Americans hail the 'Penguin'

Golf fans in New York were waking today to an unwelcome reminder of America’s final-day slump and Europe’s Ryder Cup heroics.

There was no Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson on the front page of the New York Times, as picture editors might have anticipated.

Instead it was Irishman Paul McGinley, in his victory leap, who featured in a colour photo at the foot of the page, accompanied by the headline ‘Europeans Flying High’.

The Americans do not rate McGinley’s victory dance, described by the Washington Post as “like a penguin in a great hurry to cross an ice floe”, but they gave due credit to his golf.

Much of the credit for yesterday’s win at The Belfry was put down down to skipper Sam Torrance and his inspired management of the singles order.

“The United States Ryder Cup team was rocked by one emotional wave after another, trapped in a storm from which it never escaped,” reported their golf writer Clifton Browne.

“Sam Torrance, the European captain, spun a clever web, and the American team could not escape. Putting his top eight players in the first eight of the 12 singles matches, Torrance stacked the deck early and dealt his team a winning hand.”

The Washington Post paid their own dues to Torrance and his 12-man team.

But there was no front page story in the capital, with Europe’s triumph confined to the sports supplement where it was their headline piece.

“Europe’s Glorious Day” blazed the front page, with the sub-headline “Unbeaten Montgomerie Paves Way to Upset of Heavily Favored Americans”.

Mid-air McGinley again featured prominently, with his picture taking up almost half the broadsheet front page.

“For 40 years, the health of any sport has been tied to its appeal on television,” wrote Thomas Boswell.

“The prime cause for golf’s explosion in popularity is the arrival of Tiger Woods, probably the world’s best athlete. But another huge reason was on display yesterday. The Ryder Cup on TV – with as many as 12 matches in progress simultaneously – is as shocking, kaleidoscopic and dramatic as any event in sports.”

Comparing the biennial competition to the highlights of the gridiron and baseball seasons, the Super Bowl and World Series, Boswell decided it was as good as a dead heat.

The ‘Penguin’ also made the front page of the Boston Globe.

“Oh, how they played. Oh, how they responded to the huge galleries that chanted and sang and screamed out support at every tee box, along every fairway, and at every green. Oh, how they humbled an American team that was able to win just two of the 12 matches,” wrote Jim McCabe.

“He had his anchors in place, only captain Curtis Strange didn’t get to use them. His US ship of golfers had cruised yesterday without all hands on deck for the crucial day.”

Despite a heavy Sunday of Major League and NFL fixtures, the defeat of Strange’s team dominated above all else.

USA Today looked into the mystery of how such a strong dozen players could come undone at the hands of supposedly much weaker opponents.

They put it down to Torrance, a man who as a player never won a Major.

“The most important club used to win the Ryder Cup on Sunday wasn’t a putter or a driver. It was the pencil of European captain Sam Torrance,” explained USA Today’s Jerry Potter.

There was little shame in defeat, there were no calls for Strange to resign immediately and get back to the Senior Tour.

For this year at least, after the terrorist attacks of last September, the Ryder Cup even took the menacing lead out of the pencils of the most ardent of golf critics.