championship victories. Do you think he will have an advantage over his opponents playing on a course of which he undoubtedly has positive memories? Ap: That should give him an advantage. Clearly, he’s very comfortable playing and winning there. He’s done it before and will rely on those positive recollections. On the other hand, his opponents will know of his success there and may be a little intimidated. I expect him to do well at Medinah. Q: How would you assess Medinah as a Ryder Cup venue—the course, facilities and also the crowd? Ap: It’s a great course, a great club and Chicago’s one of America’s great golf towns. They know how to run major events. The course is tough, but fair and I expect Chicago to really support the matches and the U.S. team. Q: Why do you think a panel of vice-captains has become so important to both teams in the Ryder Cup? What would be your ideal number? Ap: I wonder if it’s becoming excessive. I understand the captain needing an assistant, but all these vice-captains seem unnecessary. Q: How important do you feel a caddie is at a Ryder Cup? In an ordinary tournament the relationship is essential, especially when pressure kicks in, but does the caddie have an equally important role to play in a team match-play context, or a diminished role? Ap: The caddie certainly plays his part with reading putts and encouraging his player, but it is somewhat diminished in team play when a playing partner is there to share strategy.

top: langer misses the decisive putt at Kiawah island in 1991. Below: Woods celebrates his second pGA Championship victory at Medinah in 2006

Q: Sticking your neck out, which team do you fancy to win at Medinah and why? Ap: It could be one of the most exciting ever. I’m expecting it to be very dramatic. I think the U.S. will win with the help of the home turf advantage, but the Euros have some players who are doing very well right now, too. I’ll tell you this much, I’ll be watching. Q: Finally, London recently got done hosting an even more international event, the 2012 summer Olympics. Did you watch much? Ap: I certainly did. I enjoyed a lot of the swimming competitions and was amazed at the agility of the gymnasts. I love the Olympics and look forward to 2016 when golf will be part of the program. Q: Thank you, as always, Mr. Palmer for such lively and engaging conversation. Ap: And thank you. It’s my pleasure. H

Honor & Glory

“i expect chicago to really support the matches and the u.s. team”

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Feature

13th man! 26

Honor & Glory

The final weekend in September is set to witness yet another classic encounter in a Ryder Cup series that has been littered with them over the past three decades. For what it’s worth, the bookies give a shade of odds to a U.S. team bidding to recapture the cherished gold trophy so painfully surrendered to Europe two years ago in Wales. The battle lines are drawn, Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are fully squared up, and Paul Trow sets the scene

he 39th Ryder Cup, over the fabled No.3 course at Medinah on the outskirts of Chicago, is a potentially explosive contest between two teams of 12 players, representing the cream of American and European golfing talent. Both sides have a talisman with the ability to achieve almost anything with a golf club in their hands—Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. But perhaps even more significantly, both sides have a 13th man they can call on, a 13th man whose influence may well prove to be decisive in determining where those oh-so crucial pieces of luck, and opportunism, are destined to fall. Like prize fighters shaping up to go the full distance, Davis Love III and his dozen heroes

from the United States stand in the red (white and blue) corner while in the blue (and yellow) corner we find Jose Maria Olazabal and his ‘twelve men good and true’ from the continent of Europe. The jury is out as to which collection of players has a better chance of holding its nerve as the heat of battle intensifies in the later rounds. However, with the cauldron already simmering it would seem the form-book slightly favors a home team desperate to redress the balance following an agonizing, one-point defeat at Celtic Manor in 2010. Back in rain-sodden south Wales, the outcome boiled down to a tense singles clash between Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, reigning U.S. Open champion at the time, and

the abundantly talented Hunter Mahan. In the end, Mahan chunked a chip and McDowell thus breasted the tape as a volcano of partisan roars erupted from the galvanized crowd that thronged the 17th green. But that was then and this, two years later, is now. The packed galleries lining every fairway and green at Medinah will, largely, be cheering on Team USA. And given that many of them are likely to be natives of the Windy City, their support will be vociferous and spicy. Strong though the line-up of American aces already is, if at any stage they find themselves up against it and in need of a trump card, a 13th man if you will, this is where their fortitude will regenerate. Both captains, two of nature’s gentlemen, have appealed for fairness and respect towards all the players, and they are optimistic their requests will be understood and adhered to. Olazabal, two of whose seven Ryder Cups as a player were in the ‘War on the Shore’ at Kiawah Island in 1991 and in another pressurecooker atmosphere at The Country Club just outside Boston eight years later, believes his men will be accorded the common courtesies every combatant is entitled to in order to compete on a level playing field.

Davis Love III has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the Ryder Cup since making his debut at The Belfry in 1993 and holing the winning putt

Honor & Glory

But he also knows from personal experience that it is vital to stem a home side’s momentum, otherwise spectator exuberance can become an almost insurmountable hurdle to straddle. After all, who can forget the home celebrations at Brookline in 1999 when Justin Leonard’s mammoth putt seemed to confirm an astonishing, come-from-behind American victory and, therefore, the return of Samuel Ryder’s solid-gold trophy to western Atlantic shores after an absence of six long years? Onto the 17th green at The Country Club galloped a cavalry charge of U.S. players, wives and caddies to congratulate Leonard. Unfortunately, the hapless Olazabal still had a putt from 18 feet to keep Europe’s hopes of a tie, and thus of retaining the trophy, alive. Once everyone had calmed down, his ball went as close as it possibly could without dropping. To his credit, the phlegmatic Spaniard refused to make much of an issue of the incident, apart from a slightly raised eyebrow and a few caustic comments at a subsequent press conference, but plenty of other people made a fuss at the time, and carried on doing so for years to come. Olazabal, as assistant captain to Sir Nick Faldo in 2008, will bear witness that the galleries were also, unquestionably, an influential factor when Paul Azinger staged America’s last Ryder Cup revival at Valhalla, down in Kentucky Bourbon country, following a succession of three, exponentially humiliating defeats for Uncle Sam’s finest. Back then, though, getting the initially reluctant population of Louisville onside prior to the match involved a skilful public relations exercise on the part of Azinger,

Olazabal in his younger days with Ballesteros, and Woods (right) with his partner of choice, Stricker

Honor & Glory

one that must have tasted to marketing gurus in particular like a bite or two more than just ‘Finger Lickin’ Good.’ Azinger actively engaged with a skeptical city, took the players downtown to mix with the people, to talk golf with them, to talk patriotism with anyone who’d listen, even to ‘trash talk’ football at times, and generally to get all and sundry fired up for an exciting few days. The initiative worked like a dream and Azinger reaped the benefits as his greenhorn side, containing six rookies, steamrollered their vastly more experienced opponents into the Valhalla equivalent of Limbo. Whether Love chooses to adopt a similar approach in relation to the good folk of Chicago remains to be seen, but he appears to be a quick learner and he has already gone on record to express his admiration for Azinger’s tactics four years ago. So at Medinah, America’s robust and forthright 13th man will undoubtedly be standing outside the ropes, stoutly hollering his (or her) support and, no doubt, enjoying the occasional alcoholic beverage along the way. In the case of Europe, their 13th man will be no less formidable (or intoxicating) an influence, despite already being way beyond the ropes of life. That 13th man is the late, great Severiano Ballesteros. The mercurial Spaniard, who died just over a year ago from the irreversible ravages of brain cancer at the unfathomably young age of 54, was Olazabal’s mentor and partner in four Ryder Cup matches, and their joint record of 11-2-2 is by far the most prolific achieved by any combination of players on either side, before Great Britain & Ireland became Europe in 1979, or since.

Seve’s official involvement with the Ryder Cup, a tapestry of confrontation and brinkmanship throughout, ceased after 1997, the year he captained Europe, frenetically but ever so entertainingly, to a typically narrow victory at Valderrama. But his subliminal, almost spiritual involvement with this gnarled, biennial curiosity extends to this very day and, no doubt, it shall for years to come. In 2002, 2004 and 2006, Seve was the first to dial the cell-phones of Europe’s winning captains—Sam Torrance, Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam—to offer his congratulations, seemingly seconds after the decisive putts had dropped, and in defiance of the notoriously suspect satellite television and telecommunications reception he always claimed made his life a misery at his home in Pedrena in northern Spain. On each occasion, some of us in the press tent affectionately harbored the belief that Seve was actually in the vicinity, secretly and anonymously billeted around the corner in an unfashionable motel, gripped by the action on a flickering screen but denying himself the temptation to make any sort of entrance that might upstage the captain of the day. By the time the Ryder Cup came to Celtic Manor two years ago, though, Seve was physically incapable of traveling to the matches even if he had wished to. None the less, the great man still managed to record an eve-ofcontest message, replete with all the Hispanic melodrama and engrained self-belief that

mcdowell (above) celebrates at the 2010 ryder cup while his fellow northern irishman, mcilroy, relaxes after winning the 2012 pGa championship

the americans have more distance at their disposal than the europeans characterized so much of his crusade across the world of golf. His words were duly piped into the team room by skipper Colin Montgomerie as a way of rousing his troops, and they proved to be the ultimate emotional call to arms. Monty, Europe’s Ryder Cup icon once Seve had shaken off that particular coil, was linking the present with the recent past to enable his young charges to tune into the depth of the tradition and commitment that this whole transatlantic exercise entails for a Tour that continues to see itself as the perpetual underdog. It was an inspired move, and one that struck a deep and lasting chord with Olazabal, one of Monty’s five assistant captains at Celtic Manor, as well as the 12 men who at the time were gearing themselves up to swing their clubs in anger against the invaders from the west. Of course, it all ended in tears—of the most positive, celebratory kind as far as Europe was concerned. Player after player in Wales recalled how moved and inspired he had been to listen to the strident yet sage words of the indefatigable old matador. Nine months later there were further tears, but of a sadder, valedictory variety as Seve handed in his final card. They were all there in Pedrena at the funeral—Faldo, Torrance, Langer, Woosnam, Montgomerie, Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernard Gallacher and European

Tour chief executive George O’Grady—a roll-call of European golf ’s great and good over the past generation and a half. But nobody was coerced into being there. They were all in attendance out of respect, and homage, and duty… and, above all, love. How could Olazabal not have been affected by this tragedy? Or, indeed, his vice-captains —fellow Spaniard Jimenez, woken ludicrously at 3am by Seve during the 1997 Ryder Cup to discuss four-ball pairings, and in thrall to him ever since; 2011 [British] Open champion Darren Clarke, who lost his wife Heather to cancer five years earlier; feisty Dane Thomas Bjorn, who was tempted to chin Woosnam when a wild card went elsewhere in 2006; and that apparently sensible Irishman Paul McGinley who risked limb, if not life, by diving into the pond beside the 18th green at The Belfry to celebrate his winning putt at the 2002 Ryder Cup? This will be Olazabal’s back-room team at Medinah, and there will never be a moment when Seve is not in their minds and hearts. So you can be sure that, come the first tee shot in the opening round of foursomes matches at dawn on Friday, September 28, every man in that European team will know all about Seve, if they don’t already. That, ladies and gentlemen, will be Europe’s 13th man.

Of course, there will be other 13th men within the bosoms of both teams—fathers, mothers, grandparents, siblings and friends who may have succumbed to illness or misfortune— so it would be arrogant and ridiculous to suggest the Europeans have any sort of monopoly on grief. But the story of Seve is a powerful one, and one that Olazabal will rightly wish to harness. Time will tell if it lifts his players. If it doesn’t, it certainly won’t be through any lack of effort or focus on the captain’s part. The big question, though, as we await the most electrifying three-day stint in the whole of sport, let alone golf, is whether Love might also have summoned up the assistance of a 14th man for the U.S. team. If so, that will doubtless come in the shape of Medinah No.3, a layout that started life back in the 1920s as a ladies course designed by that cheap and cheerful Scottish architect of the time, Tom Bendelow. However, it is now—at a mind-boggling 7,658 yards following numerous facelifts over the ensuing decades, the most recent by Rees Jones—very much a man-sized challenge. This will not be a course that suits short hitters and in any comparison between the players on either side, it is fair to say the Americans collectively have more distance at their disposal through the bag than their European counterparts. Of course, the likes of McIlroy, the Belgian rookie Nicolas Colsaerts, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia can hit the ball as far as most of their rivals when necessary, but the examination posed by No.3, hole after hole (even on the par-3s), will,

Honor & Glory

essentially, be one of length. With that in mind, it was hardly a surprise that the last two majors to be staged there—the PGA Championships of 1999 and 2006—were both won by Woods. Naturally, the match-up everyone wants to see during the forthcoming three days of strife at Medinah is between Woods, holder of 14 major titles but a firer of blanks in that department over the past four years, and McIlroy, the game’s man of the moment, winner of both the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship by the remarkable margin of eight shots, and now established as world No.1 by a similarly wide gulf. Both have won three times on Tour this season—Woods at Bay Hill, Muirfield Village and Congressional, McIlroy at PGA National, Kiawah Island and TPC Boston. Both, intriguingly, have won in 2012 on courses designed by Arnold Palmer (Bay Hill and TPC Boston) and Jack Nicklaus (Muirfield Village and PGA National). Does anyone remember golf ’s last truly titanic rivalry, fully half a century ago? For Palmer, the tried and trusted but slightly older gunslinger, versus Nicklaus, the

young kid on the block with a backbone of pure steel, read Woods versus McIlroy. This rivalry should run and run, at least as long as the older man remains competitive, and the 39th Ryder Cup is the next installment in an increasingly engaging drama. But the maximum number of points Woods and McIlroy can contend between them during the course of a Ryder Cup is 10. The total number of points on offer is 28, so it’s fair to say the performance of the 22 other players will have some bearing on the outcome as well. And this is where the U.S. may have the edge. Two of their rookies—Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley— have already won majors and can be expected to wield their belly putters to devastating effect on Medinah’s sloping greens. Then there comes the engine room—Zach Johnson, twice a winner this year; Jason Dufner, the most seasoned rookie in the business; Phil Mickelson, utterly unpredictable but endlessly charming; Matt Kuchar, a man who has never knowingly wasted a shot in his life; Steve Stricker, the master putter and Woods’

comfort blanket; and Masters champion Bubba Watson. Who, in their right mind, would want to play Bubba in the final singles after what he achieved in that incredible playoff at Augusta National in April? But Europe cannot be underestimated. Few players have ever got the better of either Westwood or Garcia at a Ryder Cup; and in McDowell, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter they have three men who have already built an impressive portfolio of results for themselves. Justin Rose is now one of the most consistent performers on the PGA Tour and Francesco Molinari is a player of similar stature on the European Tour. As ever, they will be tough to beat. However, albeit without the benefit of hindsight, it is hard to believe the 13th man won’t have a say in how the chips fall at Medinah. Luck, good or bad, is always a factor in golf—and nowhere more so than at a Ryder Cup. H

Two key players at medinah are likely to be Ian poulter (right) and Bubba Watson, pictured playing the miracle shot that won him the 2012 masters

A mAn-sized scorecArd — THe ryder cup 2012 — medinAH counTry club HOLE

YARDS

433

192

412

463

PAR PLAYER

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536 509 5

OUT

617

201

432

3,795

578 440

11 4

476 245 4

609 391 5

TOTAL

482

193

449

3,863

7,658

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Captains 32

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Love Story As the 27th U.S. Ryder Cup captain, charged with recapturing the trophy that went missing in Wales two years ago, Davis Love III is shouldering a huge responsibility. But as he tells Dave Shedloski, he also regards it as the ultimate honor in golf for the son of a PGA professional

he highlight of the six Ryder Cups in which Davis Love III played should be the trophy-winning putt he sank on his debut in 1993 at The Belfry, the last time America won on European soil. But as he prepares to captain the 2012 U.S. team at Medinah, Love admits that his abiding memory as a playing participant is one for which he holds far less fondness. It was eight years ago at Oakland Hills Country Club, Mi., where Europe won 18½-9½—the worst shellacking America had ever suffered at home and a score that would be repeated in 2006 at the K Club in Ireland. Not only did Love internalize that 2004 defeat, he takes full responsibility for it. Nearly every Ryder Cup player has been disappointed by losing a match he should perhaps have won. After all, there’s no feeling worse than leaving points on the table. Love knows this all too well. “We put Tiger [Woods] and Phil [Mickelson] out as a foursomes team Friday morning, and then [captain] Hal [Sutton] said, ‘All right, the second-best team is Davis and Chad [Campbell].’ So on the 2nd hole, I missed the green with a 7-iron. It’s a par-5, and I put him in a bad place. We didn’t make a birdie, but the other team did and we got behind. “So Tiger and Phil have fallen behind and Davis and Chad are down. I should have hit that 7-iron to 20 feet—for eagle perhaps, though we at least make a birdie—so that shot cost us the Ryder Cup. That’s the way I look at it. If I hit it on the green and we don’t go down [in the match], Chad gets some confidence, because he has never played before [in the Ryder Cup]. If I had got Chad some confidence on that second hole… well, then we would have rolled and that would have given Tiger and Phil some confidence. Instead, it was, ‘uh-oh, the guys behind us are getting beat.’ That’s just the way the Ryder Cup works. If I could take back one shot in my career, that would be the shot. Let me hit the green and see if it changes the whole day; and therefore, maybe, the whole week.” So speaks a man raised to assume such responsibilities without flinching or complaining. Love may be the 27th U.S. Ryder Cup captain, but he’s also the son of a PGA professional. During more than a quarter of a century as a playing professional, he has captured 20 PGA Tour titles, including the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot. But what makes him even prouder is that the lessons learned from his late father, Davis Love, Jr., went a long way towards earning him a crack at the captaincy.

Honor & Glory

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“One of the nicest things said about me was at a Presidents Cup dinner [in 1994] when Arnold Palmer was talking about upholding the traditions of the game, how you have to give something back, always remember the guys that have gone before you. It was a typically great Arnold speech about the responsibilities that come with reaching a certain level in your career. Then Arnold looks over at me and says, ‘Davis knows what I’m talking about.’ “Now, this is in a room filled with great players like Fred Couples and Tom Lehman… and that just hit me: ‘Wow, I’m one of these guys who’s supposed to be responsible for upholding the traditions of the game.’ “But my Dad demanded and expected that of me. I was the pro’s son and I had to do everything better than everyone else. When we played, I was the kid who took his hat off after 18 holes and shook hands with the other kids. I appreciated who Byron Nelson was, who Arnold Palmer was, and knew Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite personally and what they stood for. My Dad made me aware of those great players. From that aspect he would understand what being Ryder Cup captain is all about, how you have to do a lot of other things right, and I know he’d be proud of me for that, perhaps more than for any win I’ve ever had.” Love, 48, claimed his first PGA Tour title at the 1987 MCI Heritage Golf Classic, the year before his father died in a plane crash. He won his most recent—the Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World Resort

Not only does he yearn to win the Ryder Cup, he firmly believes he can still win on Tour Love’s first Ryder Cup experience resulted in him holing the winning putt at The Belfry in 1993

in Orlando, Fl.—in 2008. But he has battled a variety of injuries in recent years and as recently as March this year was forced to withdraw from the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at Bay Hill with a cracked rib that sidelined him for nearly two months. Love is frustrated by his physical setbacks, particularly a chronic neck problem, and was understandably dismayed at being forced off the Tour at a time when his captaincy duties were increasing. Not only does he yearn to win the Ryder Cup, he firmly believes he can still win on Tour, even in an era when power has become such a prominent weapon among the younger generation. “I can honestly still see flashes of playing really well. What I need to do is get healthier and more confident. I know I can play one-to-two good rounds. I need to get to four. I have to figure that out. I still want to play, and I want to play some Champions Tour down the road, too. But I can still be relevant in any tournament I’m in right now. I’m still long enough to compete, which is really important. I just need to do things a little better.” Having been in six U.S. teams, so much experience as a player would normally serve as an advantage, but Love’s counterpart, Jose Maria Olazabál, has played in seven Ryder Cups. It should be a splendid battle of wits. Certainly, the ‘cat and mouse’ aspect of their relationship began when Love named former Ryder Cup playing partner Fred Couples and long-time friend Mike Hulbert as vice-captains in the expectation that Olazabál was also about to reveal his hand. But Olazabál chose to delay, perhaps waiting to see whether his great friends

Honor & Glory

Miguel Angel Jimenez and Sergio Garcia make the team by right. Whatever, it has left Love, who will probably want two more vice-captains in his corner, scratching his head. “At this point, Jose Maria hasn’t announced any assistant captains and we’re trying to coordinate with him as much as possible, not get too far ahead of him,” Love remarked during the [British] Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes in July. “We still have four or five guys we’re considering. Each one of them brings something special, so it’s proving a tough decision.” One decision he has made is to kick off proceedings with foursomes matches. “It’s not really a change because we’ve done it this way at home before. But the answer is obvious—we think we’re good at it. We want to get off to a good start. Logistically, it works better because you can put a little more thought into it the night before, like who’s going to tee off at which holes. Then you can make the afternoon adjustments on the fly. You have more flexibility. Also, I think the matches flow better because alternate-shot play goes faster and you get that done in the morning.” As the U.S. has home advantage, Love, who named his four wild-card picks the day after

Labor Day, aims to exploit the natural challenges of Medinah’s No.3 Course—if he can. “Medinah is a major-championship golf course, and you just set it up like one. If it were me [playing], I don’t like rough, but that might not be the best way to set this golf course up. “I don’t know if there’s an advantage one way or another. We both are going to have supertalented, long-hitting teams that make a lot of birdies. That’s kind of how I would lean; more the way the PGA Championship is set up rather than super-tough and impossible.” Love, a native of Charlotte, N.C. and longtime resident of Sea Island, Ga., does not intend to make a lot of speeches. In that respect, he’ll take his cue from Couples, winning captain

“I tried way too hard for Tom Kite and I played so poorly... and that was the year I won the PGA” American fans are hoping this will be the scene once the final putt has been holed at Medinah

at the last two Presidents Cups. He’ll also look for inspiration from past Ryder Cup leaders. “Every captain I played for had his own style and did a great job in his own way. I got emotional playing for Ben [Crenshaw] because I thought I was also playing for Harvey [Penick, Crenshaw’s longtime instructor]. What I did learn from all of them is that I don’t want one guy not knowing what I’m thinking. I don’t want one guy trying too hard. I tried way too hard for Tom Kite and I played so poorly… and that was the year I won the PGA. Tom Watson was my first one—he sat us down and just offered a few lines. When we were getting on Concorde, he said: ‘Guys, we’re going on an adventure.’ He thought it was cool, an experience we should savor. That made us excited about what we were doing, from start to finish.” At the end of the day, though—or in this case, at the end of two long years—it’s about trying to win back the Ryder Cup. Just as Watson’s words ring in his ears, so do those of his late father and Penick, who would have wanted him to “take dead aim” and enjoy the ride. “When I’m working on some aspect of the Ryder Cup, there’s a level of shock sometimes because it’s still so hard to believe. It’s such an honor. It’s not something you can win. It’s something bestowed upon you for the way you conducted yourself as well as the way you played. To me it’s probably a bigger honor even than being in the Hall of Fame. You can play your way into the Hall of Fame. You can’t necessarily play your way into being the Ryder Cup captain. As the son of a PGA pro, to have won the PGA Championship and to be the Ryder Cup captain… I feel incredibly fortunate. “No matter what happens, I’m going to savor the whole experience. Of course, it would be better if we win.” H

FOR tHE RECORD Davis Milton Love iii Born: April 13, 1964; Charlotte, n.C. Residence: Sea Island, Ga. Turned pro: 1985 Ryder Cup appearances: Six (1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p26, w9, l12, h5; Foursomes: p9, w4, l4, h1; Four-balls: p11, w2, l7, h2; Singles: p6, w3, l1, h2 Ryder Cup record v Olazabal: p5; w1, l4 Presidents Cup appearances: Six (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005) World Cup appearances: Five (team winner four times with Fred Couples, 1992-95; also 1997) Major titles: one (PGA Championship 1997) Major top-ten finishes: 20 Total professional titles: 29

Honor & Glory

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Captains 38

Honor & Glory

An Ollie GOOd FellOw Jose Maria Olazabál is respected throughout the game of golf as much for his dignified manner as for his on-course achievements. But the competitive flames kindled a quarter of a century ago at his first Ryder Cup by compatriot and mentor Seve Ballesteros still burn fiercely. Paul Mahoney assesses the qualities this likable yet passionate Spaniard will bring to his role as captain of Europe

he first person Jose Maria Olazabál telephoned when he was appointed captain of Europe’s 2012 Ryder Cup team was Seve Ballesteros. The apprentice and his sorcerer: forever linked by this biennial tussle with the Americans. Seve was at home in Pedrena, northern Spain, fighting the cancer that tragically defeated him in May last year. They chatted about the great times they’d had together and laughed about Seve’s hyperactive leadership at Valderrama in 1997. For a European it is impossible to mention the Ryder Cup without thinking of Seve and Ollie. They forged the biennial contest’s greatest and most feared partnership: 15 matches, 11 victories, two halves and just two defeats. When Olazabal made his Ryder Cup debut in 1987, at Muirfield Village in Ohio, who was there to ease the way? Seve: his mentor and soulmate. Olazabál recalls that virgin appearance. “I was really nervous,” he says. “Seve said, ‘try to play your game, enjoy the moment, and I will take care of the rest.’ You knew, standing on that first tee, that you were going to win: the way he talked, the way he moved around the greens, the way he looked at you, the way he looked at the opponents, the way he looked at the crowd. Every second you spent with him was special. Everything about him was unique. The way he played, the way he approached every shot, the intensity of everything around him, the way he fought. And he did that every single day.”

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That is why the Ryder Cup is so important to Olazabál, the 1994 and 1999 Masters champion. For all those memories shared with Seve under the glare of the game’s most intense spotlight. That debut was special for Europe, too, as they won in the United States for the first time and Olazabál dared to dance the flamenco during the celebrations that followed on the 18th green. “I’m ashamed,” he laughs. “I’m not a very good dancer.” Maybe so, but it displayed his passion and his joy, and cemented his love affair with the Ryder Cup. This year will be the first Ryder Cup of the modern era without Seve. Olazabál is already emotional. “Obviously I miss him,” he says. “I miss his desire, his passion, his will, his determination—all those elements that made him so special. He never gave up and he always believed we could turn things around, whatever the situation. The last time (at Celtic Manor in 2010), Seve spoke on the telephone the night before the match and it lifted the whole team. I’ve never experienced so much energy around another player. There was an aura around him. We all know how important he was for European golf and I’m sure his spirit will be with us in the team room at Medinah.”

His health is improving and his relief is palpable, not least because it has enabled him to become Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Olazabal, now 46 years old, has played in seven Ryder Cups and has been a winning vice-captain for Colin Montgomerie in 2010 and a losing one for Nick Faldo at Valhalla in Kentucky in 2008. Lessons have been learned. Monty had three wild-card picks, Olazabál has two. Faldo had three vice-captains, Olazabál will take four. “The more picks you have, the less value you give to the qualifying system,” Olazabál, a staunch supporter of the European Tour throughout his professional career, insists. So, less is more for him as far as wild cards are concerned? “We have about 20 players that are great and can make the team,” he says. To prove his point, after the [British] Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes only Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Justin Rose were assured of being in the top 10 to qualify for the team, though Paul Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Peter Hanson and Martin Kaymer were starting to look near certainties. Since then, Ian Poulter secured his place by tying for third in the PGA Championship at Kiawah island, while other candidates like Alvaro Quiros, Martin Laird and Rafa Cabrera-Bello had fallen away.

With just one qualifying tournament to go, this in effect left Sergio Garcia, Nicolas Colsaerts and Padraig Harrington to battle it out for the two wildcard picks. “It’s different to 15 years ago,” Olazabál says. “We knew then that we had six to eight good players and three or four that would be a little weak. The standard has improved so much.” He also seems to have learned from what Faldo didn’t do that more can be better than less. “I know you need four guys [vice-captains] to help you—to have one man with each group. That was the lesson from Kentucky,” Olazabál says. “Seve was everywhere at all times at Valderrama,” he adds, laughing. “I’m not going to be able to do that.” Fitness and health have always been delicate issues for Olazabál, whose back problems and rheumatism have been so painful, at times, that they have confined him to his bed. One such ailment forced him to miss the 1995 Ryder Cup match at Oak Hill and actually threatened his ability to walk. But his doctors say his health is improving and his relief is palpable, not least because it has enabled him to become Ryder Cup captain and maintain a regular playing presence on Tour throughout 2012. He is looking forward to Chicago—“to see the action, to hear the crowd, to feel all the emotions.” But he admits he’s not looking forward to all the attention. “You know me,” he says with a smile. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to talk a lot.” Olazabál is indeed quietly spoken, and scrupulously fair and polite in all his dealings— a gentleman to his fingertips, widely respected throughout the game, no less in the U.S. than in

Preparing for leadership: As Faldo’s vice-captain in 2008 and as Seve’s faithful lieutenant

Honor & Glory

Olazabál’s first taste of the Ryder Cup resulted in a memorable victory at Muirfield Village in 1987

Europe. Over the years, he has often baffled his contemporaries by his apparent lack of interest in chasing sponsors’ dollars, preferring instead to keep a low profile other than when his clubs propel him up a leaderboard, as they still do on occasion. But Olazabál accepts his best playing days are behind him and was adamant from the outset of his captaincy that there was no chance he would give himself an unwanted headache by playing his way onto his own Ryder Cup team. But just because Olazabál speaks and walks softly, it does not mean he is a soft touch. He’s a street fighter like Seve was. While Seve had a short fuse, though, Olazabál takes a while to wind up, but when he snaps, stand back. There were nearly fisticuffs at Valhalla in Faldo’s post-defeat press conference. A British reporter asked Faldo if he cared that he would he remembered as a losing captain. Before Faldo could answer, Olazabál, sitting next to him, interjected and fired a volley of ‘how dare yous’ at the reporter. The Spaniard was raging and all but invited the reporter to repeat his question outside. Those who meet Olazabal for the first time are invariably lulled into a false sense of security by his charming disposition, but there is real fire in his belly. The U.S. captain, Davis Love III, knows only too well to expect a tough fight from Olazabál but also a fair one. Europe’s team at Valhalla in 2008 got an insight into what Olazabal will bring to Medinah this year. The Spaniard’s speech in the team room

Honor & Glory

“I know Chicago will be loud. They love their sport, but they will be fair. I’m not going to judge them based on two or three idiots” on the eve of Sunday’s singles matches has become legendary as well as a closely guarded secret. “What I said wasn’t that important. It was the way I said it. Because it came from my heart,” Olazabál says. “That’s the way I am. I’m a soft, sentimental guy,” he adds with a smile. “I will tell the players in Chicago what the Ryder Cup means to me and talk from my heart. Hopefully that will be enough to reach them and make them play a little harder. But what I have learned is that everything is right or wrong. There is nothing in between. That is the way it is. You have to live with that.” Olazabál and Love agree there will be no repeat of the nonsense between the players that left such a bad feeling after the Ryder Cups of 1991 and 1999 in particular. “It’s true we’ve had certain situations that were not ideal, especially against Monty,” Olazabál says. “But it has improved a lot. The relationship between the players is one of respect. A lot of Europeans play in the States now and we know each other better. We have left behind those years when the atmosphere was not good.”

