The Loop

An early case of the blues

October 04, 2010

NEWPORT, Wales -- If you're Corey Pavin and your team is down three points heading into the final day of the Ryder Cup, what you're hoping for is a fast start, a quick flash of red on the scoreboard, and from there, a rising sense from your players that a comeback is within grasp.

Instead, what you've got is a slow start, a scoreboard dominated by blue, and a European crowd that is only growing bolder as the day carries on.

By the time Tiger Woods lost his first hole to Francesco Molinari in the day's eighth match, the Americans were down in six games and ahead in just one (shockingly,  the best-performing U.S. player so far has been Dustin Johnson, who looked overmatched through the first three rounds).

Should Woods go on to lose to Molinari, it would be just his second loss in Ryder Cup singles. Curiously, that other loss came to another Italian, Constantino Rocca in 1997.

*-- Sam Weinman *