How Love made his singles lineup

• By Rex Hoggard
• Sep 29, 2012 11:50 PM ET

MEDINAH, Ill. – On Medinah’s spacious porch just past sunset on Saturday U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III gathered his four assistant captains and what remained of his team to devise Sunday’s singles lineup.

A captain by committee until the very end.

All week Love has stressed that players were grouped as they requested, and the final 12 matches were no different.

“Everybody got what they wanted,” Love said.

Love said he came up with five players he wanted to play early, including Bubba Watson, in the day’s first match, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker.

“Bubba doesn’t need to sit around until 1 (p.m.),” Love said.

Conversely, for the back end of his card he wanted experienced players who were more comfortable playing in the afternoon, like Tiger Woods in the day’s anchor match, Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar.

“We all knew (the Europeans) were going to load the boat early, it’s your only option,” Love said.

With a 10-6 advantage the U.S. needs 4 1/2 points to secure the cup, which means the deciding point will likely come toward the middle of Love’s order – unless, of course, the Europeans stage a Brookline-like rally – probably making Stricker's and Woods’ matches irrelevant.

Still, after an 0-3-0 start for Woods, his first winless turn in team play at the Ryder Cup, Love warned, “I wouldn’t want to play Tiger tomorrow.”