Olazabál does not expect any nonsense from a patriotic home crowd either. “I know Chicago will be loud. They love their sport,” he says. “But they will be fair. I’m not going to judge them based on two or three idiots who might say the wrong thing at the wrong time.” In a spirit of entente cordiale, the teams will continue the recent tradition of partying together on Sunday night after the match, and leaving as friends. “Don’t be mistaken,” Olazabál warns. “We have a lot of respect for each other, but we are still competitive and are going to try to beat each other like hell.” That’s how it should be—and just what Seve would have wanted.H

FOR tHE RECORD Jose Maria Olazabál Born: February 5, 1966; Fuenterrabia, Spain Residence: Fuenterrabia Turned pro: 1985 Ryder Cup appearances: Seven (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2006) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p31, w18, l8, h5; Foursomes: p10, w7, l2, h1; Four-balls: p14, w9, l2, h3; Singles: p7, w2, l4, h1 Ryder Cup record v Davis Love III: p5, w4, l1 World Cup appearances: Two (1989, 2000) Major titles: Two (Masters 1994, 1999) Major top-ten finishes: 15 Total professional titles: 30

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Feature

Oak Hill Country Club, New York

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Lefty

debut ryder cup 1997 Valderrama Golf Club, Spain

Ryder Cup rookies come and go, but since the mid-1990s there have been two everpresents, one on each team. At Medinah, Phil Mickelson will be making his ninth Ryder Cup appearanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a U.S. recordâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while Lee Westwood lines up for Europe for an eighth successive match. Both men have won tournaments in 2012 and remain as competitive as ever at the highest level. Bill Elliott salutes this duo for their durability, their supreme golf skills and their common decency as men

& Lee

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Mickelson and Westwood (below) are their respective teams’ most experienced Ryder Cup players

or those of us who enjoy the perversity of life and for whom chalk and cheese are clearly up for comparison, considering the contrasting Ryder Cup qualities of America’s Phil Mickelson and England’s Lee Westwood is an ongoing delight. The two men could hardly be more different, and not just because one plays left-handed and the other doesn’t. Mickelson, the son of a fighter pilot who grew up in one of the ‘milk and honey’ sections of California otherwise known as San Diego, is an archetypal all-round American sports hero, all smiles and teeth and bits of mom’s apple pie. He is gung-ho both on and off the course, loves all games and recently teamed up with a few pals to buy the San Diego Padres franchise for around $800 million. Westwood on the other hand is an ironyloving, self-deprecating, understated Englishman, the sort of solid, dependable bloke who once stood facing the French with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. He hails from a mid-England town called Worksop, a town so anonymous that the majority of the British population spend their lives without any need to find out how to get there. His dad was a teacher of mathematics and they both support Nottingham Forest Football [soccer] Club, once great but now not so much.

an individuaL may pLay his best goLf and stiLL end up on the Losing team

This Fall, in the suburbs of Chicago, arguably the USA’s most interesting city after New York, the two-year cycle will bring them together at Medinah Country Club. They may or may not actually play each other in four-balls, foursomes or singles, but what is for sure is that each will acknowledge the other out of a genuine respect. While Westwood would commit serious criminal acts if he had the chance to purloin Mickelson’s outrageous short-game skills, the American would pay seriously big bucks for a slice of the consistency the Englishman eternally demonstrates off the tee. Splice them together and you really might have the greatest golfer in history. It will be Mickelson’s ninth Ryder Cup, an American record, and Westwood’s eighth. Mickelson is 42, Westwood three years younger. Mickelson has been on the losing side six times, Westwood is a five-time winner. Of course this win-lose thing, while interesting, proves little. An individual may play the best golf of his life and still end up a team loser, or he may play like a drain but be carried to an overall victory by inspired teammates. Remember that when Hal Sutton paired Mickelson with Tiger Woods in 2004—they were one and two in the world rankings at the time— he believed he was sending out a message and that here was his dream team. Turned out the message was that these

While Mickelson completed his education at Arizona State, Westwood once told me he figured he had cracked reading when he completed the Janet and John starter-reader books and reckoned that was enough. He may have been joking but if he enjoyed any further education it was on the practice range and not on any college campus. What these men share, of course, is an extraordinary ability to play high-octane golf under even higher-octane pressure. Between them, they have amassed 88 tournament victories—48 for Mickelson and 40 for Westwood. And when the adrenalin is flowing and they are in the mood, they have the ability to bend the ball to their will and leave the opposition to slump wearily in a far corner. They also appear to quite like the compelling nonsense and fun that always is the Ryder Cup. This theater, the most vibrant and partisan, the most colorful and overegged, offers them the perfect stage upon which to strut their stuff. It feeds their ultra-competitiveness and satisfies their unending desire for real sporting combat. In short, it suits their different personalities in exactly the same way.

Honor & Glory

arch-rivals and California boys could not play together and Hal’s dream turned into an early nightmare as Europe went on to win by a record, and rather humiliating, nine points. With the benefit of hindsight, Sutton’s move was like asking Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to put

Westwood and Mickelson played together in the final round of the 2010 Masters

“i’ve no compLaints. i pLayed weLL but phiL just pLayed and scored better” their differences behind them and fight for the same side. It just wasn’t going to happen. Westwood, on the other hand, is a captain’s dream. Happy to play with whomever, he will set aside his preferences to try his best to carry out his captain’s orders. Prima donna is not a concept they understand much in Worksop, even if he does have an understandably refined sense of his place in the game’s elite pantheon. This eagerness to enter into the team ethic means that Westwood usually plays some of his very best golf in a Ryder Cup. Like Colin Montgomerie before him, he tends to play out of his skin. Even his occasionally dodgy short game improves during these weeks and, like Monty, one is left with the inescapable impression that if only he could play with this freedom in the Majors then he really would win one of these damn baubles and expel that particular monkey from his broad back. Mickelson, of course, has four Majors— three Masters, one PGA Championship—and a PGA Tour curriculum vitae to drool over. He always has been mercurial and perfectly capable of following a brilliant approach with a missed putt from short range. His default position is to go for broke, an instinct that encouraged him in 2010 to whack that 6-iron from beside a tree on the long 13th at Augusta National and set up the unlikeliest of eagle chances, ultimately spurned. He went on to win that Masters and the man playing alongside him was Westwood. “I’ve no complaints. I played well but Phil just played and scored better,” he said while absorbing the disappointment of yet another big-time near miss. While Mickelson will segue into old age still trying to pull off the improbable, and occasionally the impossible, Westwood’s strategy has been to try to eliminate the risks from his game. Mickelson plays poker on a golf course, Westwood tries to play chess. So far the poker punter has out-gunned the chess master. Maybe this will change when Westwood completes his move to Florida and West Palm

Honor & Glory

Beach later this year. It is a move designed to consolidate his position on golf ’s highest plateau and reboot a game that the player himself admits has lost a bit of focus this summer. Mickelson, too, has been playing relatively mediocre golf. He has found consistency in this but it is not the sort of consistency he wants. What each man is hoping is that (a) form returns sooner rather than later and (b) the Ryder Cup atmosphere provides the sharp jab that each appears to need, at least as this article is being written. Does form going into these matches really count? The answer is an unequivocal ‘yes and no.’ Some players find themselves during the deep heat of battle, others lose their way. With Mickelson and Westwood, however, there seems little doubt that each will rise to the occasion. It is important for skippers Davis Love III and Jose Maria Olazabál that this does indeed turn out to be the case. As senior, seasoned participants, this duo has an important role to

play beyond the simple act of belting a ball off a tee or caressing a putt across a green. More Ryder Cups are won and lost in team-rooms than may be imagined. It is here in these intimate bolt-holes that strategies are worked out, partnerships suggested and desire restored. There is only so much a captain can do in this regard and each leader has also relied on the likes of Mickelson and Westwood to step forward and say their piece, to offer the sort of guidance and confidenceboosting rhetoric that lifts sometimes bemused newcomers to a different level. There should be no worries here. Whatever else Phil and Lee are, they are natural-born leaders. And they know, they really know, what a Ryder Cup is about. Put simply, it is about winning. It helps if this is achieved with some grace and style but, actually, winning is everything. It is how these men have lived their lives and they are not about to change now. H

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Why N Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Win at Medinah

Feature

othing stirs the passions of American and European golfers more than an impending Ryder Cup. Optimism abounds on both sides of the Atlantic, along with a welter of predictions, some inspired, most wide of the mark, and many just plain ludicrous. But in a world filled with uncertainty and wealthy bookmakers, opinions are what count. So we asked two respected golf journalists, one American and one European, to put their reputations on the line and spell out why they believe their side will win at Medinah. Art Spander is an American sports columnist based in Oakland, California. He has covered six Ryder Cups and won the 2009 PGA of America Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award Ross Biddiscombe is an English golf journalist based in London. He is the author of the acclaimed series of Golf on the Edge books about European Tour school graduates

Honor & Glory

Way T to Go,

usa by Art Spander

the U.S. iS aS deStined to win thiS 2012 CUp aS the CUbS were deStined to go a 104th Straight SeaSon withoUt taking the world SerieS

he poet Carl Sandberg called Chicago the city of broad shoulders. It’s a tough place, with a past that included a gangster named Al Capone and a pro football team, the Bears, known as the “Monsters of the Midway.” It is the town, so Frank Sinatra sang, that the evangelist “Billy Sunday couldn’t shut down.” A perfect town for the United States Ryder Cup team, then. An American town with American fans, boisterous, take-no prisoner fans, where there’s a Great Lake but no ocean to cross, and no Celtic Manor downpours— although maybe a shower or two—and certainly no leaking rain suits. No second-place finish this time either. The European team will have the numbers, as in the No.1 and No.2 in the individual world rankings, Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald, but the U.S. is as destined to win this 2012 Cup as the Chicago Cubs were destined to go a 104th straight season without taking baseball’s World Series. They know about losing in Chicago. They also know about winning, which is what Tiger Woods did the last two times the PGA Championship was held at Medinah (in 1999 and 2006). And they know what the U.S. team did the last time the Ryder Cup was held on American soil—in 2008 at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky. Medinah is where a kid named Sergio Garcia ran up a fairway in 1999 but couldn’t quite manage to chase down Woods. It is where Donald was in the final pairing for the final round of the 2006 PGA, but also couldn’t catch Woods. And Donald, although an Englishman, graduated from Northwestern University in the Chicago suburbs. “He’s a great leader in our team room,” Davis Love III, the U.S. captain, said of Woods, “and we are thrilled to have him.” Yes, the Europeans have won eight of the last 13 Ryder Cups; and yes, after the most recent victory, narrow as it might have been in soggy Wales, Donald said: “We’re starting to get down to the word ‘dominance.’ ” That’s irrelevant. Also somewhat misleading. A win, by a 14½-13½ margin, is hardly dominance. “We had one little stretch in Wales on that long day, on Saturday,” said Love, an assistant captain in 2010, now the leader in 2012. “We had an hour and a half there that something happened. We thought we had it, and it slipped away from us… The trick is, who can handle that pressure.” U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, who will be playing in his first Ryder Cup, can handle it, as he proved at The Olympic Club in June. Zach Johnson, in his third Ryder Cup, can handle it. Tiger, in his seventh Ryder Cup, can certainly handle it. Woods didn’t win a major in 2012, hasn’t won a major since 2008 in fact, but he has

finished first in three other big tournaments this year and played beautifully throughout the 2011 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. But Tiger has a lot to prove. Already it’s been written in Britain that he’ll never again catch young McIlroy. Heck, the Americans have a lot to prove. It’s been an indifferent year for Phil Mickelson, who will be making his ninth straight Ryder Cup appearance, but the man can chip and putt—that display in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February when he took on Tiger head-to-head and beat him was a classic. It was a given that Love would make Steve Stricker one of his four captain’s picks and pair him with Tiger in better-ball and/or foursomes, just as they’ve been paired together in previous Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups. Stricker, who grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Illinois, is as Midwest as a county fair. He will provide the sort of experience Love said he would add to his roster of automatic qualifiers. That group included the Masters champion, Bubba Watson, who, in his second Ryder Cup, should prosper at Medinah; Keegan Bradley, the 2011 PGA Champion, who, like Simpson and the unflappable Jason Dufner, is a Ryder Cup rookie; and the ever-consistent Matt Kuchar, who was on the 2010 team. Would veteran Jim Furyk, who was in front going into the final holes at both the U.S. Open and in the recent WGC-Bridgestone Championship at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, be one of Love’s choices? Of course he would. “It’s nice to have youth,” Love said a few weeks before naming his captain’s picks. “Now we need some experience to go with it.” Rickie Fowler, a rookie in 2010, would have offered both youth and experience—and, off course, some comic relief. But his recent loss of form has been no laughing matter and in the end he paid the price by receiving the thumbs-down from the captain. And with Hunter Mahan also failing to make the cut, it means Bubba, for one, will have to find a new buddy in the team room to keep himself loose during Ryder Cup week. Paul Azinger, the 2008 captain, adopted an astute psychological approach—bringing the players together early to create well-thought-out pairings that helped the U.S. regain the trophy with that precious victory at Valhalla. Love wasn’t on that team, but he is prepared to borrow ideas. “We created the ‘13th man,’ and I’m real proud of these people,” Azinger said, referring to the partisan Kentucky spectators. “They made a big difference. We went out there with a oneshot-at-a-time mission, and we did it.” As they will do it again this year.

Honor & Glory

the power pendUlUm in the world game haS SwUng StateSide. Yet, StrangelY, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S jUSt whY i believe eUrope will win the rYder CUp

Honor & Glory

Way to Go,

EuRoPE W

ell done Keegan, Bubba and Webb for snatching those recent Majors. Great going Tiger, getting back to winning ways. Congrats, Dustin, on snatching a captain’s pick with a late charge, and to Jason, Matt, Zach, Steve and Phil who have all chalked up impressive victories in 2012. It’s been almost nothing but good news for American golf over the last 12 months. Yes, Rory might have stunned everyone again at the PGA Championship last month, but the power pendulum in the world game seems to have swung Stateside. Yet, strangely, that’s just why I believe Europe will win the Ryder Cup this year. You see, in recent times, being

by Ross Biddiscombe

regarded as favorites has not always helped either team win the trophy. In fact, the tag has been mostly a distinct disadvantage, especially for the Europeans. Expectations can weigh heavily and the Europeans always seem to prefer the role of underdog. It suits the character of all those nations joining together to battle against a single foe. This all dates back to 1985 when Europe first knocked the United States off their perch in sport’s most fascinating team competition. It was at The Belfry in Birmingham, England, and Lee Trevino’s Team USA included 10 players who either were, or would go on to become, Major champions. Tony Jacklin’s side by comparison had only five. True, Europe had given home fans the fright of their lives before losing by a single point two years earlier at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, but America was still odds-on to retain the Ryder Cup for the 13th time in a row. Instead, it was time for those underdogs to bite. An inspired European team won easily 16½11½ and the losing streak was broken. Yet over the subsequent 12 years there was little change to the majority of pre-match predictions—to most experts, the U.S. team always looked too good to lose. Europe won well in 1987 at Muirfield Village, Ohio, against the odds, and the 1989 match back at The Belfry finished as a tie. In four of the five contests during the 1990s, only a single point separated the teams (two wins to Europe and three to the U.S.). Through all this, though, the Americans were often said to have the better team on paper and tended to be billed as favorites ahead of each match. Even the re-arranged, post 9/11 match in 2002 appeared to be an aberration—another, slightly shocking, one-off European victory rather than a seachange win. After all, how else could one explain away the unheralded Welshman Philip Price’s singles victory over Phil Mickelson? And so to the match in 2004 at Oakland Hills in Michigan where Hal Sutton was the U.S. captain with the more cerebral Bernhard Langer as his

European counterpart. Hal, in his huge cowboy hat, put out his dream partnership of Woods and Mickelson—the world’s No.1 and No.2—in the opening morning’s four-ball and watched them slip inexorably to defeat against Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington. From that point on, it was carnage for the Americans and the 18½-9½ margin was the biggest since the U.S. team of all the stars hammered Europe by the same margin in 1981 at Walton Heath in Surrey, England. Finally, the Europeans had become the team to beat and the 2006 match in Ireland loomed with Ian Woosnam’s captaincy looking a little shaky, not least when Thomas Bjorn issued a prematch tirade of abuse when he was not made a captain’s pick. Woosie seemed ill at ease and there was a worry that his young and slightly inexperienced team would suffer. But then fate intervened. Darren Clarke, whose wife, Heather, had lost her battle with cancer a month or so before the match, decided to accept Woosnam’s offer of a wild card and a wave of emotion swept Europe to another huge victory. As the 2008 contest approached, Europe— with Nick Faldo, no less, as captain—were surely going to make it an unprecedented four wins in a row in Kentucky. That’s what favorites do, yes? Well, no. The favorites’ curse struck Europe for the first time and the Faldo factor failed miserably as Paul Azinger’s team, bulging with six rookies, stayed on top throughout. Last time out in Wales in 2010, with rain exerting such an intrusive influence throughout the proceedings, the idea that one team had a better chance than the other was a moot point, decided only by U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell’s heroics down the stretch in his singles match against Hunter Mahan. But when only one point separates the teams, that’s all the proof that’s needed that it’s been too close to call. What all this means is that when pundits predict your team will win the Ryder Cup, it is a poisoned chalice. Jose Maria Olazabal’s men will be cast as underdogs at Medinah, something with which the Spaniard has an affinity as part of the Seve generation of European golfers who turned around decades of American landslide victories. Who can forget Olazabal’s samba celebration in 1987 at Muirfield Village when the Europeans won on American soil for the first time? That attempt at a dance was born out of relief, that European golf had finally proved it was the equal of its American rival. The Europeans were proud to beat the odds back then, and this year the canny Olazabal knows his team is good enough to win. But he won’t mind the U.S. being cast as favorites again. And, who knows, the captain of the underdogs might even get a chance to repeat his celebration samba. H

Honor & Glory

Captains 54

Honor & Glory

Structural SupportS Assistant captains, or vice-captains as they are more commonly referred to in Europe, have only recently developed into musthave accessories at the Ryder Cup. But like many inspired inventions, as soon as they became the norm no-one could remember how captains and teams ever coped without them. Robin Barwick looks at the qualities required for the job and the different duties an assistant captain takes on—from assessing form and devising strategy to ferrying players around in golf carts and cleaning their shoes

ose Maria Olazabal received a vivid insight into just how unpredictable life can be as a Ryder Cup vice-captain back in 1997 when he was playing on the European team captained by the inimitable Seve Ballesteros. The Ryder Cup that year was staged at Valderrama on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain and Ballesteros had brought in local man Miguel Angel Jimenez to serve as his vice-captain. “I remember Seve making a phone call at three o’clock in the morning to Miguel,” recalls Olazabal. “Seve said to him, ‘Miguel, yes, come to my room because I’ve had a few ideas for pairings tomorrow and I need to discuss them with you.’” Olazabal, now the European captain himself, promised he would not be calling his vice-captains at such an unearthly hour during the 2012 Ryder Cup. No doubt Thomas Bjorn, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, whose appointments he was announcing at the time of recounting this anecdote, were pleased to hear this. Unlike his counterpart Davis Love III, captain of the American team, Olazabal waited until he had confirmed his two wild-card picks before naming his fourth and final assistant, who, by a neat symmetry, turned out to be Jimenez again. Olazabal, a Ryder Cup player seven times between 1987 and 2006, and Love, who played on six U.S. teams between 1993 and 2004, both served as assistant captains during the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in south Wales. They have known each other well for a long time and agreed a year ago that they would each bring four assistant captains to Medinah. Thus, each pair playing a foursomes or four-ball match on the golf course over the first two days will be accompanied by an assistant captain who will have a walkie-talkie hotline through to the skipper.

Honor & Glory

As Ryder Cup vice-captain,

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Couples celebrates sinking the winning putt in the 2012 Senior [British] Open at Turnberry

Love had been keen to get his assistant captains involved earlier in the Ryder Cup planning process, so in June he announced his first two choices, both longtime personal friends—Fred Couples and Mike Hulbert. Picking Couples, a team-mate of Love’s at three Ryder Cups and four successive World Cup winning campaigns during the mid-1990s, was a ‘no-brainer,’ especially as he has skillfully steered the United States to comprehensive victories in the last two Presidents Cups and will be in charge again next year at Muirfield Village. However, Hulbert, 54, who now makes only occasional appearances on the Champions Tour after a PGA Tour career highlighted by three victories and various spells as an oncourse television reporter, was a more ‘left field’ selection, even though he had fulfilled a similar role as assistant captain to Curtis Strange during the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. “One of the first phone calls I got when I was announced as captain was from Curtis,” Love said. “He said, ‘the only piece of advice I can give you is to have Mike Hulbert as an assistant. He’s your man. I put him on my team and he was great at it.’ I remember the 2002 Ryder Cup very well and it was a lot of fun to play on that team.

“I am getting so much great information from him on all kinds of subjects. I knew I’d get a lot, but he’s surpassing what I expected”

“When I told Fred I was picking Hub, he thought that was a great idea because you don’t want to have things too serious. Hub will be for us what Paul Goydos was to Corey Pavin in Wales—he’ll keep it loose, he’ll be entertaining and he’ll have advice when the guys need it. “Fred is like Hub in that Fred can come up with something light and funny in a pressure situation. Let’s face it, Fred has been very successful as the Presidents Cup captain, and he’s been great helping me. Fred and I have played a lot together, been on a lot of teams together, and it’s been interesting to hear his side of it. “I am getting so much great information from him on all kinds of subjects. I knew I was going to get a lot, but he’s surpassing what I expected with the level of detail he’s giving me. He has a great mind, and I never realized [the extent of] his commitment to his job as Presidents Cup captain. Every time I’ve asked him a question, he’s said, ‘Let me think about that. Did you ever think of it this way?’ He doesn’t just shrug and say ‘whatever.’ He gets into it and puts great thought into everything. He’s 2-0 as a captain and he obviously has a way of getting his teams to relax and play well. I need to tap into that.”

Couples, a veteran of five Ryder Cup and four Presidents Cup teams, demonstrated this relaxed approach to formalities when he let the cat out of the bag about his assistant captaincy back in May during a press conference where it was announced, ironically, that he would captain the U.S. Presidents Cup team for a third time in 2013. He said then: “I’m going to help Davis, I think. I don’t know if that’s out there yet, but I believe he’s pretty much put that out there.” PGA officials were caught on the hop by this unscripted revelation, but Love was unfazed. “You know, Fred did a great job of keeping it quiet as long as he did. He’s known pretty much all year and it’s tough to keep a secret on the PGA Tour. Initially, we were going to make the announcement in Charlotte [during the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in early May], but I had to withdraw with my rib injury. “Fred and Mike were automatics for me. I need their advice and friendship. I talk to Hub every other day, but we can never get a hold of Fred,” Love joked, “so it kind of balances out.” It brings to mind one of Couples’ most famous quotes from his prime as a player 20 years ago, when he was world No.1 in an era when players did not have a management structure in place to screen their calls, as they do today. “I don’t like answering the phone,” Couples told reporters back then, “because there might be someone at the other end of the line.”

Couples became a winning U.S. Presidents Cup captain at Royal Melbourne last November

Honor & Glory

The day after last month’s PGA Championship, Love announced his final two assistant captains: Scott Verplank and Jeff Sluman. “They are close friends of mine and guys that have been around the game a long time. These are guys I trust. They are very engaged already and have given me a lot of great advice.” Verplank, 48, is an exact contemporary of Love’s and twice a Ryder Cup player while Sluman, a former PGA champion who lives in Chicago and therefore brings some valuable local knowledge to the role, was, like Love, an assistant to Pavin in 2010. It seems Love’s background staff will not stop with his assistant captains. “I also want to talk to Mark, my brother, so we can figure out what his role is going to be. I need him there for advice,” Love explained. “Also Corey had Dr. [Richard] Coop with him in the cart at Celtic Manor and that was his guy to rely on for advice. If I could have my brother and Dr. Bob Rotella in the cart with me, that would be great. We have to figure out Mark’s schedule, though, because he has a lot of business responsibilities, as well as planning for our McGladrey Classic tournament on Sea Island [from October 18-21].” The assistant captain’s role has evolved, just as the Ryder Cup itself has grown in stature, from the days when a single assistant captain would act as a lone sounding board and source of moral support. “I got to see firsthand in Wales what was involved,” Love added. “Tom Watson

“For me it is so important to have guys you know, guys you trust, guys [who are] familiar with this contest” didn’t even have an assistant captain when I played on his team in 1993. Now it’s gone to having four assistant captains, so that’s a pretty big change. “Being an assistant is a big responsibility as there’s a lot going on at a Ryder Cup. It was awfully nice to have four guys out there watching the matches at Celtic Manor, while Corey might have been needed in the media room or had something else he had to take care of.” The role of the assistants took on extra significance at Celtic Manor due to the deluges that forced a Monday finish for the first time in Ryder Cup history. “In Wales, the assistants were busy trying to get dry towels for the players, getting shuttles for the guys or taking equipment out to them,” Love recalled. “I was walking around with towels under my rain jacket just so my group had fresh towels every couple of holes. You never know what’s going to pop up, so it’s nice to have some guys around, firstly to help you make decisions, like making the pairings, and to do the dirty work—after all, somebody has got to make sure the players are wearing the right outfits when they walk out of the hall.” Olazabal, who served as vice-captain to Sir Nick Faldo at Valhalla in 2008 as well as to Colin Montgomerie at Celtic Manor, said: “My own

One of Love’s key roles during the rain-drenched Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor was looking after the players’ towels

Honor & Glory

experiences taught me that you need a lot of help during Ryder Cup week. You need extra eyes to follow the players in the practice rounds, to gather as much information as you can about how everyone is playing. Then it’s important to have each match watched because you have to hand in your pairings for the afternoon matches when the players are still out on the course. It’s absolutely essential to have all the information you can get before you put those pairings down on paper. “I would say it’s borderline to do the Ryder Cup with less than four vice-captains. Never at any time have I considered reducing that number to three, let alone two.” Between them, Olazabal’s vice-captains have played in 14 Ryder Cups and he is in no doubt about the extent to which he will be leaning on them at Medinah. “For me to have these guys—all such great friends—by my side is fantastic. They share a special spirit and love for the game and they have the respect and admiration of everyone in golf. Their passion, commitment and desire to win will encourage everyone in the team room. For me it is so important to have guys you know, guys you trust, guys [who are] familiar with this contest because the Ryder Cup is unique.” Any assistant’s passion and commitment would be sorely tested by a 3am strategy meeting, but the capacity for attending cheerfully to menial chores is undoubtedly a pre-requisite of the role. “I was amazed at how busy I was as an assistant captain,” Love remembers. “We would go do whatever. We’d clean shoes, get more towels, get food. It was a lot of fun, though—I said I would do it every year. I loved doing it, and it was great to be a part of the team.” H

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Feature

Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy first met each other when they were on opposing sides at the 2007 Walker Cup (far left)

2009

2007

t was coming in sideways. A day for being anywhere other than the southeast corner of England, but there was nowhere else to go because it was the Saturday of the 2011 [British] Open Championship. One pairing stood out like a beacon that rain-drenched lunchtime at Royal St. George’s. Not for the last time, the luck of the score-determined draw had put together the two most exciting young players on the planet. The careers of Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler seem inextricably linked, and it felt entirely appropriate that they should be sharing the same stage in the grandest Major of all. In career terms, McIlroy had already stolen a march on his American rival. The Northern Ireland youngster was playing for the first time since becoming U.S. Open champion in record-breaking style at Congressional three weeks earlier.

Fowler, who is aged a mere 142 days older than McIlroy, was still waiting for his first win on the biggest professional Tour of them all. Vast galleries gathered around the 1st tee and at distance peering through the rain it was hard to pick out the new U.S. Open winner, who was dressed in a dour grey outfit. There was no missing Fowler though. Clad in brilliant white waterproofs, which were zipped to the top of their collar, the man from Murrieta in California shone like a lighthouse. But how, having been brought up in the Mediterranean-style climate of America’s West Coast, could he possibly expect to launch an Open challenge in these hostile conditions? Surely they would suit better a player brought up in Holywood rather than the home state of Hollywood? After all, the place spelled with just the one ‘L’ is on the outskirts of Belfast,

EarnEst & Young Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are the pin-up boys of world golf, and played against each other in the 2010 Ryder Cup. They first encountered each other at amateur level, and whilst they retain a youthful love for the game, regardless of the financial rewards it has to offer, they are both doing quite well in that respect as well. Iain Carter compares and contrasts 60

Honor & Glory

2010 Fowler usually wears orange on Sundays (below), but he was in team uniform throughout the 2010 Ryder Cup (right)

In only hIs second appearance as a professIonal, fowler reached a playoff In the 2009 frys.com tournament one of the United Kingdom’s wettest cities. McIlroy was already the game’s hottest property and was surely set to burn his way through these familiar damp and windy conditions to mount a surge up the leader-board. And had they not been determining how to beat the elements as they waited to tee off, both players would have been entitled to reflect on how they had long since been friends and rivals. Each enjoyed five significant victories during their time in the amateur limelight before they turned pro. Both rose to the level of world No.1 in the unpaid rankings. McIlroy spent a week at the top as a 17-year-old in 2007 while Fowler was for the nine-month cusp of 2007-08 undisputedly the game’s leading amateur. Inevitably their paths crossed when the United States travelled to Northern Ireland to defend the Walker Cup at Royal County Down in September 2007. McIlroy knew what was coming. “Rickie Fowler is a good young player,” he told the assembled press with a knowingness beyond his tender years. Then in the second morning of foursomes he was paired with England’s Jonathan Caldwell to take on Fowler and Bill Horschel.

