Funny golf gift

Just when the Ryder Cup seems incapable of taking drama to a higher level, something even more extraordinary unfolds, making 1999's Battle of Brookline a suspense tale of almost surrealistic depth. Trailing 10-6 after two days of uninspired play at The Country Club, ambushed by a European team many considered the ultimate underdog, a rattled United States squad stood at the precipice of its third consecutive loss. This time, the fall promised to hurt like no other.

From the start, this American team had been branded as greedy and self-centered, most notably by captain Ben Crenshaw, who had admonished several of his top players six weeks earlier for their comments regarding Ryder Cup revenue. The Europeans were proving once again that heart and soul could carry them past any ensemble of U.S. superstars. Come Saturday night, the deficit facing Crenshaw's troops appeared insurmountable.

No Ryder Cup team had ever rallied from four points down in the Sunday singles, a fact not lost on anyone as the players gathered on Saturday night. What follows is a comprehensive oral history of the final 24 hours as told by the players and their confidants, including previously unpublished accounts and behind-the-scenes anecdotes that offer diary-like perspective to the greatest comeback in golf history.

Golf Digest spoke at length with 37 key figures: all 11 surviving members of the U.S. team, European captain Mark James and members of his team, players' wives and caddies, Ben and Julie Crenshaw, and U.S. assistant captains Bruce Lietzke and Bill Rogers. President George W. Bush provided his reflections as well.

The depths of dejection

Davis Love III: On Saturday night, we finished right before dark and had a little meeting to decide where everybody should play.

Bill Rogers: The picture is still very clear in my mind: The mood was dejection, but Crenshaw was at his absolute finest at that moment. Everyone gathered in the locker room and Ben began to walk back and forth--he wasn't without a cigarette the whole time. As he got a little more dramatic, I noticed everyone was looking right at him. Tiger, Mickelson--every one of them.

Tom Lehman: Ben, Lietzke and Rogers had put together this lineup, and they had Tiger second to last. We all said, "Hey, if we're going to win this thing, we're gonna have to get on them early and get on them hard."

Jim Furyk: Guys started offering solutions. Davis is kind of a veteran member--everyone looks to him for ideas. Hal [Sutton] was the same way.

Steve Pate: I was putting pretty well that week, but I couldn't hit the clubface. Ben wanted to send me out early--I told him early wasn't the right plan. I wasn't going to shoot 65, but I could certainly par it to death.

Mike Hicks (Payne Stewart's caddie): There were seven or eight captains around the table that night. Guys were saying, "I should play here." Mickelson said, "I think I should go off first." It was very unlike other Ryder Cups. It easily could have led to chaos.

Ben Crenshaw: It was a collective effort. Like putting a recipe together, you throw in a little of this, a little of that.

Mark O'Meara: Mickelson and Davis were really talking about strategy, what they wanted to do and what they thought would work. The rest of us just kind of sat around. I kept my mouth shut, because I'd played in only one match and got beat.

David Duval: Our best guess was that they were gonna go from strongest to weakest, period. We thought their guys who hadn't played [Jarmo Sandelin, Jean Van de Velde, Andrew Coltart] would be in the last matches. Then we saw their lineup a while later, and that wasn't the case.

Crenshaw: I just could not believe Mark James sent them out three in a row.

James: The decisions all week were not made by me talking to one or two guys in a corner. If anyone didn't agree, they didn't say so at the time.

Jean Van de Velde: I didn't want to be in one of the last groups. Having not played, having no competition whatsoever, I didn't want the responsibility, if it was close, to win or lose the Ryder Cup.

Love: It always seems to fall on the wrong guy anyway, no matter how you do it.

Bruce Lietzke: Those were like three automatic points to me--they were going against Mickelson, Love and Tiger. That put the real pressure on Lehman [against Lee Westwood] and Sutton [against Darren Clarke] in the first two matches. Those two points became critical.

