Sports

Dynamic duo Mickelson, Bradley get a break

MEDINAH, Ill. — The Americans were once again ignited by their Dream Team of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, who set the tone by obliterating Lee Westwood and Luke Donald 7&6 in foursomes Saturday — tying the largest margin of victory in Ryder Cup history.

U.S. captain Davis Love III then curiously left Mickelson and Bradley out of the afternoon four-ball matches.

Instead of trying to put the Ryder Cup away in the afternoon by using his hottest players, 3-0 as a team in the event, Love opted to stick with his pre-conceived plan of not playing any of his players in five matches with hopes of keeping them fresh for the singles.

Maybe it won’t matter in the end. But if it does — if it’s a part of costing the U.S. the Ryder Cup today — then it could go down as the worst decision a captain has made in the 39-match history of the competition.

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Brandt Snedeker and Jim Furyk had a score to settle. While Snedeker watched his fellow Ryder Cup rookies prosper in Friday’s opening-day matches, he was the only first timer without a point.

With the help of his veteran partner, Snedeker took care of that yesterday with a 1-up win over Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell in a morning foursome match.

“Yeah, it’s a huge monkey off my back,’’ Snedeker said. “[Friday] was kind of hard to take, to give away that half a point on 18.’’

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Ian Poulter playfully mimicked Bubba Watson’s first-tee antics when he asked for crowd noise as he teed off on Friday.

So yesterday morning, Poulter, playing with Justin Rose against Watson and Webb Simpson, did the same thing, riling the crowd into a frenzy as he his hit his tee shot, which hooked into the left bunker.

“That was pretty special what Bubba did on [Friday] to pump them up,’’ Poulter said. “I knew Bubba was going to do it again, so why not join him? My heart rate went from I would say 100 to 180 pretty quickly, but it was a great buzz for sure.’’

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Nicolas Colsaerts, Europe’s secret rookie weapon who scorched Medinah Country Club Friday afternoon with eight birdies and an eagle, could not duplicate the magic yesterday, losing with Sergio Garcia to Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson in a foursome match.

What hurt most was that on No. 17, where Colsaerts drained a gigantic birdie putt on Friday, he hit his tee shot into the water which led to the loss. One hole earlier, Garcia chipped in for birdie to cut the U.S. lead to 1-up going to 17.

“It’s very, very painful,’’ Colsaerts said. “You don’t feel proud when you lose a point. In a game where we thought we would get something out of it, it was pretty painful. It’s just one of those moments where you need a few Ryder Cups under your belt.’’

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Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, were in attendance, taking pictures with the American players on the first tee. So, too, was Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was schmoozing in the media center.