Smiles, laughs permeate U.S. team
By Tim RosaforteThis was more than just golf.
This was one of those moments that transcend sport, in which the participants have their hearts tested, their nerves frayed and their bodies stressed to the max. Their pride is on the line. They're playing not only for a country and a team and a tour, but for a legend as well.
It does not get any better than the Presidents Cup, held last week. It was an event that reached a crescendo, and the crescendo did not disappoint the masses. It was not enemy warfare, but intense competition at the highest level. Instead of a War by the Shore, it was a Clambake at the Lake between two evenly matched teams who really have a hard time not liking each other. Best of all, it looked as though the American team loved playing together.
It showed that bad blood isn't needed for great theater. Trite as it might sound, there were no losers at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club last week. Even Gary Player admitted this on Sunday night in Gainesville, Va., after Chris DiMarco won the contest with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th green of the 34th and final match staged at RTJ. "It was absolutely unbelievable," said the losing captain. "I don't know how you can have a more exciting week."
Fittingly, Jack Nicklaus was at the epicenter of the excitement. Three months ago, he birdied his final hole of major championship golf at the Old Course in St. Andrews, and now in what might be his final captaincy, Nicklaus once again went out a winner. There was no one happier or more proud than the Golden Bear, but hiding behind those sunglasses were the eyes of a man who has been through an emotional and tumultuous year. There's nothing that could ever replace the loss of a grandson, but this was part of the healing process.
At 65, steely Jack has mellowed to the point where he can say, "I've become a marshmallow." We saw that in those moments when he patted Tiger Woods on the cheek or put his arm around Jim Furyk.
"I don't know why in the world they want to care about winning one for an old man," he said, adding, "I'm just a guy on the sidelines ... I should have put on a skirt and done some cheerleading for them. Matter of fact, I would have if they asked."
Nicklaus admits the role is much more complicated now than it was when he first started captaining in 1983. Back then, all he worried about was making sure the guys had enough tees and towels. But he seemed to simplify the process simply by being a good listener, and the United States came away not only with its first cup victory since 2000, but two and possibly three pairings that Tom Lehman can ride at next year's Ryder Cup.
Nicklaus also established a much lighter tone that should carry over to the future. Things are so beautiful in the U.S. camp that Butch Harmon and Tiger were shooting the breeze during a practice round Wednesday morning, as Tiger prepared for his foursomes match with Harmon's student, Fred Couples.
One thing's for sure: You needed a thick skin, small ego and a sense of humor to be on this team. Nicklaus ribbed Woods for his foursomes record and Phil for his record in the last two Cups. He teased Tiger about his hair and Freddie Funk about his lack of distance off the tee. And when Phil was asked if Tiger hurt his back playing him in Ping-Pong (a reference not only to Vijay Singh last month but to the supposed friction between Woods and Mickelson), it evoked the type of smiles that haven't been seen on the faces of American golf in a long, long time.
Of course where there's Jack, there's his wife Barbara. Behind the scenes, she was knitting the fabric, being everybody's mother, reminding us once again that it's OK to have core values and a sense of patriotism. At the team dinner Saturday night she was priceless. The last to speak at the table, Barbara told the assemblage of players and wives, "You've touched our hearts. Now go touch America's heart."
And with that, they did.
For a while, the finish looked anticlimactic. The board resembled the last Presidential election -- all red. A rout. But then a miracle happened. The momentum changed. And it came down to three matches, three birdie putts, three riveting sequences at the final green -- that "absolutely unbelievable" ending that Player mentioned.
For all his accomplishments, Jack has not been the same mythical captain that he was as a competitor. His first Ryder Cup was a thriller, but he last enjoyed victory in one of these international competitions in 1983. It took Lanny Wadkins staking a shot at PGA National 22 years ago for Jack to appreciate how close the global game had become since he stopped raking in major championships. The wedge Lanny hit was so clutch, the team presented him with a wheelbarrow. There is hidden meaning if you think about it hard enough.
In 1987, the U.S. Ryder Cup team Jack piloted in his hometown couldn't finish the 18th hole at Muirfield Village, and thus began a run of that put European golf on the map. Jack lost that one, the 1998 Presidents Cup when his team didn't want to be in Australia, and came away with a tie at Fancourt two years ago. So the "Win One For Jack" theme was prevalent in the American team room from the moment Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson picked up the Ping-Pong paddles last Tuesday night.
