Dejected American players choke back the tears

ONE look along the line of dejected faces sitting reluctantly before the media last night at Celtic Manor told you everything you needed to know about how deeply this American team cared about the Ryder Cup.

So often lambasted in the wake of European success for not sharing the same passion for the event as their rivals, that charge will not be levelled against Corey Pavin’s 12 players having narrowly come up short in their bid to retain the Samuel Ryder Trophy.

“Whatever you all thought in the past, whatever you’ve all written in the past, it’s your observations, the way you feel,” said US playing veteran Jim Furyk, speaking on behalf of his team.

“We know what it means. I’m glad maybe finally you’ve all figured it out.”

At that his team-mates, a couple teary-eyed, applauded Furyk, who then added: “And I’m sorry it’s in this way.”

Furyk admitted the Ryder Cup was both his favourite event and the only one that’s made him cry with either joy or sorrow. And one can imagine that Hunter Mahan feels the same way. The Texan was a revelation on his debut in 2008 at Valhalla and this time around he was the one who was beating himself up the most over the defeat, his fluffed chip shot from just off the 17th green, leading eventually to the concession of Graeme McDowell’s putt in the final singles match that handed the cup back to Europe.

Mahan was clearly distraught at the outcome but was nonetheless called on to speak first among the players in making an opening comment. “Well,” he gulped, “I’m just proud to be a part of this team. It’s a close team, and...”

And, that was it.

His voice having trailed off, the red-eyed Mahan wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and attempted a pause to gather his emotions that failed to be effective.

It was Phil Mickelson, sitting next to Mahan, that came to the rescue, taking over at the microphone and sharing the blame amongst the 12 players.

Furyk, the most eloquent member of the American team, picked up on Mickelson’s point.

“What we have to remember is we won as a team at Valhalla, and we lose as a team. It doesn’t ride on one person.

“We are going to go together as a team here, and it falls on all of us.”

Captain Corey Pavin, a little red-eyed himself after an emotional week that seemed to catch up with him at the closing ceremony, spoke of his pride at the way his players rose to the challenge of trying to atone for a disastrous Sunday when Europe regained the initiative with a 5½ to ½ session victory that put the US team three points down heading into yesterday’s singles.

“As I’ve told them all week, they are playing for each other,” Pavin said after Team USA had won the singles 7-5 but lost the Ryder Cup. “We are a team and I was proud of every one of them and how they played during this week, how they fought, how they kept at it out there. There were many points, it seemed this week, that momentum was going against us, and they kept fighting back and fighting back. We nearly got there today. It wasn’t quite enough.”