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| | Thursday, December 21 'It's a partisan event' | |||||
| Their historic comeback has decided the 1999 Ryder Cup, but U.S. team members still find themselves doing a lot of explaining. Two members of the team, David Duval and Justin Leonard, were interviewed by Up Close host Gary Miller about the Americans' behavior during the competition with an European team in Brookline, Mass.
Duval said the Europeans would do well to examine their own behavior both this year and in previous Ryder Cups. He also said boorish fans contributed greatly to the negative feelings the Europeans have for the Americans. Leonard, whose long putt on the 17th hole Sunday ensured the Americans' 14½-13½ and caused a spontaneous and controversial outburst among the U.S. team, said: "There was no ill intent on my part or any of the players. It's unfortunate that we did celebrate then and there. It delayed play for a couple of minutes. I don't think it had an effect on the outcome of the event. It's unfortunate that it's receiving as much or more attention than the way we played, as a team, on Sunday." Here is a transcript of the Sept. 29 interviews: Miller: David, how amazed are you at the reaction of the so-called misbehavior of the Americans at the Ryder Cup this past Sunday?
Saturday afternoon, Jesper Parnevik pitched in from about 50 yards on the 12th hole for par. I'm in front of the green and Davis Love III, my partner, is in the bunker. We are still hitting our third shots going for birdie, and I had to wait a couple of minutes for him and Sergio (Garcia) to get done dancing around and screaming and yelling and hootin' and hollering, but we weren't complaining about it. It is just part of the event, it is part of the emotion of it, the drama of it, and if it was such a big deal, let them try to putt it over them. Miller: How do you react to headlines such as the "United Slobs of America" and "Tarnished Cup" and Mark James, the European captain, being quoted as saying the behavior was "disgusting" and "disgraceful"?Duval: Were Mark's comments directed at the players or some of the fans? Miller: Well, like Tom Lehman's reaction on 17, he had done it previously and then did it again with the whole group of the American contingent . . .Duval: Well, you know it has gotten into a war of words, the tough part about it, I can't say I would be any different, if I was on the other end of it, the European team is on the losing side of a historic comeback. That is probably not the most comfortable thing to be a part of, so if you want to call it sore losers, or if you want to call it whatever, I don't know, but everybody has short memories about it. They say that golf does not have a whole lot of emotion in the sport, then when you have an event like this where there is, then people start criticizing, you know, the outcome of the Ryder Cup is going to disturb a lot of people and it is going to make a lot of people happy. This year it made our side happy. Miller: Mark James said that he wouldn't want the European team to play over here again, do you believe that? Duval: I think a lot of references to what they think is bad fans, and when you get a large crowd there is always going to be a very vocal minority who are crude and very rude and say things that are very out of place. If he was making reference to the U.S. team, then he is a very sore loser, is what he is, because they've all done it.I mean this is my first Ryder Cup, but I have watched it on television and nothing different happened this time than has happened in the past Ryder Cups. Everybody seems to forget that, maybe because it only happens every two years, maybe if the Ryder Cup was an annual event people would remember better, but it is the same type thing, and it happened all throughout the week. We were at a tough spot the first two days, we were getting killed and we had to stand by and watch all the celebration throughout the course of the each round. But we knew that was a part of it and we made our few putts and we were obviously celebrating as well, so it is a shame that it is happening. I can understand a little bit of it, especially the reaction of what they viewed as some very poor fans, which I would agree with, but to direct some of the remarks they have towards the players, I think it is inexcusable, and I think it is a case of sore losers. Miller: How much were you guys getting it, when you dug yourself such a deep hole and you were such heavy favorites? Duval: We were getting harassed by our own crowd even. I was the target of a lot of stuff, for some rude comments, for some of the things I've said in the six months leading up to the event and some of my view point. And even what the NBC analysts were saying, Johnny Miller was all over a lot of the players, it was just on and on.The only way you can eliminate a lot of this is to eliminate the coverage of it on television and to eliminate the crowds, just have the teams out there and do it, that is fine you are not going to encounter any of this, but unless you do that you are going to encounter what has happened. Miller: How has your view of this event and your participation in it changed over the weekend and in the last six months? Duval: As far as the event itself goes, it is much different than I believe anybody can anticipate. Until you have been a part of it, as far as my views, as far as players having an idea of and a say in where the charitable revenues go, I was not talking about a huge part, I was talking about a smaller bit, I still believe that should be the case. I don't see how playing an event would change that. I still don't see the problem with us having a say in where the charitable monies are directed. The problem arose, not from so much what I said, but from