Europe’s early birds deliver real hope to Darren and the fans
Jordan Spieth looked down and out after a missed putt at 17 yesterday morning. bag and pressure on Rose and Wood in their match.
However, after Brooks Koepka and Brandt Snedeker delivered a point, Spieth and Reed plunged into an alarming slide from their commanding lead on the Spaniards and instead captain Davis Love was left grateful to be hanging on to the half point his top pairing could salvage from the anchor game.
“It’s the Ryder Cup,” reasoned Sergio after the comeback.
“They were playing so well and we just kept saying: ‘Keep at it, keep at it, keep putting pressure on and maybe they will slow down’. “We still believed.” Even a man of Garcia’s vast experience in the Ryder Cup hadn’t felt this kind of pressure.
“I had to take a lot of breaths on 17 and 18 because emotions were so high,” he said before comparing Rafa to Seve Ballesteros. “Credit to my partner, he reminds me of that other Spanish guy a few years ago.”
Cabrera Bello, unbeaten in two matches in his first Ryder Cup, said that he never gave up hope.
“I don’t know how many birdies they had on the first 12 holes but it was a lot,” he said.
“But we hung in there and any match you halve after being four down, it’s going to be big.”
Spieth expressed his annoyance at letting such a big lead get away.
“We haven’t had a problem closing out before,” he said. “We just hit a few sloppy shots, I made a bad decision going for a hero shot when we could have won the match on 15.
“They played great. The way we played early on wins most matches but they stayed steady. We still salvaged a half although that’s disappointing.” wasn’t any scenario where I thought it wouldn’t be right. If you’re behind. you want to catch up and if you’re ahead, get further ahead.”
Sam took a back seat after 2002 but had an idea Paul McGinley would recall him for 2014 at Gleneagles, and also Darren Clarke for this year. The two Irishmen are on record as saying Sam was the best captain they played under, a verdict shared by Colin Montgomerie.
“It’s fantastic they say that,” Sam admitted. “Why is it? I don’t know. I guess I must have been pretty good!”
Captain Darren Clarke with Sam Torrance.