Ben
Crenshaw, the spiritual heart and soul of the victorious United States Ryder Cup
team, said Tuesday that he had neither the desire nor intention to reprise his
role as captain of the U.S. squad.
"I
unequivocally can say no. I can't do this," Crenshaw said at a news conference
in his hometown of Austin, Texas.
The
star-studded U.S. Squad, to a man, credited Crenshaw with inspiring them to the
historic Sunday comeback that enabled the Americans to take back the coveted trophy.
But the 47-year-old Crenshaw,
who wears his emotions on his sleeve, said the captaincy took too much of a toll
to endure a repeat performance.
"Look
at me, I'm emaciated. It took two years of my life," he said. "It seems like I've
been on the telephone for a year."
The
culmination of all that time on the phone was Sunday's stirring comeback from
four points down for a 14-1/2 to 13-1/2 victory over the defending champions from
Europe.
The thrilling triumph,
however, was marred by a premature U.S. celebration and by boorish behaviour by
some of the U.S. fans in the gallery that left the Europeans seething.
The
high point of the competition was also an all-time low as far as the European
team was concerned.
When Justin
Leonard sank his miraculous 45-foot birdie putt on 17 -- the shot that eventually
clinched victory -- Crenshaw, several U.S. players, and others in the American
contingent raced out to Leonard on the 17th green in a spontaneous outburst of
joyous celebration.
Unfortunately,
the outburst was both premature and inappropriate as Europe's Jose Maria Olazabal
was still waiting to make his birdie attempt, a shot that could have negated Leonard's
and kept the match alive.
When
order was restored Olazabal missed his putt, but the damage to the Europe team's
sense of decorum had been done.
As
he did on Sunday, Crenshaw again apologised for the ill-timed outburst.
"Justin
tried as hard as he could to calm things," Crenshaw added. "It was something we
could not contain."
