MEDINAH, ILL. - So many things had to go wrong for the U.S. to lose the Ryder Cup that team captain Davis Love is sure to face second-guessing about many of his decisions. "I'll be second-guessing myself for a long time," he said.
He rested the pairing of Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson, which was 3-0, on Saturday afternoon. He played Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker, who both wound up winless for the weekend.
Mickelson defended Love, saying that he wanted to pour himself into his match on Saturday morning without worrying about Saturday afternoon. "That's on me," Mickelson said.
Love also sent his youngest players to start the Sunday singles, and the Europeans, who front-loaded their lineup with their best players, won the first five matches of the day.
"I wouldn't have done anything different," Love said. "They played great. We had a couple of matches get flipped there at the end that made it a little bit easier on them. This is a great team. We had a great week."
Furyk folds If there was a defining moment in the U.S. team's Sunday collapse, it may have been Jim Furyk's play at the 17th hole.
He led his match by one shot over Sergio Garcia. He hit his tee shot into the bunker. Known for his stellar bunker play, Furyk then hit a low shot that almost ran off the green, leaving him with a long par putt that didn't come close to the hole.
Garcia would win the last two holes. Had Furyk won his match, the U.S. would have won. Had Furyk halved his match, Woods, who had a one-shot lead in the 18th fairway before the competition was decided, would have had a chance to secure the victory. Woods wound up making a bogey and halving his match.