This was more than a symbolic show by the two superstars. For the remainder of the week, it was clear they were on the same page when it came to understanding what this Cup was all about. This was not going to be like Oakland Hills, when controversy erupted over Phil's equipment change, and when their body language from different sides of the tee boxes indicated that these were two men who really weren't destined to be in the same pairing.
At RTJ, Phil stepped up Wednesday night and presented the Nicklauses with a portrait of their grandson Jake, who died six months ago. It was going to be a hard moment to get through, but Phil said he could handle it. Then he nailed the speech. There weren't many dry eyes in the room. But there was Phil, who almost lost a wife and son in childbirth, speaking from the heart.
And when Phil won his opening match on Thursday afternoon, there was Tiger following him up the 18th hole, hugging him on the green, letting him -- and everybody else -- know that things were different. As the week evolved, it was clear that Tiger and Phil was not a put-on. While they want to cut each other's hearts out in stroke-play competition, they both stepped up as team leaders. Part of it was because of Jack. Part of it was because they detest failure.
Fred Couples told us that behind the scenes, the players laugh about what the press and public think they know about the relationship of the two stars. "But when you lose," he said, "you've got to come up with something to explain it."
Almost totally gray, but still smooth swinging, Couples might have a hard time touching his toes, but he can still dig down deep and produce at the toughest of times. His birdie on the 18th hole against Vijay Singh set the stage for a finish that rivaled the '99 Ryder Cup at Brookline for its heart-stopping pleasure. For a man who turns 46 on Oct. 3, this might have been the final bow for Freddie in team play until he's asked to be a captain. And all he did was take out the No. 2 player in the world.
This is Freddie's ninth Ryder or Presidents Cup team, the third one he made as a captain's pick. He is the type of guy everybody wants at their dinner table -- especially at RTJ, where he is an honorary member. He was given that honor after he led the United States to victories in 1994 and 1996. The replay of his 30-footer going in the hole to beat Vijay Singh nine years ago is already on the Presidents Cup highlight tape. Now there is a new one of Freddie making the putt to beat Singh, tossing his putter to the ground, raising both hands in the air, and thanking the gods for again allowing one of his putts to go in.
Watching this on a Jumbotron by the 13th tee was Chris DiMarco. Sent out last by Nicklaus, DiMarco realized how he finished could very well determine the Cup. He wanted to be in this position for that very reason, and over the next two holes he answered Stuart Appleby's birdies to stand 1-up going to 16.
One group ahead, Mickelson was locked up in a battle with the dangerous (and ridiculously long) Argentine, Angel Cabrera. Without DiMarco to lean on as his four-ball and foursomes partner, Mickelson found himself 1-down headed to the 18th hole after Cabrera, like Couples, finally made a putt at 17.
This is when it appeared Unfinished Business was about to become Unfinished Business II. If Mickelson could get a half point, America would have 17½ points and win the Cup. That's what Mickelson thought, but the rules dictated that all matches be played until a winner was decided. The look on Phil's face when told that his 4-footer for birdie had not locked up the Cup was priceless, but so was his reaction in the news conference with Nicklaus and the team.
"I thought that that was it," he said. "I thought that we had won, because I'm an idiot and did not read the rules of the game. Better yet, Captain Nicklaus told me on 15 there were no ties."
"I thought you understood that," Nicklaus said.
"You would think I would," said Mickelson.
Back and forth it went, each exchange triggering laughter from the team, no one enjoying it more than Woods, who sat next to Mickelson.
"I told you there was not going to be any ties; that you had to play to a conclusion," said Nicklaus. "And he misunderstood me, obviously."
"Yeah, I thought you meant, 'Don't go for the tie. Go for the win.'"
Again, more laughter from a group of guys holding beers and acting as though, for once, they had the brotherhood of a European Ryder Cup team.
"I got it," Mickelson finally said. "I got it."
And for once we all got it.
Mickelson birdied 18.
DiMarco birdied 18.
And Jack awarded him the wheelbarrow.
Tim Rosaforte is a senior writer for Golf World magazine
