Americans recall Ryder Cup pressure

Davis Love III never hesitated the other day when someone asked him to identify his all-time nervous moment on a golf course as a professional. He looked back over his shoulder pointed and said "right out there on the 18th green in '93."

Love was referring to the putt he made on the 18th hole at the Belfry, which again will host the Ryder Cup starting this Friday. The putt gave Love a 1-up victory over Italy's Constantino Rocca and gave the Americans a vital point in a 15-13 victory. The '93 matches were Love's first Ryder Cup, and he had putting problems all week but managed to sink a knee-knocking 6-footer at the 18th in his singles match.

"The whole team showed up on the last two holes; everybody was watching," Love said. "I had that little putt, and that was the most nervous I've ever been. My hands were shaking so bad that I had to back away from the putt. I just could not do it. I got over it, and I knew it wasn't going to happen. I had promised myself if I wasn't ready to make the putt, I was going to back away.

"I was trying not to miss the first time, and I was shaking so bad I couldn't handle it. I'll tell that story in our team room a lot this week . . . If you can just play your own game, you can come through. If you're trying not to lose a point, and you're thinking about the outcome, the pressure can get to you a lot more than any other tournament."

The 17 players with Cup experience and the captains on the U.S. and European sides said the pressure felt in every match of the three-day competition is the equivalent of being in contention on the back nine of any major championship. They also say it has everything to do with playing for country, personal pride and their respective teammates.

There is no fun at all in losing a match that can lead to a team losing the Cup. Ask Mark Calcavecchia about his singles confrontation against Colin Montgomerie on the final Sunday of the '91 event at Kiawah Island. Calcavecchia was 4-up with four to play until he collapsed down the stretch with some dreadful shots.

The Americans won anyway when Germany's Bernhard Langer missed a 6-footer at the 18th hole against Hale Irwin in a match that also was halved. And Calcavecchia remembered the late Payne Stewart hugging him afterward and reminding him that his half point and Irwin's half point added up the Americans winning by a single point, 14 1/2-13 1/2.

"That made me feel better about it at the time," Calcavecchia said this week. "But I was still freaked out that it all came down to [Langer's missed putt], and it really didn't have to if I'd won. I felt it was my fault."