Ryder Cup: Lee Westwood takes blame after foursomes defeat
Friday 30 September 2016 20:57, UK
Lee Westwood shouldered full responsibility after he and Thomas Pieters lost their foursomes match to Dustin Johnson and Mutt Kuchar in the Ryder Cup on Friday.
The Ryder Cup veteran suffered a 5&4 demolition alongside rookie Pieters to America's Johnson and Kuchar in the anchor match.
The Englishman, playing in his 10th successive event, was charged with helping the 24-year-old Belgian get round in his first outing.
However, despite a comforting arm around his partner's back on the first tee there was little other support from the 43-year-old, who was one of captain Darren Clarke's picks in order to get some experience into a team which features six debutants.
"I will take responsibility. I played poorly and Thomas played well. He made some putts when we needed to," said Westwood, who is two points short of Sir Nick Faldo's all-time Ryder Cup record haul of 25 points.
"You try to put a bit of pressure on, you don't want to be giving holes away.
"I hit a couple of wild drives early on (he drove into a bunker at the first and into the water at the seventh) and you can't afford to do that.
"It's a tough game to play and you want to get momentum."
"Any time we made a shot they put one in on top of us," said a distraught Pieters. "It was just hard to get some momentum this morning."
Another disappointment for Europe on the opening morning came in Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer's match against Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson.
The European duo took the lead on the second hole and held it for nine holes but Garcia missed a couple of crucial putts to extend their advantage and USA hit back by winning five holes in a row in a 4&2 victory.
"When you have chances, you've got to take them," said Garcia.
"If you go two up maybe it's different but unfortunately we didn't and they did."
Two-time major winner Zach Johnson downplayed the US sweep, saying: "Lot of talent on both teams. A lot of matches left. It is not like we were that far off. It is not rocket science. It is just getting back to the basics."
Rickie Fowler felt that fine teamwork alongside veteran Phil Mickelson helped them win four of the last five holes for a 1-up victory over Rory McIlroy and Andy Sullivan.
"Obviously we couldn't ask for a better morning for our team," Fowler said. "For the both of us, obviously with me not having a full point yet and him having a big influence on what we've been doing the last couple of years. And how this week has shaped up. So, yeah, it wasn't easy. I know Phil mentioned that he was a bit tight out there. It was fun to help him along.
"He had asked for me to keep pumping him up as we went. That was big when we got 7, 8 and 9. It was fun. That was a big match for us."
"I felt more pressure than any Ryder Cup," said Mickelson, who matched a record with his 11th Cup appearance. "I didn't play the way I wanted off the tee. We showed a lot of heart those last four holes to win.
"Certainly I played tight. This guy (Fowler) loosened me up. That's why I wanted him as my partner. He knows what to say and when to say it. He got some of my best golf out there in the end. Some of the iron shots down the stretch were due to things that he said to get me in the right frame of mind."
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