MEDINAH, Ill. — There’s something about Spaniards tilting at windmills.
At the start of the day, most golf fans reckoned that European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal had the same chance of succeeding as the mythical Don Quixote. Olazabal left the course Saturday night saying defiantly, “I still believe,’” but few people beyond his staff and the dozen golfers on his squad were with him.
Europe trailed 10-6 heading into the Sunday’s dozen singles matches, a deficit made up only once before, and that was by a U.S. team playing in front of a raucous home crowd in what became known as the “Battle of Brookline” in 1999.
So order your copy of the “Miracle at Medinah” video now. This is how it will unfold:
___
11:07 a.m.
Olazabal’s strategy to front-load the lineup with his hottest players looked smarter as the day wore on. But it paid immediate dividends, too.
Luke Donald teed off first in the opening match against Bubba Watson, and although the Englishman was born in Hertfordshire, he’s called Chicago home since arriving at Northwestern University on a golf scholarship more than a dozen years ago. What sounded like a scattering of “boos” were actually cries of “Luuuuke!” for a guy the hometown galleries always treated like a local hero.
Donald cracked his drive down the middle of the fairway. Watson, who worked the grandstands into a frenzy the two previous days before hitting his tee shot to the crowd’s full-throated roar, tried the trick a third time. The left-hander hooked his drive into the gallery on the right.
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11:14 a.m.
Fellow Englishman Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson were set to start when an unmarked, black state police car zoomed up to Medinah’s ornate, Byzantine-styled clubhouse and Rory McIlroy jumped out. The European star’s match was scheduled to go off in 11 minutes. Back at the team hotel, McIlroy had been watching The Golf Channel, which showed his 11:25 tee time here in the Central Time Zone as 12:25 EASTERN.
McIlroy was never big on warming up. But this was ridiculous.
“Put my shoes on, a couple of putts, just your average sort of warm-up,” he would chuckle after winning his match against Keegan Bradley, the breakout star on the U.S. side. “It was probably a really good thing I didn’t have to think about it too much.”
___
11:25 a.m.
McIlroy hits his opening drive into a tangle of TV cables well off the right side of the No. 1 fairway.
___
1:04 p.m.
Tiger Woods tees off against Italian Francesco Molinari with most viewers still asking the same question they slept on overnight: “What was U.S. captain Davis Love III thinking when he put the once-(and sometimes-still) best golfer on the planet out in the 12th and final match?”
___
1:07 p.m.
Exactly an hour into the matches, Europe gets its nose in front, leading 4-2, with five matches even.
Donald, who never trailed after the first hole, is already 2 up. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who trailed from the start against Zach Johnson, is 3 down. The four Europeans who contributed zero points in the first two days — German Martin Kaymer and Swede Peter Hanson played only once — are holding their own. Scot Paul Lawrie is already 2 up en route to the day’s biggest beating, a 5-and-3 win over Brandt Snedeker.
At the start of the day, most golf fans reckoned that European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal had the same chance of succeeding as the mythical Don Quixote. Olazabal left the course Saturday night saying defiantly, “I still believe,’” but few people beyond his staff and the dozen golfers on his squad were with him.
Europe trailed 10-6 heading into the Sunday’s dozen singles matches, a deficit made up only once before, and that was by a U.S. team playing in front of a raucous home crowd in what became known as the “Battle of Brookline” in 1999.
So order your copy of the “Miracle at Medinah” video now. This is how it will unfold:
___
11:07 a.m.
Olazabal’s strategy to front-load the lineup with his hottest players looked smarter as the day wore on. But it paid immediate dividends, too.
Luke Donald teed off first in the opening match against Bubba Watson, and although the Englishman was born in Hertfordshire, he’s called Chicago home since arriving at Northwestern University on a golf scholarship more than a dozen years ago. What sounded like a scattering of “boos” were actually cries of “Luuuuke!” for a guy the hometown galleries always treated like a local hero.
Donald cracked his drive down the middle of the fairway. Watson, who worked the grandstands into a frenzy the two previous days before hitting his tee shot to the crowd’s full-throated roar, tried the trick a third time. The left-hander hooked his drive into the gallery on the right.
___
11:14 a.m.
Fellow Englishman Ian Poulter and Webb Simpson were set to start when an unmarked, black state police car zoomed up to Medinah’s ornate, Byzantine-styled clubhouse and Rory McIlroy jumped out. The European star’s match was scheduled to go off in 11 minutes. Back at the team hotel, McIlroy had been watching The Golf Channel, which showed his 11:25 tee time here in the Central Time Zone as 12:25 EASTERN.
McIlroy was never big on warming up. But this was ridiculous.
“Put my shoes on, a couple of putts, just your average sort of warm-up,” he would chuckle after winning his match against Keegan Bradley, the breakout star on the U.S. side. “It was probably a really good thing I didn’t have to think about it too much.”
___
11:25 a.m.
McIlroy hits his opening drive into a tangle of TV cables well off the right side of the No. 1 fairway.
___
1:04 p.m.
Tiger Woods tees off against Italian Francesco Molinari with most viewers still asking the same question they slept on overnight: “What was U.S. captain Davis Love III thinking when he put the once-(and sometimes-still) best golfer on the planet out in the 12th and final match?”
___
1:07 p.m.
Exactly an hour into the matches, Europe gets its nose in front, leading 4-2, with five matches even.
Donald, who never trailed after the first hole, is already 2 up. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who trailed from the start against Zach Johnson, is 3 down. The four Europeans who contributed zero points in the first two days — German Martin Kaymer and Swede Peter Hanson played only once — are holding their own. Scot Paul Lawrie is already 2 up en route to the day’s biggest beating, a 5-and-3 win over Brandt Snedeker.