Seve looms large through Ryder Cup medium

1 October 2012

Is there anywhere on the sporting planet lonelier than the golf course? On singles day in the Ryder Cup, I think not. Golf is always an isolating sport, in which you are denied even the comfort of physical contact with the opponent, and where your most dangerous enemy is your own mind.

Compound that with the special intensity of matchplay, the historical white heat of the Ryder Cup and — if you are playing for Europe at least — the presence of tens of thousands of whooping Yank spectators who have mistaken the 18th green for something between the Boston Tea Party and a wet-t-shirt-and-kegger-chugging contest in Cancun during Spring Break, and this is the pinnacle. The loneliest place there is. In the Ryder Cup — for more than one reason — no one can hear you scream.

Given all that, Europe’s 14½-13½ win at Medinah last night was one of the most astonishing and memorable results in the long archives of Ryder Cup history.

Fighting back from 6-10 to a point where the title was not simply retained but actually won outright was simply outrageous — the product of 12 independent minds absolutely focused, working in the stark isolation of golf’s toughest tournament to turn the scoreboard an impossible shade of blue.

Two men provided the inspiration and neither of them were swinging their clubs. Jose Maria Olazabal was the medium and Seve Ballesteros the spirit of this supernatural victory.

Interviewed for British television when the match was won, Europe’s captain, Olazabal, broke down in tears and covered his eyes with his white team cap, choked by the knowledge that everything which had made his great friend, Seve, so very great had been channelled by the fearless young men then celebrating in the Illinois dusk.

Who were the heroes? All of them but none greater than Ian Poulter, the human sine qua non of recent European teams — a man who has never won a Major but has been at the heart of three victories in four Ryder Cups since making his debut in 2004.

His cussedness is infectious and was matched yesterday by almost every one of his team-mates. Rory McIlroy arrived in the nick of time to take down the home talisman Keegan Bradley 2&1, in the process showing the world just what it is that world No2 Tiger Woods is missing — and perhaps, in matchplay, never had.

Lee Westwood’s 3&2 victory over Matt Kuchar was, in the context of his first two days, very impressive, too. “You watch the scoreboard turning blue and say, ‘Oh God, please don’t let anybody down’,” Westwood said.

He then declared himself unable to elaborate much further on just how heavy the nerves and pressure had weighed on his mind without resorting to foul language.

Well, let’s do it for him. Eff and bee and ruddy heck, this was a Ryder Cup right out of the top flipping drawer.

It was too outlandish to be a dream. But for Davis Love III’s Americans, yesterday had all the qualities of a nightmare. The crushing loneliness of the last day of the Ryder Cup overcame too many of their team, who all left the hard work to each other.

It was summed up by Jim Furyk, beaten all ends up by the occasion as much as his opponent. His face at the end of the match he lost to Sergio Garcia was a picture of mystification. What the hell just happened?

Garcia victories in Ryder Cup singles matches come around like comets but the Spaniard yesterday walked off the 18th, with the inevitable name of Seve on his lips.

“I got a little bit lucky today,” he said. But luck only came in the presence of mental fortitude Garcia may not even realise he possesses.

America and Europe may never contest again as dramatic a Ryder Cup as the 2012 edition. But every golfer who plays the tournament in the future should study it for instruction. The golf course may be lonely but the human mind is confoundedly strong.

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Seve looms large through Ryder Cup medium

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