MEDINAH, Ill. – By 4:30 Sunday afternoon, most of the 40,000 or so fans who'd descended upon Medinah Country Club to see a surefire American rout had made their way to the 191-yard, par-3 17th hole. They lined the trees, the bridge crossing the water, the grandstand behind the green. They even waded into the weeds to get a closer look at the putting surface just across Lake Kadijah.

This is where the 2012 Ryder Cup would be decided.

It's where Luke Donald closed out Bubba Watson to get the European steamroller going; where Ian Poulter grabbed the lead for the first time in his match against Webb Simpson; where Rory McIlroy closed out Keegan Bradley; where Justin Rose poured in an impossible putt to square his match with Phil Mickelson; where Sergio Garcia started his comeback win over Jim Furyk; and it's where Steve Stricker's nerves failed him to essentially seal the Americans' fate.

Not that it should have ever come down to one hole.

The Americans entered the final day

MEDINAH, Ill. – Celebration of a Ryder Cup victory will almost certainly be in full swing Sunday night for the Americans. Show up for the 12 singles matches Sunday morning, win just 4½ of them and it's Champagne time.

The only question is if Tiger Woods will feel deserving of an invitation to the party.

Benched Saturday morning for the first time in his seven Ryder Cup appearances, Woods and partner Steve Stricker emerged in the p.m. only to lose to Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia, making the American duo 0-for-3 in the tournament.

Tiger Woods hugs Steve Stricker after Stricker missed a potential tying putt on No. 18. (Reuters)No matter, though. With Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson turning the weekend into their own little bromance and the rookie duo of Jason Dufner and Webb Simpson acting like they've been here before, the U.S. has bolted out to a 10-6 advantage over Europe. Barring a Europe '99 meltdown, the Samuel Ryder Cup will return to this side of the pond for just the second time since the turn of the century.

"It is hard to believe that Tiger hasn't won a point

MEDINAH, Ill. – Topping the list of reasons why the Europeans are looking up at the Americans after the first day of the Ryder Cup is a 26-year-old spark plug named Keegan Bradley, who once slept on the kitchen table in a camper his dad nicknamed Tin Cup II.

Bradley stared down the world's No. 3-ranked player in Friday's morning alternate shot session, the world's No. 1 in the afternoon and, in one day, managed to turn Phil Mickelson's biological clock back 10 years. On a day in which Tiger Woods went winless, Bradley and Mickelson earned two points for the United States, helping the Americans to a 5-3 first-day lead of the biennial tournament they've won just once since 1999.

"His energy is so positive; it's so good," Mickeslon said. "I would say to him a couple of times I need a little pep talk, and he would give me something, get me boosted right up, and I would end up hitting a good shot."

Like at No. 13, when clinging to a tenuous one-hole lead in their match against

MEDINAH, Ill. – Michael Phelps introducing Justin Timberlake.

Even the fans at this year's Ryder Cup came dressed for the craziness. (Y! Sports)Welcome, folks, to the Ryder Cup.

This is a tournament where a man walks around in a kilt, a pair of golf shoes and a Ralph Lauren bag draped over his shoulder, and no one does a double take.

Where Brandt Snedeker tossing lapel pins into the air sends a screaming crowd of 40-somethings in collared golf shirts scrambling to grab one as if it's Eddie Van Halen's guitar pick.

Where Tiger Woods is average.

Where chants of USA! USA! spontaneously break out, only to be silenced the moment anyone steps up to their golf ball.

Where Bubba Watson pulling out a pink driver causes a near riot.

Where the player who lives the closest to the course is part of the away team.

And it's where, as Europe's Ian Poulter put it, "you can be great mates with somebody, but, boy, do you want to kill them."

So is the essence of an event that every two years pits a team of United States golfers against one from Europe in what amounts

MEDINAH, Ill. – Perhaps the fiercest competition during this weekend's Ryder Cup will not take place on the golf course, but rather in the United States' team room.

Phil Mickelson has had a tough time measuring up to Matt Kuchar in pingpong. (Getty Images)That's where three pingpong tables have been set up in what's become a Ryder Cup tradition amongst U.S. players. The original intent was to build camaraderie, and to that end it worked – if you are to believe Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods ironed out some of their differences over a game of table tennis.

Lately, though, the games have taken on a more serious tone, with Mickelson and Matt Kuchar bringing their own paddles packed away in special cases.

"The Ryder Cup is all about pingpong, everybody," Bubba Watson declared Thursday. "When you bring your own paddles in cases, a briefcase with a paddle in it, then obviously it's about pingpong. … It's nuts."

While tongue in cheek, there is some truth to Watson's claim that the Ryder Cup is all about pingpong. When asked about how his relationship with Woods has evolved

MEDINAH, Ill. – As his playing partners took off after their fifth-hole drives, Rory McIlroy relented to a television interview in the middle of a practice round for this weekend's 39th edition of the Ryder Cup.

No, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell, the heart of the European team, weren't waiting on their 23-year-old teammate from Northern Ireland. It would be on him to catch up to them. Rory McIlroy sprints to catch up with his foursome during a practice round Wednesday. (Yahoo! Sports)

And so as the three players arrived at their balls, behind them played out a scene straight out of Forrest Gump: There was McIlroy swiftly jogging up the middle of the fairway, covering the 200-plus-yard distance in no time flat.

"Run, Rory, run," a young boy yelled from the right side of the fairway.

As if it's the first time McIlroy's been urged to get somewhere fast.

Since joining the European Tour as a 17-year-old prodigy in 2007, McIlroy's been pegged as the next great thing, which in golf parlance means being the next Tiger Woods. To a certain degree, McIlroy has lived

MEDINAH, Ill. – There is a golf tournament in which Tiger Woods is not very good. Average, really, and it's a major, bigger than any of the actual majors, if you ask some.

In the same 13-year-span in which Woods won 14 major championships, more than 60 tournaments in all and earned his spot as the fiercest competitor on the planet, he posted a pedestrian 13-14-2 record in Ryder Cup play, the biennial USA vs. Europe showdown.

Tiger Woods has struggled in team play at the Ryder Cup over the years. (Getty Images) Despite being the world's No. 1 player for most of the 2000s, Woods has been a part of only one winning Ryder Cup team, way back in 1999. The only United States team to win in the new millennium is the '08 squad that didn't feature Woods, who missed out due to injury.

And so it is with the latest rendition of the intercontinental classic kicking up again, with Europe having won six of the last eight, that Woods' Ryder Cup record takes on added scrutiny. For as great a player as he's been on his own, the one thing he can't say is that he has helped his

MEDINAH, Ill. – In a tribute that is sure to tug on the heartstrings of both sides playing in this year's Ryder Cup, the bags the Europeans will carry around Medinah Country Club this week will feature a silhouette of the late, great Seve Ballesteros.

Seve Ballesteros is honored on the European team's bags. (Yahoo! Sports)The image, set in blue against a white background, depicts the iconic fist pump Ballesteros jabbed at the air after sinking a 15-foot putt to win the 1984 British Open. It was a defining moment for the then 27-year-old Spaniard, one he called his sweetest in golf, but where he truly made his mark was in Ryder Cup play.

It was and still is Ballesteros who many credit as the player who turned what had been a biennial American romp into an actual rivalry. Pre-Ballesteros, the era between 1927 and 1977 when the Ryder Cup was USA vs. Britain, the Brits were 3-18-1 and hadn't won since 1957.

[Related: Colin Montgomerie fears raucous American crowd could mar Ryder Cup's return to U.S.]