Super Sergio points the way again

SERGIO GARCIA arrived at the Ryder Cup insisting that he would "rather lose my singles match and win the Ryder Cup than win it and lose the Ryder Cup."

And as the excitement increased almost to breaking point in the scorching Detroit sunshine yesterday, that pre-match prognosis became more of a prediction.

With the Americans putting on the pressure in the early matches, Garcia found himself in arrears of two against Phil Mickelson through eight holes. At that point, the scoreboard was awash with red and it was looking increasingly fraught for Bernhard Langer's men.

But Garcia was determined to be the star performer in this Ryder Cup and produced a sensational performance over the next couple of hours to turn that deficit into a marvellous 3 and 2 victory.

He had begun on Friday with two blistering wins at the side of Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, with whom he played a great foursome on Saturday which ended in a half when for a time it looked all over an American success.

He then went out in the afternoon with Donald and duly defeated Jim Furyk and Fred Funk.

So Garcia sallied forth in yesterday's singles with 3½ points to his credit and up against Phil Mickelson, who desperately needed to produce a result having been the butt of almost endless criticism, not least from his captain Hal Sutton, who benched him on Saturday morning.

He did produce his first point of the match in partnership with David Toms on Saturday afternoon, but he still had the jibes of the fans (and, privately, one or two team-mates) ringing in his ears for his failure to practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and for changing his wooden clubs from Titleist to Callaway only a fortnight ago.

Asked if he would have done such a thing so close to the Ryder Cup, Sutton replied scathingly: "Definitely not."

You could hardly blame Americans for being cheesed off with Phil as they recalled the number of amazingly poor shots he hit during the week, not least the carved drive on Friday that cost himself and Woods the 18th hole and match against Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie.

"Lefty" certainly got off to the right start, due as much to his opponent's waywardness and shaky putter as to any brilliance on his own part. Garcia bogeyed the short 3rd and took five to his opponent's birdie three at the 8th but that was as good as it got for Phil.

The Spaniard won back the short 9th in front of the clubhouse with a birdie two and also birdied the 10th to level the match. By now you could see the confidence and self belief pouring out of every inch of Sergio's lean frame.

A third successive birdie at 11 moved him in front for the first time and now it was time for Mickelson to force the pace.

In doing so, he paid a heavy price at the 13th. With Garcia on the green but a good 40 feet below the hole, Mickelson charged his approach over the flag but also over the green into an impossible clump of thick, matted rough.

His recovery trickled all the way back down the front of the green, Sergio comfortably two putted and moved two in front with five to play. By now it was all going from bad to worse for Mickelson. He had to work for his halves at 14 and 15 and then came utter disaster at the right hand dogleg 16th with the lake dangerously located to the right of the green.

With Garcia short in two, having driven into the rough, the door was open for the left-hander. For some reason best known to himself, he opted to play a links style pitch and run instead of the standard lofted wedge approach. He pulled it and inevitably it wound up in the water.

At this very moment, Tiger Woods was approaching Mickelson to offer encouragement, having just finished off his match against Paul Casey, but stopped in his tracks when he saw what was happening.

This was Garcia's first singles win in the Ryder Cup and brought his number of points this week to 4 1/2.

No wonder the 24-year-old Spaniard was overjoyed.

"I don't care about this being my first singles win. The important thing is that the team wins," he said.

"I feel I played really well all week and even if I didn't start very well today, I got it right round the turn and just after with three birdies from the 8th and nearly another at the 12th. "

The man of the 35th Ryder Cup match? Sergio Garcia of course.