Rory's Glory (11 page)

He was so reminiscent of Severiano Ballesteros. A paler version perhaps, but he had similar traits like his gritting of teeth and his dogged single-minded determination to win and get the job done. It was as if Seve had infiltrated his very being.

Later that evening after the European team had freshened up and eaten, Ollie called all the players into a room for the traditional final team talk. It was the most emotional Ryder Cup team meeting ever held and what came out of there were buckets of tears.

Olazabal called on his players to follow the spirit of Seve. What Poulter had shown, in that regard, the entire team was asked to follow suit. If each of them gave 100%, it was still possible they could win.

An Indian war dance; a call to arms; a call to battle – on Sunday, there would be no need for war paint on faces. Every last one of the 12 disciples would be armed with frightening eyes that would scare and stare the bejaysus out of the Yankees and Confederates.

Their concentrated minds and eyes – using Poulter as the flagship – would beat the Americans into submission. Staring, focussing, concentrating, achieving the victory and then it was meeting over, good night.

One wonders how Rory slept. As the final day singles teed off, Ollie buzzed around the place. His eyes were darting around looking and observing. Every now and again he would ask a caddy, a golfer or anyone, in his Spanish twang, ‘have you seen Rory?

Maybe McIlroy was on the range; maybe the putting green or perhaps he was in any number of quiet corners giving a radio or television interview. ‘Ah don't worry Ollie, he's around somewhere – how is Luke Donald performing?'

Luke was first man out at 11.03 am against Bubba Watson and would be followed 11 minutes later by Paul Lawrie and then 11 minutes after that by Rory. But Olazabal knew something was wrong. With all his enquiries completed, Rory was not on the golf course.

In fact, McIlroy was still in his hotel room! He had misjudged his tee time by fully one hour. Whatever he was doing in there, he was oblivious to all the missed calls on both his mobile and the room phone at his bedside.

Perhaps he was listening to music on his head phones or taking a shower. When he was finally reached, he got the most almighty shock of his life. The voice on the other end was his manager Conor Ridge who told him he had less than half an hour ‘til play.

If he was late, he would forfeit a point to the United States and almost certainly hand the Ryder Cup to them. Forfeiting his match would be a catastrophic disaster not even worth thinking about. A career blighted by infamy.

Rory explained later how he had so clumsily miscalculated his tee time. He told everyone consistently that he had seen his tee time as 12.25. In point of fact, his tee time was 11.25 am. But he was right – he did see 12.25 and this is why:

Most of the major news channels in the US are run by NBC or Fox who have their headquarters in New York City. Any times they give – or have down in information like sub titles and teletext – are in Eastern Time.

ET incorporates 17 US States including the East Coast of Canada. They are one hour ahead of where Rory was in Chicago. He was in Central Time zone. So wherever Rory saw his 12.25 tee time, he read it or heard it from an ET source.

He arrived at 11.14 just as Lawrie and Snedeker were teeing off. As he scrambled out of the Police car, a crowd of American fans saw him and started chanting ‘Central Time Zone'! He smiled with embarrassment and held his hand up to acknowledge them.

Had his patrol car become stuck in traffic, and Rory arrived on the tee at 11.26 which was one minute after his tee off time, he would still have been allowed to play. But 11.30 or thereafter would have been curtains. Top referee John Paramor explained it to me:

With regard to Rory arriving late on the tee, we would have used Rule 6-3a in the Rule book - loss of first hole up to five minutes and thereafter DQ. We used to use a graduated scale of penalty but that was some time ago.

In other words, Rory not being on time at 11.25 still meant he would have been allocated an additional five minutes for the loss of the first hole – i.e. Bradley 1-up (strokeplay = two-shot penalty). If there was no sign of Rory after five minutes, he would have been disqualified.

Later he told the press corps how he had got there so quickly. He explained:

I was just casually strolling out of my hotel room when I got a phone call saying ‘you have 25 minutes to get here'. I have never been so worried driving to the course. Luckily there was a state trooper outside who gave me the escort. If not I would not have made it on time. I was putting on my golf shoes in the car beside him.