what people implied I said and words they tried to put in my mouth about me being paid and compensated and then associated with a boycott, with Golf Digest running a front headline page of "Duval threat of boycott."I found it ironic that their sister publication, Golf World, they ran an article preceding the Golf Digest magazine, and took some excerpts from the column from the interview that Bob Verdi did with me. When they ran this article, Bob Verdi had to write an article in the same magazine on the back page saying that what the article was saying fifteen pages earlier I didn't say or do. I found it kind of ironic that you have conflicting articles in the same magazine. You know what they (Golf Digest) are doing is funny, nobody else will say it, they were trying to make money, is what they were doing. (interview with Justin Leonard) Miller: How did you see David Duval metamorphosize over the course of this weekend? Leonard: We played junior golf together and against each other. Knowing him and the passion that he has for the game, I think some of the things he said were taken out of context. Certainly the "exhibition" . . . I think he knew it was an important event, but until he got there and saw how much went into it and how the people reacted to him and the rest of the team and how we all interacted together . . . I think he had a really good sense at the beginning of the week of just how much the event meant and his emotions carried out during the week.Talking to Davis Love today, he was talking about how hard David played on Saturday afternoon in their match together. He just put his heart and soul into it something that all of our guys do. The display of emotion that David showed, I think, was incredible. I think it maybe gets some people off his back a little bit -- talking about his lack of emotions when he does have a great passion for this game. Maybe it just takes an event like the Ryder Cup to bring that out. Miller: How do you feel a few days later with the international reaction about how the team responded to your putt on the 17th? Leonard: I feel like it's unfortunate. I feel like a lot of it is taking away from the comeback that we made. I have apologized publicly. If I could go back and do it again, I would have done some things differently. I did not have control of my emotions and they obviously took over.In the mental state that I was in -- through middle of the match, being four down with seven holes to go, and to pull out and make a putt like that -- obviously I wasn't thinking. There was no ill intent on my part or any of the players. It's unfortunate that we did celebrate then and there. It delayed play for a couple of minutes. I don't think it had an effect on the outcome of the event. It's unfortunate that it's receiving as much or more attention than the way we played, as a team, on Sunday. Miller: Did people walk across Jose Maria Olazabal's line? Leonard: Nobody from our team did. No. I've just seen the tape a couple of times, but we were basically putting on the same line because I had asked him to move his coin. The majority of the U.S. team was sitting at the back left of the green. When I made the putt, I ran off the front left of the green. You know, there were some guys who ran across the green, yes, but I don't think anybody got within 10 or 15 feet of his line. I think the main argument that the Europeans are making was that it delayed play. Jose Maria still had a putt to have the match and I certainly understand that. I wish I could go back and do it differently, but obviously that is not possible. Miller: Are you surprised, or how do you feel, that all they want to talk about is this and not talking about blowing the biggest lead in the history of this event?Leonard: Well, I wouldn't want to talk about that either. I feel like the event is over. Let's just face the facts -- we really outplayed those guys Sunday. I think that what's going on, especially with the international media, is not taking away as far as we're concerned from what we pulled off on Sunday. Miller: George Kimball of the Boston Herald said, "If the United States players swarmed on the 17th green of the first Ryder Cup, if they had done that in Worcester 72 years ago, Crenshaw's predecessor Walter Hagen wouldn't have hesitated. He would have marched out there himself, grabbed Tom Lehman by the ear and dragged him off the green. Then he would have ordered Justin Leonard to concede Jose Maria Olazabal's putt to halve the hole." How do you feel about that? Leonard: I think that's a bit harsh on us. It's an emotional event and only the people who are actually there either playing in it or have played in it, or have something to do with the matches, understand that. It's very hard to get across to, maybe a writer who doesn't even cover golf . . . I don't know much about this particular writer that we're talking about. It's something that you just don't understand until you go through it -- to be with 12 of your peers, where 52 weeks of the year you're trying to beat each other's brains out, and once every two years we come together and try to do something like this.The emotions that spilled out, I think, would have been equal if the shoe were on the other foot. Had the Europeans pulled off a putt like that and a comeback like that, I think I would be hard pressed to say that you wouldn't have had a similar reaction. Again, it's something that I apologize for. I think that once we realize a situation, try to contain it. Again, it was an emotional day to cap off a week and, again, we just made history. There's not many excuses for that and again I'm not sorry for showing emotion, but maybe it could have taken place at a different time. | AUDIO/VIDEO   Streaming video of Leonard and Duval on Up Close.RealVideo: 28.8 | |||||