The American duo overcame the huge home support and alien links layout to claim a 2&1 win that went a long way to securing a single-point victory for the visitors. Fowler was the undoubted star, appearing on the winning side in both foursomes and claiming one victory and one loss from his two singles. The Oklahoma State student was already showing a certain penchant for representing his country. For McIlroy it was a more chastening occasion. Performing in front of his local fans on the biggest stage in amateur golf, he managed just one and a half points from a possible four. Furthermore, he knew he was about to turn pro. In the build-up to the Walker Cup, McIlroy had found himself on the wrong end of modest money matches with teammates. “Cost me about 40 quid [pounds sterling],” he said. It didn’t take long for such sums to be of no consequence to him at all. Quickly finding his feet as a professional, McIlroy finished third at the 2007 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and fourth in the Open de Madrid. Within those two weeks, he earned enough prize money to put him in millionaires’ row—the holder of a full European Tour card for the next season.

Fowler, meanwhile, waited another two years and played the next Walker Cup. Not surprisingly he starred again, winning all four of his matches. Then he made his own McIlroystyle impact when he turned pro. The young American, in only his second appearance as a professional on the PGA Tour, forced his way into a play-off in the 2009 Frys.com fall tournament at Grayhawk GC in Scottsdale, Arizona, finishing second to Troy Matteson. He had a hole-in-one on the 5th hole of the final round and was quickly demonstrating the art of making headlines. Qualifying School was efficiently negotiated at the end of the 2009 season and Fowler did enough in his first full year on the PGA Tour to earn a wildcard to take on Europe at Celtic Manor. At 21 years and 9 months he became America’s third youngest Ryder Cup player after Horton Smith and Tiger Woods. Appropriately, McIlroy made his European debut in the same match, although for once the fates didn’t decree that they should oppose each other. But both demonstrated their uncanny knack of making news, McIlroy for daring to suggest that he wouldn’t mind taking on a seemingly out-

Honor & Glory

Both McIlroy (far left), in 2010, and Fowler (below right), this year, have won at Quail Hollow

2012

2011 of-form Tiger Woods—something the American camp was keen to use as a key motivational tool for their most illustrious player. And Fowler fell foul of the rules. He had to concede a hole after dropping the wrong ball in his opening foursomes match when taking relief from the wet conditions. He and Jim Furyk went on to halve a match they might otherwise have won against Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer. Despite this setback, America’s youngest player made a stirring debut as he gutsily birdied the last four holes to snatch a potentially crucial half in his singles match against Edoardo Molinari. “Incredible and very impressive,” was Woods verdict on Fowler’s performance. American skipper Corey Pavin was just as effusive. “That’s why I picked him. He’s a great kid. He’s going to be out here a long time and play a lot of Ryder Cups in the future,” he said. “It’s a very strong emotional week and it can have emotions all over the spectrum. I think Rickie is a player who can handle that. The character he showed in hanging in there, coming back and birdying the last four holes was an incredible performance.” Europe’s team rallied around McIlroy to persuade him he’d done nothing to harm their cause with his injudicious comments about Woods. He went on to acquire two out of four points as Colin Montgomerie’s side claimed their epic single-point victory. Maturing with each week, McIlroy already had the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic and 2010 Quail Hollow titles to his name. Now it was time to launch a concerted assault on the majors.

Honor & Glory

He dominated the first three days of the 2011 Masters before blowing out when, by his own admission, he wasn’t ready to make the most of his lead. McIlroy, though, is nothing but a quick learner and two months later he ran away with the U.S. Open by eight strokes. Fowler hasn’t come close to such achievements on the game’s biggest stages but he has repeatedly shown he is not intimidated whenever he finds himself in his Northern Irish rival’s company. So it proved on that rain-soaked Saturday at Sandwich. Fowler produced a master-class to navigate the wind, rain and fearsome Royal St. George’s links. His 68 was arguably the best round by anyone at last year’s [British] Open and he beat McIlroy by no fewer than six strokes. The new U.S. Open champion failed to contend while the young American with the white rain suit went on to claim a highly creditable share of fifth place, which remains his best major finish. Later that year, the winning margin was the same half-dozen as Fowler beat McIlroy into second place at the Korea Open to land his first professional title. They were brought together again at Quail Hollow earlier this year. This time it was a threeway play-off with D.A. Points for the very same title that McIlroy had won two years earlier. Nervelessly and daringly, Fowler birdied the first extra hole to claim his maiden PGA Tour title. McIlroy was typically gracious. “It’s great to see,” he said. “Rickie probably has gone through a little bit of scrutiny and quite a lot of pressure while trying to get that first win. Hopefully it’ll

ease the pressure a little bit. But great to see, especially the way he played the playoff hole. He played to win. He deserved it after that birdie.” Fowler’s subsequent results in 2012 have been disappointing, so much so that he was overlooked for a wild card for this year’s Ryder Cup. McIlroy, meanwhile, bounced back from his own mid-season doldrums to land his second major in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, again by eight strokes, and the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston. By some distance the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland has achieved more than his American rival to date. He has won bigger titles and contended more consistently. But Fowler loves to represent his country and has already proved he enjoys nothing more than knocking McIlroy from his elevated perch. “We’ve always had a good camaraderie, been good buddies,” Fowler said. “I definitely respect him as a player and I feel like he respects me as well. I’ve had a lot of fun playing against him. We first played each other at the Walker Cup in ’07. I look forward to playing against him and hopefully having plenty more tournaments where we’re battling back and forth. I look forward to possibly doing that for a long time.” They are the most likely players to provide the rivalry to sustain the next era of professional golf. Certainly, both would have liked nothing more than to be drawn against each other during Europe’s defense of the Ryder Cup at Medinah. Alas, they will now have to wait until 2014 at Gleneagles, at the earliest. H

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Historical

The 1st hole on No.1 course, with the famous Camel Bunker, was originally played as the 10th hole

How No.3 became No.1 Medinah men: The designer of the three courses, Tom Bendelow (top), photographed circa 1927; Harry â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lighthorseâ&#x20AC;? Cooper (middle) poses for the cameras after one of his Medinah Open victories in the 1930s; and clubhouse architect Richard G Schmid (below)

The 10th hole on No.2 course as it appeared back in the 1920s

The Medinah clubhouse was nearing completion in 1925

Medinah Country Club, where the 2012 Ryder Cup matches will be played, has hosted several Major championships over its No.3 course, which has long been regarded as one of the world’s finest tests of golf. Tony Dear recounts the unusual tale behind its quaint and mysterious origins All images courtesy of Medinah Heritage Collection, © Medinah Country Club

he conclave of Shriners from the Medinah Temple in Chicago that proposed a fine out-of-town retreat for their organization in the early 1920s certainly did not do things by halves. For a start they envisioned not one, not two, but three 18-hole golf courses with several other recreational activities. They also built what is perhaps the most extraordinary 19th hole (clubhouse) anywhere in the world. To create their extensive and elaborate playground, the Shriners purchased more than 600 acres on seven parcels of land in DuPage County, about 20 miles west of downtown Chicago. To design the three courses, they hired Scottish native Tom Bendelow, who had emigrated to the U.S. from Aberdeen in 1892 and stayed for the rest of his life, passing away at his home in River Forest, Illinois, 44 years later having built roughly 700 courses.

Given their vaulting aspirations, it is perhaps a little strange that the Shriners opted for Bendelow, a designer who built short, sporty, affordable and easily-maintained courses that were intended to appeal to the masses, rather than one of the more prominent architects, like Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast or Alister Mackenzie. The first course—No.1—opened in September 1925 with the somewhat friendlier No.2 following a year later. No.3, designed specifically for the club’s lady members, didn’t open until 1928. No.3 remained in its original state for just four years. In 1932, Bendelow transformed it into something altogether more demanding and championship-worthy, building seven entirely new holes and adding almost 600 yards in length. The belief for many years was that the changes were a kneejerk reaction to local pro Harry ‘Lighthorse’ Cooper’s seven-under-par 63

in the second round of the inaugural Medinah Open (1930) in which Gene Sarazen, Tommy Armour, Leo Diegel and Chick Evans also played. The truth, however, was very different and was brought to light by author Tim Cronin in his history of the club, The Spirit of Medinah, which celebrated Medinah CC’s first 75 years. It seems the club’s four founders owned a 77-acre tract to the south of Medinah Creek which they had acquired by diverting membership dues (and other questionable funds) and on which they intended to build houses, turning a tidy little profit. The 1,500 or so members got wind of their dodgy dealings, however, and forced them out, enabling Bendelow, who represented Chicago firm American Park Builders, to construct the course for which the club is now famous and which this year hosts the 39th Ryder Cup. Bendelow had submitted plans for the changes long before Cooper’s impressive round. They just hadn’t been implemented yet. (The second Medinah Open was played over four rounds in 1935, and just two below-par rounds were recorded. Cooper won again, shooting a 73 and three consecutive 72s for a 72-hole total of 289). At the same time as the courses were first built, architect Richard G. Schmid was creating the astonishing 104,000 sq. ft. clubhouse, having spent two years crossing Europe and the Middle East in search of inspiration. The building has been compared to Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Mosque, and features a 60-foot rotunda with hand-painted walls that actually

Honor & Glory

have a Byzantine look about them. The artist was German-born Gustav A. Brand, a Medinah CC member who had worked on the Chicago Medinah Temple and other historic sites. Of course, financing and operating a clubhouse of this size, along with maintaining three golf courses, became ever more challenging as the Great Depression dug deep. Hundreds of members left the club which, needing to take drastic measures just to stay afloat, slashed membership dues, waived initiation fees, held numerous fundraising events, and revoked its bye-law stating that only Shriners could become members. The moves had the desired effect, allowing the club to survive, but hard times would come

“They made their list,” says one member, “and we voted in favor of everything” again during World War II when the members had little choice but to close one of the courses— No.2—and maintain the other two themselves. The end of the war bought renewed hope in the economy which grew sufficiently to see membership numbers rise again, and today a select 600 can call Medinah CC their golfing home, a number that includes Michael Jordan. The basketball legend will of course be a very interested observer at this year’s Ryder Cup, having attended several matches and been a part of Fred Couples’ Presidents Cup staff at Harding Park in 2009 (he was also chosen to support the side as a captain’s assistant at Royal

The front entrance to the clubhouse at Medinah, photographed during the 1930s

Honor & Glory

Melbourne last year but backed out because of his commitments to the Charlotte Bobcats NBA team). And having played the Ryder Cup course more often than any of the players, he will be in a position to offer Davis Love and his dozen team members his partial observations about a layout that has seen a good deal of change since Bendelow stamped his mark on the place. First to amend Bendelow’s course was William Langford in the 1940s and ’50s. Then Ken Killian and Dick Nugent were hired by the USGA to update the course prior to the 1975 U.S. Open; Roger Packard made some significant changes to the back nine in 1986, ahead of the 1988 U.S. Senior Open and 1990 U.S. Open; Roger Rulewich, an associate of Robert Trent Jones, Sr., came next in 1996, three years before the 1999 PGA Championship when Tiger Woods beat a volatile teenager named Sergio Garcia by a shot; and Rees Jones was taken on as a consultant in 2000, making alterations in 2002, 2006 and 2009 when the members gave Jones the green light to turn the 15th into a drivable par-4 with water down the left side and replace the 11 soil-based greens that, because of budget constraints, had been left alone during a 2003 renovation. The tees and fairways were also re-grassed, and dozens of trees removed. Before Rees Jones began the $3 million modernization program in 2009, the club had asked him, the superintendent, and the general manager what the course needed to make it as good as it could possibly be, once and for all. “They made their list,” says one member, “and we voted in favor of everything.” At the 2012 Ryder Cup, players and spectators will at last get to see a Medinah No.3 that’s as good as it can be. H

Roll Call Winners of championships played on Medinah No.3 U.S. open 1949 Cary Middlecoff 1975 Lou Graham 1990 Hale Irwin pGA CHAmpionSHip 1999 Tiger Woods 2006 Tiger Woods

U.S. Senior open 1988 Gary Player WeStern open 1939 Byron Nelson 1962 Jacky Cupit 1966 Billy Casper

arabian KnigHts Those unfamiliar with the Shriners and their history are understandably baffled by Medinah Country Club’s origins, and why its clubhouse resembles a Mosque. Many must have wondered how one of America’s finest country clubs is connected with either Islam or Arabic culture. In actual fact, there really is no connection. The story isn’t insidious in the least, and the clubhouse is not the Islamic edifice the domes, minarets and pointed arches suggest it is. This is about nothing more than a bunch of men forming a new club and giving it a cool motif, at least one that was considered cool and a little mysterious 140 years ago. The story begins in 1870 when a group of Masons met regularly for lunch at the Knickerbocker Cottage in Manhattan. The conversation often shifted to Walter Fleming and William Florence’s idea of establishing a new organization that focused less on Masonic rituals and more on fun, fellowship and philanthropy. While on tour in France, Florence was invited to a party hosted by an Arabian diplomat. Intrigued by the style, music, and flavors that he saw, heard and tasted that evening, Florence returned to America and convinced Fleming and the others their new club should adopt an Arabian theme. Consequently, they became the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (A.A.O.N.M.S.). A form of greeting was devised and members took to wearing a red fez. The first meeting of Mecca Shriners, the first temple (chapter) established in the United States, was held in September 1872. The Medinah Temple in Chicago was built in 1912. Today, there are nearly 200 temples across the world and the Shriners are still a ‘brotherhood of men committed to family, engaged in ongoing personal growth, and dedicated to providing care for children and families in need’ (see shrinersinternational.org). Shriners Hospitals for Children (of which there are 22 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico) were founded in 1922 with the goal of providing expert medical care for children with no financial burden to the patients or their families.

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Jack Ross, ably guided by Medinah’s director of golf Michael J. Scully, provides a hole-by-hole outline of what the two teams will encounter around the No.3 Course during the 39th Ryder Cup matches

hen Scottish golf course architect Tom Bendelow designed the No.3 course at Medinah Country Club in 1928, it was intended to be played only by ladies. However, following a number of redesigns, most recently by Rees Jones, the latest incarnation of this 7,657-yard behemoth is anything but a stroll in the park. Perhaps the most significant change made by Jones was the complete rebuilding of the greens, carried out in two stages in 2006 and 2009. Curtis Tyrrell, the director of golf course operations, explained that overhauling the original soil-based greens was an infrastructure

investment that the club deemed necessary for the “benefit of generations of members to come,” and was not dictated by the imminence of the Ryder Cup. And despite the challenges posed by the extreme heat and drought this summer, Tyrrell confirmed that the new creeping bentgrass putting surfaces are in excellent shape. The other main element of Jones’ redesign was the rebuilding and repositioning of bunkers. Many greenside traps were reshaped to be tighter to the putting surfaces and quite a few fairway bunkers were moved closer to the landing areas. Other changes included the enlargement of several tees, the elimination of some blind shots by re-grading fairways and the removal of hundreds of trees.

S h r i n e W o r s h i p

192 yards, Par-3 Step onto the 2nd tee and the picnic is over. This is a challenging par-3 that presents a forced carry over Lake Kadijah with no bailout on the left side. Short or left here means wet, and a red-faced detour via the drop zone. A bunker behind almost the entire width of the green awaits any tee shot hit long or pushed for safety, and offers up the daunting prospect of a splash shot back towards the hazard. Jones has defined three primary hole locations on this green, each of them close to the water’s edge. Prevailing winds from the southwest will blow across the face of the players and complicate club selection.

Honor & Glory

433 yards, Par-4 This straightforward, gently downhill par-4 presents an easy opener that might lull the players into a false sense of security. The addition of a new championship tee has lengthened the hole, and an enlarged fairway bunker on the left must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, driver might not be the best option from the tee here. A hybrid or 3-wood should result in a flattish lie whereas a well-struck driver could lead to a hanging lie. The green is tilted slightly from back right to front left, and a new collection area at the left rear will penalize wayward approaches. The toughest pin position is back-right, with only 18 feet of green behind the front-right bunker.

412 yards, Par-4 This is a classic dogleg-left par-4 where the ball needs to find the center-right of a slightly downhill fairway to avoid the approach to a relatively narrow green being blocked out by overhanging trees. However, new fairway bunkers tight to the right of the landing area need to be avoided, thus promoting a right-to-left tee shot. Jones leveled the fairway in order to improve the playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; view of what confronts them on the second shot. The green slopes from back to front and is guarded by large bunkers on both sides. Overall, this is a promising birdie opportunity, provided the tee shot has been well placed.

463 yards, Par-4 The 4th has been lengthened 16 yards, but an enlarged front tee will permit variation. The tee shot, seemingly through a chute between the trees, should favor the right side because balls hit down the left likely will find the rye rough, normally grown to four or four-and-a-half inches in length at major tournaments. Players will take an extra club on their approach shots to a reasonably wide though severely elevated green which is flanked by bunkers that shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really come into play. The green slopes slightly from back to front and, deceptively, is one of the fastest on the course. The key, therefore, is to try to keep the ball below the hole.

David Cannon [Holes #1, 3 & 4], Evan Schiller / golfshots.com [Hole #2]

Honor & Glory

536 yards, Par-5 The shortest par-5 on the course provides an exciting risk-reward situation. A drive to the right-center of the fairway will leave a 3- or 4-iron to an elevated green. However, a series of three new bunkers now eat into the right side of the landing area. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy to hit the green in two because the elevation, combined with a narrow entrance pinched by two recently-widened bunkers, makes the approach more challenging. Some players are likely to take a hybrid-hybrid approach as their two-shot plan for this hole. However achieved, though, eagle putts here could prove to be pivotal in any match.

509 yards, Par-4 Players can expect to have their hands full with this classic challenge. A new championship tee has stretched this gentle dogleg-right hole from its original length of around 440-450 yards into the longest par-4 on the course. Players must shape a driver from left-to-right off the three fairway bunkers on the left, though a miss to the right brings trees into play and will almost certainly guarantee a bogey. However, a well-placed tee shot on the left side of the fairway will leave a mid- or long-iron into a sloped green protected down its length by four bunkersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;two to the left and two to the right.

617 yards, Par-5 The longest hole on the course, also rated the toughest for members against handicap, was made even longer by the addition of a new championship tee. The ideal drive is down the left side to set up a lay-up shot to about 120 yards short of an elevated green. Longer tee shots bring the new fairway bunker on the left into play and another trap down the same side of the fairway makes players think when contemplating their second shots. The three deep greenside bunkers are to be avoided, as is the trap short and left of the putting surface. The diagonally undulating green has several subtle breaks that complicate the process of reading putts.

Honor & Glory

201 yards, Par-3 This is the only par-3 on the course that does not play over water, though formerly players were presented with what was almost a blind tee shot. The 2009 redesign raised the tee and lowered a ridge on the approach to the green to improve visibility. The green, which remained unchanged, is heavily guarded by the deep bunkers that have been brought in much closer to the putting surface and a tree that overhangs the right side. The front left of a putting surface that breaks sharply from left to right is now particularly hard to access. Club members will tell any player who cares to listen that every putt here tends to break towards the halfway house.

578 yards, Par-5 A thinking manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s par-5 that can only be reached with two perfectly executed shots. The tee shot should be shaped right-to-left towards the right bunkers, especially as carrying the trap on the left delivers no detectable advantage. A 3-wood will take the bunkers out of play, leaving a hybrid or long-iron lay-up shot to one of Medinahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smaller greens. Although the pitch of the green has been reduced, it still has a greater slope from back to front than any other green on No.3. The dilemma for players will be whether to be aggressive or conservative, especially as there is almost no margin for recovery from beyond the green.

432 yards, Par-4 This superb yet surprisingly sharp dogleg-left par-4 presents a partially blind shot off the tee. The likelihood is that the players will take hybrids or 3-woods with the intention of hugging the right side of the fairway rather than chewing off the corner by trying to drive the ball over the tall, left-hand treesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a choice of line that nearly always spells disaster for anything less pure than a 100 percent strike. A tee shot down the right leaves an uphill approach to another well-bunkered green that breaks hard from right-to-left. Pin positions can be especially awkward here so par is unquestionably a useful score.

440 yards, Par-4 The addition of a new fairway bunker on the far right side of the landing area on this right-to-left dogleg places a premium on driving accuracy and club selection. The tee was pushed back for the 2006 PGA Championship, but a 3-wood or hybrid should still leave most players with a mid-iron into the smallest green on the course, one that is both sharply undulating and surrounded by three intrusive bunkers. This hole looks easy at first glance, though as with most holes on Medinah No.3 the trees need to be navigated around or over. However, it certainly has the potential to swing the momentum in a match.

Evan Schiller / golfshots.com [Holes #5, 7, 8 & 10], David Cannon [Holes #6, 9 & 11]

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476 yards, Par-4 This left-to-right dogleg, the only hole on Medinah No.3 without bunkers, is regarded by many pundits as the strongest par-4 on the course because the approach shot to the green is one of the most exacting in golf. A generous landing area favors tee shots to the right, which thus provide an optimum angle of attack with a mid-iron into a green that slopes hard from left to right. A large oak guards the green on the left, a nemesis to members over the years. Shots missing the green to the right tend to roll into the water these days since the slope was converted to bent grass. More often than not, par could win the hole here.

609 yards, Par-5 There are no fairway traps on this par-5, so the rough is the main deterrent to having a go at reaching the green in two. Long hitters have the advantage here if they can get the ball to the top of the hill. They should then have a long-iron or fairway wood into a green that is well protected by a semi-circle of bunkers and slopes steeply from back to front. If players choose to lay up, as most will, the severe slope of the green will make it difficult to get the ball close to the cup even with the most precisely judged pitch. Overhanging trees could also interfere at any stage on this hole.

245 yards, Par-3 The view from the new championship tee on this downhill par-3 over Lake Kadijah is intimidating, to say the least. Generally considered Medinah No.3â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature hole, the longest par-3 on the course has a raised, two-tiered green that slopes from right to left and is guarded by three bunkers â&#x20AC;&#x201D;front, left and right. In general, the choice of club off the tee will be either a long-iron or hybrid, but the players can be confident that a well-struck effort will hold the green. Club selection is usually complicated by winds off the lake, adding several degrees of difficulty and pointing up the fact that this could prove to be the turning point of some matches. Evan Schiller / golfshots.com [Holes #12 & 13], David Cannon [Hole #14]

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391 yards, Par-4 Jones’s indelible imprint on Medinah No.3 is this drivable par-4, a classic risk-reward hole that he shortened by 100 yards. Thus, depending on where the tees are placed, it can now play almost any distance between 280 and 391 yards. A large, recently installed pond guards the right side of the fairway while the small, shallow green is well-bunkered in front and has a collection area to the back right that imperils any players attempting to drive the green. This hole will come at a critical point in matches—after the long 14th and before the famous closing holes. No doubt it will be the scene of many memorable shots, be they spectacular or disastrous.

193 yards, Par-3 Jones moved the green down to the edge of Lake Kadijah to bring water into play and restore a natural amphitheater that improves spectators’ view of this pivotal hole. Once again, wind off the lake will perplex the players. Missing this relatively flat, though quite narrow green long or left will make getting up and down difficult, and the deep bunkers back left and tight to the right should definitely be avoided as well. With the wall in front of the green curving away to the right, there is a natural pin placement for the final day, if not before. This hole has been pivotal in Major championships and will test the nerves of all Ryder Cup competitors.

482 yards, Par-4 Even though the oak tree made famous by Sergio Garcia’s superlative shot in the 1999 PGA Championship has been removed, along with the hole’s only fairway bunker, this right-to-left dogleg retains plenty of teeth. A new championship tee requires players to hit driver to leave approximately 200 yards into an elevated green heavily guarded by three deep bunkers to the right and one big, though shallower, one to the left. The upslope in front of the green has been re-graded to be less severe, but the putting surface still slopes markedly from right-to-left and will be threestabbed on more than one occasion. All in all, par will be a good score here.

449 yards, Par-4 A series of bunkers added to the right of the fairway on this slight dogleg-left requires the players to work a right-to-left tee shot into a contoured landing area. The bunker to the left of the fairway has been removed since the 1999 PGA Championship, enabling the trees to pose more of a hazard instead. The green, recently elevated almost one story in height, is protected by two deep bunkers to the left and one to the right, slopes from back to front and has a collection area to the back right that makes an up-anddown to a back-right hole location almost impossible. This demanding hole should witness a dramatic finish to several matches at the 2012 Ryder Cup. H Evan Schiller / golfshots.com [Holes #15, 16, 17 & 18]

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ust as no history of Chicago is complete without reference to Al Capone, no record of golf in the Windy City can overlook his influence. His home course was Burnham Woods in the southern suburbs. Its first nine holes opened in 1925 and soon attracted his patronage. Thousands of dollars frequently changed hands during their games, though only one of Capone’s regular four-ball partners, Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn, was any good as a player. Rumor had it that the guns and police uniforms used in the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of seven men working for George “Bugs” Moran are buried somewhere on the site. Another Capone tale recounts how he was shot in the foot by his own gun while playing at the nearby, and considerably more exclusive, Olympia Fields because he’d forgotten to put on the safety catch before stashing it in his golf bag. Olympia Fields, a club of true pedigree which

The approach to the 18th green at Olympia Fields

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Chicago is home to a plethora of famous and, in some cases, infamous golf courses. These are a few that visitors are advised to check out if they happen to be in town for the first Ryder Cup in the state of Illinois, at Medinah Country Club

dates back to 1915 and has twice hosted both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, consists of two 18-hole courses, the North and South, both designed by former [British] Open champion Willie Park Jr. Meanwhile, the Donald Ross layout at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe on the north shore predates Olympia Fields by 18 years, but even this isn’t the oldest golf property in the vicinity. That honor rests with Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton to the west of the city, the oldest 18-hole course in North America and one of the five clubs that founded the United States Golf Association in 1894. The brainchild of Charles Blair Macdonald, who learned the game when he went to college in Scotland, it was still deemed a tough enough test to stage the 2005 Walker Cup in which Ryder Cup stars Anthony Kim (2008) and Jeff Overton (2010) both played. Seth Raynor, a disciple of Macdonald, designed the outstanding Shore Acres course in

Lake Bluff, to the north of the city, in 1922. Even after a 1993 facelift from Tom Doak, the emphasis is on accuracy rather than length at Shore Acres where narrow, tree-lined fairways, copious ravines and large, fast, heavily bunkered greens hold sway. Look out also for the 453-yard 10th, Raynor’s tribute to the Road Hole 17th at St Andrews. Another notable venue is Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, a public facility with four courses some 30 miles southwest of Chicago. Three brothers named Coghill bought the land as a farm in 1920 and unveiled the first layout seven years later. The fourth course, Dubsdread, opened to a Joseph L. Lee/Dick Wilson design in 1964 and has recently staged the BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open) on the PGA Tour. Cog Hill’s predecessor as host of the Western Open was Butler National, the 1972 creation of entrepreneur Paul Butler, who founded the village of Oak Brook to the south of the city, and George Fazio. Other superb designs within a half hour’s drive of downtown Chicago include Pete and P.B. Dye’s Ruffled Feathers, Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s Prairie Landing and the Port and Starboard courses laid out by Dick Nugent at Harborside International. Also check out two of Nugent’s collaborations—with Bruce Borland at the Golf Club of Illinois in Algonquin and Ken Killian at Kemper Lakes—plus George Fazio’s Balmoral Woods, his nephew Tom’s creation at The Glen Club in Glenview, and last but definitely not least don’t miss a pair of Arnold Palmer signature courses at White Eagle and Hawthorn Woods. Spoilt for choice? Visiting golfers wouldn’t have it any other way. H

Patrick Drickey / stonehousegolf.com

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Historical History

The RivalRy

ThaT

The memory—Sergio Garcia sprinting for joy up a fairway at Medinah after gouging his ball onto the green from the roots of a tree—remains so vivid that it’s hard to believe it dates back 13 years. That day, the mercurial Spanish teenager finished runner-up in the PGA Championship to Tiger Woods and golf celebrated the birth of a new order. As far as the majors are concerned, it has long been no contest, but the Ryder Cup is a different story. Andy Farrell turns back the clock

ooking back at the PGA Championship in 1999 at Medinah, the instant judgment that golf had a new rivalry was perhaps wide of the mark. In terms of major championships won, there is no comparison. But it is fair to say that since that first meeting whenever Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have collided it has always been a spicy affair. But back then, 13 years ago, things were a bit different. Woods had won the 1997 Masters by a record-breaking 12 strokes but since then had not been able to add a second major title. He had become a seasoned professional but the stamp of greatness, not fully conferred until the following season, was still to come. Garcia, meanwhile, had been a professional for only three months but the bubbly 19-yearold already had a reputation as the new Spanish wonderboy. “El Nino” they called him.

