Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson produced the impressive start United States captain Hal Sutton was seeking at the 35th Ryder Cup.
Unfortunately for the Americans, the dysfunctional duo helped give the European team the greatest first-day lead in Ryder Cup history, a 6,5-1,5 edge with holders Europe needing only 14 points to retain the trophy.
Woods and Mickelson, who seldom spoke and never worked as a team, lost twice on Friday, falling two and one in four-ball to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington and one-up in foursomes to Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke.
”Who would have seen that coming?” Sutton said. ”I felt like the world wanted to see them together. We gave it a good shot. We’re going to have to move on.”
Not only did Sutton break up fourth-ranked Mickelson and second-ranked Woods, who will play four-ball with Chris Riley against Clarke and England’s Ian Poulter, but he benched Mickelson entirely.
”Phil did not play very well this afternoon,” Sutton said. ”I just felt it was the thing to do.”
Mickelson was forced to play after not practising on the course for two days so he could work in secret on playing with the same ball that Woods uses. How great a factor those handicaps were was a question Sutton could not answer.
”We’ll all be left scratching our heads over that,” Sutton said. ”We will all want answers to that. But the most important person who has to wonder about that is Phil Mickelson.
”It’s not going to cause us any grief in the morning, because he’s going to be cheering instead of playing.”
Breaking up the Dream Team was simply making the best of a bad situation.
”If they split them up they look idiots,” France’s Thomas Levet said. ”If they don’t split them up they still look idiots.”
Beating Mickelson and Woods twice gave the European team a huge lift.
”I’m sure they’re not very happy,” European captain Bernhard Langer said. ”They know they have to come up with a lot more than they did today to have a chance to win the Cup.
”It was probably worth three or four points. It was huge psychologically, a huge blow to the Americans and a huge help to the Europeans.”
Woods and Mickelson were three-up through five holes in foursomes, but lost four of the next six holes to fall behind, levelled the match by winning the 17th, then gave away a point when Mickelson’s drive landed near a fence in dense trees and a penalty drop was needed.
”We got off to a good start and had a good lead,” Mickelson said. ”I let it slide with a poor tee shot on 18 and it cost us the match, so it has been a very disappointing day for me.
”I’ve fought hard but have been coming up short and not playing the way I would like to.”
Woods fell to 5-10 with two halved in Cup play. Mickelson slid to 8-7 with three halved.
Asked if he would break up Woods and Mickelson in Sutton’s shoes, Langer said, ”If I was him I wouldn’t, but I’m not him.” — Sapa-AFP