TRIPLE THREAT: Keegan Bradley celebrates with Phil Mickelson (right) after Bradley drilled a putt on the ninth hole yesterday en route to a third-straight victory for the pairing in the Ryder Cup. Despite the three victories, the duo sat out the afternoon four-ball session. (
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MEDINAH, Ill. — So it comes to this today as the 39th Ryder Cup reaches its climax at Medinah Country Club: If Europe is going to retain the coveted chalice, it will have to win eight of the 12 singles matches.
The 10-6 lead the U.S will take into the singles matches is the largest lead a team ever has taken into the final day since the Ryder Cup expanded to include players from continental Europe in 1979.
The lead matches the advantage the Europeans had on the U.S. in 1999 at Brookline, Mass., when the Americans made history by storming back to win the Ryder Cup with an 81/2 to 31/2 win in singles in the greatest comeback in the event’s history.
“We’re in great position, but with 12 points on the line there is still a lot that can happen. There are a lot of memories of ’99, so we know that sort of deficit can be overcome,” Matt Kuchar said.
“Even if [the players] were in primary school, they know about 1999 and they know the story,’’ U.S. captain Davis Love III said. “They know Ben Crenshaw, they know Justin Leonard’s putt, they know what can happen. [The Europeans] are going to be having the same kind of team meeting we had in ’99: ‘All right, boys, we’ve got to win the first six and then the game is on.’ ’’
The Americans won yesterday’s morning foursomes session 3-1, and the teams tied 2-2 in the afternoon four-balls.
The Americans actually had a chance to blow the competition wide open late in the day, but the Europeans gallantly rallied to win the final two four-ball matches to cut a 10-4 deficit to 10-6.
Minutes after Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald staved off Woods and Steve Stricker 1-up, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, who birdied the last five holes, defeated Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson 1-up in the last match of the day with darkness setting in.
Those two wins injected hope into the European team room, whittling down what looked like it might become an insurmountable U.S. lead.
“Those two points might have given us what we needed to do what they did to us in Brookline,’’ Poulter said. “We need to go out there real strong and try to get our hands back on this trophy.’’
“It would be nice to give it back to them the way they did it to us in 1999,” Garcia said. “Hopefully we can make them feel the same way we did.’’
European team captain Jose Maria Olazabal, who was the victim against Justin Leonard in the clinching match for the U.S. at Brookline, said there are “three moments’’ he remembers “vividly’’ about ’99.
“The start the U.S. team had, winning the first few matches, the 17th green with Justin and, after the matches were over, the locker room seeing players crying together,’’ Olazabal said.
There are sure to be tears shed by the end of today at Medinah based on the passion the two sides have to win that diminutive gold trophy.
“The Ryder Cup means an awful lot to every one of us,’’ Poulter said. “This event is just so big to every one of us. We love it.’’
Webb Simpson said “momentum is going to be everything’’ in today’s singles.
That’s why Love is sending his emotional firecrackers out early, with Bubba Watson leading off, followed by Simpson, Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson, the two biggest stars for the Americans this week.
Curiously, Tiger Woods, who has lost all three of his matches, is playing the 12th and final singles match, which is likely to be irrelevant — barring an historic European comeback.
The U.S. needs 141/2 points to win the Ryder Cup, while Europe, as defending champion, needs 14 to retain it. So the Americans need to win just 41/2 of the 12 singles points while the Europeans need to win eight of them.
“We are in a hole,” Graeme McDowell said. “There’s blood in the water and [the Americans] are up for it. They’ve got a head of steam up and we’ve got to try and stop it.”
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com