Americans prove team's cohesion in sixth victory

text size

Little/Getty Images

The American Team was strong as per usual in the competition, but they also had true camaraderie this year.

SAN FRANCISCO -- An NCAA title at North Carolina and those six NBA crowns while he was with the Chicago Bulls have taught Michael Jordan a thing or two about winning.

And the greatest basketball player who ever lived knows that he would have been nothing without his teammates -- whether it was the teenagers he played with at Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., or the polished veterans during his two stints in the NBA.

RELATED LINKS

Daily Wrap-up: Sunday
Sunday Singles recap
Final scoring summary
The Live Report: Sunday
Photos: Singles matches
Photos: Closing ceremony
Player records
Interview transcripts
Int'ls back to drawing board
Complete coverage

That's why Jordan was so proud to see the way the United States jelled as a team on the way to winning The Presidents Cup by a decisive 19½-14½ margin on Sunday. The victory was America's sixth in the biennial competition that began in 1994.

For years, while the Europeans were winning five out of six Ryder Cups prior to last year's American rout at Valhalla, conventional wisdom had held that the U.S. players weren't a cohesive team. The camaradarie wasn't genuine. Shoot, some of them didn't even like each other very much.

That's not what Jordan saw in the team room when he came to Harding Park this week to work as an unofficial assistant to U.S. Captain Fred Couples, though.

He saw passionate competition at the ping-pong table, accompanied by trash-talking that made the man who was one of the best proud. He saw wives and families mingling while their husbands talked strategy. Most of all, though, he saw players who wanted to win.

"I know that as a team, you have leaders, you have followers, you have certain role players within a team, and this team is very similar to any championship team I've ever played on where everybody makes their own contribution," Jordan said. "That means a lot when you talk about winning. When guys don't win and other guys do win, it's not about wearing it on their sleeves or rubbing it their face. It's about bringing that guy up."

And that's exactly what happened. Everyone on the U.S. Team contributed points in the rout, led by world No. 1 Tiger Woods, who had by far his best Cup competition in going unbeaten in five matches and holing the clinching putt on Sunday.

"For me, yeah, obviously, it's one of my better Cup experiences," Woods said. "We won, and that's the name of the game, whether you go 0-5 or 5-0. The fact that we won, that's the No. 1 thing. We came here to win as a team, and we did it."

Woods' go-to partner was Steve Stricker, a close friend with whom he had played seven rounds during the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, leading up to the dynamite pairing at Harding Park. The Nos. 1 and 3 players in the world only had one scare, and they turned that into a U.S. point by winning the last two holes of the match.

"It was a pleasure and an honor to play with Stricks," Woods said. "He was so solid and so consistent and did all the right things at the right time."

"It was a blast to play with him.' Stricker countered. "I learned a lot and just felt like I held up my end of the deal, which was a big concern to me coming into this. I wanted to make sure I contributed, and I felt like I did at times."

Woods is now the winningest player in Presidents Cup history with an overall record of 18-11-1. He joined his close friend Mark O'Meara (1996) and Shigeki Maruyama (1998) as the only players to have gone unbeaten in The Presidents Cup. Stricker had a chance, too, but he finished 4-1-0 when he lost 2 and 1 in Singles to Geoff Ogilvy.

"It was a fun thing to have Tiger and Steve beat up on everybody, for me, because I wanted Tiger to win every match, and I thought that was important to our team," Couples said. "Now, obviously Phil (Mickelson) wants to win every match, Sean O'Hair wants to win every match.

"But every tournament Tiger plays, everyone wants to know what he's shooting and where he's at, and The Presidents Cup is no different. So for him and Steve to win every match, we basically shut their team down from saying, "Hey, we have them where we want them." We won every time, and I think that was a big boost to us."

So was the performance of the No. 2 player in the world, who took three different partners to victories and finished with his best Presidents Cup record at 4-0-1. One partner wasn't playing particularly well when he came to Harding Park, another needed to forget a crucial missed putt once he got there, and the third just needed a confidence boost.

Mickelson was there for each one -- impressing Jordan for his role-playing in the process. He and partners Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard and Sean O'Hair were the lead-off hitters for the Americans in the first three sessions, and they responded each time.

"Phil Mickelson, if I had to say anything from my perspective, was able to take guys who had not really been successful on certain days and (gave) them confidence to help them rebound and get back to their game form," Jordan said. "That, to me, symbolizes what a team is all about."

Couples agreed with his assistant-assistant, who turned out to be an inspired -- and inspiring -- choice for his band of players -- all but one of whom ranked among the top 25 in the world.

"And as Michael said, our guys stepped up," Couples said. "I will say again, Lucas (Glover) and Stewart (Cink) played some good golf. They got beat by ridiculous scores. Tiger and Steve, Phil and (Anthony Kim) won, AK played awesome with (Jim) Furyk. Sean and Hunter (Mahan), put them out first today, he won. ... They performed, and they were magnificent."

Couples said finding the proper pairings was the "easiest thing ever." He knew to have red uniforms on Sunday, per Woods' custom. He and Assistant Captain Jay Haas didn't overanalyze things. He wasn't zipping all over the golf course in a cart checking on matches. He wasn't wearing a headset or talking on walkie-talkies.

And Couples had the time of his life.

"Would I do it again? Hell, yeah, I would do it again," Couples said. "Would I be picked again? I have no idea, but I certainly wouldn't turn it down. It was way better than any golf tournament, ever. It was that much fun."