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Golf Digest, Sept, 2001 by John Hawkins, Tim Rosaforte

Julie Crenshaw: Some of the girls were scared to talk. They looked at me like, "What have you done to us?" Once you do it, you're so happy you did it. Ashley went on about Hal: "I don't care if he could play golf or not. I just love him. I want you to know I love this man."

Sutton: There were wives who said things their husbands had never heard. There were guys who said things we didn't think we'd ever hear them say. I mean, my wife's telling them about how far I was down--she just bared my soul right there in front of everybody. All of a sudden, you felt comfortable being naked in front of these guys.

Pate: Hal's almost hysterical. He gets really focused, whether he's talking about golf or fishing or whatever.

Duval: This was my first Ryder Cup. It's not something we'd done at the Presidents Cup, but everybody talked for a few minutes. I don't remember exactly what I said. I've got a bad memory.

Julie Crenshaw: As a joke, I said, "David, you talked on Thursday night; you can have a pass if you want." He said, "No, I'm not taking a pass." Then he stood up and said, "I had no idea how incredible this would be. I just didn't know. It's like having a baby. You just don't know until you experience it."

Love: We were going around the room when [wife] Robin came over to me and said, "You know, what I haven't heard all week is a mention of Harvey Penick [longtime teacher and mentor]. I thought that would be one of Ben's big themes. I know what I'm going to say." Usually, she's trying to get out of talking, like a lot of the wives, even some of the players who don't want to say anything.

Julie Crenshaw: How brilliant was that? I'm glad Robin was thinking on her toes. And she started it with, "Everyone, I'm going to make Ben and Davis cry."

Robin Love: Fortunately they started with the person to my right, so there were something like 23 people before it came to me. I said, "You guys go out and take dead aim for Davis' dad and for Harvey." Then I lifted the trophy over my head and said, "Let's raise the trophy to the two guys who have meant the most to Davis. Let's lift the trophy to the heavens. Let's bring back the Cup for the people up there."

Furyk: She made sure she was last. That was kind of neat.

Robin Love: The entire room was crying. I'm sitting there thinking, "Gosh, I didn't know it was going to be that sad." Everybody loved it. The next day, friends in the gallery were saying, "I heard about your speech last night." It probably was a good thing I was last.

A glimpse into Tiger

Throughout the week, Tiger Woods had taken on the role of superstar enigma. His only victory in four matches had occurred Saturday morning, and those failures became emblematic of a team in competitive disarray. The loss at Valderrama two years earlier seemed to have hardened Woods' view of the Ryder Cup experience, but behind closed doors, his teammates caught glimpses of a different Tiger.

Julie Crenshaw: The whole thing started at Valderrama. They were going around the room that Saturday night and Tiger said, "See that can? That's a can of whup-ass. Let's go out and whup some ass tomorrow." He said it as sort of a joke, and we had heard about it. When we were in Telluride on vacation, there was this can of whup-ass in the window of a store. Ben and I both said, "We've got to get this for Tiger!" So we bought it and wrapped it in the worst brown paper you can imagine. He said it was the best present he's ever gotten.