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After winning low amateur honors at the Masters, Garcia enjoyed his maiden victory in only his sixth event as a professional at the Irish Open. At the [British] Open at Carnoustie, he missed the cut but he responded magnificently with a 66 at Medinah to take the first-round lead. “I think I proved myself today,” he said. By the start of the final round, though, it was Woods who led, alongside Canada’s Mike Weir, with Garcia two behind. What happened on that final day at Medinah both helped Woods on his way towards his tally of 14 major titles and made Garcia a star in America as well as Europe. What may be forgotten these days was that, following an early collapse by Weir, Woods led by five strokes after 11 holes. But Woods bogeyed the 12th and the dwindling lead was part of the drama. Playing in the group ahead, Garcia

NeveR was had not given up the chase and holed a 20-foot downhiller for a two. Woods was watching on the tee and not only saw the putt go in but Garcia raise a fist towards the leader. However lighthearted it was intended, there was no mistaking the challenge in the gesture. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wanted him to know that he still had to play well to win,â&#x20AC;? Garcia explained. Woods promptly put his tee-shot over the green, chipped over to the other side and ended up with a double bogey. Suddenly his lead was down to one shot. Battle was joined. At the 15th, Garcia dropped a shot and fell two behind so when he drove into the trees on the right at the next he needed something special to keep his chances alive. The ball was nestled on the roots of a tree and his experienced caddie, Jerry Higginbotham, advised chipping out sideways.

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“Although I had a fivestroke lead, I knew it could go in a couple of holes, which is almost what happened” – Woods

Woods and Garcia first took each other on in the Ryder Cup at Brookline in 1999

Watching at home, Seve Ballesteros screamed at his television for his young compatriot to have a go at getting it on the green. Of course, Garcia tried to do just that. Swinging with a six-iron from 198 yards, Garcia shut his eyes and trusted to luck. The ball came out sweetly, curved around 20 yards in the air and landed on the green. Garcia almost followed it all the way, galloping out onto the fairway and leaping into the air to get a view of the result. “I just opened the clubface and made a full swing,” he said. “I closed my eyes on the downswing and went backwards in case the ball came back off the tree, and when I opened my eyes the ball was going to the green. I was pretty excited and wanted to see where it finished.” Thanks to that remarkable recovery, Garcia finished with three pars and the crowd at the 18th chanted, “Sergio, Sergio”. But Woods had recomposed himself after the events at the 13th and after missing the green at the 17th, drained an eightfooter for par. It was the sort of putt that he would make time after time as he posted 14 major victories. “It is a relief to finally get my second major,” Woods said. “Sergio played wonderfully. Although I had a five-stroke lead, I knew it could go in a couple of holes, which is almost what happened. But it was fun playing under the pressure. The crowd got behind Sergio and rightly so. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is a wonderful kid.” “It’s the best week of my life,” Garcia said. “I’ve never had so much fun playing golf. The crowds were amazing. I almost couldn’t hear. They must have thought I was American. I’m a little unhappy that I didn’t win but inside of me I feel I won.” It is hard to believe that Garcia has yet to win a major. He played with Woods in the final round of the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Park and the 2006 [British] Open at Hoylake but to no avail. In more recent times, Padraig Harrington, five times a Ryder Cup teammate of Garcia’s, has proved another nemesis. But Ben Crenshaw, the 1999 American Ryder Cup captain, summed up the impact that Garcia had made. “The verve, creativity and imagination with that shot is something you just don’t see,” he said. “The enthusiasm with which he ran after the ball encapsulates everything we thought about the game when we were 19. How can you not love this kid? He is unbelievable.” H

Woods and Garcia at the ryder cup After his part in the thrilling climax to the 1999 PGA Championship, there was tremendous anticipation about Sergio Garcia making his debut in the Ryder Cup a month later at The Country Club (Brookline, Massachusetts). The Spaniard became the youngest European ever to play in the match and he did not disappoint, collecting three and a half points out of a possible four in harness with Jesper Parnevik. The Swede played the role of elder statesman and steadying hand as Garcia’s enthusiasm helped propel Europe to a fourpoint lead after two days (before America’s great comeback in the singles). Parnevik said: “Sergio has so much energy that when I felt a bit tired, I just plugged into him and I was fine again.” Of course, there was great interest in a rematch between Garcia and Woods and it came in the first morning’s foursomes. Woods and Tom

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Lehman three-putted at the 12th, so Garcia’s deft chip helped put the Europeans one-up. Parnevik holed from 14 feet for a half two holes later and at the 17th Garcia hit his approach to eight feet and Parnevik holed the putt to seal a 2&1 victory. Three years later at The Belfry, Garcia and Lee Westwood twice faced Woods with honors even. On Friday afternoon in the foursomes, the home pair beat Woods and Mark Calcavecchia 2&1, but the following afternoon in a vital four-ball that went all the way to the 18th, Woods and Davis Love III just squeaked the win. Then at the K Club in 2006, Garcia and Luke Donald played Woods and Jim Furyk in the foursomes on Friday afternoon and won by two holes. The odds are they will meet again at some point at Medinah, though Garcia’s participation was only confirmed a week before the European selection deadline when he won the Wyndham Championship at Greensboro, North Carolina.

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he ryder Cup is all about tradition, great golf courses, the skills of the opposing captains, the tens of thousands of fans who line the fairways; heck, it’s even about what everyone’s wearing. But most importantly, it’s about the performances of the 24 individual players who line up alongside and against each other in one of sport’s most daunting, pressurecooker environments. The 38 previous ryder Cups have

demonstrated that underdogs can triumph, that the world’s most highly ranked players can be beaten, and that team spirit can overcome all odds. over the next few pages, we portray each and every one of the golfers who will be showcasing his playing skills and competitive instincts at Medinah from September 28-30— who they are, where they’re from, what they’ve won, how they’ve fared in previous ryder Cups, and what sort of form they’ve shown this season. These profiles will provide an invaluable

guide as the action unfolds, both for the millions of armchair observers monitoring proceedings via their TV screens but also for the thousands of fans who plan to watch their heroes in action at first hand. Eight members of Team U.S.A. qualified to play automatically and the remaining four were the wild-card picks of captain Davis love III. Meanwhile, ten players cemented their places in the European team before the remaining two were selected by skipper Jose Maria olazabal.

Tiger Woods Born: December 30, 1975; Cypress, California College: Stanford University, California Turned pro: 1996 World Ranking: 3 Ryder Cup appearances: 6 (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: played 29, won 14, lost 13, halved 2; Foursomes: p12, w4, l8; Four-balls: p11, w6, l4, h1; Singles: p6, w4, l1, h1 Tiger Woods, undisputedly the best golfer since Jack Nicklaus, completed a century of tournament victories worldwide when landing the aT&T National at Congressional in July, one of three titles he has won this year. But his form when it’s really mattered has been modest and Nicklaus’s benchmark of 18 major wins is looking increasingly impregnable. once upon a time, Woods was the most feared player in the world game, but despite the intimidating effect his red shirt tends to have on the last day of a tournament, he had a middling ryder Cup record until his last two appearances—2006 and 2010—when he won a possible six points out of nine. He missed the 2008 match due to a leg injury, having remarkably won that year’s U.s. open at Torrey Pines with what amounted to a broken limb. But that, his 14th major victory, is his last to date. Well-publicized personal problems may have contributed to a diminishing of the ‘Tiger effect,’ but the emergence of players like rory Mcilroy, Graeme McDowell and Bubba Watson, combined with the ravages of time and periodic injuries probably have more to do with it. But those three wins and his recent return to the top three in the world rankings indicate that Woods is far from a spent force.

did you know? He shot 48 for nine holes aged just three

The information in these brief biographies is accurate to 5 September 2012

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Players

Play e r P r o f i l e s

Webb Simpson Born: August 8, 1985; Raleigh, North Carolina College: Wake Forest University, North Carolina Turned pro: 2008 World Ranking: 5 Ryder Cup appearances: None Simpson, a graduate of Arnold Palmer’s alma mater Wake forest, broke his major duck, a lot earlier than most experts had predicted, in this year’s U.s. open at olympic Club in san francisco, holding off a feisty challenge from Graeme McDowell. However, his win was no surprise to those who had witnessed his rise through the ranks. simpson, a Walker Cup winner in 2007, turned professional the following year and then endured some frustrating near misses. But once he had won twice in 2011—at the Wyndham and Deutsche Bank Championships—to secure second place on the money list, his first victory in a major was only a matter of time. This season, a run of 18 consecutive cuts made stalled when he failed to play on the weekend at the Players Championship and he followed that up by only playing two rounds of the Memorial Tournament. That was all put to bed, though, when he won the U.s. open but he then missed the [British] open Championship at royal lytham & st annes because his wife Dowd was about to give birth to their second child and, evidently ring-rusty after a month off, he also missed the cut at the PGa Championship. None the less, his performances earlier in the year were enough to hoist him to fifth in the United states qualifying list and into an automatic spot for what will be his first ryder Cup.

did you know? Like Ben Crenshaw and Justin Leonard, he is a two-time winner of the Southern Amateur Championship

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Jason Dufner Born: March 24, 1977; Cleveland, Ohio College: Auburn University, Alabama Turned pro: 2000 World Ranking: 7 Ryder Cup appearances: None

Like Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson, this phlegmatic fellow with a pronounced pre-shot waggle routine may be a Ryder Cup rookie but he has shown a consistency in recent major championships that will surely stand him in good stead against Europe. He took a while to get used to life in the professional game and it was not until 2009 that he broke through with six top-10 finishes. He missed out to Bradley in the PGA Championship last season, a tournament he probably should have won, and made the cut in all four Grand Slams this season, with a best finish of fourth in the U.S. Open at Olympic Club behind Simpson. His demeanor suggests it will not be long before he joins his fellow Ryder Cup debutants as a major winner. Dufner has won twice on the PGA Tour this year—at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, after a play-off with Ernie Els, and the Byron Nelson Championship.

DID YOU KNOW? He only started playing golf when he was 15, but six years later he reached the final of the Public Links Championship, losing to Trevor Immelman

Bubba Watson Born: November 5, 1978; Bagdad, Florida College: University of Georgia Turned pro: 2003 World ranking: 8 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w1, l3; Foursomes: p1, l1; Four-balls: p2, w1, l1; Singles: p1, l1

DID YOU KNOW? Formed the Golf Boys band with Ben Crane, Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan to release Oh Oh Oh, a charity song, on YouTube

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Golf needs characters and Gerry ‘Bubba’ Watson certainly falls into that category with his big hitting, his pink-shafted driver, his rock and roll on-course attitude and his easy manner with the fans. The 33-year-old further endeared himself to the sporting public with the miraculous way he claimed his first major title at this year’s Masters. During a playoff against South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen at Augusta National, Watson outrageously hooked a wedge out of the trees and onto the 10th green. Watson, who has recorded a drive of 416 yards, won over $1 million in his PGA Tour rookie season, in 2006, but had to wait until 2010 for his first win which came in the Travelers Championship. He lost a playoff to Germany’s Martin Kaymer in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits later that year and had two more wins in 2011. He had a mediocre first Ryder Cup two years ago when he won just one point out of four.

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Keegan Bradley Born: July 6, 1986; Woodstock, Vermont College: St. John’s University, New York Turned pro: 2008 World ranking: 12 Ryder Cup appearances: None

did you know? He is the nephew of one of the LPGA’s greatest players, Pat Bradley

Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship at the atlanta athletic Club in his very first start in one of golf ’s four majors. He thus became only the third player in more than a century, after francis ouimet in 1913 and Ben Curtis in 2003, to win a major at his first attempt. Bradley proved that victory—achieved in a three-hole play-off against Jason Dufner—was no fluke by winning the WGC-Bridgestone invitational in august and finishing third in his PGa defense, albeit nine shots behind rory Mcilroy. That meant Bradley had made the weekend in his first five majors and was one of only 12 players to make the cut in all four this year. His consistency also raised him to No.12 in the world rankings, something few observers would have foretold two years previously when he missed out on his PGa Tour card by two shots at qualifying school. He put that right when he finished 14th on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2010 to earn full playing rights, and he has not looked back since.

Zach Johnson Born: February 26, 1976; Iowa City, Iowa College: Drake University, Iowa Turned pro: 1998 World Ranking: 16 Ryder Cup appearances: 2 (2006, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p7, w3, l3, h1; Foursomes: p4, w1, l2, h1; Four-balls: p1, w1; Singles: p2, w1, l1

did you know? in winning the 2007 Masters, he did not hit one single par-5 in two

Johnson will be winning his third Ryder Cup cap, but his first at home, courtesy of wins this season in the Crown Plaza invitational and John Deere Classic. He made the cut in all four of this year’s majors, but his biggest career moment to date came when he won the Masters in 2007 after finishing with three birdies in the last six holes to hold off, amongst others, Tiger Woods. since then, Johnson has only really contended in one major championship—the 2010 PGa Championship in which he tied for third. Johnson had only won once on the PGa Tour in nine years of professional golf prior to that triumph at augusta National but the breakthrough victory was the start of a consistent run of wins, with 2011 his only barren year on Tour since. a twotime Presidents Cup winner, this deeply religious man has yet to taste victory in the ryder Cup.

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Matt Kuchar Born: 21 June, 1978; Winter Place, Florida College: Georgia Tech, Atlanta Turned pro: 2000 World Ranking: 13 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w1, l1, h2; Foursomes: p1, w1; Four-balls: p2, h2; Singles: p1, l1 Matt Kuchar, who will be making his second ryder Cup appearance at Medinah after winning two points in 2010, is a former U.s. amateur champion and was the top-finishing unpaid player in both the Masters and U.s. open of 1998. He was heralded as a big star in the making but has yet to break his duck in the major championships. Two years after turning professional, he won the 2002 Honda Classic but he lost his Tour card in 2005 and then underwent some swing changes before regaining it in 2007. seven years spanned his first and second PGa Tour wins, his second coming in the Turning stone resort Championship in 2009. since then, Kuchar has been one of the most consistent players on the PGa Tour. in addition to receiving the arnold Palmer Trophy for topping the money list in 2010, he also had the lowest scoring average and finished in the top-10 in both the Masters and [British] open. He combined with Gary Woodland to win the omega Mission Hills World Cup last November and tied for third at the Masters in april. a month later he chalked up the biggest win of his career when he took the Players Championship at TPC sawgrass, thwarting an impressive clutch of charging finishers, including Ben Curtis, Zach Johnson and rickie fowler. However, he rounded off this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s majors by missing the cut in the PGa Championship.

did you know? His father Peter was once the top-ranked doubles tennis player in Florida

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H #1 golf course in San Antonio / Austin / Texas Hill Country H Large spacious and private homesites from the low $100’s to $500’s + H Custom homes and lock-and-leave villas from the $500’s H The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch - seven private clubs, one membership H Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course H Thousands of acres preserved in native Hill Country vegetation H Private Guadalupe River access, private parks & nature trails *Based on The dallas Morning news 2012 golf Course rankings

Phil Mickelson Born: June 16, 1970; San Diego, California College: Arizona State University Turned pro: 1992 World ranking: 22 Ryder Cup appearances: 8 (1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p30, w11, l14, h5; Foursomes: p9, w2, l4, h3; Four-balls: p13, w5, l6, h2; Singles: p8, w4, l4

Mickelson will make a record ninth appearance when he tees up at Medinah. However, the stylish left-hander has a checkered record in the Ryder Cup—his partnership with Tiger Woods, put together by captain Hal Sutton, imploded in 2004— and he has a lower than 50 percent win rate against Europe. Mickelson was clinging onto the eighth and last automatic spot in the U.S. team for this year’s match after the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, but Davis Love III would almost certainly have picked him as a wild card anyway. ‘Lefty’ has not been his usual dominant self since tying for third at the Masters, although earlier in the season he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach in impressive fashion and also reached a playoff for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera. The four-time major winner with the ready smile will have the crowd on his side throughout the Ryder Cup.

DID YOU KNOW? He won his first PGA Tour title, the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, as an amateur

Dustin Johnson Born: June 22, 1984; Columbia, South Carolina College: Coastal Carolina University Turned pro: 2007 World ranking: 14 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w1, l3; Foursomes: p1, l1; Four-balls: p2, l2; Singles: p1, w1 Three of this long-hitter’s five top-10 finishes in majors could easily have resulted in victory. In the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, he led by three shots after 54 holes only to tie for eighth after starting his final round like a 24-handicapper. In the 2011 [British] Open at Royal St. George’s, he finished runner-up after shanking a 2-iron out-of-bounds. But the loss that really grated was the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits where he missed out on a playoff after being penalised for grounding his club in what looked like a waste area wide of the 18th fairway but was actually a bunker. After a slow start to this season due to knee and back injuries, Johnson burst into life by winning his sixth PGA Tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June. Ties for third and fourth in the first two FedExCup playoff tournaments confirmed his right to a wild-card pick.

Honor & Glory

DID YOU KNOW? He has been linked romantically in the recent past with LPGA pin-up Natalie Gulbis

Jim Furyk Born: May 12, 1970; West Chester, Pennsylvania College: University of Arizona Turned pro: 1992 World Ranking: 30 Ryder Cup appearances: 7 (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p27, w8, l15, h4; Foursomes: p10, w3, l5, h2; Four-balls: p10, w1, l8, h1; Singles: p7, w4, l2, h1

Twenty-five wins, including the U.s. open at olympia fields in 2003, plus 18 other major top-10 finishes indicate why the man with a loopy swing that will not be found in any coaching manual has been one of the PGa Tour’s top professionals over the past two decades. since winning $10m in the fedexCup at the end of the 2010 season, though, furyk has struggled with his putting. He has had a number of prominent finishes during 2012, but he led both the U.s. open at olympic and WGC-Bridgestone Championship at firestone until late in the final round only to miss out at the death. These uncharacteristic lapses under pressure, combined with a lack of length off the tee, cast doubts on his right to a wild-card selection for an eighth successive ryder Cup appearance once he had dropped from an automatic qualifying spot. However, captain love clearly decided he could not do without the veteran’s vast experience.

did you know? He was a standout basketball player at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County, PA

Brandt Snedeker Born: December 8, 1980; Nashville, Tennessee College: Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Turned pro: 2004 World Ranking: 18 Ryder Cup appearances: None

Winner of the Amateur Public Links Championship in 2003, snedeker turned professional a year later but it wasn’t until he had played for three seasons on the Nationwide Tour that he clinched his PGa Tour card. That year, 2007, he won the first of his three Tour titles, the Wyndham (formerly Great Greensboro) Championship, garnered nearly $3m in prize money and was voted rookie of the year. even though he has finished in the top-10 at major championships four times, the closest he came to the winner was at this year’s [British] open where he finished three shots adrift of ernie els. a fortuitous farmers insurance open win in January at Torrey Pines, where Kyle stanley blew a threeshot lead playing the final hole, allied to his prominence at lytham and his high finishes in the first two fedexCup events—second and sixth—meant that Davis love could not ignore his potential for a captain’s pick.

did you know? He underwent surgery late last year to correct a degenerative hip condition

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Steve Stricker Born: February 23, 1967; Edgerton, Wisconsin College: University of Illinois Turned pro: 1990 World Ranking: 10 Ryder Cup appearances: 2 (2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p7, w3, l3, h1; Foursomes: p2, w1, l1; Four-balls: p3, w1, l1, h1; Singles: p2, w1, l1 Stricker’s seventh place behind Rory McIlroy in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in August was his 10th top-10 in a major. This shy Mid-Westerner joined the PGA Tour in 1994, following a spell on the Canadian Tour, and in 2001 won his most prestigious title—the WGC-Accenture World Match Play Championship at Metropolitan GC in Melbourne, Australia. However, a major has proved elusive and the nearest he has come in almost two decades of trying was as runner-up to Vijay Singh in the 1998 PGA Championship at Sahalee CC near Seattle, Washington. Stricker, regarded as one of the best putters in the game, did not make his Ryder Cup debut until 2008 when he was aged 41. He only managed half a point from three matches at Valhalla but by the time Celtic Manor came around two years ago he was one of the strong men of the U.S. team, partnering Tiger Woods and claiming three points out of a possible four. He was not at his absolute best mid-season having suffered a neck injury shortly after starting the year with his 12th PGA Tour victory in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua in Hawaii. But he returned to form by finishing second in the WGC-Accenture Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio, the week before his high finish at the PGA, so Davis Love III had no hesitation in handing the former world No.2 a wild card.

DID YOU KNOW? Stricker’s wife Nicki occasionally acts as his caddie

Players

Rory McIlroy Northern Ireland Born: May 4, 1989; Holywood, Northern Ireland Turned pro: 2007 World Ranking: 1 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w1, l1, h2; Foursomes: p2, w1, l1; Four-balls: p1, h1; Singles: p1, h1 When he won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in August, McIlroy became the youngest player since Seve Ballesteros to win two majors. After imploding at the 2011 Masters, he won the U.S. Open two months later at Congressional by eight shots and repeated the trick in this year’s PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, waltzing home by the same margin. The Northern Irishman suffered a run of three missed cuts earlier in the year that led some observers to comment that his well-publicized romance with Danish tennis starlet Caroline Wozniacki and a change of management company might have caused the wheels to come off his game. But he answered the critics in emphatic fashion in this season’s last major, reclaiming his position as world No.1 in the process. Four weeks later, he cashed in again on his rich vein of form by winning the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, his third PGA Tour victory of 2012. McIlroy first made his mark when, aged 15, he shot a barely believable 61 at Royal Portrush. In his Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor two years ago, he formed a productive partnership with his compatriot Graeme McDowell, a pairing that is likely to be repeated at Medinah. But given his abundant talent, it is fair to say that McIlroy could play with anybody.

DID YOU KNOW? He used to practice chipping into his mother’s washing machine

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Luke Donald England Born: December 7, 1977; Hemel Hempstead, England College: Northwestern University, Illinois Turned pro: 2001 World Ranking: 2 Ryder Cup appearances: 3 (2004, 2006, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p11, w8, l2, h1; Foursomes: p6, w6; Four-balls: p2, l1, h1; Singles: p3, w2, l1

Donald has spent more than 50 weeks at the top of the world rankings but is still missing the major championship his talent clearly deserves. A multiple winner on both sides of the Atlantic, he made history in 2011 when he won the money list in both Europe and the United States. He has been a captain’s pick in two out of his three Ryder Cup appearances but missed out on the 2008 match at Valhalla due to a wrist injury. He has won eight and a half points out of a possible 11 and has a 100 percent record in foursomes in which he is likely to pair up with Sergio Garcia again. Donald has won the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, for the last two years and in 2011 swept all before him in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain in Arizona.

DID YOU KNOW? He has his own wine label

Lee Westwood England Born: April 24, 1973; Worksop, England Turned pro: 1993 World ranking: 4 Ryder Cup appearances: 7 (1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p33, w16, l11, h6; Foursomes: p13, w7, l2, h4; Four-balls: p13, w7, l4, h2; Singles: p7, w2, l5 Like Donald, a major victory is the only missing ingredient from Westwood’s CV. To date, he has chalked up 14 top-10 finishes in majors and a total of 39 professional victories. After his maiden win at the Scandinavian Masters in 1996, he became one of the dominant forces in European golf, claiming 12 titles in three seasons between 1998 and 2000. He topped the European order of merit in 2000, but then endured an inexplicable barren run before winning again in 2003. During that bleak period his world ranking plummeted to 266th, but the first hint of a recovery came when he enjoyed a successful Ryder Cup at The Belfry in 2002. Thereafter, he swiftly rose back up the rankings and in November 2010 he displaced Tiger Woods as world No.1. He won two and a half points out of a possible four at Celtic Manor and will be playing in his eighth successive Ryder Cup at Medinah.

DID YOU KNOW? He won the English county of Nottinghamshire’s junior (under-18) championship at 15, less than two years after taking up golf

Honor & Glory

Justin Rose England Born: July 30, 1980; Johannesburg, South Africa Turned pro: 1998 World Ranking: 9 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2008) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w3, l1; Foursomes: p2, w1, l1; Four-balls: p1, w1; Singles: p1, w1

After a shaky start to his professional career, Rose is now firmly established as one of the world’s best golfers and he landed his biggest title this year in the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral. Aged 17 years and ten days in 1997, he became the youngest person to play in the Walker Cup and a year later he turned professional after finishing fourth in the [British] Open at Royal Birkdale as an amateur. He took a decade to make his mark in the paid ranks, but in 2010 he won twice on the PGA Tour, at the Memorial and AT&T National. Rose and Ian Poulter finished runners-up in the 2011 World Cup, just after he’d notched up another PGA Tour win in the BMW Championship. He made a superb Ryder Cup debut in a losing cause at Valhalla in 2008 where he and Poulter enjoyed a fruitful partnership. Rose won three points out of four in Kentucky but narrowly missed out on a wild-card selection last time.

DID YOU KNOW? He missed the cut in his first 21 professional tournaments

Sergio Garcia Spain

DID YOU KNOW? He is president of Spanish minor league soccer club CF Borriol

Born: January 9, 1980; Borriol, Castellon, Spain Turned pro: 1999 World ranking: 17 Ryder Cup appearances: 5 (1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p24, w17, l5, h2; Foursomes: p9, w9; Four-balls: p10, w7, l1, h2; Singles: p5, w1, l4 Victory in the Wyndham Championship in August, his 23rd tournament title, guaranteed the ebullient Spaniard’s playing return to the Ryder Cup. Garcia was an enthusiastic vice-captain in 2010—when his form did not merit a wild-card pick—but his record from 1999-2008, especially in the foursomes and four-balls, is exceptional. He has formed outstanding partnerships over the years with Jesper Parnevik, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Jose Maria Olazabal. After winning the [British] Amateur Championship in 1998, he burst to prominence as a teenage professional a year later when he chased home Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship at Medinah, but after 17 top-10 finishes a major win remains curiously elusive. Since then he’s had some agonizing near misses, most notably when losing a playoff for the 2007 [British] Open at Carnoustie to Padraig Harrington. As a team player, though, he is a fearsome competitor, in the proud tradition of fellow Spaniards Seve Ballesteros and Olazabal.

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Graeme McDowell Northern Ireland Born: July 30, 1979; Portrush, Northern Ireland College: University of Alabama, Birmingham Turned pro: 2002 World Ranking: 15 Ryder Cup appearances: 2 (2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p8, w4, l2, h2; Foursomes: p4, w1, l1, h2; Four-balls: p2, w1, l1; Singles: p2, w2 McDowell kick-started Northern Ireland’s recent run of major wins—continued by Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke—when he won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. That victory ended a 40-year European drought at the season’s second major and signaled McDowell’s arrival in the big time. He formed a formidable partnership with McIlroy during the Ryder Cup later in the year and was then perfectly placed to win the decisive singles match for Europe at Celtic Manor. Captain Colin Montgomerie sensed the match would go down to the wire and so he put McDowell out last as he suspected that Europe might need the Irishman’s coolness under pressure. He was right, of course. Having won a total of four times in 2010, McDowell has not won since but he has been in contention on several occasions, most notably in the Players Championship at Sawgrass last year before he was undone by a closing 79. This year, he has had three runners-up spots and finished in the top-12 in all four majors. His best performance in 2012 came when he tied for second, one shot behind Webb Simpson, in the U.S. Open at Olympic Club. Despite an absence of trophies, he believes this has been his most consistent season. A Walker Cup winner along with Luke Donald in 2001, McDowell comes across as a nerveless match player and is sure to have a big say in proceedings at Medinah.

DID YOU KNOW? He won the Haskins Award as the outstanding U.S. college golfer in 2002

Honor & Glory

DID YOU KNOW? Despite living in Turin, home city of soccer giants Juventus, he is an avid Inter Milan fan

Francesco Molinari

Italy

Born: November 8, 1982; Turin, Italy Turned pro: 2004 World Ranking: 25 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p3, l2, h1; Foursomes: p1, l1; Four-balls: p1, h1; Singles: p1, l1

The chant of ‘There’s only two Molinaris’ rang around Celtic Manor on the final day in 2010 in support of Francesco and Edoardo Molinari, the first brothers to play in the same Ryder Cup match since 1935. Francesco, who won’t have his older brother’s company this time, has become a model of consistency. This year he has won the Spanish Open, his third European Tour title, had eight top-10 finishes and made the cut in all four majors. In 2006, Molinari became the first Italian to win on the European Tour for 26 years at his national open over the Arnold Palmerdesigned Castello di Tolcinasco, but it was in 2010, a year after winning the World Cup with his brother, that he really came of age with 11 top-10s and victory in the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai. He heads to Medinah in good form having finished runner-up in the recent French and Scottish Opens.

Martin Kaymer Germany Born: December 28, 1984; Dusseldorf, Germany Turned pro: 2005 World ranking: 29 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p4, w2, l1, h1; Foursomes: p1, h1; Four-balls: p2, w2; Singles: p1, l1 It would be no surprise if Kaymer is used sparingly at Medinah by European captain Jose Maria Olazabal. The German had the world at his feet when, aged 25, he won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in 2010, beating Bubba Watson in a playoff. But this year, his form has been wretched and his highest finish since June is 29th. It was all so different when victory in the 2008 Abu Dhabi Championship, his maiden European Tour title, triggered a rise up the rankings that, three years later, saw him become only the second world No.1 from Germany after Bernhard Langer. On his Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor in 2010, Kaymer, who has won 18 times as a professional, contributed two and a half points out of four. This time, he clung onto the 10th automatic spot in the European team by the skin of his teeth and will pray his undoubted class resurfaces soon.

DID YOU KNOW? He shot a 59 on Germany’s Satellite EPD Tour in 2006

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Paul Lawrie Scotland Born: January 1, 1969; Aberdeen, Scotland Turned pro: 1986 World Ranking: 28 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (1999) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p5, w3, l1, h1; Foursomes: p2, w1, l1; Four-balls: p2, w1, h1; Singles: p1, w1 The 43-year-old Scot is enjoying an Indian summer in a career that saw him catapulted into the limelight when he won the [British] Open at Carnoustie in 1999. Ten shots back at the start of the final day, Lawrie eventually took the title after a three-man play-off with Jean van de Velde and Justin Leonard. He made his Ryder Cup debut on the back of that victory and won three and a half points out of five in a losing European cause at Brookline where he was partnered in the foursomes and four-balls by fellow Scot Colin Montgomerie. After winning the Welsh Open in 2002, he went nine years without a victory. Then, aged 42, he won the Open de Andalucia de Golf in 2011 and this year he has claimed the Qatar Masters and Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles to seal his second Ryder Cup appearance. Regarded by his peers as a superb player in bad weather, he made the cut in all three majors he contested in 2012.

