EUROPE captured the Ryder Cup in this corner of Michigan yesterday in a way that demonstrated why this competition thrills and entrances so many inside and outside the game. As Europe flags waved in the late afternoon sunshine to acknowledge the humbling of a powerful United States team by a record margin of 18½-9½, so the shouts for Bernhard Langer, the Europe captain, and Colin Montgomerie, their dominant personality, were deafening.
It is surely the first time that the German, a stoical, unemotional man from a small town near Munich, has had hundreds of loud British voices hymning him to skies. “There’s only one Bernhard Langer,” they sang again and again and again.
Lee Westwood’s first singles victory in the four Ryder Cups in which he has competed ensured that Europe would hold the trophy for the fourth time in the past five events. Westwood beat Kenny Perry on the last green, but it was Montgomerie moments later who sealed the outcome of the 35th Ryder Cup.
Four months ago the Scot was at the lowest ebb of his life. He had separated from his wife, could hardly play golf and tears always seemed to be close to his eyes. Now, on the green where moments earlier he had holed a putt to defeat David Toms, Montgomerie dropped his putter, raised his arms and allowed a huge smile to spread across his face before he was embraced by Langer and his team-mates.
“We had strength at the top, in the middle and at the bottom,” Montgomerie said. “Doesn’t matter that I did this. It was a team event.”
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Montgomerie had kick-started the Europe team by making birdie at the first hole of the first match on the opening day and it was fitting that to him should fall the singular honour of delivering the last significant stroke of it as well.
In 1951, Ben Hogan won the US Open at Oakland Hills and described this magnificent course as “a monster”, saying that he was glad to have brought it to its knees. Throughout the three days of this event, Europe’s players, led by Montgomerie — who extended his astonishing record of never having lost in the singles to seven matches — and Sergio García, who was unbeaten, demonstrated that they had the means of bringing their opponents to their knees.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III and Jim Furyk started the singles with a fierce onslaught on Paul Casey, García, Darren Clarke and David Howell and there were minutes, perhaps even an hour, of extreme concern before García led the fightback.
García is 24 yet competing in his third Ryder Cup and the point he delivered by beating Phil Mickelson may have been one of the most precious of all. The Spaniard recovered from being two down after eight holes to beat Mickelson on the 16th. This just about put the cap on it for the Masters champion, who won only one point from his four matches. Mickelson’s mishaps were summed up when he appeared to thin his approach shot to the 16th so that his ball landed on the putting surface and then raced off into the adjoining pond.
Once García had stemmed the US tide and Montgomerie had come in with his victory, it was left to Thomas Levet and Ian Poulter to record their first points and make sure that every Europe player scored at least one point. Then Paul McGinley, playing at the end of the field, defeated Stewart Cink and Padraig Harrington beat Jay Haas, fully an hour after the contest had been won.
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Starting with victory at The Belfry in 1985, Europe have won the trophy on six of the ten occasions and one match has been tied. The latest triumph will undoubtedly prompt more heart-searching in the United States as officials and supporters strive to understand why it is that their star performers, whose world rankings are so much higher, can be humbled again and again by players of lesser ability.
It will also prompt an outpouring of criticism for Hal Sutton, the United States captain. Last week Sutton said that the event would be won by the team that putted better. He was right. Europe’s not-so-secret weapons were that Langer was a more skilful tactician, that he created a better team spirit and that there was never any likelihood of Langer pairing two men such as Woods and Mickelson , who did not like each other.
It was Langer’s victory as much as it was his players’.