Andrew Coltart: I was in my room watching The Golf Channel and saw the singles draw. That was the first I knew about playing Tiger. I thought it was fantastic. I had nothing to lose, obviously. I slept very well that night.

Paul Lawrie: Some of our team felt the job was done. There was a little bit of celebrating. A few of our players were happier than they should have been.

Colin Montgomerie: We'd done a hell of a job to get 10-6 up. Mark had done a hell of a job. Yes, we'd left the three guys out, but at that stage, it didn't matter. I'm sure if we were on the Concorde on the way over and Mark stood up and said, "Look, we're going to be 10-6 up Saturday night, but there are going to be a few guys who haven't played," I'm sure we all would have said, "Doesn't matter. It's a team game. We've got four points to win? Thank you very much."

Jesper Parnevik: I didn't think it was over at all. Looking at the pairings, I thought we'd have a tough time. Everybody talks about four points. To me, that's not much. I think it's much better to have a four-shot lead [in stroke play] going into Sunday than a four-point lead in the Ryder Cup.

Furyk: I went from being really upset to thinking maybe we've got a strategy. We went up to the team room, and that's when I really started to believe, "Hey, this could really happen."

Crenshaw's speech

Before returning to team headquarters at the Four Seasons, Crenshaw responded to the media's questions with rambling, unintelligible answers. His thoughts scattered like broken glass, the captain completed his interview with a startling proclamation: "I'm a big believer in fate," he blurted, wagging his finger for emphasis.

Julie Crenshaw: I happened to turn on the TV while we were getting ready. Ben's on there babbling, then all of a sudden he gets real serious and says, "I've got something to tell you." Some players were already back at the hotel. I remember Davis' reaction when Ben started wagging his finger, which is so uncharacteristic of him. Our mouths dropped open, then Davis said, "Way to go, Ben!" And we all just erupted.

Love: We were getting P.F. Chang's delivered that night. I got back early, went right in and dived into the food, grabbed a plate and sat down at the end of this giant table for 20. Right when I sat down, Ben started shaking his finger, saying, "I'm going to leave you with one final thought . . . "

Furyk: When you watch the replay, you see Ben's thoughts are all over the place. He knew what he wanted to say, but I think he was trying too hard and got emotionally charged up about it.

Ben Crenshaw: I was so damn tired. Bill and Bruce both said, "Look, he's starting to ramble, let's get him out of there. He's not making any sense." I was trying not to make a mistake. I was trying to say, "I've seen some really good golf out of my team. I think we're on the verge of something."

Love: Everybody starts piling in back at the hotel, saying, "Did you see what he said?" Then he put the pairings up and we looked at them. Guys started saying, "Hey, we can win the first six! It can happen!" In Australia on Saturday night at the [1998] Presidents Cup, we were like, "We're getting killed. Let's go have some fun." This time, the turning point wasn't on the golf course. It was Saturday night.

Hicks: I'll tell you what--I thought it was over, just like everybody else. Not until making the turn Sunday did I think we had a chance to win.

Bruce Edwards (PGA Tour caddie and U.S. aide): The caddies for both teams were staying at the Holiday Inn. I remember telling Jerry Higginbotham, who was working for Sergio [Garcia], "We're going to kick your ass tomorrow." And he laughed. I said, "I'm telling you, your guys can't play singles." He thought I was being a smart-ass, but I was serious.

Higginbotham: Bruce doesn't let it go that easy. I told him "You'd better bring your A game." I thought there was no way we'd get beat.

A video and a guest

As the U.S. squad gathered in the team room Saturday night, the next three hours were a tempest of emotion. A motivational video planned for months by the Crenshaws was followed by a special guest speaker, then soul-baring reflections from every member of the team, wives included.

Julie Crenshaw: Ben was pumped up when he got back to the hotel--I didn't think he was going mental at all. Then [PGA of America media official] Julius Mason came in and handed him some stuff. Ben said, "I'm gonna share this with the team." It was Colin Montgomerie saying, "You know it's over, don't you?"