DID YOU KNOW? He is a huge supporter of junior golf through the Paul Lawrie Foundation

Peter Hanson Sweden Born: October 4, 1977; Svedala, Sweden Turned pro: 1998 World ranking: 34 Ryder Cup appearances: 1 (2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p3, w1, l2; Foursomes: p1, l1; Four-balls: p1, w1; Singles: p1, l1 Hanson made his Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor two years ago after winning the Iberdrola Open in Majorca and the Czech Open, both after play-offs. This year, he had his best finish in a major when he tied for third in the Masters having led going into the last day. The burly Swede followed that up with seventh place at Kiawah Island in the PGA Championship and is heading to Medinah in decent form. After a successful amateur career during which he won the prestigious Brabazon Trophy (for the English Stroke Play Championship), Hanson played on the Challenge Tour before his breakthrough win in the 2005 Spanish Open, the first of his four European Tour titles to date. Regarded as one of the best ball strikers in the game, he became a temporary member of the PGA Tour in March and has won more than $1.6 million in just 12 events this year.

DID YOU KNOW? He claims he will retire from tournament golf after the 2016 Olympics

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Ian Poulter England Born: January 10, 1976; Hitchin, England Turned pro: 1994 World ranking: 26 Ryder Cup appearances: 3 (2004, 2008, 2010) Ryder Cup playing record: Total: p11, w8, l3; Foursomes: p3, w2, l1; Four-balls: p5, w3, l2; Singles: p3, w3

DID YOU KNOW? His fashion company designed the GB & Ireland uniforms for the 2008 Curtis Cup Poulter’s journey to the summit of professional golf began when he left school to work in his local club shop. At 16, he turned pro with a handicap of four and many thought he would fall flat on his face. How wrong they were! He made his Ryder Cup debut in Bernhard Langer’s allconquering team in 2004, but only contributed one point. Picking Poulter, after he had been left out in 2006, was possibly the best decision Sir Nick Faldo made when he was European captain in 2008. His fellow Englishman rewarded him by winning four points out of five, albeit in a losing cause, and followed up with three points out of four at Celtic Manor. Poulter, who seems to raise his game on big occasions, has had six top-10s in majors, most recently a tie for third in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, and was a shoo-in as one of Jose Maria Olazabal’s wild cards.

Nicolas Colsaerts Belgium Born: November 14, 1982; Schaerbeek, Belgium Turned pro: 2000 World ranking: 36 Ryder Cup appearances: None Colsaerts is about to become the first Belgian to play in the Ryder Cup and will be the only rookie in a highly experienced European team. A significant factor in Jose Maria Olazabal’s decision to give the 29-year old a wild-card pick was his prodigious length off the tee. He is officially the longest driver on the European Tour, an asset that should be especially useful at Medinah. Also in his favor is his match-play ability—Colsaerts won the ninth and biggest title of his career this year when he beat Graeme McDowell in the final of the Volvo World Match Play Championship in southern Spain. After missing the cut in his first two majors, he made the weekend at this year’s U.S. Open and tied for seventh in the [British] Open at Lytham. He came close to making the European team automatically, and Olazabal had little hesitation in awarding him a wild card.

DID YOU KNOW? He cites flamboyant English darts player Bobby George as his sporting hero

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“Woburn is a big championship venue. It will be a great test for Open hopefuls when Final Qualifying is held in July 2014.” —Ian Poulter 2014 Open Final Qualifying Venue Woburn Golf Club is centrally located in England approximately one hour from London, Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge

woburn.co.uk/golf

Historical Abe Mitchell (left) and Samuel Ryder in 1926

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History in tHe making

The Ryder Cup has grown from a transatlantic curiosity into one of sport’s most compelling occasions. Paul Trow looks back at the time when golf ’s mightiest oak was just a seed merchant’s dream Photographs by oldgolfimages.com

n the eve of the 1981 Ryder Cup at Walton Heath in England, the Washington Post’s preview ran to barely 100 words and several other newspapers ignored the event altogether. Yet within three decades, the leading professional golfers of America and Europe have transformed this series of matches into a sporting spectacle as eagerly anticipated as the Super Bowl or soccer’s World Cup final. Nowadays, such lack of regard for a contest which in 2010 attracted a global television reach of 620 million homes in 195 countries seems almost inconceivable. Media coverage of the next Ryder Cup begins almost before the current matches have concluded. Venues are determined up to a decade in advance, sponsors invest fortunes,

television rights are eagerly sought and fiercely bid upon, and books based on the experiences of captains, players and even caddies are rushed to print in time for the Christmas market. All in all, the modern Ryder Cup is a monster, driven by the media and fueled by the vaulting ambitions of absolutely everyone involved—from the protagonists who swing their clubs to the humble fans who cough up their dollars. But how did it all begin? And what on earth prompted an elderly seed merchant from a small city on the outskirts of London to embrace the concept of a biennial transatlantic golf jamboree as his life’s defining mission? Firstly, it’s important to understand that the concept behind the Ryder Cup comfortably predates the involvement of the man whose name is on the trophy. It seems the original plan to bring together competitors from across the Atlantic was hatched in 1920 by James Harnett, the circulation manager for Golf Illustrated magazine in America. Not surprisingly, his motivation was to raise the profile of his magazine and thus increase its circulation. But he also managed to persuade the PGA of America to help finance the project and, suitably funded, a U.S. team that included Walter Hagen and Jim Barnes set sail the following summer from New York on Cunard’s RMS Aquitania, the height of cruiseliner luxury at the time. The King’s Course at Gleneagles hosted the match and the home line-up, including the great triumvirate of Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor, won 9-3. The players then transferred to the [British] Open at St. Andrews which was won by a member of the U.S. team, Scottish émigré Jock Hutchison. The next (untitled) match came about

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because the R&A put together a program of regional qualifying rounds before the 1926 [British] Open at Lytham, forcing overseas competitors to travel earlier than normal. With extra time on their hands, the American visitors agreed to take on the leading British professionals at Wentworth, and were thrashed 13½-1½ for their trouble. One of the spectators at the 1926 match was Samuel Ryder, then aged 68, and he was clearly entranced by what he saw. Apparently, Ryder was so thrilled with the home victory, and in particular with the play of his own golf teacher, Abe Mitchell, who beat Jim Barnes 9&8 and Hagen 8&7 (matches were played over 36 holes in those days), that he asked why the event didn’t take place more often. George Duncan, one of the senior British players, replied that this was because there was no actual trophy to play for. Even though an unofficial version of events has it that Ryder had been discussing the possibility of staging a biennial contest with the British and Irish PGA since 1924, he was certainly not one to spurn an opportunity, and he duly commissioned a solid gold trophy from the upmarket London jewelers Mappin & Webb for 100 guineas (£105). Straight away, the two PGAs agreed to stage the first official Ryder Cup in June 1927 at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts, and it was ‘game on.’ The rest, as they say, is history and, barring the unwelcome interventions of World War II and 9/11, the Ryder Cup has been played every two years ever since. So who was Samuel Ryder and why was he so interested in golf? He was born in the Lancashire village of Walton-le-Dale on March 24, 1858, the eldest son of eight children born to Samuel Ryder, a gardener, and his wife Elizabeth, a dressmaker. The family later moved to Sale, near Manchester, as Samuel Sr.’s gardening business expanded considerably, seemingly in defiance of the industrial unrest and poverty that was widespread at the time. The roots of the philanthropic values that Samuel Jr. embraced throughout his life, and his determination to provide his own employees with the most humane working conditions possible, can be traced to the emotional scars from those early days. Samuel took a position at a local firm of shipping agents before joining his father’s market garden business. Samuel Sr. was eventually honored with membership of the Royal Horticultural Society, but after a few years of working together father and son fell out and Samuel Jr. moved to the south of England to set up his own business. Having noticed that the cost of gardening was way beyond what most ordinary people could afford, Samuel Jr. started

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The Heath & Heather warehouse in St Albans

selling packets of seeds for a penny each by mail order and in the early 1890s located his operation in St Albans, just north of London, because of its excellent railway connections. Ryders Seeds became a business of global proportions around the turn of the century and, like his father before him, Samuel Jr. became a member of the Royal Horticultural Society.

It was, however, time for even further expansion, so, building on his brother James’ extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs, he founded Heath & Heather, a company that proudly claimed it could alleviate all manner of ills. Ryder, brought up as a Wesleyan Methodist, swiftly established himself as a pillar of the Nonconformist movement in St Albans. He was

Samuel Ryder (left) with his brotherJames at Sandy Lodge Golf Club

also a prime mover for the establishment of Trinity Church, located at Beaconsfield Road, and a supporter of the Salvation Army citadel in the city center. He also played a key role in St Albans’ civic, commercial and community activities, contributing aid to the poor and elderly, and staging fund-raising events at his home, Marlborough House, which included garden fetes and concerts. Of course, his expertise in business and dedication to charity work did not go unnoticed and after just two years on the city council he was elected Mayor of St Albans, a position he reportedly accepted more out of a sense of duty to his fellow citizens than to the Liberal Party which he represented at the time. Overall, his years as a councilor included serving as a magistrate and becoming an alderman. Although he was interested in sport from an early age—particularly cricket and rugby—his health was never good, and his spell as Mayor tired him. So his friends encouraged him to reinvigorate himself by getting out into the fresh air. Thus, at the age of 49, he took up golf. Ryder took readily to the game and in 1909 he joined the nearby Verulam Golf Club. By now, he was hooked and within two years he was club captain. Soon, Ryder became well-known as a generous sponsors on the national stage.

Primarily as a means of advertising Heath & Heather, but also to support British golf professionals in general, Samuel and James Ryder staged a series of competitions. Their first tournament, in 1923, attracted six [British] Open champions, and all the competitors who took part had their expenses paid for appearing. Around this time, Ryder became friends with Mitchell, the head professional at Verulam, and provided him with a guaranteed salary, not so much for his personal services as a golf coach, but in order to enable Mitchell to devote sufficient time to practice without financial constraints. Ryder saw Mitchell as the man to repel the American invaders who were tending to win the [British] Open during the 1920s. Unfortunately, even though Mitchell won countless titles and played in the second, third and fourth Ryder Cups (he missed the first match due to appendicitis), this generous investment did not result in him carrying off the Claret Jug. Mitchell’s ultimate reward, though, is that he enjoys immortality beyond anything achieved by his contemporaries simply by dint of being the golfer perched atop the actual Ryder Cup trophy. At a time when transatlantic travel was expensively restricted, his association with Mitchell clearly influenced Ryder to create a platform for the GB & Ireland professionals to

play their American brethren on a regular basis. Years later, his eldest daughter Marjorie recalled that whilst her father was playing at Came Down Golf Club in Dorset, the club professional Ernest Whitcombe said to him: “The Americans come over here smartly dressed and backed by wealthy supporters. The Britisher has a poor chance compared to that.” The comment touched a raw nerve with Ryder, and he vowed to ensure young professionals of talent, like Whitcombe and his brothers, Charles and Reg, were not so shabbily treated in future. Not long after that conversation, a June 1924 article in the Herts Advertiser quoted Ryder as saying that Heath & Heather were “contemplating challenging the Americans to a match.” Despite his health problems, Ryder lived to witness the fifth Ryder Cup, at Ridgewood Country Club, New Jersey, in the fall of 1935, but he died of pneumonia three months later on January 2, 1936, aged 77. His fame and legacy, however, is guaranteed, for as long as sport of any description, not just golf, is played. If Samuel Ryder were alive today, he would surely marvel at the popularity, quality and competitiveness that are the hallmarks of the modern Ryder Cup. He might also permit himself a smile, and a brief, though welldeserved, moment of self-congratulation. H

The 1935 Great Britain & Ireland Ryder Cup team at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey

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Arnold Palmer (far left) prepares to lead his troops into battle against GB&I at East Lake

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Captain, My Captain Almost half a century back, Arnold Palmer did a pretty good job of being the last person to captain and play in a Ryder Cup matchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;at East Lake, Atlanta, Georgia. By comparison, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s formula, consisting of a non-playing captain and four assistants, might seem to some like overkill. Ivan Morris recalls a time when the King could lead from the front, and on his own 108

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rnold Palmer would be the first to admit that captaining the 1963 U.S. Ryder Cup team was a relatively simple task. Fixing the partnerships in the foursomes and, for the first time in a Ryder Cup, the fourballs took some thought, naturally. Writing and delivering speeches was also on the agenda, but for a public speaker as naturally gifted as Palmer it was a no-brainer. And as for playing, well what on earth could ever possibly come more easily to the man? And the result? A mere 23-9 to the United States! No wonder the press at the time dubbed the King as Captain America. Nowadays it’s a totally different story. The captain is appointed two years in advance with the ultimate no-no that he could ever contemplate playing on his own team. Then he appoints at least four non-playing captains some months prior to the big event, some of them men who had a fighting chance of making the team as players but tired down the stretch, and some of them men who never had a shot at the team in the first place. So, voila, you have a brains’ trust. And the matches, somehow, are decided most of the time by a single, solitary point. Of course, the Ryder Cup is a completely different animal today than it was in 1963 at East Lake Country Club, Atlanta, Georgia, where the late, great traditionalist Bobby Jones played most of his golf. But the basics are still in place. The players have to be sorted in order into workable pairings, their needs have to be suitably managed, their games have to be in shape, and their minds have to be focused. The only question is, should the captain lead from the front, like William Wallace in Braveheart, or should he adopt a viewing position from the back of the fray, like the English king, Edward I, also in Braveheart? Even though GB & Ireland felt that a nonplaying captain, Johnny Fallon, who had played in the losing team in the 1955 Ryder Cup at Thunderbird Golf & Country Club, Palm Springs, California, was more advantageous to their planning strategy, the U.S. refused to follow that cue. In 1963, Arnold Palmer qualified as a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team along with nine other players, six of whom (Dow Finsterwald, Billy Casper, Gene Littler, Julius Boros, Tony Lema and Bob Goalby) either were, or were destined to be, major winners. The bestowing of the captaincy, therefore, was almost a surprise to Palmer, who was playing in only his second Ryder Cup. “At East Lake, I narrowly defeated Finsterwald in a close team vote for captain,” he

recalls. “I was honored to be chosen to head the American squad. I didn’t know it at the time, but I became the last playing captain in the matches.” Any inhibitions Palmer, who had won six majors by that time, might have felt privately never surfaced. His leadership steered the U.S. team to the second largest victory margin in Ryder Cup history. The match commenced evenly with the teams sharing the first series of foursomes 2-2. But thereafter America took complete control as they swept the second series of foursomes 4-0, took the four-balls 6-2, and rolled to victory in the singles 11-5. For Palmer, personally, the 1963 Ryder Cup was an interesting experience, but how did he cope with all the different responsibilities his captaincy entailed. “Cope? It was all a lot of fun. I enjoyed all the aspects of playing and captaining at once. I had a really great team and enjoyed working with all the players. And getting to play, too, made it even more special. It never occurred to me it was anything unusual. I was happy to take it all in and have fun with it.”

But deciding the partnerships—who to pair together, who to leave out—can’t have been easy? “That’s probably the most difficult aspect about being captain. And those are the kinds of decisions that make or break the Ryder Cup teams. As captain, I looked at all the factors: the personalities, the strengths, the weaknesses and, most importantly, just who I thought could help our team to win.” As it transpired, every member of Palmer’s 10-man team played at least four times across the six rounds of matches—only Palmer himself and Finsterwald played all six games. Six games across three days, of course, was a deviation on the previous norm. Between 1927 and 1959, the format consisted of 12 games played over two days: four alternate-shot foursomes on day one and eight singles on the second day, all played over 36 holes. The traditionally stronger American side invariably held a clear advantage— not very good for TV viewing. Also, as almost anybody could beat anybody in an 18-hole sprint, it was decided in 1961 to play two series of four foursomes and two series of eight singles over The GB & Ireland team board a BOAC aircraft at London Airport en route to the 1963 Ryder Cup

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Arnold Palmer and Peter Alliss (right) prior to their morning singles match

“He was very tenacious and I enjoyed playing against Peter. He is a nice man” their ‘rubber match,’ he wrote: “Halving with Arnold in 1961 was the most thrilling match of my entire career. Two years later, I was drawn to meet Arnold again, a daunting prospect but the memories are sharp. I was in poor driving form, barely hitting my tee shots 220-yards. Palmer was lacing his 50-yards past me but this needn’t always be a disadvantage—if the irons are going well, which mine were. Arnold was looking at greens with my ball nestling close to the flag. No doubt, due to being preoccupied by captaincy duties, Arnold got off to a sluggish

start and I raced into an early 2-up lead which I stubbornly maintained deep into the back nine. I lost the 14th by missing a short putt but Arnie [not Arnold now, note] was immediately kind and returned the favor at the next. With three holes to go, 2-up should have been enough to see me home but Arnie hitched his pants and wasn’t giving up without a fight. He fought back and won the 16th. It looked all over when I struck a 6-iron within 12 feet at the 17th but Arnie trumped me with a typically piercing shot to half that distance. Summoning all of my resources, my putter worked and I holed to the loudest silence I ever heard! “Unruffled, Arnie followed me in and strode determinedly to the last tee, where a par-3 of 230-yards over water awaited us. Arnie fired straight at the flag and for a moment I thought it might go in but the ball skimmed the hole

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18 holes on consecutive days for 24 match points. However, the U.S. again won, at a canter. Therefore, two years later in 1963, Palmer and Fallon devised a format aimed at engaging a reluctant American public. They persevered with 18-hole matches and extended the event to three days by adding two series of better-ball four-balls, thus putting a total haul of 32 points at stake. It was an effort intended to spice things up, but the change only further emphasized American superiority. Great Britain & Ireland played disastrously in the four-balls, managing to win only two points out of eight, and the affair was as good as over before the first of the two series of singles matches on day three even began. But the lopsided, 23-9 score in favor of the U.S. doesn’t tell the whole story. Bobby Jones turned up at his former home club, where he had learned the game, because he particularly wanted to watch a potentially intriguing singles encounter between Peter Alliss, an elegant swinger and now the doyen of British golf sportscasters, and Palmer. True, there was nothing to play for, but Palmer and Alliss had unfinished business to attend to. It was still fresh in the memory that at the Royal Lytham & St Annes links in northwest England two years earlier, they had played a thrilling, halved match during which Palmer “had the brass neck,” as Alliss remembers, to hole out from awkward positions off the green on no fewer than three occasions. Whether by accident or design, it was fitting that there should be a replay as soon as possible. Playing for one’s country is never to be taken lightly and nobody likes to lose. Golfers who have never won a major can grow into veritable giants when they ‘pull on a shirt,’ and become emotionally charged by the camaraderie that comes with being a member of a team. Rising to the occasion and performing above one’s station is more easily attained by an underdog. From a GB & Ireland perspective, all Americans were perceived as Goliaths waiting to be felled by an eager David. Ever since he began campaigning as a 22-year old in 1953, Alliss was always highly motivated when playing ‘head-to-head’ in the Ryder Cup. In his eight appearances, he amassed a respectable record of played 30; won 10; lost 15 and halved 5. Considering he was part of only one victorious side, in 1957 under the playercaptaincy of the late Dai Rees, it was quite an achievement to gather so many individual points. In his richly entertaining autobiography, My Life, the phlegmatic Alliss defined his two singles contests with Arnold Palmer— in 1961 and 1963— as the most vividly-remembered moments from his playing career. Regarding

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and rolled towards the back of the green. I cut mine a little but finished on the front right of the green some 60 feet away with a huge right-to-left borrow. My putt was one of the best of my entire career and precisely at a moment when it really counted. On and on it rolled, pace and line judged to perfection, coming to a halt inches away. Arnie now had to hole his downhiller for a matchsaving birdie. He nearly did, which meant that I had beaten my hero on his home ground!” Palmer’s own recollections of his battles with Alliss are similarly vivid. “I lost a close singles match to that elegant swordsman Peter Alliss, who, for a man whose Rolls-Royce bears the license plate ‘3 PUTT,’ certainly made his share of fine strokes at East Lake,” he wrote in his autobiography, A Golfer’s Life. “On the other side of the coin, though, I won four other matches against two defeats [in 1963] and contributed four points to our team’s winning total in a lopsided romp, 23-9. Peter was one of their few bright spots—and don’t believe a word of it when he claims he can’t putt! “He always gave me a real dog fight. Like a lot of Europeans, he played a nice, controlled fade, shaping his shots from left to right. I had to work my tail off just to halve him [in 1961]. He was very tenacious and I enjoyed playing against Peter. He is a nice man.” All of which disguises the fact that the United States in general, and Palmer in particular, had things pretty much their way throughout the 1963 Ryder Cup. The assessment of Henry Cotton, another distinguished observer of that one-sided match, is perhaps more indicative of the gulf between the sides then, compared with now. “We have again been outclassed,” the three-time [British] Open champion lamented. “The present top home players, by no means poor performers, are leagues outside the top American ones.” The same, apparently, was said of the Scots (vis-à-vis the English) at the end of Braveheart. H

1963 RydeR Cup Results

Venue: East Lake Country Club, Atlanta, Georgia. Dates: October 11-13 Captains: J. Fallon (GB and Ireland), A. Palmer (U.S.A.) Usa GB & ireland Morning Foursomes A. Palmer & J. Pott 0 B. Huggett & G. Will (3&2) W. Casper & D. Ragan (1 hole) 1 P. Alliss & C. O’Connor G. Littler & D. Finsterwald (halved) ½ D. Thomas & H. Weetman (halved) J. Boros & A. Lema (halved) ½ N. Coles & B. Hunt (halved) Afternoon Foursomes W. Maxwell & R. Goalby (4&3) 1 D. Thomas & H. Weetman A. Palmer & W. Casper (5&4) 1 B. Huggett & G. Will G. Littler & D. Finsterwald (2&1) 1 N. Coles & G.M. Hunt J. Boros & A. Lema (1 hole) 1 T. Haliburton & B. Hunt Morning Four-balls A. Palmer & D. Finsterwald (5&4) 1 B. Huggett & D. Thomas G. Littler & J. Boros (halved) ½ P. Alliss & B. Hunt (halved) W. Casper & W. Maxwell (3&2) 1 H. Weetman & G. Will R. Goalby & D. Ragan 0 N. Coles & C. O’Connor (1 hole) Afternoon Four-balls A. Palmer & D. Finsterwald (3&2) 1 N. Coles & C. O’Connor A. Lema & J. Pott (1 hole) 1 P. Alliss & B. Hunt W. Casper & W. Maxwell (2&1) 1 T. Haliburton & G.M. Hunt R. Goalby & D. Ragan (halved) ½ B. Huggett & D. Thomas (halved) Morning Singles A. Lema (5&3) 1 G.M. Hunt J. Pott 0 B. Huggett (3&1) A. Palmer 0 P. Alliss (1 hole) W. Casper (halved) ½ N. Coles (halved) R. Goalby (3&2) 1 D. Thomas G. Littler (1 hole) 1 C. O’Connor J. Boros 0 H. Weetman (1 hole) D. Finsterwald 0 B. Hunt (2 holes) Afternoon Singles A. Palmer (3&2) 1 G. Will D. Ragan (2&1) 1 N. Coles A. Lema (halved) ½ P. Alliss (halved) G. Littler (6&5) 1 T. Haliburton J. Boros (2&1) 1 H. Weetman W. Maxwell (2&1) 1 C. O’Connor D. Finsterwald (4&3) 1 D. Thomas R. Goalby (2&1) 1 B. Hunt Match result: 23

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1 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 ½ 0 1 1 ½ 0 0 1 1 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 9

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Ryder Cup in Pictures

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June 1921: Members of the British and U.S. teams who contested an unofficial international challenge match at Gleneagles, Scotland, that laid the foundations for the first Ryder Cup match in 1927

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September 1971: Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus line up a putt during their 1-hole fourball victory over Peter Townsend and Harry Bannerman at Old Warson Country Club, St. Louis, Missouri

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September 1987: Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s captain Tony Jacklin seems rather pleased with life after his team had inflicted a first ever Ryder Cup home defeat on the United States at Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio

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September 1979: A new era for the Ryder Cup. For the first time players from continental Europe took part in the Ryder Cup to form Team Europe which replaced Team Great Britain and Ireland. Assembled here at The Greenbrier, for the 23rd Ryder Cup matches are, left to right: Tony Jacklin, Sandy Lyle, Mark James, Ken Brown, Peter Oosterhuis, Nick Faldo, John Jacobs (non-playing captain), Michael King, Brian Barnes, Severiano Ballesteros, Antonio Garrido, Bernard Gallacher and Des Smyth

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September 1991: The infamous ‘War on the Shore’ Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, ended with a narrow victory for the U.S. team captained by Pacific Ocean paddler Dave Stockton

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September 1999: The moment when a Justin Leonard tramline putt tracked its way into the hole at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts, to confirm that the U.S. had regained the Ryder Cup

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Gimme Shelter! To concede or not to concede, that is the question. To suffer the accusations of unsporting behavior or to be perceived as a paragon of fair play is the dilemma with which every golfer wrestles when engaged in match play. Clive Agran recalls some famous, almost controversial instances from past Ryder Cups of putts being both given, and not given

or those who struggle on the greens, there can be few more welcome words than ‘take it away’ or ‘that’s good.’ But since the demise of the stymie, few aspects of the great game of golf generate more ill feeling or controversy than the business of when or when not to concede a putt. Amongst handicap golfers the general rule of thumb is the worse the putter, the more likely he or she is to concede a putt. The logic is simple—if you’re a suspect putter, you must

hope that if you generously concede a missable putt to your opponent, they are surely more likely to concede a missable putt to you. If they don’t, of course, the atmosphere in which the game is played will quite likely suffer. And what can be more annoying than conceding a 3-foot putt to your opponent only for him to decline to concede you a slightly shorter one a few seconds later on the very same green? It can often come down to the simple question—which would you rather lose, the match or the friend?

Superficially at least, professionals appear altogether more philosophical about the business and are far less likely to sulk if obliged to hole a putt they might reasonably have expected to be conceded. Part of the reason they don’t want to appear irritated is they don’t want their opponent to know they’re irritated as this might give them a measure of satisfaction and encourage them to persist with this irritating strategy. Pros know that it’s best not to expect a putt to be conceded and appear perfectly content to

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Justin Leonard was justifiably excited by his trophy-winning putt at Brookline

hole out every time. They also appreciate that getting annoyed might adversely affect their positive mood and render a miss more likely. So handicap golfers, too, should expect and be prepared to hole out every time. Not only is asking an opponent to concede a putt considered poor form, but it also reveals a nervousness he or she might exploit. One popular strategy advocates conceding short putts early in a match and then not

It may be gamesmanship, pure and simple, but it is seemingly an unavoidable and important element in match-play golf, nowhere more so than in the Ryder Cup. The danger with gamesmanship is that it can easily escalate into unsportsmanlike behavior and no one wants to see any of that in what has undoubtedly become one of the greatest sporting contests on the planet. Although failing to concede a putt should never be regarded as unsportsmanlike, simply because all putts are missable, the opposite— generously conceding a putt—certainly is sportsmanlike. Undoubtedly the single most outstanding example of a generous concession at the Ryder Cup was the tricky 3-footer on the 18th at Royal Birkdale that Jack Nicklaus conceded to Tony Jacklin in 1969, thus ensuring the match finished in the first-ever tie. What made the gesture even more welcome was that it came at the end of a contest that had grown rather acrimonious with GB and Ireland’s captain Eric Brown instructing his team not to look for an opponent’s ball in the rough and American Ken Still repeatedly and deliberately standing too close to Maurice Bembridge when the latter was putting. All of which was a far cry from Nicklaus’s words as he gave Jacklin the putt, “I don’t think you’d have missed that, Tony, but I would never give you the chance.” Not unsurprisingly, a number of Nicklaus’s teammates were not enamored of his gesture and, even though the tie meant the United States retained the Ryder Cup, would have preferred to see Jacklin putt and, presumably, miss. Instead, the moment cemented a close friendship between the two great golfers which achieved physical expression when they combined to create The Concession Golf Club near Bradenton, Florida. A Ryder Cup putt that certainly wasn’t conceded but many thought should have been was Jose Maria Olazabal’s on the 17th at Brookline in 1999. After Justin Leonard had

“I don’t think you would have missed that, Tony, but I would never give you the chance”

conceding one when it really matters later on. Part of the thinking here is that by denying your opponent the opportunity to hole shortish putts, you are depriving him of the practice he needs to feel confident when he has to hole one. That, taken together with the disappointment factor at not having the putt conceded, makes a miss more likely.

holed a monster that effectively sealed a great comeback by the U.S. team on the final day, dozens of American supporters, including players, caddies and wives, invaded the green and inadvertently stamped on Olazabal’s line. It certainly didn’t make his putt any easier and he

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and the German waited in vain for his opponent to tell him it was good. Instead Boo Weekley, who was studying the line of his own putt at the time, said nothing. Eventually Weekley’s caddie told Kaymer to pick it up. Weekley’ subsequent explanation was rather extraordinary in that he claimed he didn’t know that you could concede putts. Apparently, the previous occasion on which he had played match-play golf was in the Pensacola Scratch Open way back in 1996. Some golfers would entirely approve of Weekley’s unintended reluctance to concede a putt. They believe that no putt, however short, should be given simply because every putt, no matter how short, can be missed. As evidence, Hale Irwin’s extraordinary whiff from little more than an inch in the third round of the [British] Open at Royal Birkdale in 1983 is often cited. As it turned out, it cost Irwin a possible place in a play-off with Tom Watson.

