Rory's Glory (12 page)

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and at the last gasp moment, Sergio surged. It really has to be said though, that his opponent Jim Furyk fell apart from being in a commanding position.

There was nothing between both players all day. Furyk went 1-up at the 12
^th
only for Sergio to level at the next before the unassuming, quiet American regained the lead. But with just 17 and 18 left, he blew up.

He missed the putting surface with his nine iron on the par-three 17
^th
and so missed his par putt from 10 feet. Garcia secured par to level. It got even worse for Furyk and the hundreds of millions of Americans watching worldwide.

With a short five-foot putt on the 18
^th
to shake hands on a fair draw, he missed! Without doing anything really spectacular on the last two holes, Garcia was gifted the win by a distraught Furyk. The Spaniard was ecstatic.

Europe led again 13-12 but not for long. Moments later Jason Dufner put paid to Peter Hanson. The Swede battled hard over the last few holes but ‘The Duff' was probably America's best player that day. He was 4-up through eight and won 2-up.

13-13! There were just four golfers out on the course and this most gripping of all Ryder Cup encounters – the greatest of all time – was deadlocked. Twenty six points had been shared equally and each of the other two matches were ‘all square' entering the final holes.

Just one point was needed for Europe to retain the Cup. So even if both rubbers finished the way they were and all square, 14-14 would be enough. Because of that scenario they had to play on, because America, in their own backyard, needed the win.

One point for the United States and a half in the other would mean an American win. Of course two to nil would be even sweeter after the humiliation and indignity of having to endure such a backlash and onslaught from Europe.

Two-nil to Europe would mean the greatest comeback in history without any doubt. So many different scenarios could result from just two games and it was gripping, riveting and fingernail-biting stuff!

How did those last four players stand still or swing their clubs properly? Snooker players making a clearance to win a world title, or achieving a 147, have testified to feeling their hearts beating loudly in their ears as they tried to prevent their cue arm shaking.

Their success is achieved in the silence of an arena – this was pure circus, pandemonium and bedlam. So how must Martin Kaymer and Steve Stricker have felt and coped when they saw the multitudes moving towards and homing in on them!

Germany's Martin Kaymer, the man who was in such poor form when the team was announced a year before, that rumours abounded he was going to turn down the offer. He was going to do what Sandy Lyle had done and pull out of the Ryder Cup.

Kaymer went to see Bernhard Langer on Friday to consult his fellow German about his poor form. Perhaps that is why he was only allotted one game before the singles and in that Friday fourball he and Justin Rose lost.

Now all eyes were transfixed on him. In a dour battle with Steve Stricker, Kaymer went 1-up at the ninth but Stricker squared it at the 15
^th
. Then there was more drama as Stricker bogeyed the penultimate hole.

The German teed off on the 18
^th
knowing that if he could maintain his 1-up lead for a few more minutes, he and Europe would win. He teed off and put his ball in a fairway bunker. But the American made a mess of things as well.

Perhaps the crowds circling around the pair had caused this. It got messy – very messy. Kaymer was soon in a brilliant position to win after playing a great shot from the bunker to the green.

He had two shots for the win but he played a very poor putt up the green to the pin and was left with a nasty eight-footer. Sink that three meter putt Martin Kaymer and you will go down in history as the man who won the 2012 Ryder Cup.

After his meeting with Langer on Friday, how tragically ironic it would be if he missed as Langer had done in 1991 (handing the US victory). Kaymer admitted later that he had thought about his compatriot's famous miss as he lined it up. He said:

I did think about it – especially when I went around and read the putt from the other side. So I thought, ‘ok, it's not going to happen again, IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN'.

What massive pressure to endure. And in that moment, for one of golf's genuine nice guys, you did not want him to miss. He did not. He coolly hit the ball straight in the middle. Europe 14; US 13 meant they had retained the Cup.

