Justin Leonard drained a long birdie putt on the 17th and then it was over. Europe, the victims of the biggest final day comeback in Ryder Cup history stood and watched the effervescent fountains of champagne sparkle and fall in the evening sun.
It was an afternoon drenched in emotion and a partisanship which was often excessive and ugly. The Leonard-Olazabal contest caught the tone of much of the fury and madness. Tom Lehman, an easy winner over Lee Westwood, in the first game of the day danced a victory jig over the line of Olazabal's putt on the 17th along with wives, caddies and other US team members. "One of the most disgusting things I've ever seen," said former European player Sam Torrance "and he claims to be a man of God. His behaviour today was disgusting.
"This is not sour grapes," he continued, concentrating on the US celebrations "the whole American team and spectators ran across the green right over Olly's line. He still had a putt to tie the hole, we could still take the Ryder Cup home." Olazabal, shell-shocked and disconsolate apparently walked into the primrose yellow Brookline clubhouse after his round and gave his clubs away one by one to startled bystanders. Controversy over the American crowds boisterousness had begun earlier in the weekend when Colin Montgomerie was consistently heckled through Saturday's rounds. "Their behaviour was just ridiculous," said British Open champion and Montgomerie's playing partner, Paul Lawrie. "If it means that much to them, then all the best to them."
By contrast, in one of the acts of sportsmanship which illuminated a crazy occasion yesterday, Payne Stewart, Montgomerie's singles opponent conceded the Scot the final hole of their match and a win in recognition of the barracking.
"The crowd were on Colin all day. Really hard. He deserves better than that."
God had little to do with it all. The 33rd Ryder Cup went to the United States as a string of perfectly executed American strokes combined to cause death by a thousand cuts for Europe. What happened? Europe lost the first six singles matches and, hoping to stop the rot, saw Jose-Maria Olazabal come apart like a cheap suit. The Spaniard hit fives on the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th, only the last being a par. Four holes up on the 11th, he was all square with Leonard by the 16th, one down on the 17th and all square when it wrapped. So the fat lady sang.
Olazabal to beat the Ryder Cup allergic Leonard was one of Mark James short-odds gambles going into a final day when he needed just 4 1/2 points out of a possible 12 on offer. Olazabal quivering before the gale force partisanship of Brookline was one of the stories of the day.
Padraig Harrington's squeeky tight battle with Mark O'Meara ceased to be the pivotal match as Olazabal dissolved. Yet the Ballyboden player hung in doggedly leading for eight holes before being caught on the 13th and halving everything thereafter until the 18th which he played with textbook precision.
As the moods swung crazily Harrington worked his passage with wonderful application winning Europe's first point of the day. Harrington never wavered but it wasn't enough. He took a positive view nonetheless. "We're naturally disappointed. we gelled well. We are all the better for the experience. We are a very young team and we are looking forward to two years from now."
The day began badly for Europe and never really got better. Lee Westwood never settled in his match with Tom Lehman. "Tom didn't really miss a shot today to give me a chance. I made a nice birdie on seven but then threw away nine and ten. You can't afford to lose holes when Tom was playing like he was."
Darren Clarke noted "that it just didn't happen today" in his 4 and 2 loss to Hal Sutton while Jesper Parnevik conceded that he made "plenty of mistakes" in his disappointing loss to David Duval. "I needed some momentum on the first nine and nothing happened for me." That was the lesson for all the games that followed. Vanishing momentum. Mark James has the grey-eyed look of the fatalist and by mid-afternoon when he was telling people that he would stand by his decisions come what may it was evident that the malaise was terminal.
"The Americans played tremendous golf. I'm quite prepared to take the rap for whatever happens," he said as the European challenge vanished into intensive care.
Speaking later James was careful to avoid mention of the crowd behaviour and was gracious about the defeat. "Ben did a terrific job in difficult circumstances. I am pleased for him. He has done wonderfully well. My team gave me everything and I thank them for that. We had fantastic support here, too. I should thank those people also." Nothing left then but the lowering of the flags and the playing of the anthems, the last acts of partisanship on a day flavoured by it.