Kaymer lines up a putt that wasn’t given to him

duly missed it. It’s interesting to speculate what would have been the consequences had Leonard picked up Olazabal’s ball and given him the putt. In part it depends on what the final outcome of the match and the overall result would have been but there’s no doubting many would have applauded a truly great golfing gesture. Much to his credit, Olazabal did a great deal to defuse the situation after the match when he said, “Next time, all of us need to act a little better. All of us.” A putt that was very nearly conceded but wasn’t and turned out to be critical was the 14incher Craig Stadler stood over on the second morning of the 1985 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. The former Masters’ champion was paired with Curtis Strange in a four-ball match against Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle. The Americans had been two-up with two to play and needed to win to keep their side on level terms. Lyle won the 17th with a birdie but Stadler had a 14-inch tiddler to halve the last and win the match by one hole. The Europeans later confided that they came very close to conceding it, but they didn’t and Stadler pulled it wide. The following day, the Europeans won the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years. Because Stadler missed it, it’s hard to argue the British pair behaved badly in not conceding the putt. But Langer and Lyle could also point to a general principle that it’s not unreasonable or unsporting to expect an opponent to hole a putt for a win, either for the hole or the match. Conceding a putt is not necessarily always a sporting gesture as there can be occasions in fourball matches where you might want to prevent an

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It’s not unreasonable or unsporting to expect an opponent to hole a putt for a win, either for the hole or the match

opponent from putting so as to deny his partner, who might have a chance to tie or win the hole, a read. If he goes ahead and putts anyway, his partner is disqualified from the hole under rule 2-4. One of the shortest putts not to be conceded in a professional tournament was one that Martin Kaymer faced on the first hole in the opening round of the 2008 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. It was less than a foot Stadler probably still has nightmares about the 14-inch putt he contrived to miss at The Belfry in 1985

But for most, conceding a putt is an opportunity to display courtesy and sportsmanship in a game that is rightly renowned for promoting precisely those qualities in a competitive world where they are all too frequently forgotten. Even though our short putting might benefit as a consequence, golf without ‘gimmes’ would be very much the poorer. H

LifestyLe Captains

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Moët et Chandon has been named the Official Champagne of the PGA of America, so visitors to the 39th Ryder Cup will have plenty of opportunity to sample the exquisite flavors of this iconic Champagne. Steve Killick (words) and Leon Harris (photographs) traveled to northeast France for a foretaste of the epicurean delights that lie in wait at Medinah

e are standing in a large, damp cellar a hundred feet or so below street level, and a squat, muscular assistant has just locked us in. In front of us is a limestone slab table some 12 feet long by three feet wide. This could be the opening scene from a 1960’s horror movie, but instead of pulling a lever and creating a monster our guide simply pops a cork and pours us a sublime elixir. Champagne! For we are in Épernay, home of the most northerly vineyards in France, and beneath La Rue de Champagne, home to the oldest and largest producer of the world’s best-known bubbly, Moët et Chandon. Away from the public gaze we have been granted a rare entry into the specialist tasting rooms at the Champagne house founded in northeast France by Claude Moët more than 250 years ago. Here, under subdued lighting and perfect temperature, we are to be taken through the basic elements of the company’s Brut Imperial, which has been specifically modified to create a stellar brand in the United States.

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Benoit Gouez (above) samples Brut Imperial. Clockwise, from below right: the oak tree under which the Duke of Wellington sipped Champagne, an 1868 painting of the approach to the chateau, a portrait of Pierre-Gabriel Chandon and a visit from Napoleon in 1807

Our guide is Benoit Gouez, the tall, relaxed chef de cave, the man who decides what is going into each bottle the company produces, which is somewhere in the region of 26 million a year. In the 17-plus miles of cellars that surround us are stored some 50 million bottles, some dating back to the late 19th century. “They will never be drunk,” says Gouez, who is in his early 40s, “but some will be sold at auction as collectors’ items.” He then turns his attention to the two bottles that sit before us on the limestone table. They are Moët et Chandon Brut Imperial in both a white and a rosé, the company’s most popular wines. Before we dip our nostrils into the tall flute glasses, which allow both bubbles and aroma to develop as they rise to the surface, and begin to savor the wine Gouez has poured, it is important first to chart the history of this great Champagne house. It was founded in 1743, the year Thomas Jefferson was born, when America’s first town meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, and its first ever religious journal, The Christian History, was published in the same town. Not only was the founder, Claude Moët

(pronounced “M-wet” rather than “Moway” or “Mowee”), a wine merchant and vintner who knew his way around wine production, he was also an energetic networker with contacts in the Palace of Versailles who could get him access to the royal court and, most importantly, King Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who adored Champagne in general and Moët’s in particular. Within the grounds surrounding Moët et Chandon stands a small, exquisite chateau built in the high style of the Palace of Versailles to remind everyone of the company’s early royal connections. Within a few years of opening, Moët was trading with England, Germany, Spain and Russia. Despite the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1789, the Champagne house continued to flourish, serving Napoleon Bonaparte as loyally as it had the Bourbons. In 1814, Napoleon visited the cellars only a few weeks before the soon-to-be Emperor of Prussia, Prince William of Orange, and the Duke of Wellington enjoyed a glass or two of Champagne beneath a giant oak tree in Moët’s gardens. The following year they would all meet again on the battlefield of Waterloo.

It was because of the original Emperor Napoleon that the house adopted the Imperial name and also put the emperor’s crown on its bottle labels. By then, the company was operating under a new name as Claude Moët’s grandson, Victor, had been joined by his brother-in-law Pierre-Gabriel Chandon in 1832. “So we see,” says Benoit Gouez as he swirls his glass up to the pale light of our cellar. “The company has been through the French Revolution and two world wars, yet 269 years later is still making Champagne that can delight the senses.” So what is it that makes Champagne so

“The company has been through the French Revolution and two world wars yet 269 years later is still making Champagne that can delight the senses” Honor & Glory

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Captains Moët et Chandon wine,

which originates on nearby hillsides, is turned by hand on racks—a process known as riddling—before being stored for two years delicious? Gouez explains patiently. To start with, the region of Champagne is unique, based on poor rocky soil consisting of chalk and limestone, and suffering around 200 days’ rainfall a year. This combination makes the region ideal for the three grape varieties required to make Champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier,

“It is glamorous, romantic and seductive—just perfect for St. Valentine’s day. But it is also more than that because it is visually attractive, easy to drink and very chic”

the latter pair being black-skinned grapes but producing white juice. “First we take the Pinot Noir,” says Gouez, “as it gives structure and weight. The Chardonnay provides freshness and elegance whilst the Pinot Meunier brings softness and brightness.” It is the role of Gouez to determine the proportions of these grapes in order to produce the blend he is seeking. “Every decision is made by taste,” he explains, which is why he has a team of nine wine masters working alongside him so that all possibilities can be discussed before a final choice is made. “No one has a perfect taste,” says Gouez, “but what I always want to deliver in my Champagne is a wine that reflects the diversity of the grape, of the vineyards and of the people involved in its production.” It was a change in taste that caused Gouez to alter the style of the Moët et Chandon wine sold in the United States. The company has been shipping wines for U.S. consumption since 1787,

Moët et Chandon with food Champagne can be enjoyed at any time of the day: at breakfast, brunch, lunch, picnics and dinner. Imperial Brut goes superbly with aperitifs such as crab brioche, warm oysters, slivers of dried meat and miniature quiche. It is also superb with a main course of trout with almonds, roasted sea bass, duck confit or braised chicken. For dessert, it adds sparkle, taste and style to a variety of dishes including grapefruit mousse, apple pie and cinnamon ice-cream, butterscotch ice-cream, and red fruit tart. And do try the demi-sec, the sweeter Moët et Chandon Champagne, with mature, full-flavored cheeses such as Roquefort and Camembert. The combination is sensational.

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although until very recently American taste buds were accustomed to a slightly sweeter variety of Champagne than was enjoyed in the bars, restaurants and homes of Western Europe. Odd as it may seem today, wine consumption on a grand scale only really started to take off in the United States around 25 years ago, prior to which whisky and beer tended to be the primary preferences. Gouez explains: “The wines enjoyed by Americans were typically a rich, white, sweet, oaky Chardonnay, so when we released our White Star Champagne it was sweeter than our non-vintage Imperial Brut Champagne sold in mainland Europe.” The sweetness in Champagne to which Gouez refers is created by adding sugar along with yeast when the base wine is first bottled, before the second fermentation. This is done after it has been stored in huge tanks and fermented at between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Whereas most houses only store their non-vintage Champagne for one year, Moët et Chandon keeps its wines for a minimum of two years during the second fermentation. During this time the bottles are turned by hand on racks, a process known as riddling, and the sediment is forced into the neck of the Champagne bottle by adjusting its angle. The sediment is later disgorged before the final corking and wiring. It is the yeast converting the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide that produces the sparkle. It was simply a question of Gouez and his team adding one third less sugar

and trusting that America would be tempted to explore the new, re-branded Brut Imperial. He need not have worried. The increasingly dry palates of maturing generations of American wine drinkers ensured that Gouez’s creations went down a positive storm—none more so than the rosé. “It was strange,” recalls Gouez. “It was 10 years ago that we introduced Brut Imperial rosé to the U.S. and people looked at us and said, ‘no way you can make this a success.’” For them rosé was associated with white Zinfandel, which was sweet and cheap. Now, 10 years on, our rosé is an amazing success story. “It is glamorous, romantic and seductive— just perfect for St. Valentine’s day. But it is also more than that because it is visually attractive, easy to drink and very chic.” Another area where Moët scores over its rivals is on the sheer volume of top-flight Champagne it produces. When it comes to satisfying popular demand on a global scale, no other Champagne house can even come close in an attempt to match its output. For a start, the company owns 2,840 acres of vineyards running from the Montagne de Reims, a high plateau a few miles outside the old French capital, to the rolling hills south of Épernay. Its grapes are harvested, still by hand, from over half of the villages designated as Grand Cru producers and a quarter of the Premier Cru producers. Its nearest rival owns barely a third of the acreage and with the best Champagne land selling for over $3m per acre no one is ever going to catch up.

“It means that we can provide the consistent quality as well as quantity people expect when they buy our Champagne as well as cherry picking the best grapes should the harvest be poor,” says Gouez. “But there is more to it than that. We want to be seen as representing a success, which is why we like getting involved with appropriate sporting and red-carpet events. Success is in our DNA and we like to celebrate success with our Champagne.” Gouez turns way from the light of our cellar and moves a glass of his white Brut Imperial to his lips, rolls a tiny amount around his mouth, then spits. This wine has taken him nearly four years to produce since the grapes were first harvested. “Yes,” he says, “it has the quality, integrity and diversity of what I am looking for.” The chef de cave, it seems, is satisfied. And given that the average working life of a chef de cave at Moët is between 20 and 30 years and Gouez is still young enough to enjoy at least a further 20 years in his position, how would he like to be remembered when he finally retires to his house in the countryside? “Given our history, I would like to be remembered as the chef de cave who helped the company through the 21st century, but my personal challenge is to have left Moët—the quality, the style and the cellar—in an even better shape than I received them. I want to leave a heritage and every time I take away an old bottle I replace it with 10 wines. I have inherited a great heritage and hope to leave an even better one to my successor.” H

GLitterinG Prizes: Moët CeLebrates sPortinG exCeLLenCe It is over 3,500 miles from the marble mosaic flooring and historic oil paintings of Moët et Chandon’s chateau in Épernay to the company’s modern air-conditioned offices on 10th Avenue, new york. And this year marks a remarkable 225 years of Moët et Chandon shipping its wines to the United States. Sitting behind his desk, vice-president ludovic du Plessis wants to talk about Moët’s latest premier association—as the official Champagne of the PGA of America, which will launch at the 39th ryder Cup matches to be held in September at Medinah, Illinois. “Moët et Chandon’s partnership with the PGA of America is a natural, as is our involvement with the ryder Cup,” says du Plessis of Moët’s first official association with golf. “We always want to be identified with the celebration of achievement and victory. The fact that we are also celebrating 225 years of delivering our Champagne to the U.S.A. makes it even more of a special moment.” The company has been involved with marquee sports events for over a century, having been on the finishing line of international sailing and motor racing competitions such as the America’s Cup, le Mans 24 Hours, Vanderbilt Cup and Formula 1 grands prix. It also is the official Champagne for the U.S. open and French open tennis championships, and the Kentucky Derby. At the ryder Cup, fans will be able to enjoy their golf with miniature bottles of Moët’s especially logoed commemorative Champagne. There will also be a special Moët lounge and, of course, the victorious team will be celebrating in the traditional manner with the iconic ryder Cup trophy and Moët champagne in tandem. “For us the tournament sums up our philosophy perfectly,” says du Plessis. “As well as being one of the great sporting events in the world, the ryder Cup is all about heritage, excellence and the constant search for success.”

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HistoriCAL

Monty Marches on Colin Montgomerie, undefeated in eight Ryder Cup singles matches, crossed the winning line again during the fall of 2010 when he captained Europe to a thrilling victory over the United States on a green but soggy hillside in south Wales. Paul Trow looks back on a memorable week

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Friday, october 1

t began as a damp squib, not least due to leaky U.S. waterproofs on the first morning of play, and ended four afternoons later with cascades of champagne in brilliant sunshine following a storming, Hollywood-style shoot-out. In between, the 38th ryder Cup, forced into an unprecedented Monday finish by incessant rain delays, was relished by a cheerful army of spectators whose appetite for the cut-and-thrust of team match-play remained undiminished by the saturation inflicted upon them. observers not hitherto known for their soothsaying skills had long warned that scheduling a ryder Cup for early october in the precipitous principality of Wales was potentially asking for aquatic trouble, of torrential proportions. And, of course, they were right. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about Celtic Manor resort and its location, adjacent to the sometimes turbulent confluence of the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel, would have been well aware of the dangers. But two years on from this master-class in the predictable unpredictability of the British climate, the abiding memory is of a sportingly contested exhibition of golf at its very finest, during which the pendulum of fortune veered wantonly from one team to the other. And all through, the Twenty Ten course, fashioned by architect ross McMurray from an original design by robert Trent Jones Sr., provided a stern but fair test for 24 of the world’s best golfers, thus fulfilling the dream of its owner, visionary telecommunications billionaire Sir Terry Matthews.

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At the opening ceremony on Thursday, September 30, the omens seemed inauspicious for the U.S. team when their captain Corey Pavin forgot to introduce one of his senior players, the 2009 [British] Open champion Stewart Cink. That aberration was compounded 18 hours later, as the opening four-ball matches got under way, when it became apparent the Sun Mountain rainwear Pavin and his wife Lisa had selected— navy blue with stripes around the arms and left leg, and surnames stitched to the back—was incapable of keeping the U.S. players or their caddies dry. But with the deluge swamping Celtic Manor’s drainage system and creating impromptu canals all over the place, it wasn’t long before everyone was hauled off the course. At the time, the bedraggled Americans were down in three matches and ahead in only one. PGA of America officials then beat a hasty path to the merchandise tent to purchase tan suits for the players and red ones for the caddies, at $350 each, from ProQuip, the European team’s rainwear suppliers. Bang on cue, Rory McIlroy, who had already riled Tiger Woods during the phony war of words preceding the event, tweeted gloatingly: “Just have to say our waterproofs are performing very well!” But the grin on the young Ulsterman’s face was wiped away when the clouds parted late in the day and the visitors, who had regained the Ryder Cup in searing Kentucky heat at Valhalla two years previously, warmed to their task. By the end of play that Friday, Cink and Matt Kuchar were 2-up on McIlory and his fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell through 11, the rookie pairing of Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton were 1-up on Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington after 8, Woods and Steve Stricker were all square with Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher after 10, and Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson trailed Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer by 1 hole through 11. As he trudged off the course, Kaymer quipped: “The first thing I need is to find a hair dryer.” With nothing settled on a day when eight points should have been decided across two rounds of matches, and with further heavy rain forecast for the weekend, the first Monday finish in Ryder Cup history seemed inevitable despite European captain Colin Montgomerie’s pronouncement: “Monday finishes are no good in any sport.”

saturday, october 2

Overnight, officials restructured the program of matches for Saturday, and their decisive action was rewarded by the rain staying away. The plan was for the opening four-balls to conclude and then for all the players on both sides to contest six foursomes (alternate-shot) matches across the middle of the day. Following that, it was to be all hands to the pump again with everyone sent back out—in two foursomes and four four-ball matches—under orders to complete as many holes as possible before nightfall. At least Pavin and Montgomerie had no more awkward choices to make over which players to leave out because all 24 had to be on the course for all the remaining sessions, but the captains still had to juggle their resources to come up with the right pairings. First, though, some unfinished business—24 hours later than planned, the opening four-balls were finally shaded 2½-1½ by the Americans thanks to hard-fought victories by the Watson-Overton and Woods-Stricker combinations, while Cink and Kuchar were eventually reined in for a half and Mickelson and Johnson lost 3&2. Only twice since the 1979 Ryder Cup had a team taken the opening session and not gone on to win, so perhaps the omens were shaping up promisingly for General Pavin and his loyal troops after all. Stricker, in harness with Woods, led the way in the second (foursomes) session, holing a succession of long putts en route to a 4&3 win over Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson of Sweden. “We’re comfortable with one another and I think that’s the biggest thing,” Stricker, who had a 100 percent record with Woods in the previous year’s Presidents Cup at Harding Park, said. “Our games complement each other nicely. I try to get him in the fairway, he hits some unbelievable iron shots and, fortunately, I’ve been knocking a couple of putts in.” Woods, who had never before won his first two outings at a Ryder Cup, said of his partner: “His stroke is so good, it’s fun to watch. All you have to do is put him in position and he’s got that go-in look. Even the putts that don’t go in, it’s like, how did that miss?”

Cink, partnering Kuchar against McIlroy and McDowell again, turned his foursomes around in dramatic fashion by ramming home a 30-foot birdie putt on the 17th green after McDowell, who had won the U.S. Open three months earlier at Pebble Beach, arrowed a majestic tee shot to within six feet of the pin. That unexpected blow put the pressure back on McIlroy, who pulled his putt left of the cup and then made a mess of a wedge to the water-guarded par-5 18th. Edoardo and Francesco Molinari, the first brothers to be paired together in Ryder Cup combat since Charles, Ernest and Reg Whitcombe in 1935, lost by two holes to Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan while a birdie at the 18th helped Jim Furyk and Rickie Fowler to escape with a half against Westwood and Kaymer. Europe’s two successes in this foursomes series—Donald and Poulter saw off Watson and Overton while Harrington and Fisher eclipsed Mickelson and Dustin Johnson—failed to prevent the U.S. from stretching their overall lead to 6-4. But the Americans had no time to bask in the limelight before re-entering the fray, and by the time the sun had disappeared over the horizon a few hours later and a halt was called to the day’s marathon proceedings, Europe, remarkably, were ahead in all six of the third-session matches. Leading the way were the two foursomes matches, in which Westwood and Donald were an astonishing 4-up through nine holes on the seemingly invincible Woods and Stricker, and McDowell and McIlroy were 3-up through seven on Zach Johnson and Mahan. Europe’s leads were smaller in each of the four four-ball matches, though none had gone beyond the 6th green. True, the visitors still had their noses firmly in front in terms of points won, but as Montgomerie sagely remarked: “Momentum is the key in these matches. That was a very important two hours of play, and we came through it with flying colors. We will have six blue numbers shining on the board tomorrow morning, and we want them to stay there.” Pavin, defiant as ever, riposted: “I’ve never seen points given for matches where you’ve played only four, five, six or seven holes. We’re going to rest up tonight, come back tomorrow and try to turn the momentum back in our favor.”

sunday, october 3

No doubt the U.S. team had been fired up overnight by a rousing Pavin pep talk, but the wind was immediately taken from their sails when they awoke the next morning to yet more heavy rain. Play could not resume before 1.30 p.m., four hours late, so the 12 singles matches were duly rescheduled for the following day— thus necessitating the first Monday finish in the Ryder Cup’s then 83-year history. Once the golfers got onto the course, the unbeaten run of Woods and Stricker soon came to an ignominious end when Donald and Westwood, who had just returned from a sevenweek injury layoff, cruised to a 6&5 victory. This was the nadir of Woods’ Ryder Cup career, eclipsing the 5&3 foursomes loss inflicted on him and Mark O’Meara by Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer at Valderrama in 1997. But at least Woods had won his first two games. For Mickelson there was no such consolation. After two defeats in tandem with Dustin Johnson, Pavin paired him with Fowler, at 21 the youngest member of his team, but after battling back to all-square at the 13th in their four-ball having been three-down at one stage, they faded down the stretch to a 2&1 defeat by Poulter and Kaymer. It was the 17th loss of Mickelson’s Ryder Cup career, taking him past Raymond Floyd’s long-standing, and extremely unwanted, record for a U.S. player. McDowell and McIlroy won 3&1 in the other foursomes while Ross Fisher ‘carried’ his off-form four-ball partner, Harrington, to a 2&1 success over Dustin Johnson and Furyk. Cink and Kuchar halved with the Molinari brothers to deny Europe a clean sweep, but Watson and Overton suffered their second straight loss after Jimenez, partnered by Hanson, rolled in a long putt at the 16th. Earlier, Overton had holed out from the fairway at the 8th for an eagle. “Boom, baby! Yeah! Come on!” he screamed. By the end of the day, though, the proEurope crowd was doing all the yelling, chanting “Ole! Ole! Ole!” as their heroes, leading 9½-6½, headed wearily for the clubhouse. “They’re a great U.S. team, and you’ve got to expect them to come out quick,” Poulter, refusing to succumb to the premature euphoria, warned. “So we need to keep the blue on the board and hit the right shots at the right time.”

Monday, october 4

Events proved as the final day drew towards its dramatic conclusion that the margin of Europe’s lead was, indeed, far from impregnable. The Americans are traditionally stronger in singles and only 11 years earlier had overcome a 10-6 deficit at The Country Club, Brookline. But the morning definitely belonged to Europe who took an early lead in eight of the first nine matches before Woods spearheaded the fightback by holing out from the fairway for an eagle on the 12th during a seven-under-par seven-hole stretch that swept him to a 4&3 victory over Francesco Molinari. By then, Stricker had seen off Westwood in the opening match, Dustin Johnson had thrashed PGA champion Kaymer and Overton had capped a fine debut with a win over Fisher. These successes were balanced by Donald’s 1-up defeat of Furyk in the battle of the grinders, Poulter’s imperious dismissal of Kuchar and an astute performance from Jimenez to take out Watson. The two youngest players in the match showed their battling qualities to gain valuable halves, McIlroy getting up and down from a greenside bunker at the 18th to thwart Cink and Fowler holing 15-foot putts on each of the last three greens against Edoardo Molinari. In the 10th and 11th matches, Mickelson and Zach Johnson were in control from early on, against Hanson and Harrington respectively, and so, with the sun gleaming gloriously, the massed throng of spectators on tenterhooks and the match position poised agonizingly at 13½-13½, the destiny of the Ryder Cup had once again boiled down to the very last singles, between McDowell and Mahan. After the Irishman had raced into a threehole lead through seven, most observers were chalking this up as a point for Europe. But McDowell bogeyed the 12th and when Mahan chipped to four feet to birdie the 15th, the U.S. Open champion found his mettle was being sorely tested. His response, though, was worthy of a major winner in his prime. Following a superb tee shot at the par-3 16th, McDowell holed from 15 feet for a birdie to regain his two-hole lead. This meant Mahan had to win the last two holes to secure a tie and enable the U.S., as the holders, to retain the trophy. But no doubt feeling the most intense pressure of his

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golfing life, he came up short of the 17th green, chunked his chip and then failed to hole out from just off the green. McDowell, meanwhile, was not even asked to hole his 4-foot par putt as the crowd erupted, ground-shakingly, in joy and relief. After capping an unforgettable year for himself personally, McDowell admitted: “I was really nervous there. Wow! It’s a different feeling. It’s just so much pressure. The U.S. Open felt like a back nine with my dad at Portrush compared to that.” “Graeme McDowell was put there [in the anchor singles] for a good reason—he’s full of confidence and that showed,” Montgomerie said as corks popped all around him. “This is one of the finest moments of my golfing career—wait a minute— this IS the finest moment of my golfing career,” On the emotional flipside, Pavin could only rue what might have been. “We nearly got there today,” he said. “We started off a little slow. We came back hard. We almost got there. I’m very proud of their resolve, of their sportsmanship and their fine play. I can only say it’s been an honor and a privilege to call them teammates.” At the post-competition news conference, Mahan opened and closed his mouth several times without managing to answer a question. Mickelson stepped in and put a comforting arm around his teammate. Later, when Mahan was pressed again, he said: “Graeme played great today, didn’t miss a shot. He hit a bunch of key putts, probably the last four or five holes, and that birdie on 16, after I got it to one-down, was huge. He played… he just beat me today.” As he turned away in tears, his teammates rallied behind him. “If you go up and down the line of the Tour players in Europe and U.S. and asked them if they would like to be the last guy to decide the Ryder Cup, probably less than half would say they would like to be that guy and probably less than 10 percent of them would mean it,” Cink insisted. “Hunter Mahan put himself in that position today. He was the man on our team to put himself in that position. Hunter Mahan performed like a champ out there today and I think it’s awesome. Not many players would want to do that.” “Well said, Stewart,” echoed Pavin. Talking of champions, the European team had been inspired by a phone call earlier in the week from Seve Ballesteros. The great Spaniard, who was battling the brain tumor that sadly claimed his life last year, could not travel to Celtic Manor but Montgomerie kept a poster of him in the team room throughout the match and then displayed it to the crowd at the closing ceremony. “Seve is at home watching this as he can’t be with us right now, but this means everything to him,” Poulter said. “We have played from the heart today. And do you know what, we brought this trophy back. This is a special day.” H

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Graeme McDowell holes a putt on the 16th green to go two up in his singles match against Hunter Mahan

2010 rYDEr CUP

CELTIC MANOR RESORT, NEWPORT, WALES, October 1-4

EUroPE

UsA

C. Montgomerie

C. Pavin

C a p ta i n s

s e s s i o n 1 — Fo u r- b a l l s

L. Westwood & M. Kaymer (3&2) R. McIlroy & G. McDowell (halved) I. Poulter & R. Fisher L. Donald & P. Harrington

1 ½ 0 0

P. Mickelson & D. Johnson S. Cink & M. Kuchar (halved) S. Stricker & T. Woods (2 holes) B. Watson & J. Overton (3&2)

0 ½ 1 1

M.A. Jimenez & P. Hanson E. Molinari & F. Molinari L. Westwood & M. Kaymer (halved) P. Harrington & R. Fisher (3&2) I. Poulter & L. Donald (2&1) G. McDowell & R. McIlroy

0 0 ½ 1 1 0

T. Woods & S. Stricker (4&3) Z. Johnson & H. Mahan (2 holes) J. Furyk & R. Fowler (halved) P. Mickelson & D. Johnson B. Watson & J. Overton S. Cink & M. Kuchar (1 hole)

1 1 ½ 0 0 1

L. Donald & L. Westwood (6&5) G. McDowell & R. McIlroy (3&1)

1 1

S. Stricker & T. Woods Z. Johnson & H. Mahan

0 0

P. Harrington & R. Fisher (2&1) P. Hanson & M.A. Jimenez (2 holes) E. Molinari & F. Molinari (halved) I. Poulter & M. Kaymer (2&1)

1 1 ½ 1

J. Furyk & D. Johnson B. Watson & J. Overton S. Cink & M. Kuchar (halved) P. Mickelson & R. Fowler

0 0 ½ 0

L. Westwood R. McIlroy (halved) L. Donald (1 hole) M. Kaymer I. Poulter (5&4) R. Fisher M.A. Jimenez (4&3) F. Molinari E. Molinari (halved) P. Hanson P. Harrington G. McDowell (3&1)

0 ½ 1 0 1 0 1 0 ½ 0 0 1

S. Stricker (2&1) S. Cink (halved) J. Furyk D. Johnson (6&4) M. Kuchar J. Overton (3&2) B. Watson T. Woods (4&3) R. Fowler (halved) P. Mickelson (4&2) Z. Johnson (3&2) H. Mahan

1 ½ 0 1 0 1 0 1 ½ 1 1 0

EUROPE

14½

USA

13½

s e s s i o n 2 — Fo u r s om e s

s e s s i o n 3 — Fo u r s om e s

s e s s i o n 3 — Fo u r- b a l l s

s e s s i o n 4 —s i n g l e s

m atC h re s u lt

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Soul of I the RydeR cup The 39th staging of this intercontinental sporting contest will be the first since the premature passing of Seve Ballesteros. Colin Callander salutes the passion with which the late, great Spaniard both galvanized the cause of European golf and helped to reshape a lackluster biennial indulgence into a glittering global event

n Great Britain there are many disparate items that are intrinsically linked together. Fish and chips are one example. Strawberries and cream would be another. In a golfing context, any mention of the Ryder Cup is almost inevitably followed by a eulogy on how Seve Ballesteros, in tandem with Tony Jacklin, breathed new life into what in the late 1970s and early 1980s had become almost moribund as a contest. The bald statistics show that Ballesteros made eight Ryder Cup appearances as a player—in 1979, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1995. He was also to captain the winning side on the first occasion it was played on mainland Europe in 1997. But what none of those facts show is the extent to which the Spaniard was responsible for the regeneration of what has subsequently developed into arguably the premier event in world golf. Ballesteros brought a passion to golf that it had seldom witnessed before and has rarely experienced since. He made a somewhat stuffy game seem exciting and with due deference to his three [British] Open and two Masters titles it was in the Ryder Cup where the Spanish maestro’s greatest contribution lay. “Seve was the soul of the Ryder Cup,” his compatriot Jose Rivero said upon hearing the news in May 2011 of the legendary Spaniard’s premature death from a brain tumor at the tragically early age of 54. “He was the captain even when someone else was playing that role. We could never have achieved what we did without him.”