The warning signs were also there for Rory in a previous escape. Earlier in the season when he won his second major the USPGA by eight shots, there was a weather delay. So he decided to go to his Florida home to sleep and come back later.

In that USPGA at Kiawah Island, he had played nine holes of his third round and so had to play 27 on the last day. So he dashed from Charlotte, South Carolina to his home in Florida.

That 600-mile trip to his plush new $11 million dollar mansion in Palm Beach Gardens, next to the Jack Nicklaus owned ‘Bear Club Golf Club', takes 10 hours by car or two hours flying. He revealed:

Something that people don't know is that I went back home. Everyone was talking about how I showed back about half an hour before my tee time on the last day. I actually had a nap and my dad had to come and wake me up because I overslept. He said to me: ‘Rory, you realise you have to play golf this afternoon.' I didn't know where I was!

Those shaves were really too close for comfort but the buck really stops with ‘Ollie'. How a Ryder Cup Captain, who held such an emotive meeting with his team the night before, could allow this was baffling.

A Ryder Cup Captain should always have his team assembled at all times. It is after all only three days every two years. Players support each other when not playing so they should be assembled together on the morning of play.

Colin Montgomerie should really have directed his comments at Olazabal and the Vice Captains when, on hearing about McIlroy's late arrival, ‘Monty' told a reporter: ‘That is quite ridiculous at this level. It's quite unbelievable for the world number one.'

*********************************

Luke Donald may have been Europe's first player on the tee in the final days play, but it was the second man out, Paul Lawrie, who got Europe off to the perfect start and won them their first point. The Scot thumped Brandt Snedeker 5 and 3.

He was 4-up on the American with four holes left to play and he won it at the 15
^th
to be 5-up with just three holes left. It was also his second singles win from two played after hammering Jeff Maggert 4 and 3 in 1999 where he also enjoyed a foursomes and fourball win with Monty.

Donald held off Bubba Watson 2 and 1 to secure Europe's second point in a row. The score was 10-8 and Europe were right back in it. But there were still a lot of matches out on the course that were too close to call, which meant the US still held a big advantage.

Two games were done and dusted and all eyes now turned to Rory versus Keegan Bradley. The two ‘Irishmen' had contrasting fortunes over the previous two days. Keegan won three out of three points. Rory won two and lost two.

There was nothing to separate them past the halfway stage but Bradley was just not in the same form as previously. It was noticeable that he was struggling very badly with his irons.

Rory won back-to-back holes on 13 and 14 to go 2-up and the Northern Irishman finished the tie on the par-three 17th hole with a par. Incredibly the Europeans were now just a point behind trailing 10-9.

Attention now turned to ‘Mr Ryder Cup', as some were now calling him. Ian Poulter was at it again. He was involved in a titanic duel with former US Open champ Webb Simpson and as only to be expected, it went right to the wire.

However, as he shook hands with Simpson earlier that day to begin ‘Match Number Four', he had to endure more taunts from the crowds again. Let Paul Hayward of the London Telegraph describe his walk to the first tee:

The Chicago crowd knew how to taunt Ian Poulter. ‘Major winner, major winner', they chanted, as Webb Simpson, America's US Open champion arrived on the first tee for their singles match. They mocked Poulter's record in the big four stroke-play events as there was no mud they could throw at him with regard to Ryder Cups.

The American responded to the crowds urgings and was 2-up through six holes. Then another taunt cried out: ‘Hey Ian, where are your coloured shoes?'

But what the crowds failed to realise was that they were only fuelling his fire. They may have felt that they had a new ‘Colin Montgomerie' to target, a new ‘Mrs Doubtfire', and so they just could not contain themselves.

Poulter blotted it all out and he just focussed on the job against Simpson. So much so that when he birdied the 14
^th
, he refused to concede the American's five-foot birdie attempt on the same hole.

Incredibly, Ian Poulter, who went on a birdie blitz with Rory the previous day to haul Europe back from the brink of near certain defeat, then repeated the dose. Lightning struck the same bolt twice.

