Great Rick Rielly commentary about the Ryder Cup.

[JerseyThursday]

MEDINAH, Ill. --

America's biennial toothache -- the Ryder Cup -- was extracted without novocaine Sunday, leaving nothing but the usual bloodstains. It was the worst choke job in Cup history. They put the "die" in Medinah.

But it didn't have to be. The USA could have and should have won.

In fact, it would have if only ...

• Captain Davis Love hadn't let Phil Mickelson push him around like a wheelbarrow. Love admitted he was considering playing his undefeated star pairing -- Mickelson and Keegan Bradley -- in the afternoon Saturday, but Mickelson talked him out of it. "Do not play us this afternoon," Mickelson said. "We're giving you everything we have." But he and Keegan hadn't even been stressed in their three wins. They had played only 32 holes, total.

Mickelson's reason?

"Historically and mathematically, guys have not done so well in singles if they have played every session," he said. It's not even remotely true (they win about half the time). Two men played all five matches in this Cup -- Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy -- and both won Sunday. Rose didn't seem tired at all Sunday. In fact, he sank three huge bombs on the last three holes to beat -- wait for it -- Mickelson.

• That Chicago state trooper hadn't driven like Jimmie Johnson through the streets of suburban Chicago to get European star Rory McIlroy to the course with eight minutes to spare. "He was asking me, 'Do you get motion sickness?'" McIlroy said. "And I'm like, 'No, no! Just get me there!'" He got there and nobody threw up, except Bradley, who got 4 down before eventually losing, 2-and-1, to a man who hadn't even warmed up. Any way to give that cop a ticket?

• Someone named Nicolas Colsaerts hadn't suddenly become Jack Nicklaus at the worst possible time. In a best-ball match Friday that included a red-hot Tiger Woods, Colsaerts was hotter. Woods made seven birdies. Colsaerts made eight. And an eagle.

Then he issued the greatest quote in Ryder Cup history: "You have just got to go with what's in your pants." Then Colsaerts went out and did zip the rest of the week, losing every match. He'd already done enough. That point cost America the win.

• Love hadn't picked Jim Furyk. Said it at the time, saying it now: Furyk has heartache painted all over him this season after blowing two majors in the final holes. Sunday, he bogeyed the last two holes against Sergio Garcia (ugh!) to give away a point he had tucked in his pocket on the 17th tee box, when he was 1 up. He's been part of six losing Ryder Cup teams and only two winning ones. Why pick him and bring all that bad Ryder mojo back? What America needs in the Ryder Cup is new, fresh-faced leaders who don't have the Ryder Cup losing gene imprinted into their cells. It needs young guys who love it, aren't afraid of it and don't know we're supposed to lose in it -- your Rickie Fowlers, for instance. Love could've picked him. Instead, he dipped back into the weeping well.

The rest is here:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8449570/how-us-lost-ryder-cup