Straffan, Ireland – If anything has gone right for the U.S. team during the 36th Ryder Cup, it has been the performance of the team’s rookies.
While big American guns Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Chris DiMarco have struggled over the opening two days of play, two of the first-timers, Zach Johnson and J.J. Henry, have bolstered the U.S. with impressive performances.
Paired with Stewart Cink, Henry has gained a half-point for the United States in each of his two matches and registered the team’s only eagle. Johnson, who paired with Chad Campbell to halve his Cup debut Friday, was arguably the team’s best player Saturday, making seven birdies in his fourball match with Scott Verplank to provide the visitors’ only full point from the morning session.
“He woke me up last night, going, ‘Dude, we’re playing together!”‘ Verplank said. “He woke me up to tell me that he wanted to hit first. And after the first two or three holes, I was all over that. All I did was rub massage oil on his back and give him water and pat his forehead.
“Zach played just super, but we were a team out there. Hey, I won one hole with a par, so I had that going for me.”
A third American rookie, Vaughn Taylor, registered half a point Saturday in his initial Cup appearance, pairing with Campbell to halve Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood. Brett Wetterich, the final member of the U.S. rookie quartet, lost with David Toms to Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal in Friday’s fourballs. He will face David Howell in the ninth of today’s 12 singles matches.
Big Brother’s listening
There was a mini controversy Saturday, with some U.S. players expressing unhappiness with NBC. The situation stemmed from comments made by the network’s personnel, including analyst Johnny Miller. Miller, who earlier had called the American team the worst in Ryder Cup history, was particularly dismissive of wild-card pick Verplank.
While the criticisms were made during commercial breaks and didn’t go out over the airwaves during the telecast in America, they could still be heard, via raw feeds, in assorted places at the K Club, including the Americans’ team room.
When on-course correspondent Roger Maltbie notified his co-workers of that fact, much of the chirping stopped, except for Miller. When NBC resumed broadcasting, Miller still came down hard on Verplank and the Americans’ play, albeit in not quite so biting terms.
Asked about the criticism, Verplank was equally piercing.
“I’m not surprised, but I don’t think there’s a player here who listens to what he has to say,” Verplank said of Miller. As for the idea of the U.S. team using Miller’s words as a motivational tool heading into today’s singles play, the golfer added, “He’s not important enough for Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson or anybody to care about what he thinks.”
Numbers game
Stewart Cink and Johnson were drilled 5 and 4 in a foursomes match by Howell and Paul Casey. It was the biggest margin of victory in any of the 16 matches. The runaway fittingly ended when Casey made a hole-in-one on the 213-yard, par-3 14th. It was just the fifth ace in Cup competition, the first since Howard Clark at Oak Hill in 1995. It also marked the first time a match was won with an ace.
With two losses Saturday, Mickelson’s record in his last 10 matches is 1-8-2. … Garcia has won nine straight Ryder Cup matches, tying the record set by Olazabal in 1989 and 1991. In beating Mickelson and Toms, Garcia and Luke Donald set a record by winning their fourth straight foursomes match together.
