The best sports year since 1975 is about to get even better. For
the first time since 1999, golf’s Ryder Cup is going to be a
barn-burner — and for the first time since 1999, the United States
team will win. And in so doing, it will remind us of how sports,
rightly played, can ennoble.
First, a quick reminder of what happened in 1975. In March, John
Wooden won his record 12th and final NCAA basketball championship
with his UCLA Bruins, first beating former assistant Denny Crum’s
Louisville Cardinals in overtime and then beating a powerful
Kentucky squad that two rounds earlier had upset Bobby Knight’s
undefeated Indiana Hoosiers. In April, in what up until then was
certainly the most gripping Masters ever, Jack Nicklaus held off
Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in an incredibly epic battle. In
July, in a match fraught with underlying tensions about patriotism
(Arthur Ashe) and alleged lack thereof (Jimmy Connors wouldn’t play
for the Davis Cup team), the elegant Ashe out-thought and
out-finessed the brash Connors at Wimbledon. Also that month, in
what still may be the most remembered thoroughbred match race of
all time, the filly Ruffian broke down while running stride for
stride with the powerful Foolish Pleasure. And in October, in what
is still the greatest World Series ever played, Cincinnati’s Big
Red Machine eked out a win in seven games over one of the most
entertaining Boston Red Sox teams of all time. That same month,
what many consider the greatest boxing match ever took place, with
Muhammad Ali outlasting a brave Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in
Manila. In events of less raw excitement but still noteworthy, the
Pittsburgh Steelers won the first of their record four Super Bowls
in six years, Bjorn Borg made his first real mark in tennis by
winning the French Open, Tom Watson won his first major in golf,
the British Open, and Chris Evert won two tennis majors,
establishing her undisputed dominance of the sport.
But 2008 already is on the verge of topping that record. In
January, in what is indisputably one of the four best Super Bowls
of all time, and maybe the best ever, the single greatest play ever
(considering all the circumstances) — the head-cradled catch by
David Tyree of an Eli Manning pass — on the game’s last drive
helped end the amazing, undefeated season of the New England
Patriots. In April, the NCAA men’s b-ball tourney went to overtime
after a heart-stopping regulation finish, with Kansas taking the
title over Memphis State. In June, what surely is the most
thrill-a-minute U.S. Open in history ended with a 91st-hole win by
Tiger Woods hobbling on a fractured leg and a bum knee, over a
phenomenally gutsy Rocco Mediate. The greatest tennis match of all
time followed in July, with Rafael Nadal stunning the great Roger
Federer in a matchless display of athleticism. Then came August’s
Olympics, with Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals, including the two
comeback wins for the ages — Phelps in the butterfly and Jason
Lezak in the freestyle relay.
These events have taken our breaths away.
Now, today, comes the Ryder Cup. For once, the U.S. team is a
decided underdog. Tiger Woods is still on the mend, and thus not
playing. Team rookies — Anthony Kim, Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes,
Hunter Mahan, Kenny Perry, Ben Curtis, and Steve Stricker — will
be carrying an unusual part of the weight. And yet… and yet….
Something tells me this is a team ready for victory.
THE TRUTH IS, Woods has seemed like a wet blanket in every Ryder
Cup competition, and his teammates always seem to wait around for
him to carry them on his shoulders. With him sitting home, Phil
Mickelson can concentrate on beating the Europeans rather than
trying to outpoint Tiger. Phil is, finally, ready to lead. He also
likes the Valhalla course, where he has twice contended for PGA
titles and which fits well his high-risk game.
Perry almost won the 1996 PGA there, and he and J.B. Holmes are
both Kentuckians playing a course with which both are quite
familiar and that both of them love. Former British Open champion
Curtis is a real gamer who has been on a months-long hot streak.
Jim Furyk is money in the bank, and Stricker has a great career
record in match play. And then there is Justin Leonard, the
comeback hero from the last U.S. victory, in 1999, who has played
marvelously all year long and who may well be a good-luck charm.
Leonard is one of those rare birds who plays best from behind.
Twice he has won tournaments after starting the final round five
strokes back — one of them the semi-major Tournament Players
Championship — and another time he started the final round of the
British Open five strokes back and fought his way into a playoff
before losing.
Against them is arrayed a European squad with more front-line
star power (the world’s two hottest golfers, Ireland’s Padraig
Harrington and Spain’s Sergio Garcia) and a much better reputation
for effective teamwork. But captain Nick Faldo erred badly with his
captain’s picks, leaving off what had in the past been and would
have been again the heart and spine of his team — respectively,
Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and Scotland’s Ryder Cup hero of
heroes Colin Montgomerie. For all his humor as an announcer, Faldo
is not a real “people person,” not a guy to inspire fierce loyalty,
while American captain Paul Azinger is the sort of blood-and-guts,
rally-around-him kind of guy who is beloved by his team members and
smart enough to find any angle, any edge, that will help his
American charges beat their nemesis.
Watch for the Americans to pull together when it counts the
most, while the Euros start bickering among themselves just when
triumph seems to be almost in their grasp.
AND WHY DOES this all matter? Because, just in the nick of time,
Americans might finally be toughening up again. Just when economic
times seem fraught with risk, an underdog team can remind Americans
that we are by nature winners. And we can do it in such a way that
brings honor, in a game famous for sportsmanship, led by a cancer
survivor who grew up a military brat and who loves country more
than self.
In 1999, after surviving cancer, Azinger had not won a
tournament for six years. His best friend, Payne Stewart, died in
an airplane mishap, and Azinger gave one of the most poignant
eulogies I’ve ever heard. And in his very first tournament
thereafter, Z-man went to Hawaii and lapped the field for his first
and only post-cancer tour win, in honor of his friend Stewart. This
is a man who rises to the occasion. This is the kind of man who,
like Captain Ben Crenshaw in 1999, breathes the air of unseen
spirits. This is the kind of man who fights, and who won’t give in,
and who wins. And this weekend, in a way no fiction writer could
dream of, Azinger will help his inexperienced team find their own
inner strengths and win a reeling country’s hearts.
The Cup is coming home to America. It’s a gimme.