The ‘Charge of the Light Brigade' ensued. Garcia leapt on top of him. It was without any doubt the most amazing comeback – much more so than Brookline. This had been miraculously achieved. Kaymer said:

My brother was here, my father was here, and then Sergio Garcia ran on to the green. It means so much more when they are all standing behind me. Now I know how it really feels to win a Ryder Cup.

Strictly speaking it was actually Molinari back on the 18
^th
who ‘won' the match for Europe while Kaymer sank the putt that ‘retained' and therefore won the Ryder Cup. Molinari's half point actually caused consternation and controversy back in the States.

Tiger Woods was severely criticised and questioned over his decision to call a halt to proceedings and settle for a draw with the Italian. He said:

It was already over. The Cup had already been retained by Europe. It's pointless to even finish. So 18 was just ‘hey, get this over with'.

‘USA Today' said about Woods: ‘Not only a man the USA couldn't rely on, he was a player who at times appeared to be barely here.'

Rory McIlroy had been a part of the greatest Ryder Cup in history. What sets this one apart from the other great comebacks was the great sportsmanship – highlighted by Davis Love's generous tribute to Seve.

The only negativity was some of the taunting emanating from certain elements of the crowd – something European crowds do not engage in. But nothing could take away from a truly remarkable event.

Something ‘freaky' and ‘weird' really did happen. Near the end, after a five to nothing start, Europe looked dead and buried, with any loss in four close ties enough to end their cause. There had to be something else to explain all this. Was it paranormal? Was it ‘Divine Intervention'?

The only other modern sporting sensation that it could be likened to was Italian jockey Frankie Dettori's stunning seven winners from the seven race card at Ascot in 1996, which was euphemistically termed, ‘Frankie's Magnificent Seven'.

It was unprecedented. With world class jockeys, world class horses and big fields of 20 or more runners, it had never been done before and it will never be achieved again. Frankie has since put it down to divine intervention.

Here is what some of the winning team had to say. What they stated may just give us a tiny flavour of the incredible feeling that they experienced not just on the day and in the heat of battle, but more especially in the team meeting the previous night.

I felt something in that team room last night that was incredible [getting emotional]. They did it to us in '99 [US win from 10-6 down in Brookline] and it's up to the guys out there now but if we can do it, it will be the most incredible comeback of all time.
[Ian Poulter immediately after his win]

I've never cried as many tears as I cried last night. There were tears everywhere.
[Paul Lawrie]

I am just so proud of my partners. And [gets emotional] there is no doubt Seve was looking down on us because some of the breaks I got out there today were incredible.
[Sergio Garcia]

Let Rory McIlroy have the last word. The young man capped off a sensational year with another fabulous personal performance. After two points from four in the 2010 event, he accumulated three points from five here.

He did that without McDowell firing fully on all cylinders; he played in every one of the five sessions and he had to contend with a rushed, very late to the tee start, on the final day. His words sum up and echo everything that has been said already:

He [Ollie], has made us all cry in the team room this week. Some of us were in tears in there. Seve was looking down on us and it has all been one of the most incredible moments that I've ever experienced on a golf course.

You know, they say if you wish to have someone canonised a Saint, that you must first approach your priest or bishop with evidence of a miracle. This will then be documented and sent to the powers that be in the Vatican for their consideration.

I do not know if there are many Saints that have emanated from the world of sport. What I do know is that there have been many sports competitors who have done more for the poor and ordinary working class people throughout the world than many Saints.

Saint Severiano? There is evidence of a miracle at Medinah which people throughout the world marvelled and wondered at. It touched the lives of countless millions of men, women and children of all ages and religions.

Among them were the poor, sick, dying and working class; kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers as well as priests, nuns and cardinals; millionaires, billionaires and upper class.

Facilitated by a Captain, Vice Captain and their 12 Disciples but ultimately…. All spellbound by the spirit of Seve.

