magic moments - the price is right (2002)
Phillip Price celebrates a magical moment.
By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent
Phillip Price v Phil Mickelson, The Belfry 2002: The postponement of the 2001 match because of the terrorist attacks in America was followed by the announcement that the same 24 players would take part 12 months later. There was an inevitable consequence of that - some of them would not be in the same form and would therefore be suffering a crisis in confidence. Welshman Price, who had been the 10th and last automatic qualifier the year before, had only one top-30 finish in the three months leading up to the re-arranged date and the only time he was called up on the first two days was for the Saturday foursomes when he and Pierre Fulke - also benched on Friday - lost to Mickelson and David Toms. The two teams were level 8-8 as captains Sam Torrance and Curtis Strange decided who to put where in the concluding singles. When the draw came out it was a stunner - Torrance had put his in-form men at the top, whereas Strange had gambled by putting Mickelson and Tiger Woods 11th and 12th. Against Price and Jesper Parnevik respectively. Price still remembers how he felt. "What unsettled me most was not who, but where," said the 39-year-old. "Eleventh - what am I doing there? I expected to be in the middle somewhere. "But I thought I'd played some good stuff in the foursomes and Mickelson hadn't been at his best. There had been a few slashes from him. "While that gave me encouragement, what I didn't know, of course, was whether I could finish it off if I got the chance. Could I get it done? "Well, I made a great start and got three up after seven even though he was two under par. And I was still three up before he won the 15th. "We'd been told just to concentrate on our game and not get distracted by what was happening on the scoreboard. I was aware it was going well, though, and as we played the back nine I had it in my mind that if I won my game it must be difficult for us not to win the match. "Woosie (assistant captain and fellow Welshman Ian Woosnam) was following and he didn't say much, but just kept nodding. I was thinking 'what does that mean?' "Anyway on the 16th I hit my second shot to the back of the green about 25 feet from the hole and he hit to 20 feet. The atmosphere was amazing and when I made my putt the crowd just erupted. "He could still have halved the hole, but he missed and I'd won. It was brilliant." It meant that up ahead on the 18th Niclas Fasth had a chance to take Europe to victory - until Paul Azinger holed his bunker shot, that is. So when that ended in a half it was all eyes on Paul McGinley and his 10-footer against Jim Furyk settled the match. Strange was criticised for having Woods in a position where his result became immaterial - he and Parnevik agreed a half on the last green - but it could have worked if Mickelson had beaten Price. But he didn't. At the post-match celebrations that night Price kept telling his team-mate to let the crowd know who he had beaten. Four years on he still remembers how good it felt. "That party was awesome." And so was the putt.
