By this time two years ago, it was all over. Every conceivable angle was covered, with reporters, photographers and sub-editors producing an extra effort for an extra-special occasion, as Americans hailed with one voice, the remarkable achievement of their Ryder Cup team at Brookline.
The astonishing climax to the Boston Tee Party prompted some memorable headlines. "Justin time!" proclaimed the tabloid "Boston Herald" on its back page, by way of hailing the amazing, 50-foot putt by Justin Leonard on the 17th green, which assured the home side of victory.
Looking back on the American papers of the time, one can see that their reaction, however jingoistic, was entirely understandable. And in the manner of our craft, the damning references of the previous two days to an under-achieving US side of spoiled millionaires, were quietly forgotten.
But one national golfing icon wasn't allowed to forget. In his capacity as America's leading TV golf analyst, Johnny Miller had not lacked the courage to publicly slate Tiger Woods for indifferent form, both at President's Cup and Ryder Cup levels.
His treatment of Leonard, however, was considered to be excessively severe. Little more than 24 hours before the Texan became a national hero, Miller said scathingly of his inclusion in the final fourballs of Saturday afternoon: "Justin needs to go home and watch it on TV." Players jumped on this to voice a chorus of criticism of the NBC anchorman. "I don't agree with a lot of what he says on TV and I definitely didn't this morning," remarked Jim Furyk. "He called me an underdog and I didn't think I was." At the time, Miller defended himself, saying: "I don't think necessarily I was wrong (about Leonard). I never lost faith that the United States could pull this thing out . . . I try to represent the viewers and I've got to call things the way I see them." Since then, however, he had admitted overstepping the mark where Leonard was concerned.
Meanwhile, every local angle was exploited in the various comments, written and spoken. Particularly memorable, from an Irish standpoint, was the remark by NBC commentator Dick Enberg as Padraig Harrington walked the 90 yards to the 17th green before hitting the second shot in his singles match with Mark O'Meara.
In Enberg's view, Harrington's preparation for the shot gave "new meaning to the Boston Marathon." Meanwhile, the broadsheet "Boston Globe" more than compensated for a subdued front-page layout, with the colourful language of its lead story: "They'd been left for dead on Saturday night, derided by many of their own fans as choking millionaires with no team spirit. But the United States golfers climbed defiantly out of their gilded coffins yesterday afternoon at The Country Club and ripped the Ryder Cup away from the Europeans, 141/2 to 131/2 in one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history." That was Monday, September 27th 1999 and European recriminations were in full swing. Wasn't it all wonderful fun?
"When he's good, he can be very good and difficult to beat, but when he's not . . . well, let's just say he made a nice donation to the Tiger Woods Spending Fund."
The great one, on a recent, 54-hole money match against Michael Jordan.