I
n January 2013, Rory McIlroy officially became a global sports superstar. Of course he had been a superstar of golf for the previous few years. That was before he signed up as a stable mate of Tiger Woods at sports merchandise giant, Nike.

On Monday 14 January, Rory appeared at one of those specially convened conferences in front of a select audience. Reminiscent of Bill Gates and Microsoft, Cindy Davis (the President of Nike Golf) and Rory sat on stools across from each other.

She was there to announce the worst kept secret that to be doing the rounds since the end of the previous year: that Nike had signed up Rory and he would be using specially made Nike clubs from that day forward. It was out with his trusted clubs, in with the new.

With brand Nike and brand Rory now amalgamating, at that very moment he became one of the most famous and instantly recognisable faces on the planet. Nike would do with Rory what they had achieved with Tiger Woods – or so that was their best laid plans.

If both parties thought it was going to be an easy ride, that the mega bucks from worldwide sales of Nike products would flow in like petrodollars, then they were in for a very rude awakening.

From the start there were doubters with former golfers – and sports stars who use equipment – quick to point out the pitfalls and dangers of suddenly reverting to pristine new products. Foremost among them was Sir Nick Faldo. He stated:

I call it dangerous. I've changed clubs and changed equipment, and every manufacturer will say, ‘We can copy your clubs, we can tweak the golf ball so it fits you'. But there's feel and sound as well as confidence. You can't put a real value on that.

Over the following months Faldo was asked to clarify and elaborate on these points, to which Rory, obviously getting a little terse at these constant remarks, not to mention the fact he was practicing hard and long hours with the clubs, replied: ‘Nick Faldo doesn't know how I feel over the ball.'

Rory first tried out his new clubs in late November the previous year. The day after he shot a -6, 66 (with his old Titleist clubs) to trail Luke Donald by a shot in the World Tour Championship, he gave an initial reaction to them when he divulged:

After the Ryder Cup I started to test a little bit but I've six or seven weeks to really get into it though I'm pretty much set with everything. It's just a matter of getting confidence and playing a few rounds and I should be ok.

I'm very confident they [Nike's manufacturers] will get it spot on. I've got a set of irons and the woods sorted and it's just a matter of getting the ball dialed in. It's the feel of the ball that I find is the most important thing because really, every manufacturer makes great equipment these days.

Former American golden boy golfer Johnny Miller was another man to question Rory's decision, but he did have many followers who saw no problem with his switch. Fellow European golfer Paul Casey gave him a firm vote of confidence saying:

When I first came on tour 10 years ago, there wasn't the information there is now to fit golf clubs and to interpret what clubs and balls do. Tools like ‘Trackman' and a lot of biomechanics stuff can tell a player he's swinging the same way and changes are not the players fault. Nike staff do this sort of thing day in, day out. They make it pretty damn easy. As well as that, this is the world's best golfer and he's pretty good at the game.

Also on the plus side was a precedent set by Graeme McDowell. In 2010 he switched clubs after he won the US Open. He began his next season with the new clubs in a tournament in Hawaii where he shot a first round 62.

On 17 January, three days after his appearance with Nike, Rory teed off at the Abu Dhabi Championship in Dubai. For the first time in professional competition, he used their clubs and merchandise.

He came home with a poor first Round 75. He followed that with another 75 the next day to miss the cut. It was not a great start to his new relationship with Nike but it was put down to teething problems and trying to get to grips with the new equipment.

A month later at the Accenture World Matchplay, Rory was confronted with snowballs! Snow hit the Arizona Desert and forced a complete wipeout of play on Wednesday and further delays on the Thursday.

Before his match got underway, he was pelted with snowballs by his fellow Irishman and opponent Shane Lowry. The Offaly man then went on to sensationally knock him out in the first round by beating him on the final hole.

Rory lost 1-down; he could so easily have been 4-up through the first four holes but failed to take his chances. After that his iron play deserted him with one infamous moment coming at the 10
^th
where his ball ended up 20 yards short of the green from just 130 yards away.