Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - With a five-point defeat of Europe on Sunday, the United States Ryder Cup team earned its largest margin of victory in the competition since 1981.
Some other notes and minutiae from an exciting three days:
1. It was the first win for the Americans since 1999, ending a particularly nightmarish run that had seen them lose three consecutive Ryder Cups -- and two in a row by record-setting nine-point margins.
2. Credit captain Paul Azinger for his captain's picks, who went 6-3-5 over three days to lead the U.S. team. Azinger campaigned to have the rules changed to allow him to pick four players instead of two.
3. Hunter Mahan, a vocal critic of the Ryder Cup earlier this year, went 2-0-3 as a captain's pick and was the only player on either team to play all five sessions without a loss.
4. Ian Poulter, tested as Nick Faldo's most controversial captain's pick, was the only European who played all five sessions. He quieted the critics with a 4-1 mark to match the record for most points won by a European captain's pick.
5. Not so helpful to the European cause was Padraig Harrington. The reigning British Open and PGA champion went 0-3-1 to remain winless in his last nine Ryder Cup matches.
6. Azinger didn't have the world's best player, Tiger Woods, because of an injury that has Woods out for the rest of the season. But Woods has Azinger's phone number, and he texted the U.S. captain throughout the singles matches on Sunday.
7. The young members of the team more than made up for the absence of Woods, who doesn't have a sparkling Ryder Cup record to begin with. Anthony Kim, Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes each won their singles matches -- knocking off Sergio Garcia, Oliver Wilson and Soren Hansen -- to mark the first time in 19 yeas that three U.S. rookies won on Sunday.
8. Kim was especially impressive in his 5 & 4 dismantling of European Ryder Cup stalwart Sergio Garcia. The match was icy, with Kim refusing to concede some gimmes to Garcia, though both players seemed gracious afterwards. Said Kim: "Sergio and I are good friends and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. He's a great player and a great guy. But out there, we're out there to do business, and we battled all day, and now we can start being friends again."
9. The eminently quotable Weekley gave us some doozies over the weekend, including my favorite, an answer to where he ranked his spectacular fairway bunker shot on No. 15 Saturday: "I reckon No. 9. I done had eight holes-in- one."
10. Weekley -- who once said something to the effect of, "It's not like I don't give a s---, it's just that I don't give a s--- about golf" -- was left speechless only once over the weekend: during his TV interview after the U.S. win.
11. Weekley also provided the golf department with one of our headline options for Sunday: "Red, white & Boo." We also considered "Red, white and bluegrass" for a U.S. win and "Again!" and "Euro thrash" in case the Europeans had come back strong to win on Sunday. We went with "Reborn in the USA" -- an OK selection, although I preferred golf editor Jim Brighters' half-joking recommendation of "Val-holla!"
