Monty wraps up Ryder romp

COLIN Montgomerie stood there with tears in his eyes, sighed deeply and pondered how every cloud, no matter how black, has a silver lining.

There he was winning the point that clinched Europe’s fourth Ryder Cup win in five matches as he used all his experience and skill to fashion victory on the 18th green over David Toms and ensure the 14½ points his side needed to beat the Americans.

There would be many more to come (the final result was a record 18½ -9½ in Europe’s favour) but Monty was the man of the moment and few could begrudge him his moment in the sun.

“Monty, Monty,” roared the outnumbered European fans as the dumbfounded Yanks were silenced.

Then it was “Ole, Ole, Ole” as the Euros turned Oakland Hills into a joyous playground.

Montgomerie has been through a lot this year. Losing his wife, Eimear, in early summer shook the 40-year-old Scot to his roots and he was a broken man for a time. But he gradually pulled himself together and even the recent “quickie divorce” couldn’t divert him from his pledge to keep the Ryder Cup in Europe.

“It’s been a very difficult time for me and this is probably a more emotional time for me than the other members of the team,” he said.

“It seemed as if half of Scotland and Ireland was out there today and the support we got was absolutely fantastic. The difference this time is that we had strength top, middle and bottom.”

Spaniard Sergio Garcia emerged as man of the match with 4½ points from a possible five and right behind him was Lee Westwood.

His partnership with Garcia was invaluable and a real team effort on the part of the Englishman for it’s not everybody that likes to partner Sergio.

The foursomes victory for David Howell and Paul Casey in Saturday’s crucial foursome must never be underestimated, while Thomas Levet and Ian Poulter both won their singles and Luke Donald was an outstanding contributor in the foursomes.

For Ireland, it was a Ryder Cup that we will recall with pride. Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie were an inspired fourball pairing and Padraig also did his stuff with both Monty and fellow Irishman Paul McGinley in the foursomes.

Harrington enjoyed a dramatic finish to the proceedings when he rattled in a 20-footer on the 18th to see off Jay Haas.Then there was McGinley, the man who battled like no other to get into the side and then performed heroics in partnering Harrington to a 4 and 3 thrashing of Tiger Woods and Davis Love in Saturday’s foursomes and then toppled Stewart Cink by 3 and 2 in the singles.

Darren Clarke remains as unpredictable as ever. He staged a dramatic fight-back to catch Love yesterday, only to miss a yard long putt on the last and settled for a half. But there were few if any better ball strikers in the match and Clarke and Miguel-Angel Jimenez will have happy memories of their week in Michigan. Having played themselves into an apparently unassailable position with a magnificent performance in Saturday’s foursomes which sent them into the singles 11-5 ahead and needing only 3½ points from the 12 singles to win the match, Europe initially made heavy weather of finishing off the job.

Tiger Woods took control against Paul Casey, Mickelson and Davis Love III moved two ahead of Garcia and Darren Clarke, and Jim Furyk literally ran away from David Howell.

Shades of Brookline 1999 when the Americans staged the biggest comeback in Ryder Cup history were gaining momentum from the very outset with the Euros hardly getting a look in. Not so this time.

Woods and Furyk duly finished off the business but it was beyond the capacity of Mickelson, who collapsed ignominiously against Garcia, and Love, who tied with Clarke, to do so. Europe ever so gradually steadied the ship with Lee Westwood accounting for Kenny Perry in a veritable dogfight that ended on the 18th. That brought Europe the 14 points they needed to retain the title with eight matches still out on the course.

Could anything have been more decisive? Or could anything have been more fitting than Colin Montgomerie clinching the outright win when he held off David Toms to win on the home green.

All week the Europeans have been boasting about the new-found strength in depth and they certainly made that point yesterday, even if Luke Donald did join Howell at the receiving end of a heavy beating from Chad Campbell.

Westwood found Kenny Perry more of a handful than we might have expected but he got the job done, as did Montgomerie.

Langer had decided in his wisdom to place Harrington and McGinley in the anchor positions of 11 and 12.

They took control of their matches against Jay Haas and Stewart Cink to alleviate any butterflies their team-mates might have been experiencing.

Heroes all and how the Europeans celebrated. Imagine stuffing the Yanks by double scores in their own backyard!