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MONTREAL — The air was crisp and alive with roars, the ground smelled of damp leaves, and the colors of autumn sparkled in the sunlit trees. This was how the Presidents Cup ended Sunday, in a postcard setting on a scenic island with a finish that wasn't quite idyllic yet had something for everyone.
Canada had Mike Weir, and the United States had a reassuring 19.5-14.5 team victory.
The golf was great, especially for Stewart Cink, who birdied seven of the first eight holes and added another at the 12th en route to a 6-and-4 singles win over Nick O'Hern. Charles Howell III also had eight birdies to beat Stuart Appleby, 2 and 1.
The heroics were great. Weir electrified his fellow Canadians with — pardon me, Augusta National — the round of his life. He took down Tiger Woods, the game's greatest player, with a gallant performance that drew raucous cheers from les habitants. He jumped on Woods early and was 3 up after six holes, but Woods stormed back and took a 1-up lead with three holes to play.
But Weir wasn't done. He made a clutch birdie putt at the 17th hole to square the match, and it was one of the loudest birdies ever heard in North America. He won the 18th hole and the match when Woods conceded after his drive found the lake, his next shot didn't reach the green and his pitch shot just missed the hole. Woods removed his cap to concede the match, and a minor earthquake registered around the green.
It was a storybook ending for the masses, a consolation prize for a team that had too much ground to make up on the final day. "It's overwhelming," Weir said after he finally escaped a relentless ring of Canadian camera crews. He was 3-1-1 for the week and contributed 3 1/2 points, more than any other International player.
The drama was great. It was a week in which the instant folk hero and submariner Woody Austin took a dive in a lake and returned to the scene on Sunday in a pair of goggles, prompting chants of "Wood-deee! Wood-deee!" from the delighted crowd. Phil Mickelson tried a shot out of the same lake on Saturday, and Weir, of course, took a crack at it on Sunday, taking off his shoes and socks and rolling up his pants for the shot.
The shotmaking was great. Royal Montreal was set up for birdies, and the players made them. Vijay Singh holed bunker shots, Austin made incredible clutch putts, Scott Verplank drained a long birdie putt on the first hole of the first singles match, and Weir hit a fearless iron onto the 18th green in his match against Woods. It was quite a show.
The only thing that wasn't great on the final day was the intrigue. The American team had built a nearly insurmountable lead on Saturday, and the Internationals needed to win 10 of 12 singles matches to take the Cup. When Verplank and Phil Mickelson won two of the first three matches, a miraculous comeback was down the drain. When Cink crushed the unfortunate O'Hern, he notched the point that clinched the Cup for the U.S. All eyes then turned to the Weir vs. Woods thriller.