The strange thing is that when Ballesteros first burst onto the scene as a brash 19-year-old who led the 1976 (British) Open for three days before succumbing to Johnny Miller, the Ryder Cup could not have been further from his mind. The Ryder Cup was limited to players from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland in those days and it was not until the authorities acquiesced to a suggestion from Jack Nicklaus that the biennial match be extended to include the top players from all of Europe that the Spaniard became eligible to play. Ballesteros, together with older compatriot, Antonio Garrido, were the first beneficiaries of this alteration to the rules, but it would be wrong to suggest that either made much of an impact on their debuts at The Greenbrier in 1979. They did earn one point in tandem during the first foursomes series, but that was their sole contribution to the team cause. Two years later, Ballesteros was content to forgo his place in the 1981 European team at Walton Heath as part of an ongoing and acrimonious battle with the European Tour over the payment of appearance money. It certainly was not a case of love at first sight for Ballesteros as far as the Ryder Cup was concerned, but in 1983, when the European team jetted over to West Palm Beach on Concorde, the Spaniard was transformed into the ultimate team player, first as on-course lieutenant to newly-appointed captain Jacklin and eventually as Europe’s spiritual leader.

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“I look Into theIr eyes, shake theIr hand, pat theIr back and wIsh them luck, but I’m thInkIng, ‘I’m goIng to bury you’” There are a number of reasons why Ballesteros loved nothing better than to beat the Americans, the first of which being his belief (erroneous in most instances) that the American golf authorities and some of the top U.S. players did not give him the credit he deserved. For years, he smarted at how, on one early appearance in a PGA Tour event, he was announced by the official starter as Steve Ballesteros. He took huge umbrage when Hale Irwin described him as the ‘car park champion’ after he had won the 1979 (British) Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes and, somewhat irrationally, he suspected a conspiracy when he was (quite correctly) disqualified for being late on the tee for the 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol. Distinguished golf writer Larry Dorman once described the Spaniard’s relationship with America and the American authorities as “like two passionate but selfish lovers. They long for one another, but neither will change, neither can change, the things that keep them apart.” Ballesteros himself made no secret of how much it meant to him to beat the Americans at

every available opportunity. “I look into their eyes, shake their hand, pat their back and wish them luck,” he once said. “But I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to bury you.’” That desire made Ballesteros a formidable opponent and in Jacklin—arguably the best and most driven captain in Ryder Cup history—he found a soul-mate. “We were two of a kind,” confirmed the Englishman during a visit this year to Royal Lytham & St Annes, the site of his own (British) Open triumph back in 1969. “We had nothing against the Americans, in fact I was friends with a lot of their players, but boy did we want to beat them. In my day, the Ryder Cup had become totally predictable; then, when Jack [Nicklaus] got his way, it became a real contest. “Suddenly, people like Seve and me smelt blood and we were lucky because the change to the rules coincided with the arrival of players like Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and Jose-Maria Olazabál. It was a dream scenario for European golf.”

Ballesteros teamed up with Jacklin for the first time in 1983 for the match at West Palm Beach, Florida, where Ballesteros hit one of the greatest shots in Ryder Cup history—a 3-wood fully 220 yards from a deep bunker that salvaged a half in his singles match against Fuzzy Zoeller. Jack Nicklaus, the opposing captain, still regards it as the best shot he had ever seen. That match was to result in America’s seventh win in succession, but it came down to the wire and provided Ballesteros with positive proof that a European victory was not as improbable as it had once seemed. “What are you unhappy about?” he asked his disconsolate teammates as they sat in silence in their locker room after the Americans had claimed a narrow 14½-13½ victory. “This is a big day for us. It is victory. Now we know we can win.” So began a glorious 12-year period when Europe came to dominate the contest with wins in 1985, 1987 and 1995 and a tie in 1989. Ballesteros was the key figure in all of those matches—he lived every stroke, fought against every perceived injustice and

The culmination of the partnership between European captain Tony Jacklin and Ballesteros came to glorious fruition at Muirfield Village in 1987

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“Seve waS the Soul of the RydeR Cup, we Could neveR have aChieved what we did without him” somehow or other off the course found the right words to cajole his teammates to even greater heights. The Spaniard was the first person to console Bernhard Langer when he missed the putt that cost Europe the 1991 match at Kiawah Island. “No man could have made that putt,” he told the distraught German. “The pressure was too great.” He was also a soothing influence on a succession of rookies. “Seve used to walk around and tell you that you were one of the best players in the world,” recounted Christy O’Connor Jr., who played alongside the Spaniard in the winning team in 1995. “With motivation like that you couldn’t help but play well.” “I remember looking at Seve in the team room at the 1991 Ryder Cup and thinking to myself he seemed physically smaller than when I saw him on the golf course or TV,” reminisced David Feherty in a similar vein. “Any other week other than the Ryder Cup, he didn’t know me very well. But that one week he cared so much that he went out of his way to make me feel like a friend of his. I only realized in retrospect that it wasn’t that he looked smaller—it was that he made me feel bigger.”

Ballesteros was the embodiment of Europe’s success throughout that glorious period for European golf, but obviously he could not have done it all on his own and one of the most lasting memories of the great Spaniard is of the marvelous foursomes and four-ball partnership he forged with his compatriot, Olazabal, this year’s European captain. It was a collaboration that was to earn a record 11 wins and two halves from 15 matches and on more than one occasion it frightened the life out of the opposition. The two gelled right from the moment in 1987 when Olazabál made his debut as a 21-year-old in the foursomes alongside his countryman against the formidable pairing of Larry Nelson and Payne Stewart. With two putts from 6-feet above the hole to win, the young Olazabál urged Ballesteros to “touch it, no more.” But Ballesteros hit it too hard and the ball ran about the same distance past the hole. Now the newcomer had to hole the return and, when he did, Ballesteros gathered him in his arms and embraced him for what seemed like an eternity.

A lasting bond had been formed. That was the thing about Ballesteros. As a player, he made mistakes, sometimes lots of them, but invariably he contrived to get the job done. It was the same when he was asked to captain the European Ryder Cup team at Valderrama in 1997, the first time the match was held on continental soil. That week he was utterly dictatorial. He infuriated at least half his team at one time or another, but collectively they were determined to win because they knew what a victory would mean to their leader. It was the same some 13 years later when, in an inspired move, Colin Montgomerie invited Ballesteros to address the 2010 side before the start of the match at Celtic Manor. The Spaniard, now seriously ill, only had to speak for ten minutes to leave every player choked up and determined to walk through brick walls for the European cause. Not for the first time, the Spaniard had left an indelible mark on a Ryder Cup contest. Sadly, however, on this occasion it was to be the last. H

Seve’s other great Ryder Cup partnership was with his fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabál. Here they are pictured in action at Kiawah Island in 1991

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On the J Historical History

Bag

Caddies have a ringside seat at many of the world’s greatest sporting events, and they get paid for their trouble. But the price of the best view in the house can be high, especially if it all ends in tears, as it invariably does. At the Ryder Cup, though, the job is a little different but the memories can be far more vivid. Bob Harig talks to some of the bagmen who have been there, done it and got the T-shirt

ust as Don Quixote never ventured out onto the plains in Spain without the ever-faithful Sancho Panza in attendance, it is equally unthinkable that a top professional golfer would stride to the 1st tee without his bag carrier, ego-boosting confidante, yard measurer and club selector. When it comes to the Ryder Cup, though, the relationship is a little different. Yes, caddies still get paid, but only a fraction of what they would receive if their master wins a tournament. However, their motivation and focus is entirely different. For the first two days, they’re rooting for two players, not one, and there are other people on hand to give playing advice, namely the captain and his assistants. But make no mistake, the role a caddie plays during the week of the Ryder Cup is just as important as it is at any other time on Tour. In 1999, when Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke were just one match into their long and distinguished Ryder Cup careers, they lodged a written protest about the decision not to allow their caddies to fly to Boston on Concorde for the match at the Country Club. “We think the caddies are a valuable part

Damon green points Zach Johnson in the right direction and Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay (right) celebrates a miracle chip from Phil Mickelson

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of the team and should travel with the team. As simple as that,” Westwood, who will be making his eighth Ryder Cup appearance at Medinah, said at the time. “I’m not bothered who’s on Concorde as long as the caddies are. They don’t perform well with jet-lag, just like players don’t. An advantage we have always had is great team spirit. We’ve been fairly successful, so why break it up and change a successful formula.” Wise and well-chosen words, indeed, from a player who, at the time was only in his mid-20s. Over the years, the caddies have become recognized as an important part of any Ryder Cup team but the contributions they make are invariably overlooked in the excitement that tends to envelop proceedings. And the rippleeffect of those contributions can extend for many years into the future. Medinah will be Damon Green’s fourth Ryder Cup, but his first Stateside. Now caddie for Zach Johnson, his debut came in 2002 at The Belfry on the bag of Scott Hoch. Green pinpoints day one of the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club in Ireland as a pivotal moment in Johnson’s career. “Zach was partnering Chad Campbell in a foursomes against local heroes Padraig

Harrington and Paul McGinley. We were on the 16th hole and were two-down. We had like 240 [yards] to the front, a par-5. We were at a situation where we had to go for it. Zach was like, ‘what do you think we should do’ I said, ‘Zach you’ve got to go for it.’ He walked all the way back to [captain] Tom Lehman and he told Zach ‘whatever you do, be committed.’ He comes back again and I say, ‘Zach, we have to go for it. We’re two-down with three to go.’ And he hit the greatest 3-wood he’s ever hit - 240 is pushing it for a 3-wood, but he hit it up on the fringe right by the hole and we won the hole. And then we won the last as well to halve the match. “I really think that shot on 16 propelled him to feeling like he belonged. He went on to win the Masters the next year. And I think that was the catalyst for this great player. It really gave him confidence. He’s not afraid now to hit shots in the last round when he needs to, that’s how important it was.” Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay has caddied for Phil Mickelson in all his eight Ryder Cups, starting in 1995, but perhaps his most compelling tale comes from the 1993 Ryder Cup at The Belfry which he went to on his own, paying his own expenses,

because Mickelson did not qualify for the team. “I flew over to watch and I ended up being the team gopher. It was one of the greatest weeks of my life. And for the U.S. team, it was a pretty historic one [having not won in Europe since 1981]. “It was an interesting Ryder Cup in that it was totally getting away from the American team. He [captain Tom Watson] put [Chip] Beck and [John] Cook out on the second afternoon. They were basically sacrificial lambs against Faldo and Monty. Just go out there and take your butt kicking, but they won the match. It completely changed the momentum of the entire Ryder Cup. Guys rallied that afternoon and then they played very well in singles. “The first day something funny happened. It was Davis Love’s first Ryder Cup and he’s in one of the matches on Friday morning with Kite. Everybody’s nervous, obviously the guys who have never played before. They get out there and warm up and then the fog rolls in—thick, thick fog. Nobody can do anything. They all had to go back to the team room. An official comes in and says: ‘As soon as this lifts, the first group is going. We’ll give you five minutes and be on the tee.’ But it goes on and on. Guys are climbing

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GOOD LUCK TEAM USA IN THE RYDER CUP.

walls. Everybody is eating, not eating, getting up, sitting down. “So Freddie Couples at one point is going through everybody’s bag and waggling their clubs, killing time, nervous energy. He gets to Davis’s bag and takes out his 8-iron, looks at it… and then the head falls off the end of the shaft and bounces down the tile floor. It just fell off. And three seconds later, a guy walks in and says, ‘fiveminute call, get to the 1st tee.’ And the 8-iron is sitting there. Davis comes up to me and says, ‘get this fixed.’ So I run off and it was like half a mile to some local guy who epoxies it back on. “And I run out to whatever hole he is on and I hand it to him. So the tournament goes on, and it comes to the end of the Ryder Cup and Davis is in a make-or-break singles [with Costantino Rocca]. He hits a 300-yard 3-wood, cuts the corner. Hits an iron shot up there and two putts, makes a

Peter Coleman teamed up with Bernhard Langer in several Ryder Cups and Billy Foster (below) has been an equally loyal bag carrier for Lee Westwood

“All of a sudden everybody is throwing coins on the green. It took two or three minutes to pick them all up” six-footer to essentially win the Ryder Cup. Everybody is hugging each other, and Davis comes up to me, hugs me really hard and says, ‘that was your 8-iron from the fairway!’ With all that going on, he remembered I got it fixed two days before. I just thought that was a really special moment for me. I was a kid just getting started.” Bones’ other colorful memory is from his third Ryder Cup with Mickelson, at Brookline

in 1999. ‘Lefty’ was playing a singles against Sweden’s Jarmo Sandelin, and it is fair to say the pair were not exactly best friends. “They halved the first hole, and the second hole is a par-3,” Bones recalls. “Sandelin hits it to about three feet. We’re walking up to the green and I learn later that the lucky coin he always marks his ball with has fallen through a hole in his pocket and gone. He doesn’t have another one in his bag and his caddie doesn’t have one either. He has this three-footer that he’s not going to have given to him, and he’s just standing there. He doesn’t have a coin, and isn’t going to ask me or ask Phil. He’s out of options, he’s on his own. The only coin he has is gone. He’s just standing, standing, standing. And we’re like, what’s going on here? It’s not good. Then this guy in the crowd yells, ‘Hey Jarmo, you need a coin?’ And he turns around and says, ‘as a matter of fact, I do need a coin.’ Then all of a sudden everybody is throwing coins on the green. It took two or three minutes to pick them all up. And then he missed the putt, and Phil went on to win the match.” Jimmie Johnson, who has caddied for Steve Stricker in both the 2008 and 2010 matches, has particularly acute memories of Celtic Manor. “I’ll never forget the first tee in Wales on Monday morning [the singles had been postponed due to weather]. It was like walking into the Coliseum, you know, the gladiators. It was so loud, and it’s my strongest memory. We were playing against Lee Westwood and that crowd was so fired up. It reminded me of 16 at Phoenix [the par-3 at TPC Scottsdale]. It was like they were out for

blood. Somehow we won, even though the U.S. eventually lost. It’s the coolest tournament. It’s hostile, not personal, but so competitive.’’ One of the game’s most loyal bagmen was Pete Coleman who caddied mostly for Bernhard Langer. Bernard Gallacher, Europe’s captain in 1991 at Kiawah Island, recalls spotting Coleman using a yardage measuring wheel during a practice round. “They were going down the first hole, and Pete and Bernhard were measuring the yardages as they went along,” Gallacher recalls. “Monty [Colin Montgomerie] and his caddie Kevin Laffey had already been out the day before, and Pete shouted across the fairway to Kevin: ‘How far is it from that water hydrant to the green?’ Kevin shouted back: ‘It’s 173 yards.’ To which Bernhard and Pete replied in unison: ‘Is that from the front or back of the hydrant?’ We were talking about something like five or six inches in diameter! I’m not sure whether or not they were serious. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they were. They’re such professionals.” Further evidence of Coleman’s professionalism came at The Belfry in 2002, when he carried Langer’s clubs just six weeks after falling off a ladder and dislocating his shoulder. He said: “When I went to the hospital, they said it could be eight to 12 weeks before I could work again. Luckily I got back sooner. I was in pain, but I couldn’t miss The Ryder Cup.” After Coleman, perhaps the most ‘capped’ European caddie is Billy Foster, who has been Westwood’s caddie for many years. His own favorite Ryder Cup memory comes from a practice day at Oakland Hills just before the 2004 matches. “We were playing with Garcia, Jiménez and Westwood, and off the tee I decided, in my wisdom, to run forward 50 yards in front of

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everyone and pinch Thomas Björn’s buggy. I drove off down the fairway with the bag on my back, with them all running after me. Björn and Westwood were catching me, so I decided to turn the wheel and accelerate away from them. As I did, the weight of the bag swung me right off the buggy. I did a triple somersault off the buggy, and landed on my head with the bag on top of me. I looked up to see the buggy heading straight towards the spectators, who parted like the Red Sea. Thank goodness, the buggy went straight through the crowd, didn’t harm anybody, and finished up in the trees. I was so lucky.” Fast-forwarding to the last Ryder Cup, at Celtic Manor, perhaps the most important caddie on either side turned out to be Ken Comboy, bagman for Graeme McDowell who defied unbearable pressure to claim the winning point in his singles match against Hunter Mahan. “The caddies see it as their job to keep it lively and break the ice,” he says. “There’s always some stunt or other going on. A popular one at the moment is stealing the keys out of buggies. “It was me who came up with the idea for the Rory McIlroy wigs. GMAC and I have been talking about it for a while when the pairing with Rory was first on the cards. I bought them on Monday on the way down here, but we waited until the Wednesday when we started off the first tee. Rors loved it. He’s a fun-loving lad. The banter went down well. “People always ask if caddies get paid for the Ryder Cup given the players don’t—well, we get

a contribution toward expenses, so you make a few quid but not much. “The big difference is that this is match play, so the worst that can happen is you lose a hole. You can get over a bad decision reasonably quickly. “Golf is generally about not making mistakes, but four-balls is about making birdies so there’s not as much chat about what’s in front of the green or behind or whatever because you’re just shooting at the pin. “In foursomes there are a few more tactics involved and the caddies are involved more in the decision-making, such as whether we should play the odd or even holes. “You’ve always got your eye on the opposition and there are times we might step in and say, ‘the middle of the green would be good here.’ But I wouldn’t say caddying on the first two days of the Ryder Cup is as important as in the majors. “But it’s a funny feeling going into the singles. All week you’ve been in a team but suddenly it’s a bit lonely. That’s when the caddie has to get the players up, and maybe remind them you can only win your match. “They’ve all played match play, but it’s a heightened intensity because it’s the Ryder Cup. Some thrive on it, some don’t. Graeme loves match play and you only have to look at a guy like [Ian] Poulter. He loves all the crowd attention. “It’s just a wonderful sporting event. You don’t see football stadium golf anywhere else in the world except in Ryder Cup.” H

caddie WHack So who are caddies, what do they do, and how well regarded are they by their employers? Below is a selection of quotes from the great and the good about their caddies. Caddies are a breed unto themselves and they certainly earn their wage for humping this lot around four miles of land—Dai Rees I was lying ten and had a thirty-five foot putt. I whispered over my shoulder: “How does this one break?” And my caddie said, “Who cares?”—Jack Lemmon When I ask you what club to use, look the other way and don’t answer—Sam Snead (to his caddie) There are three things in the world that he held in the smallest esteem—slugs, poets and caddies with hiccups—P.G. Wodehouse If I needed advice from my caddie, he’d be hitting the shots and I’d be carrying the bag—Bobby Jones After all these years, it’s still embarrassing for me to play on the American golf tour. Like the time I asked my caddie for a sand wedge and he came back ten minutes later with a ham on rye—Chi Chi Rodriguez According to the Captain of The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, striking your opponent or caddie at St Andrews, Hoylake or Westward Ho! meant that you lost the hole, except on medal days when it counted as a rub of the green—Herbert Warren Wind Caddies are a breed of their own. If you shoot 66, they say, “Man, we shot 66!” But go out and shoot 77, and they say “Hell, he shot 77!”—Lee Trevino I know you can be fined for throwing a club, but I want to know if you can get fined for throwing a caddie?—Tommy Bolt Friends noticed that the caddie always walked barefoot. It was his duty when [Errol] Flynn’s ball went in the rough, to pick it up with his unusually long toes and, without stooping down, deposit it quietly on the fairway—The New Yorker (1937) When [Bernhard] Langer practices on his own, he can hold up a four-ball—Dave Musgrove (Langer’s long-time caddie)

Ken Comboy (far left) organized the Rory McIlroy wigs that European players and caddies jokingly sported on a practiceday of the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, 2010

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No, it’s my fault, not your fault. It’s my fault for listening to you—Severiano Ballesteros blaming a caddie for giving him the wrong club He told me just to keep the ball low—Rodriguez (on the advice his caddie gave him on a crucial putt)

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Historical History

S w i n g SiSterS The Solheim Cup, the distaff version of the Ryder Cup in that it pitches the leading lady Tour professionals of the United States and Europe against each other on a biennial basis, has now been staged 12 times since it first took place in 1990. Despite an 8-4 overall tally in favor of the Americans, Lewine Mair believes it has at last come of age as a sporting contest 146

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Michelle Wie has plenty to chew on during her singles defeat by an ecstatic Suzann Pettersen (right) on day three of the 2011 Solheim Cup

The teams line up for the closing ceremony following the 2011 Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle

U “LoSing SuckS, it reaLLy doeS, but it’S not going to do uS any harm”

sually, when the rain starts in earnest, spectators will stream from course to car park. At Killeen Castle in Ireland, on the occasion of the 2011 Solheim Cup, they were doing the reverse. However dire the weather may have been, they were desperate to see the denouement of a match in which the Europeans were ahead one minute, the Americans the next. On the third occasion that the siren sounded—the score was 11-10 in Europe’s favor at the time—it was due to the threat of thunder and lightning. As it happened there was none of either, though there was certainly no shortage of electricity during the final 35 minutes of highvoltage play. In truth, the various scoring streaks and individual strikes could have been plucked straight from the most famous of Ryder Cups. Take Suzann Pettersen’s three finishing birdies that enabled her to beat her great friend and rival, Michelle Wie. And take the short-iron that Caroline Hedwall, who had been virtually down and out a couple of holes earlier, hit

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directly over the flag at the 18th to pave the way for her crucial half with Ryann O’Toole. Her ball landed in the long grass just through the back of the green and it was only after long seconds of hesitation that it rolled back down to within three feet of the pin. O’Toole, the brilliant young American who had starred on The Big Break, had no option but to concede the hole. Finally, after a winless six-year spell, the Europeans had their hands back on the trophy. In 2009, after dominating the singles, Team USA had ultimately cruised to a comfortable 1612 victory at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel starred but the team’s stand-out player was controversial pick, Michelle Wie, who scored 3½ points. The victory marked the third U.S. win on the spin and so it was, with an 8-3 advantage and with the tag of overwhelming favorites, that America headed for the Jack Nicklaus-designed Killeen Castle, just outside Dublin. They were accompanied in the build-up by commentators suggesting that Europe should switch to a Rest of the World side in order to give the Americans a better match. California’s Juli Inkster, who would halve her single with England’s Laura Davies at Killeen Castle, was not among them. She said it did not matter a jot if the match remained onesided. The last thing she wanted to see was any tweaking of the fixture. “It’s all about tradition,” argued this great American. “Leave it as it is.”

Standing at 25 on the pointS tabLe, davieS haS edged ahead of SorenStam Afterwards, in a conversation between two former captains, Beth Daniel and Scotland’s Dale Reid, Daniel indicated that the result had probably added up to the best solution all round. “Losing sucks, it really does,” the American captain said, “but it’s not going to do us any harm. We maybe had things our own way for a few years—but now Europe have won and we’ve had a wake-up call.” There was much initial skepticism when the first talks took place—in the late 1980s— about a women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup. John Laupheimer, one of Mark McCormack’s right-hand men and a former LPGA Tour commissioner, was among the many experts to suggest it could never work: the gulf in

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Team USA (above) celebrating at The Greenbrier, 1994. Below: Europe’s Laura Davies punches the air during the 1996 Solheim Cup at St. Pierre in Wales

Paula Creamer flying the flag after her singles victory during the 2009 Solheim Cup at Rich Harvest Farms Golf Club, Illinois

standard between Europe and the U.S. was simply too great. Yet the Solheim family, founders of PING clubs, decided to go ahead with their sponsorship. They may have done so with their fingers crossed, but if that were the case they could have started uncrossing them as early as the first match—at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, in 1990.

“it waS aweSome to See So many great ShotS being pLayed” The scoreline was a convincing 11½-4½ in the Americans’ favor but critically the event was immediately full of life and had a touch of the requisite bite. A cherished memory from that first contest came when Laura Davies teed up against Rosie Jones in the singles. Davies, who was struggling with her woods at the time, pulled out an iron. Jones asked, mischievously, “Is there a screw missing in your driver or something?” To this the Englishwoman responded, “I don’t think I’ll be needing my driver today” (Davies won 3&2). That Europe should succeed against all the odds in winning the second match in the series—at Dalmahoy near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1992—was arguably even more important and the best possible result to secure the future of the Solheim Cup. Certainly, it made it less of an issue when the Americans won all three in 1994, 1996 and 1998. The aforementioned Davies, who had bagged two points at Lake Nona, picked up three more at Dalmahoy and today, with her haul standing at 25 on the overall points table, she has edged ahead of Annika Sorenstam (24). Inkster, with 18½, is the most successful American. Having played in all 12 of the matches, Davies was as well-placed as anyone to suggest that the 2011 edition had been the best yet. Captain Jones, whom Davies had played all those years ago in that feisty encounter at Lake Nona, was of much the same opinion. “I applaud both teams for their great play,” she said in the wake of the scintillating if somewhat sodden last-day singles. “Bearing in mind the crummy weather, the delays, the long course, the tough greens and the extreme pressure, it was awesome to see so many great shots being played. “It was a great tribute to the women’s game.” H

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Venues

where do we go next? Once the dust has settled on proceedings at Medinah, attention will turn to the rolling Scottish heathland of Gleneagles where the 40th Ryder Cup will be staged in 2014. Thereafter, the next three matches will be contested over a contrasting array of destinationsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Hazeltine National (2016), Paris National (2018) and Whistling Straits (2020). Martin Vousden, Paul Trow and Nick Bayly assess the future venues for golf â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier event Photographed by Patrick Drickey of stonehousegolf.com

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leneagles will host the Ryder Cup for the first time in 2014, but it’s not exactly a stranger to the biennial team contest having been the venue for the very first, unofficial International Challenge Match in 1921. Samuel Ryder wasn’t even on the PGA’s radar as a potential benefactor at the time and it seems this experiment met with little enthusiasm from the golfing public. It had been immediately preceded by the ‘Glasgow Herald 1000 Guineas’ tournament and few of the spectators who turned up for that event could be bothered to hang around for an extra day to watch what was, in effect, an exhibition match that the home side won 9-3. The King’s course, over which the match took place, had only just opened and it would be a further three years before the resort’s hotel was finished, so the competitors’ accommodation consisted of five railway carriages in a siding at nearby Auchtermuchty railway station. As the

home side included the Great Triumvirate of Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor, their one-sided victory was hardly surprising. Braid had a big hand in that first competition because he designed the King’s and its sister layout, the Queen’s. Magnificent as they are, in 2014 they will only be providing parking and marquee space, along with background scenery, because the honor of staging the match goes to a Jack Nicklaus design that opened in 1993. Originally called The Monarch’s, to indulge the theme of royalty, it was renamed the PGA Centenary Course when the British and Irish PGA celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2001. Described by Nicklaus as “the finest parcel of land I have ever been given to work with,” the PGA Centenary Course offers a feast of views—from the spectacular surrounding glens to the mountainous backdrop of the Grampians. However, its stadium-style design was not initially greeted with unequivocal

enthusiasm— some purists felt it differed too much in character from its rolling, heathery predecessors. But over the past two decades, thanks largely to its status as the venue for the annual Johnnie Walker Championship on the European Tour since 1999, its qualities have become increasingly appreciated. Indeed, it is now recognized as a testing, strategic layout that requires both planning and precise execution. Contrastingly, there’s never been any shortage of praise for the hotel. With a design based on a French chateau and gardens inspired by Capability Brown, Gleneagles is one of the finest 5-star resorts in the world, let alone Scotland. Featuring 232 luxurious bedrooms, including 26 suites, the hotel has garnered more than 70 accolades over the years. And one of its three restaurants, under the management of chef Andrew Fairlie, is Scotland’s only eatery to receive two Michelin stars. Indeed, it could be said the resort’s facilities have won more awards and trophies than Nicklaus himself.

“the finest parcel of land i have ever been given to work with” Jack Nicklaus Honor & Glory

151

he mission behind the creation of Hazeltine National Golf Club at Chaska, Minnesota, venue for the 2016 Ryder Cup, was to build and maintain a course suitable for Major championships. Therefore, an important step along the way half a century ago was to cultivate a membership that supported this ideal. Founding father Totton P. Heffelfinger, a former president of the USGA, laid down the policy but he also strove to deliver an enjoyable, as well as pure, golf experience to the members. Hazeltine National is the result of his quest. There have been many twists and turns over the years, though, including financial difficulties and a lengthy period when it seemed the club’s early successes might peter out. However, despite those trials Hazeltine’s membership stuck to the original objectives and the club’s pedigree now ranks with that of any in the land. After early designs by another architect, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. created a long, demanding layout over a piece of land where the woods had battled the prairie for dominance for centuries. The course was opened for play in 1962, but Jones modified many of the holes over a number of years to adapt it to the needs of Major championship play. In advance of the 1991 U.S. Open, Jones’s son Rees oversaw several radical changes and to this

day Rees Jones still works with the club to maintain the competitive standards set by his father. The first championship hosted by Hazeltine was the 1966 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Sandra Spuzich. In 1977, when that event returned, Hollis Stacy won the biggest of her six USGA titles by edging Nancy Lopez. In between, the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine was won by seven shots by Tony Jacklin, the last European to claim America’s national championship until Graeme McDowell’s triumph at Pebble Beach in 2010. The difficulty of the course, coupled with the windy conditions that week, led to a vituperative backlash from some of the players. Most notably, the U.S. Ryder Cup player Dave Hill was fined for his derogatory comments about the course. When paying his fine, Hill handed over twice the amount stipulated in his penalty on the grounds that he had plenty more to say on the subject. Embarrassing though they were at the time, these events set in motion a process of change. The public debut of those changes, including the infamous water hazard on the 16th, dubbed by Johnny Miller as “probably the hardest par-4 I ever played,” occurred in 1983, when Billy Casper won the U.S. Senior Open. The success of that week paved the way for Hazeltine’s return to the international golf scene.

