Couples and the long night:
Did he get it all done right?
SAN FRANCISCO - Freddie Couples was either an uncanny captain who moved his chess pieces this way and that for the singles matches in the Presidents Cup, or else maybe with this load of talent, he just pulled names from a hat and sent out for pizza. Either way, on his way to a successful debut as a captain, the Americans having not broken a sweat in rolling to a 5-point win Sunday, Couples did run into one dicey situation. For him, at least.Freddie Couples is an easy-going guy. He's more easy than Big Easy Ernie Els. Freddie could lie right down in Times Square and sleep through New Year's Eve. But Saturday night, he came perhaps the closest he's ever come to a sleepless night. This was when he was trying to make up his batting order for the singles Sunday.
But really -- how could he miss? He had a team bulging with world rankings players, starting with the top-three - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker. And they had a 3-point lead on an International team that boasted only one top-10 -- Australia's Geoff Ogilvy, who is No. 10 on the money. The Americans almost couldn't lose. But still could. Of course, Couples knew this. He also knew that blow this one with a silly order of play, and the Internationals would be hanging Freddie's picture in their trophy cases.
“The players win and the players lose,” said Couples, in the team interview. “And if I make a huge blunder, then everyone in the world would know it.”
This knowledge kept him awake. Actually, he and International captain Greg Norman had alreadyd made their lineups. Saturday night, Couples started to doubt himself. Remembering, perhaps, the experience of Hal Sutton in the Ryder Cup, or Europe's Mark James.
“Jay and I,” he said - that's Jay Haas, his assistant captain -- “didn't want the pairings like they were. We were trying to go the complete opposite. And I woke up about 3:30 and for three hours, all I did was think - how are we going to do this and how are we going to do that? That's the only night of the whole week where I worried about anything.”
Well, he would sleep well Sunday night. The Americans, as expected, ground their way through Harding Park, San Francisco's municipal course, for a 7-5 win and a 19.5 - 14.5 victory, giving the U.S. a 6-1-1 record in the biennial matches.
Truth be told, Couples might well have just drawn the names out of a hat, or thrown darts at names on a board blindfolded, and he still would have won this one. Perhaps the Tiger Woods spot took a little thought. Couples put Woods in the No. 9 match against South Korea's Y.E. Yang.
This one seemed to have been done not only with careful strategy, putting Woods about in the place when the Americans might need him most (they needed just 4.5 points to win the cup), it also seems to have been done with some vengeance aforethought. Yang was the guy who beat Woods in the PGA Championship in August. Couples insisted it was a coincidence that International captain Greg Norman put Yang at No. 9. Sure.
Woods, by the way, thumped Yang 6 and 5, making him the only 5-0-0 player in the matches. Woods gave the Yang issue short shrift. Was there any added significance, given what happened at the PGA?
If there was any revenge motive in the romp, Woods gave it all short shrift. “I tried to get my point and I got my point,” Woods said, thinly.
Was there any thought to your history with him? someone pressed.
“Yeah,” Woods said. “Because you guys keep talking about it.”
Couples won a kind of salute from Phil Mickelson - a kind, if tongue-in-cheek is so classified.
“He just seemed to be on top of everything - even details - which isn't, you know, his personality,” said Mickelson, trying not to look at Woods next to him, trying to stifle a laugh. “He was on top of all of the details, how he wanted to match up pairings, how he wanted them to play.”
Couples innocently bit on Mickelson's rib.
“I mean, Tiger Woods - you put on red shirts on Sunday,” Couples said. “I like tan and white, we did that one day. I like gray, we did that. I don't know what the detail is.”
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