LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Finally, the Americans figured it out.
They didn’t all need to come from the same background, or play a similar style of golf, or even have the best player in the world leading them into the Ryder Cup.
They just needed some passion, a little camaraderie and a sense of purpose.
So, it was a country boy from Florida’s Panhandle who kept everyone in stitches. It was a brash kid from L.A. who stared down one of Europe’s superstars. It was two native sons of Kentucky who brought the sort of desire that only comes from playing in front of the home folks.
Tiger Woods wasn’t at Valhalla. But Boo Weekley was. So were Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes.
Sunday evening, they joined hands on the balcony of the clubhouse at Valhalla Golf Club, sprayed champagne on the crowd below and celebrated the Ryder Cup’s return to this side of the Atlantic.
With Woods back home in Florida recovering from knee surgery, the Americans turned to an unlikely band of seeming misfits to wrest the gold chalice away from Europe for the first time since 1999.
“This is a week I’ll never forget,” said Perry, at 48 the oldest member of the team. “It’s the greatest experience of my life.”
Kim set the tone by winning the first match of the day in a rout. Perry, Weekley and Holmes each added a point to the U.S. cause. When it was done, the Americans had romped to a 16 1/2-11 1/2 victory that ended a streak of three straight European wins.
Their records over three days were stunning: Kim and Perry each went 2-1-1; Weekley and Holmes both went 2-0-1. Together, they had a hand in 10 1/2 points.
“That was more excitement than I’ve had in a loooooong time,” said Weekley, who certainly came out of the week as an American folk hero — and surefire target of the Europeans should he make the team in 2010. “It’s hard to describe. It’s not all sank in yet.”
As one Ryder Cup loss after another piled up, five of the last six in all, the Americans were accused of being too robotic, too individualistic when it came to team golf. There was no doubt they had most of the best players, but they were a disjointed, disparate bunch when joined as one.
That all changed this weekend.
At the very first hole, Weekley galloped down the fairway like Happy Gilmore after hitting his tee shot, using his driver as a toy horse while whipping his behind. The gallery roared with delight.
Hard to imagine Woods doing anything like that.
Weekley revved up the crowds all weekend — so much so that Europe’s Lee Westwood complained about him broaching the lines of proper decorum — but there’s little doubt from all those chants of “Boooooooo!” that American golf has its new John Daly.
“I kind of took it on my own,” said Weekley, who beat Oliver Wilson 4 and 2.
Kim broke out one of his gaudy belt buckles, one bejeweled in red, white and blue with the letters “USA,” and conceded nothing to Sergio Garcia — not even 2-foot putts on the way to a 5-and-4 win.
No event — not even a major — meant more to Perry than this one.
He never let up in a 3-and-2 win over Henrik Stenson, who had been one of Europe’s best in the match-play format. When it was done, Perry’s overall-clad father hugged him along the 16th green.
“I said this was going to define my career,” Perry said. “You know what? This made my career.”
Jim Furyk actually clinched the win when Miguel Angel Jimenez conceded a putt on the 17th hole. But the Americans accomplished as a team what no one player could by himself.
Tiger who?
