Ryder Cup has been nothing but a case of nerves and bad shots

• Ian Poulter was 50 yards from the 13th green on Friday and dunked his ball in the drink. He could hit that shot a million times, at midnight, and not hit another as badly as that. Said Stewart Cink, who teamed with Chad Campbell to beat Poulter and Rose in that match: "This pressure can force golfers into bad mistakes."

• Indeed it can. Campbell and Cink felt the other end of it Saturday, again against Poulter and Rose, when they made hash of the seventh hole and never put it on the green in five shots, conceding after Cink's fifth attempt, a chip, rolled through the green and nearly into the water behind it. That put the Americans down five after just seven holes, and they were eliminated on No. 15 when Campbell hit a muni-quality drive to the right and Cink punched out of trouble ... and into the water.

Obviously the Ryder Cup matters to these guys. It's touching, how much it matters. They play for themselves all year, every year, until this biennial event rolls around. There's not a cent to be won, and still they get twisted into knots. Leonard has won 12 times, including the 1997 British Open, but says his first Ryder Cup tee shot made him "as nervous as I've ever been."

Perry told partner Jim Furyk before their Friday foursome, "You're going to have to play the first couple holes and let me settle down a little bit."

"I was nervous out there," Perry said later. "I never felt that way in my whole life."

Perry was involved with the three biggest American collapses through the midpoint of the Ryder Cup. Three times an American team walked onto the 18th tee box needing only to halve that hole to win the match, and all three times the American team lost the hole, done in by the tee shot.

On Friday morning, Perry hit his team's tee shot into the water hazard on the right. That afternoon, Boo Weekley and J.B. Holmes each hit their tee shots into the same water. On Saturday morning, Hunter Mahan avoided the water so thoroughly that he put his drive into the bunker on the other side of the fairway.

It's intense, the Ryder Cup. Said Europe's Paul Casey: "You're just trying to remember to breathe."

The alternative is choking.