Unbelievably he birdied 14, then 15 and 16 to draw level, and then he won the 17
^th
to take the lead and the 18
^th
to close out a 2-up victory. Five birdies in a row! The Europeans on the side lines lifted him in the air.

With Europe now level at 10-10, Jose Maria Olazabal declared: ‘I think the Ryder Cup should build a statue to him!'

The Americans were shell shocked and the Europeans were ecstatic. The team talk the night before was working. Could the unimaginable happen? Could Europe win? Were the Yanks bottling it?

Sheer bliss and joy abounded and rebounded throughout Camp Europe. Then the wise and sensible ones shushed the excited ones. And as if to show that chickens were not to be counted in advance, Dustin Johnson dampened and poured water on the great hopes.

With clubs looking like small wands in his hand, his magic was too good for another big hitter that day. He beat Nicolas Colsaerts 3 and 2. United States regained the lead again as concerned faces looked up at the scores of those remaining out there.

It was looking good for the US. Despite the great European comeback, America held a slim 11-10 lead after winning match number six with five matches completed. Europe had no comfortable lead in the other seven except for Lee Westwood who was 3-up on Kuchar.

In the fifth game ongoing, Mickelson was 1-up on Rose after 16 and it was very tight in the remainder involving Zach Johnson and McDowell, Garcia and Furyk, Dufner and Hanson, Stricker and Kaymer and the last match out, Woods and Molinari.

Phil Mickelson had two holes to play and if he hung on to win then America would need just two more wins and a half, or one win and three halves, to lift the Cup. It was looking good.

It was a humdinger of a battle between both and the following year they would be at it again in the US Open. The Englishman birdied from 20 feet on the first and also won the second after Mickelson found water.

The American coolly fought back to square the match only for Rose to eagle the seventh after a marvellous shot finished eight feet from the pin. ‘Lefty' then won the eighth but was soon 1-down again at the ninth.

Rose failed to save par on the 11
^th
and a great escape from a bunker on the 14
^th
put Mickelson 1-up. On the 16
^th
Rose sank a very important putt to deny his opponent a 2-up lead. Then a burst of drama arrived.

On the putting surface at 17, Justin Rose had a huge breaking putt fully the length of the green. He would do well to get down in two for par. It moseyed in the hole! Europe were level – a shocked Mickelson, to his credit, applauded the effort.

Both players found good drives off the tee at the final hole but Mickelson over-clubbed and found the light rough with his approach. Rose hit another great shot to 12 feet for a possible birdie.

Phil could still chip in for birdie but on this occasion he had to settle for par. Rose got down and surveyed his putt; he had to make it to win. He drained it right in the middle. Quite incredibly, Europe had turned this one around as well. The score was 11-11!

A beaming Rose, mobbed by his team and supporters, said as he came off the green: ‘I wouldn't say I've made three bigger putts back-to-back in my career ever.'

Back out on the course though, Graeme McDowell was still struggling with his game. He was just hanging on to the shirt tail of Zach Johnson and eventually lost 2 and 1. 12-11 to the United States and it was another bad blow that stopped the European momentum again.

Europe had fought valiantly only for two results to come up and whack them in the jaw. It was difficult to stomach after they had moved heaven and earth. But that was always going to be the scenario from 11.03 that morning – up against it.

Trailing 10-6 means the US were always in sight of victory. It was therefore very timely when Westwood got his game over and easily beat Kuchar 3 and 2. The scores were level again at 12-12. Clenched fists and a ‘YESSSS' sigh of relief all around Europe.

Only four matches were left out on the course and Europe needed one last miracle from the position they were in. None of the games were going their way and United States must have been 1/100 on with bookmakers to win the Cup.

Peter Hanson was losing heavily to Dufner; Garcia was losing to Furyk and the remaining two ties involving Stricker/Kaymer and Woods/Molinari were deadlocked. All the prayers to Seve and the team talk had worked – but one last surge was needed.

In the ‘spirit' of Seve and ‘captained' by Ollie the script could not have been written any better, and ‘played' out by the only Spanish player. Sergio Garcia, more than any other, turned the tide.