SUTTON COLDFIELD, England - Gentlemen, start your second-guessing. Now that the Ryder Cup is staying here on the continent, we need answers to a few vital questions, and we need them quickly.
For instance ...
How could Phil Mickelson lose to Phillip Price?
What happened to the singles party the United States planned? How could the U.S. team win two, yes, only two singles matches yesterday with the identities of those two players being Scott Verplank and David Toms?
Did Sam Torrance outfox Curtis Strange by stacking the first part of his lineup with his best players?
Was Europe's decision to slow the greens, narrow the fairways and grow the rough that much of an edge, and should the U.S. players have adjusted better?
Uh, Paul McGinley?
And so it goes, but that always happens when you lose, as the United States did, 15 1/2 -12 1/2 . There probably are always going to be a lot more questions about why you lost than why you won. But for the time being, it's going to be open season on the question front, probably until the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills in Birmingham, Mich.
Mickelson's quixotic relationship with big events is a good place to start. He's known as the best player never to win a major championship, and now Mickelson has another unhappy label to wear - the player who couldn't beat Price with the Ryder Cup on the line.
It's far from certain the United States would have won anyway, once McGinley's putt on the 18th hole clinched the Ryder Cup with two matches still out on the course, but yesterday at The Belfry will not rank high among Mickelson's accomplishments.
How exactly does the second-ranked player in the world lose, 3 and 2, to the 119th-ranked player? At least we know how he felt about it.
"I'm not too thrilled," Mickelson said.
He had every right not to be, but what actually transpired yesterday in the fourth Ryder Cup held in the North Berwickshire countryside deserves to rank high in the thrill department, regardless of the outcome.
Europe won four of the first six matches and halved another, then held on to upset the Americans to reclaim the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1997.
"Once we saw the draw, we knew we were going to win," Jesper Parnevik said. "Sam did exactly the right thing."
Afterward, Europe's captain, Torrance, swigged a bottle of champagne and was thrown into the lake near the 18th green to celebrate, his counterpart admitted the obvious.