“probably the hardest par-4 i ever played” Johnny Miller

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Honor & Glory

The culmination of that journey back to prominence was Payne Stewart’s playoff victory over Scott Simpson in the 1991 U.S. Open. That championship drew rave reviews for the course, not least from long-serving head professional Mike Schultz who takes pleasure in pointing out: “If you’re out of position at Hazeltine, you’re always hitting over something.” The PGA Championship has been to Hazeltine twice over the past decade, and both times it has led to frustration for Tiger Woods. In 2002, the unheralded Rich Beem held off a charging Woods, who birdied the last four holes, and in 2009 Korea’s Y.E. Yang became the first (and to date only) Asian Major winner despite playing partner Woods holding a three-shot 54-hole lead. Among the many important amateur events staged at Hazeltine, the 1999 NCAA Division I Men’s Championship was captured by the University of Georgia (with Luke Donald of Northwestern taking the individual title) and the 2006 U.S. Amateur Championship saw Scotland’s Richie Ramsay defeat John Kelly 4&2 in the 36-hole final. Of course, no victory is lightly earned at Hazeltine. At times the difficulties it poses result from the natural lie of the land, and at times from its many strategically-placed bunkers. At all times, though, Hazeltine is one tough, and pure, test of golf—a course, if you like, that defines the club.

A legendary course isn’t measured by yards, but rather by the players who’ve walked it. You don’t have to compete in a national championship to walk the same fairways that have been challenging the greatest in the game for more than a century. Play the newly restored Pinehurst No. 2 – site of back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships in 2014 – and leave some footprints of your own. Experience the Restoration of Pinehurst No. 2. Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina • 855.313.8856 • pinehurst.com

hile the hearts of European golfers calling for Spain to host the 2018 Ryder Cup as the untimely death of Seve Ballesteros imparted shockwaves during the final stages of the selection process, the heads—and certainly those of the Ryder Cup committee—gave a resounding ‘Oui’ to holding the tournament in France and, more specifically, at Le Golf National, 20 miles west of Paris. It was a decision based on pragmatism, not passion, but given the parlous state of the Spanish economy it’s perhaps just as well the vote went France’s way. Even though French golfers have made little impact on the Ryder Cup—Thomas Levet and Jean Van de Velde being the country’s sole representatives since France joined the fray in 1979—there’s no denying that the Open de France, staged at Le Golf National every year since 1991, is one of the European Tour’s showpiece events. Like Celtic Manor, Le Golf National’s Albatros Course, which only opened the year before its French Open debut, was conceived as a tournament venue from the outset, with its stadium-style layout providing stunning vantage points over an essentially flat, parkland course that features elements of both links and Florida-style target golf.

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If you want to know what a hybrid course looks like, then the Albatros is it. Given the flat, somewhat uninspiring plot of land they were given in Guyancourt on the outskirts of Versailles, architects Robert Von Hagge and Albert Chesneau squeezed every ounce of excitement and drama from a vast, one-time cornfield to create a championship layout that is tough but fair, and tests all elements of a player’s game. That said, it’s not exactly a course that sings La Marseillaise or says, ‘Look at moi, I’m French,’ as it could well be located in Las Vegas for all its authenticity. The 6,854-yard layout, which is built on a clay base, is notable for its vast, undulating fairways dotted with innumerable links-style bunkers, many measuring over 100 yards long. Its greens are both sizeable and slick, and offer numerous opportunities for heart-in-mouth pin positions over the course’s many water hazards. Meanwhile, deep fescue rough, occasional trees and the rigid slopes of artificially-created dunes present additional trials which will test the world’s best. Setting the tone from the off, the opening holes are fairly penal, with the 1st requiring players to hit away from water for the best line into a tiny waterside green. The same is true of the 2nd, a 210-yard par-3 played over water to a narrow green that hugs the lake edge. As is the norm on stadium courses, there are some

long walks between greens and tees, which will perhaps give players time to take a breather and talk tactics, and others the opportunity to become even more nervous. As seems to fit the brief for a Ryder Cup venue, the final four holes all offer the potential for high drama. Indeed, water—present on 15, 16 and 18—has played a role in determining the fate of numerous French Opens. No one standing on the 15th tee with a two- or three-hole lead will feel safe here. Water surrounds the green on this testing 395-yard par-4 and the pin is invariably tucked tight to the lake on the par-3 16th. The 17th, at almost 500 yards, is a long par-4 with thick, dense rough all down the left while the par-4 18th is both tough off the tee and absolutely brutal for the approach over water. This treacherous finish will surely sort the men from the boys, and decide the fate of many a match. With almost 100,000 spectators able to watch the action on these holes alone, it’s not hard to see why Paris National ticked so many boxes for the Ryder Cup committee. And with its excellent national and international transport links, the splendor of the nearby palace at Versailles and central Paris less than an hour away, it all adds up to a pretty enticing package—one that should have European golf fans scrapping for tickets like never before.

erb Kohler has been president and CEO of plumbing and household products company Kohler for four decades; and the eponymous community in Wisconsin, where the company is located, is some 40 miles north of Milwaukee. But Kohler, the man not the town, has yet another claim to fame—as the initiator of what Golf Odyssey describes as “the best 72 holes of golf in the world.” Designed by Pete and Alice Dye, this pair of 36-hole complexes offer the ultimate golfing contrast. Blackwolf Run, the older, is a riverside, woodland gem just south of Kohler while Whistling Straits is a wannabe links laid out along the western shore of Lake Michigan, a few miles north of the town of Sheboygan. By the time the 43rd Ryder Cup comes calling in 2020, the Straits Course at Whistling Straits will have already staged three PGA Championships (in 2004, 2010 and 2015) and one U.S. Senior Open (2007). Vijay Singh claimed the 2004 PGA after a playoff with Justin Leonard and Chris DiMarco, and six years later another playoff was required before Martin Kaymer of Germany edged Bubba Watson. In between, Brad Bryant won the 2007 U.S. Senior Open by three shots from Ben Crenshaw. Three decades ago, the American Club in Kohler, which originally opened in 1918 as a

dormitory for European immigrant factory workers, was lavishly restored. “We created 125 hotel rooms [at the American Club] and within months of opening in 1981 we were overwhelmed with demand [for golf],” Herb Kohler recalls. “People wanted to know why we didn’t have our own course. So we interviewed a group of architects, including Pete Dye, who at the time was driving the pros crazy, on purpose, with his designs. We wanted a course on the leading edge so it would attract Majors. What he created was Blackwolf Run—a parkland layout with two nines running through adjoining valleys. “No sooner had it opened than [it was taking] three months to get a tee time. Soon it became clear we needed more capacity. I had to create a third nine without changing the land at all which was impossible. So we decided to split up the first course and build another nine in each valley. These became the River Course and the Meadow Valleys Course. “Thus [we] had taken the first course at Blackwolf Run, an absolute gem, and broken it up. You can’t imagine the hoo-hah this caused in the golf press. So when it was finished we said, ‘come and look at it.’ They came and said they couldn’t believe you could create two courses out of one so both would be better than the original. “But we were still overwhelmed with demand, so we thought ‘where should we build another course?’ Then we decided we wanted a links. Pete

and I often came over to Scotland and Ireland to play. We absolutely love links golf—you’re so much a part of the elements and influenced by them. “We found a two-mile stretch of land that was owned by a power company alongside a disused military airfield. I had to buy an adjacent farm as well, but we still had to persuade the state to permit construction on wetland.” Eventually that difficulty was resolved and the Straits Course opened in 1998, followed by the Irish Course in 2000. Stretching 7,536 yards from the tips, the Straits is not really a traditional links, especially as 800,000 cubic yards of dirt and sand had to be imported to the site. But it certainly has many links features—vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes, off-shore winds, stone bridges, elevation changes (up to 80 feet), even a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep. And there are bunkers, everywhere, hundreds of them, many of them looking like stretches of wasteland. Dustin Johnson discovered this to his cost when he found himself in one on the 72nd hole of the 2010 PGA Championship and grounded his club when addressing his ball. The two-shot penalty he incurred on that occasion dumped him out of the Kaymer-Watson playoff. If he makes the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2020, it is to be hoped that Johnson will have learned his lesson! H

“we love links golf. you’re so much a part of the elements” Herb Kohler

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155

stats

Selected RydeR cup RecoRdS

1957 LINDRICK, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: D. Rees (GB & IRL), J. Burke (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 7½—USA 4½ 1959 ELDORADO COUNTRY CLUB, PALM DESERT, CA Captains: D. Rees (GB & IRL), S. Snead (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 3½—USA 8½

38 Matches Spanning 85 Years

1961 ROYAL LYTHAM & ST. ANNES, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: D. Rees (GB & IRL), J. Barber (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 9½—USA 14½

United states: 25 Wins Europe: 11 Wins 2 Ties

1963 EAST LAKE COUNTRY CLUB, ATLANTA, GA Captains: J. Fallon (GB & IRL), A. Palmer (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 9—USA 23

1927 WORCESTER COUNTRY CLUB, MA Captains: E. Ray (GB & IRL), W. Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 2½—USA 9½

1965 ROYAL BIRKDALE, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: H. Weetman (GB & IRL), B. Nelson (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 12½—USA 19½

1929 MOORTOWN, LEEDS, ENGLAND Captains: C.Whitcombe (GB & IRL), W.Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 7—USA 5

1967 CHAMPIONS GOLF CLUB, HOUSTON, TX Captains: D. Rees (GB & IRL), B. Hogan (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 8½—USA 23½

1931 SCIOTO COUNTRY CLUB, COLUMBUS, OH Captains: C.Whitcombe (GB & IRL), W.Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 3—USA 9

1969 ROYAL BIRKDALE, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: E. Brown (GB & IRL), S. Snead (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 16—USA 16

1933 SOUTHPORT AND AINSDALE, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: J.H. Taylor (GB & IRL), W. Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 6½—USA 5½

1971 OLD WARSON COUNTRY CLUB, ST. LOUIS, MO Captains: E. Brown (GB & IRL), J. Hebert (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 13½—USA 18½

1935 RIDGEWOOD COUNTRY CLUB, NJ Captains: C.Whitcombe (GB & IRL), W.Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 3—USA 9

1973 MUIRFIELD, EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND Captains: B. Hunt (GB & IRL), J. Burke (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 13—USA 19

1937 SOUTHPORT AND AINSDALE, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: C. Whitcombe (GB & IRL), W. Hagen (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 4—USA 8

1975 LAUREL VALLEY GOLF CLUB, PA Captains: B. Hunt (GB & IRL), A. Palmer (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 11—USA 21

1947 PORTLAND GOLF CLUB, OR Captains: H. Cotton (GB & IRL), B. Hogan (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 1—USA 11

1977 ROYAL LYTHAM & ST. ANNES, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: B. Huggett (GB & IRL), D. Finsterwald (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 7½—USA 12½

1949 GANTON, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: C. Whitcombe (GB & IRL), B. Hogan (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 1—USA 11

1979 THE GREENBRIER, WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV Captains: J. Jacobs (Europe), W. Casper (USA) Match result: Europe 11—USA 17

1951 PINEHURST, NC Captains: A. Lacey (GB & IRL), S. Snead (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 2½—USA 9½

1981 WALTON HEATH, SURREY, ENGLAND Captains: J. Jacobs (Europe), D. Marr (USA) Match result: Europe 9½—USA 18½

1953 WENTWORTH, SURREY, ENGLAND Captains: H. Cotton (GB & IRL), L. Mangrum (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 5½—USA 6½

1983 PGA NATIONAL GOLF CLUB, PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL Captains: A. Jacklin (Europe), J. Nicklaus (USA) Match result: Europe 13½—USA 14½

1955 THUNDERBIRD GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB, PALM SPRINGS, CA Captains: D. Rees (GB & IRL), C. Harbert (USA) Match result: GB & IRL 4—USA 8

1985 THE BELFRY, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: A. Jacklin (Europe), L. Trevino (USA) Match result: Europe 16½—USA 11½

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Usa

EUROPE / GB&IRL

HigHest Margin of Victory 1967—15 points (23½-8½) 1963—14 points (23-9)

2004—9 points (18½-9½) 2006—9 points (18½-9½)

total Points oVer 38 MatcHes Team points Foursome points Four-Ball points Singles points

4891/2 1391/2 94 256

3821/2 1091/2 87 186

1987 MUIrFIElD VIllAGE, COLUMBUS, OH Captains: A. Jacklin (Europe), J. Nicklaus (USA) Match result: Europe 15—USA 13

1999 THE CoUnTry ClUB, BROOKLINE, MA Captains: M. James (Europe), B. Crenshaw (USA) Match result: Europe 13½—USA 14½

1989 THE BElFry, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: A. Jacklin (Europe), R. Floyd (USA) Match result: Europe 14—USA 14

2002 THE BElFry, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND (Postponed from 2001) Captains: S. Torrance (Europe), C. Strange (USA) Match result: Europe 15½—USA 12½

1991 KIAWAH ISlAnD GolF rESorT, SC Captains: B. Gallacher (Europe), D. Stockton (USA) Match result: Europe 13½—USA 14½

2004 oAKlAnD HIllS CoUnTry ClUB, BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI Captains: B. Langer (Europe), H. Sutton (USA) Match result: Europe 18½—USA 9½

1993 THE BElFry, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND Captains: B. Gallacher (Europe), T. Watson (USA) Match result: Europe 13—USA 15

2006 THE K ClUB, COUNTY KILDARE, IRELAND Captains: I. Woosnam (Europe), T. Lehman (USA) Match result: Europe 18½—USA 9½

1995 oAK HIll CoUnTry ClUB, ROCHESTER, NY Captains: B. Gallacher (Europe), L. Wadkins (USA) Match result: Europe 14½—USA 13½

2008 VAlHAllA GolF ClUB, LOUISVILLE, KY Captains: N. Faldo (Europe), P. Azinger (USA) Match result: Europe 11½—USA 16½

1997 VAlDErrAMA, SOTOGRANDE, SPAIN Captains: S. Ballesteros (Europe), T. Kite (USA) Match result: Europe 14½—USA 13½

2010 CElTIC MAnor rESorT, NEWPORT, WALES Captains: C. Montgomerie (Europe), C. Pavin (USA) Match result: Europe 14½—USA 13½

Honor & Glory

157

horton smith was only 21 when he made his Ryder Cup debut

usa

EuROPE /GB&I

Most tiMes on RydeR Cup teaM

MatCh foRMats

1927—1959 Two days, 36-hole matches, four foursomes and eight singles 12 points available 1961 Two days, matches reduced to 18 holes Day 1 Two series of four foursomes Day 2 Two series of eight singles 24 points available 1963—1971 Three days, addition of two series of four four-ball matches Day 1 Two series of four foursomes Day 2 Two series of four four-balls Day 3 Two series of eight singles 32 points available

Lanny Wadkins Raymond Floyd Billy Casper Phil Mickelson Sam Snead Tom Kite Gene Littler Jim Furyk Arnold Palmer Gene Sarazen Jack Nicklaus Lee Trevino Davis Love III Tiger Woods

8 (1977-79-83-85-87-89-91-93) 8 (1969-75-77-81-83-85-91-93) 8 (1961-63-65-67-69-71-73-75) 8 (1995-97-99-2002-04-06-08-10) 7 (1937-47-49-51-53-55-59) 7 (1979-81-83-85-87-89-93) 7 (1961-63-65-67-69-71-75) 7 (1997-99-2002-04-06-08-10) 6 (1961-63-65-67-71-73) 6 (1927-29-31-33-35-37) 6 (1969-71-73-75-77-81) 6 (1969-71-73-75-79-81) 6 (1993-95-97-99-2002-04) 6 (1997-99-2002-04-06-10)

youngest playeR Horton Smith in 1929 Tiger Woods in 1997 Rickie Fowler in 2010 Horton Smith in 1931

oldest playeR

Ray Floyd in 1993 Jay Haas in 2004

Nick Faldo 11 (1977-79-81-83-85-87-89-91-93-95-97) Christy O’Connor Sr. 10 (1955-57-59-61-63-65-67-69-71-73) Bernhard Langer 10 (1981-83-85-87-89-91-93-95-97-2002) Dai Rees 9 (1937-47-49-51-53-55-57-59-61) Bernard Gallacher 8 (1969-71-73-75-77-79-81-83) Bernard Hunt 8 (1953-57-59-61-63-65-67-69) Colin Montgomerie 8 (1991-93-95-97-99-2002-04-06) Ian Woosnam 8 (1983-85-87-89-91-93-95-97) Neil Coles 8 (1961-63-65-67-69-71-73-77) Peter Alliss 8 (1953-57-59-61-63-65-67-69) Sam Torrance 8 (1981-83-85-87-89-91-93-95) Seve Ballesteros 8 (1979-83-85-87-89-91-93-95) Lee Westwood 7 (1997-99-2002-04-06-08-10)

20 years, 11 months , 4 days 21 years, 8 months, 27 days 21 years, 9 months, 18 days 23 years, 1 month, 4 days

Sergio Garcia in 1999 Nick Faldo in 1977 Paul Way in 1983 Bernard Gallacher in 1969

19 years, 8 months, 15 days 20 years, 1 months, 28 days 20 years, 7 months, 3 days 20 years, 7 months, 9 days

51 years, 20 days 50 years, 9 months, 15 days

Ted Ray in 1927 50 years, 2 months, 5 days Christy O’Connor Sr. in 1973 48 years, 8 months, 30 days

three Whitcombe brothers played in the 1935 gB & ireland team

1973—1975 Day 1 One series of four foursomes and one of four four-balls Day 2 One series of four foursomes and one of four four-balls Day 3 Two series of eight singles 32 points available 1977 Day 1 Five foursomes Day 2 Five four-balls Day 3 Ten singles 20 points available 1979 Day 1

One series of four foursomes and one of four four-balls Day 2 One series of four foursomes and one of four four-balls Day 3 Two series of six singles 28 points available 1981 to Present Days 1 & 2 As for 1979 match Day 3 One series of twelve singles 28 points available

158

Honor & Glory

Relatives in the RydeR Cup

Father and Son Percy Alliss (1929-33-35-37) and Peter Alliss (1953-57-59-61-63-65-67-69) Antonio Garrido (1979) and Ignacio Garrido (1997) Brothers Charles Whitcombe (1927-29-31-33-35-37), Reg Whitcombe (1935), and Ernest Whitcombe (1929-31-35) Bernard Hunt (1953-57-59-61-63-65-67-69) and Geoffrey Hunt (1963) Joe Turnesa (1927-29) and Jim Turnesa (1953) Jay Hebert (1959-61) and Lionel Hebert (1957) Francesco Molinari (2010) and Edoardo Molinari (2010) Cousins Jackie Burke Jr. (1951-53-55-57-59) and Dave Marr (1965)

Uncles and Nephews Christy O’Connor Sr. (1955-57-59-61-63-65-67-69-7173) and Christy O’Connor Jr. (1975-89) Sam Snead (1937-47-49-51-53-55-59) and J.C. Snead (1971-73-75) Bob Goalby (1963) and Jay Haas (1983-95-2004) Brothers-in-Law Jerry Pate (1981) and Bruce Lietzke (1981) Andrew Coltart (1999) and Lee Westwood (1997-99-2002-04-06-08-10)

Father-in-Law and Son-in-Law Max Faulkner (1947-49-51-53-57) and Brian Barnes (1969-71-73-75-77-79)

usa

EuROPE /GB&I

Most Matches played

Billy Casper Phil Mickelson Lanny Wadkins Arnold Palmer Raymond Floyd Lee Trevino Jim Furyk Tom Kite Jack Nicklaus Gene Littler

Most points won

Billy Casper Arnold Palmer Lanny Wadkins Lee Trevino Jack Nicklaus Gene Littler Tom Kite Phil Mickelson Hale Irwin Tiger Woods

Most Matches won

Arnold Palmer Billy Casper Lanny Wadkins Jack Nicklaus Lee Trevino Tom Kite Gene Littler Hale Irwin Tiger Woods

37 34 34 32 31 30 29 28 28 27

Nick Faldo Bernhard Langer Neil Coles Seve Ballesteros Colin Montgomerie Christy O’Connor Sr. Tony Jacklin Lee Westwood José Maria Olazábal Ian Woosnam

46 42 40 37 36 36 35 34 31 31

23½ 23 21½ 20 18½ 18 17 15 14 14

Nick Faldo Bernard Langer Colin Montgomerie Seve Ballesteros José Maria Olazábal Lee Westwood Tony Jacklin Ian Woosnam Peter Oosterhuis Bernard Gallacher

25 24 23½ 22½ 20½ 19 17 16½ 15½ 15½

22 20 20 17 17 15 14 13 13

Nick Faldo Bernhard Langer Seve Ballesteros Colin Montgomerie José Maria Olazábal Lee Westwood Sergio Garcia Peter Oosterhuis Ian Woosnam

23 21 20 20 18 16 14 14 14

Best winninG percentaGe (Minimum of 3 Ryder Cups)

Jimmy Demaret (6-0-0) Jackie Burke Jr. (7-1-0) Horton Smith (3-0-1) Walter Hagen (7-1-1) J.C. Snead (9-2-0) Sam Snead (10-2-1) Ed Dudley (3-1-0) Ted Kroll (3-1-0) Lloyd Mangrum (6-2-0) Chip Beck (6-2-1)

100% 88% 88% 83% 80% 79% 75% 75% 75% 73%

ryder cup holes-in-one

Peter Butler Nick Faldo Costantino Rocca Howard Clark Paul Casey Scott Verplank

1973 1993 1995 1995 2006 2006

usa

Ian Poulter (8-3-0) Luke Donald (8-3-1) Sergio Garcia (14-6-4) José Maria Olazábal (18-8-5) Abe Mitchell (4-2-0) Colin Montgomerie (20-9-7) Graeme McDowell (4-2-2) Seve Ballesteros (20-12-5) Percy Alliss (3-2-1) Bernhard Langer (21-15-6)

Muirfield The Belfry Oak Hill Oak Hill K Club K Club

EuROPE /GB&I

Most sinGles Matches played

Arnold Palmer Billy Casper Gene Littler Jack Nicklaus Lee Trevino Raymond Floyd Lanny Wadkins Tom Kite Sam Snead Phil Mickelson

11 10 10 8 8 8 8 7 7 7

Neil Coles Christy O’Connor Sr. Peter Alliss Nick Faldo Bernard Gallacher Tony Jacklin Brian Barnes Bernard Hunt Bernhard Langer

Most FoursoMes Matches played

Billy Casper Lanny Wadkins Tom Kite Raymond Floyd Arnold Palmer Payne Stewart Lee Trevino Tiger Woods

15 15 13 12 12 10 10 10

Nick Faldo Bernhard Langer Seve Ballesteros Colin Montgomerie Neil Coles Tony Jacklin Christy O’Connor Sr.

Most Four-Ball Matches played

Billy Casper Raymond Floyd David Love III Phil Mickelson Lanny Wadkins Lee Trevino Tiger Woods Fred Couples Gene Littler Jack Nicklaus Arnold Palmer

12 11 11 11 11 10 10 9 9 9 9

73% 71% 66% 66% 66% 65% 63% 61% 58% 57%

Nick Faldo Seve Ballesteros Bernhard Langer Ian Woosnam Colin Montgomerie José Maria Olazábal Neil Coles Lee Westwood Tony Jacklin Sam Torrance Sergio Garcia

15 14 12 11 11 10 10 10 10

18 18 14 14 13 13 13

17 15 14 14 12 12 12 12 11 10 10

nick Faldo thrills the crowd during the 1993 ryder cup at the Belfry

aGe oF teaM captains

Youngest Captain Arnold Palmer Charles Whitcombe Walter Hagen

1963 1931 1927

34 years, 1 month, 1 day 35 years, 9 months, 5 days 34 years, 5 months, 13 days

Oldest Captain Sam Snead J.H. Taylor

1969 1933

57 years, 3 months, 25 days 62 years, 3 months, 7 days

Honor & Glory

159

Pairings WitH Most ryder cuP Wins

Usa

Arnold Palmer and Gardner Dickinson Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson Larry Nelson and Lanny Wadkins Tony Lema and Julius Boros Lloyd Mangrum and Sam Snead David Toms and Phil Mickelson Tom Kite and Curtis Strange Arnold Palmer and Dave Marr Chip Beck and Paul Azinger Fred Couples and Raymond Floyd Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker Justin Leonard and Hunter Mahan

5 Wins, 0 Losses 4 Wins, 0 Losses 4 Wins, 2 Losses 3 Wins, 1 Loss, 1 Half 3 Wins, 1 Loss 3 Wins, 2 Losses, 1 Half 2 Wins, 3 Losses, 1 Half 2 Wins, 2 Losses 2 Wins, 2 Losses 2 Wins, 2 Losses 2 Wins, 2 Losses 2 Wins, 1 Loss 2 Wins, 1 Loss

EUROPE/GB&I

Seve Ballesteros and José Maria Olazábal Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam Bernard Gallacher and Brian Barnes Peter Alliss and Christy O’ Connor Sr. Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington Peter Oosterhuis and Tony Jacklin Neil Coles and Christy O’Connor Sr. Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo Bernard Hunt and Neil Coles

11 Wins, 2 Losses, 2 Halves 6 Wins, 2 Losses 5 Wins, 3 Losses, 2 Halves 5 Wins, 4 Losses, 1 Half 5 Wins, 6 Losses, 1 Half 4 Wins, 0 Losses 4 Wins, 2 Losses, 1 Half 3 Wins, 1 Half 3 Wins, 2 Losses 3 Wins, 2 Losses, 2 Halves 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 1 Half 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 1 Half 2 Wins, 5 Losses, 1 Half

HigHest Winning Margins, 36-Hole teaM

10 & 9

1931

10 & 9

1947

9&8

1935

Walter Hagen and Denny Shute (U.S.) beat George Duncan and Arthur Havers Lew Worsham and Ed Oliver (U.S.) beat Henry Cotton and Arthur Lees Paul Runyan and Horton Smith (U.S.) beat Bill Cox and Edward Jarman

HigHest Winning Margins, 18-Hole teaM

7&6

1979

7&6

1991

7&5

1981

7&5

1983

7&5

1985

7&5

1993

Hale Irwin and Tom Kite (U.S.) beat Ken Brown and Des Smyth Paul Azinger and Mark O’Meara (U.S.) beat Nick Faldo and David Gilford Lee Trevino and Jerry Pate (U.S.) beat Nick Faldo and Sam Torrance Lanny Wadkins and Gil Morgan (U.S.) beat Sam Torrance and Jose Maria Canizares Jose Maria Canizares and Manuel Pinero (Europe) beat Tom Kite and Calvin Peete Bernhard Langer and Ian Woosnam (Europe) beat Paul Azinger and Payne Stewart

HigHest Winning Margins, 36-Hole singles

10 & 8 9&8 9&8 9&7

1929 1929 1933 1953

George Duncan (GB&I) beat Walter Hagen Leo Diegel (U.S.) beat Abe Mitchell Abe Mitchell (GB&I) beat Olin Dutra Fred Daly (GB&I) beat Ted Kroll

HigHest Winning Margins, 18-Hole singles

8&7 8&7 7&6 7&6 7&6 6&5 6&5 6&5 6&5 6&4 6&4 6&4 6&4

160

1997 1989 1969 1971 1997 1963 1973 1973 1999 1965 1981 2004 2010

Fred Couples (U.S.) beat Ian Woosnam Tom Kite (U.S.) beat Howard Clark Miller Barber (U.S.) beat Maurice Bembridge Lee Trevino (U.S.) beat Brian Huggett Tom Lehman (U.S.) beat Ignacio Garrido Gene Littler (U.S.) beat Tom Haliburton Gay Brewer (U.S.) beat Bernard Gallacher Lee Trevino (U.S.) beat Neil Coles Davis Love III (U.S.) beat Jean Van de Velde Tony Lema (U.S.) beat Christy O’Connor Sr. Ben Crenshaw (U.S.) beat Des Smyth Jim Furyk (U.S.) beat David Howell Dustin Johnson (U.S.) beat Martin Kaymer

HONOR & GLORY

1931, scioto country club in columbus, ohio. duncan, Havers, shute and Hagen

undefeated and untied in tWo or More MatcHes in ryder cuP Play

Usa

6 wins 4 wins 3 wins 2 wins

Jimmy Demaret Billy Maxwell Ben Hogan, Billy Burke, Johnny Golden Chick Harbert, Wilfred Cox, Ralph Guldahl, Bob Rosburg, Lew Worsham

EUROPE /GB&I

2 wins

teaMs Winning all Points in a series Foursomes: U.S. won all foursomes 4-0 in 1947 U.S. won second series foursomes 4-0 in 1963 U.S. won first series foursomes 4-0 in 1975 U.S. won second series foursomes 4-0 in 1981

Four-Ball: U.S. won first series four-ball 4-0 in 1967 U.S. won first series four-ball 4-0 in 1971 Europe won first series four-ball 4-0 in 1987 Europe won first series four-ball 4-0 in 1989

Paul Broadhurst, John Jacobs

feature

Silver lining Adorned with 24 silver golf balls representing the total number of players in a Ryder Cup match, a new silver putter links the past and future of golf ’s iconic event

he newest piece of Ryder Cup memorabilia will be prominently displayed in the clubhouse at Medinah Country Club throughout the week of the forthcoming matches, from September 28-30. Adorned with 24 silver golf balls, representing the total number of players who will take part in the 39th Ryder Cup, the silver putter, crafted by English luxury lifestyle name Thomas Lyte, links the past and future of golf ’s premier contest. As a tribute to the symbolic tradition of the Olympic torch being passed on to the next host city in a spirit of honor, friendship and respect, the silver putter was first presented in 2010 by Ryder Cup Europe to the PGA of America during the closing ceremony at Celtic Manor Resort in south Wales. The putter features previous Ryder Cup venues while the silver golf balls symbolically represent the teams, captains and assistants. From now on, the next host venue will be engraved on the plaque that accompanies the piece. “The Ryder Cup is one of the most compelling competitions in all of sports, connecting generations and the finest competitors in the game,” said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. “The silver putter is a symbol that golf fans may embrace, while it serves as a permanent marker of a competition that fosters both sportsmanship and goodwill between golfers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.” Ryder Cup Europe director Richard Hills said: “The Ryder Cup has grown from humble beginnings in 1927 to a three-day contest which grips golfing attention like no other. The introduction of the silver putter provides a permanent reminder of how the Ryder Cup has contributed richly to the history of the game while achieving the all-important objective of fostering international goodwill through sport.” H

162

Honor & Glory

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