United States Is on the Rocks

The situation for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup is, well, just what is it exactly? Hopeless? Encouraging? Embarrassing? Familiar?

If you said familiar, grab your sticks and report directly to the front door of the Country Club this morning so Ben Crenshaw can put you in his lineup.

Crenshaw is desperately looking for somebody who has the right answer--or somebody who can make an important shot at the right time, when the pressure is so suffocating that it sucks the air right out of your lungs.

Things are not going according to plan for the U.S., which begins the third and final day of the 33rd Ryder Cup trailing Europe, 10-6.

Does this ring a bell? Remember that at the same stage at the last Ryder Cup, Europe led 10 1/2-5 1/2, which means that in two years, the U.S. has improved exactly half a point.

Terrific. At this rate, Sergio Garcia will be playing the senior tour before the U.S. catches up.

The U.S. did not gain any ground Saturday and what it needs to do today isn’t totally out of the question, but it is sort of far-fetched. Try this: No team has ever come back from more than two points down on the final day to win the Ryder Cup.

Europe, the two-time defending champion, needs only four points out of the 12 singles matches to retain the Cup. The U.S. needs 8 1/2 points to take it away.

Crenshaw, who said he was proud of his players, believes they remain confident for the singles matches. He said there is hope.

“It will take a chain reaction that we were looking for today,” Crenshaw said.

It may also take a miracle. On the other side of the aisle, Mark James proved himself a master of understatement. He already has proved he is a master at this captain’s job.

Said James: “The guys are playing well under pressure and we’re quite pleased.”

If he wasn’t so excited, he would have been asleep.

It was a wildly rollicking Saturday out at the Country Club with oak tree-lined fairways and greens smaller than Crenshaw’s playbook of options. For instance, the Hal Sutton-Jeff Maggert team won in the morning for the second consecutive day and then Crenshaw broke them up in the afternoon.

Before that, Colin Montgomerie and Paul Lawrie complained about the fans cheering their mistakes and disrupting play to help the U.S., with Montgomerie reasoning acidly: “They need pumping up because they’re losing and they’re losing heavily.”

Hurtful. The truth, but still hurtful.

James said he would describe the mood of the fans as “frisky.” The mood of the U.S. team might be described as something else. Grim comes to mind.

In the afternoon, there was Davis Love III and David Duval leading Garcia and Parnevik 2-up after four holes, trailing by a hole after No. 8, Parnevik chipping in for the second day in a row, Love-Duval 1-up going to No. 18 and Garcia sinking a seven-foot birdie putt to halve the match.

Phil Mickelson and Tom Lehman had little trouble disposing of Darren Clarke-Lee Westwood, 2 and 1, in the first afternoon match of best-ball, but Tiger Woods-Steve Pate lost to Montgomerie-Lawrie, 2 and 1. Montgomerie, who apparently has no trouble hearing, also has no trouble making birdie putts since he had five of them.

Of course, the Ryder Cup is not an individual game, but it’s still interesting that Garcia has 3 1/2 points at 3-0-1 and Woods has one point at 1-3-0. In two Ryder Cup appearances, Woods is 2-6-1.

“He battled his putter today,” Crenshaw said. “We have to get that sorted out.”

The U.S. began the morning alternate-shot session down by four points and finished it down by four points. This clearly was not the best way to get back in the match, but at least the U.S. identified its hottest team as Sutton-Maggert.

Against Montgomerie-Lawrie, Sutton-Maggert scored a 1-up victory to go 2-1 over the first two days. But Crenshaw sat down Maggert for the afternoon best-ball matches and substituted Justin Leonard.

Maggert smiled thinly and didn’t sound at all upset about being ushered to his seat by Crenshaw.

Said Maggert: “It’s a tough job being captain.”

And in the afternoon, Leonard continued to show it’s also a tough job making a putt. It got so bad for Leonard that he sent his putter airborne after missing a short putt on No. 8.

He made a four-footer on the next hole, which probably made Crenshaw feel a lot better about benching Maggert, although Miguel Angel Jimenez-Jose Maria Olazabal managed to halve the match even though Olazabal was so erratic, he offered little.

On the other hand, Jimenez, who had never played in the Ryder Cup, didn’t look like a rookie when he made three straight birdie putts on the front side.

Woods and Pate were forced to go the distance to defeat the relatively undistinguished duo of Jimenez-Padraig Harrington, 1-up. The combination of the fiery Woods and the volcanic Pate won the first three holes, then ran into trouble and had to rally to win.

Woods said it was a simple matter of making putts and taking advantage of an easy association with Pate.

“More than anything our personalities jelled really well,” Woods said.

Crenshaw apparently agreed, because he sent them back out again in the afternoon. Two groups Crenshaw didn’t send back out were Jim Furyk-Mark O’Meara and Leonard-Payne Stewart. In fact, Furyk, O’Meara and Stewart took a seat for the four-ball matches after they walked off the course.

Clarke-Westwood routed Furyk-O’Meara, 3 and 2, the same score posted by Parnevik-Garcia in their rout of Stewart-Leonard.

At least Leonard had an explanation, no matter how feeble it may have sounded.

“We just didn’t play all that well,” Leonard said.

If there’s anything we’ve seen so far, it’s plenty of that.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Ryder Cup Pairings

* Lee Westwood, Europe, vs. Tom Lehman.

* Darren Clarke, Europe, vs. Hal Sutton.

* Jarmo Sandelin, Europe, vs. Phil Mickelson.

* Jean Van de Velde, Europe, vs. Davis Love III.

* Andrew Coltart, Europe, vs. Tiger Woods.

* Jesper Parnevik, Europe, vs. David Duval.

* Padraig Harrington, Europe, vs. Mark O’Meara.

* Miguel Angel Jimenez, Europe, vs. Steve Pate.

* Jose Maria Olazabal, Europe, vs. Justin Leonard.

* Colin Montgomerie, Europe, vs. Payne Stewart.

* Sergio Garcia, Europe, vs. Jim Furyk.

* Paul Lawrie, Europe, vs. Jeff Maggert.