U.S. Finds Water in Ryder Cup : In 14-14 Tie, American Chances to Win Go Kerplunk

Jack Nicklaus was not present Sunday at The Belfry, but the American players who were here as the 28th Ryder Cup sizzled and then fizzled to an anticlimactic conclusion no doubt could hear his words burning their ears.

Nicklaus long has contended that pros on the U.S. tour today have a tendency to wilt under pressure because they so seldom experience it. Translation: The modern tour is so lucrative that players can win hundreds of thousands of dollars without having to win a tournament.

For the third straight time since 1985, the United States did not win this biennial tournament. Neither did it lose, finishing seven rounds of golf over three days in a 14-14 tie with the Europeans.

That is only the second time that the competition has ended in a tie since 1927, when an English seed merchant named Sam Ryder donated the small gold cup.

The result left both sides with an empty feeling, particularly the Americans. Even though they have a substantial lead in the series, 21-5-2, the Europeans, as a result of the tie, retain the cup in their tour headquarters at The Belfry.

The Americans were so, so close to taking it home with them today on the Concorde. Trailing, 9-7, after two days of alternate-shot and best-ball play, they entered Sunday’s 12 individual matches needing 7 1/2 points for the championship. Teams receive a point for a victory, a half-point for a tie.

About halfway into Sunday’s round, it appeared as if they would win all the matches they needed and then some. They were ahead in nine and tied in another. So desperate was the situation for the Europeans that a television commentator for the British Broadcasting Company began to make excuses.

With no rain, or even clouds in the sky, no wind and temperatures in the 70s, how, he asked, could anyone expect the Europeans to win? It might have been the first time anyone has used the excuse that the weather was too good.

But with no water coming from above on the tournament’s first rainless day, the Americans went looking for it.

They found it on the 18th hole.

One of the Americans who was leading at the time was Paul Azinger, a turn of events that stunned the Europeans. That was not because they disrespect Azinger but because they have so much respect for the man he was leading, Seve Ballesteros of Spain.

In a match in which the score changed on 11 of the first 15 holes, Azinger had a one-hole lead going to the par 4, 474-yard 18th and needed only to equal Ballesteros’ score on the hole to win.

So what did Azinger do? He hit his drive into the water about 250 yards off the tee.

Fortunately for him, Ballesteros hit his drive into the right rough and then knocked his second shot into the water fronting the green. Both bogied, good enough for Azinger to win the match.

That gave the Americans a 3-0 lead for the day. Although Azinger was in the first pair to tee off, two of his teammates, Tom Kite and Chip Beck, made short work of their opponents.

Kite beat England’s Howard Clark, 8 and 7, the most lopsided Ryder Cup result since 1953. In only 11 holes, Kite had six birdies and might have made another if the hole had not been conceded.

Next up on the 18th tee was PGA champion Payne Stewart, who was even with Spain’s Jose-Maria Olazabol. Into the water went Stewart’s drive, soon followed by Stewart. He pulled his rain-suit over his trademark knickers and tried three times with his water wedge to hit the ball out, never getting farther than the bank before he conceded the hole and the match to Olazabol.

Then came British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia, who was even in his match with Northern Ireland’s Ronan Rafferty, the leading money winner this year on the European tour.

Calcavecchia hit his drive into the water, took a drop onto the fairway and hit another shot into the water that guards the green.

Rafferty, who did not even have to hit a second shot before the hole was conceded to him, tried to console Calcavecchia but could not find the words.

“What could you say?” he asked later. “He obviously choked.”

This has become a recurring Ryder Cup nightmare for the U.S.

Europe won for the first time since 1957 at The Belfry four years ago, Englishman Sam Torrance clinching the victory when Andy North hit his tee shot into the water on the 18th.

But the water does not have to be at The Belfry to sink the Americans. Three of them hit their drives into the water on the 18th two years ago at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, as Europe claimed a two-point victory.

You might think that the Americans’ non-playing captain, Ray Floyd, would have warned his players about the water on the 18th Sunday, but what could he say?

Four years ago at The Belfry, he lost his individual match when he went into the water on the 18th.

“It’s the pressure,” Floyd said Sunday. “ . . . This is like major-championship pressure.”

After England’s Mark James beat Mark O’Meara, 3 and 2, the Europeans suddenly were in a 3-3 tie with the Americans and needed only two more points to clinch a tie.

With Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Jr. and Fred Couples tied on the 18th fairway, European captain Tony Jacklin told his man, “If you put him under pressure, I promise you you’ll win.”

O’Connor hit his second shot about four feet from the hole. Couples went into a green-side bunker, pitched out, two-putted for a bogey and conceded. He at least stayed out of the water.

O’Connor, 41, was the last man selected for the team after Sandy Lyle withdrew because he has been playing poorly. His uncle, Christy O’Connor Sr., is one of Ireland’s great players of all time, having won 13 points in 10 Ryder Cups.

The nephew had played in only one Ryder Cup, 1975, and had never won a point. In fact, he had not had a victory of any kind since 1978. When he beat Couples, O’Connor broke into tears.

Three times, Americans came to the 18th with chances to win or at least tie matches and lost. That became four straight when Ken Green bogied by three-putting.

Spain’s Jose-Maria Canizares made a short par putt for the victory, Europe’s fifth of the day and the one they needed to clinch a tie. Canizares, 42, the oldest player on either team, left the green in an embrace with his younger but more celebrated compatriots, Ballesteros and Olazabol.

In the four remaining twosomes, all the Europeans needed was a tie in any of them to win their third straight Ryder Cup.

But as the crowd of 27,000 began an early celebration, suddenly it was the Americans who began to apply the pressure. The Europeans proved that they have no magical formula to handle it, either.

Tied after 17 holes, Mark McCumber parred and Scotland’s Gordon Brand Jr. bogied. Tom Watson birdied the 17th to beat England’s Sam Torrance, 3 and 1. Nick Faldo hit his drive into the water on the 18th and double-bogied, giving the hole and the match to American Lanny Wadkins.

It came down to two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange against crowd favorite Ian Woosnam of England. Woosnam led by one through 15, but Strange birdied the final four holes to win by two and salvage a tie for the U.S. pros.

“I looked forward to going back with the Ryder Cup on the Concorde,” Floyd said. “I’m not going back with the Ryder Cup. But at least I’m not going back a loser.”

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