ESPN.com - Golf Online - Presidents Cup 2000 - Love, Cink, Triplett cap perfect week

By David Kraft
ESPN Golf Online
Sunday, October 22

LAKE MANASSAS, Va. -- Going into the Presidents Cup, the focus on the American team was on names like Woods, Duval and Mickelson.

In the end, the crucial points came from Love, Triplett and Cink.


	Stewart Cink gets his Presidents Cup medal from captain Ken Venturi.

And as a result, the Americans regained the Presidents Cup - and they did it by the biggest margin in the four-event history of the competition, 21½-10½.

"We had a goal today and that was to break the record that got thrown at us (in Melbourne in 1998)," said Davis Love III, referring to the International team's 20½-11½ win. "We wanted to get to those points early. We wanted to send Kenny (Venturi, the U.S. captain) off as the all-time points-winning captain, and hopefully that's a record that's never broken."

Love, Kirk Triplett and Stewart Cink were a combined 11-0-1 in the Presidents Cup. Love closed with a 4-and-3 victory over Ernie Els, Cink beat Greg Norman 2 and 1, and Triplett finished all square with Michael Campbell.

Love, 1-3-1 at the 1998 Presidents Cup, seemed to take special pride in his play.

He teamed with David Duval to beat Nick Price and Carlos Franco in alternate shot on Thursday. He and Phil Mickelson were the only Americans to win in Friday morning's best-ball competition, edging Els and Vijay Singh 2 and 1.

He sat out the alternate-shot play Friday afternoon, but teamed again with Duval to beat Els and Nick Price 3 and 2 in Saturday's best ball. And Sunday, matched with Els, Love dominated the man who had finished second in three majors this year, winning 4 and 3.

It was the second time Love had recorded what made the win official in an international competition. The first was at the 1993 Ryder Cup.

"To have Ken (Venturi, the team captain) and Paul (Marchand, the assistant captain) pop out of the ropes when I'm coming down the 15th fairway, I knew that they were there for one reason," Love said. "...But there's 12 guys out there playing, and everybody got points."

Love was unbeaten at last year's Ryder Cup, too, though he halved all three of his partner matches. He beat Jean Van de Velde in singles.

Triplett and Cink, both Presidents Cup rookies, were 3-0 as a team. They beat Mike Weir and Retief Goosen 3 and 2 in alternate shot, Robert Allenby and Stewart Appleby 2 and 1 in alternate shot, and Allenby and Carlos Franco 1-up in best ball.

Sunday, Cink bogeyed the first two holes in his singles match with Norman and shot 38 on the front side, but had three birdies on the back,- including one at the 17th to close out a 2-and-1 win.

"It's something I'll never forget," Cink said. "And I just hope that I play well enough in the future to earn my way on to future teams, because it's really a blast.

"I've never felt jealous before, from not making Ryder Cups or Presidents Cup teams," he said. "But for every team from here on out that I don't make, if there are any, I'll be real jealous."

Triplett, meanwhile, was 2-down to Campbell at the turn, but birdied Nos. 10, 11 and 14 to go 1-up. Campbell got even when Triplett bogeyed the 15th and the match ended all square.

It did nothing to put a damper on his week, one played without his usual bucket hat. Instead, he wore a baseball-style cap, as did his teammates.

"We knew if everybody had played the way they've been playing or the way they had played in similar matches, we could have won every match today, too," said Triplett. "That's a pretty neat feeling when you're a part of that and you know that things are just really clicking."

Cink was humble in the spotlight.

"It's been a real sincere pleasure to spend the last several days with these great players and great people," said Cink.