Ireland has had a vital part to play in Ryder Cup glory over the years
ON MONDAY, September 25th, 1995, a rainy and windswept evening, that one-time king of the air – Concorde – landed in Dublin airport. Philip Walton emerged onto the concourse and was visibly taken aback by the sight that befell him: close to 5,000 golf fans emitted a roar louder than the famous aircraft to welcome home the Dubliner, with the Ryder Cup trophy in hand. His deeds the previous day at Oak Hill in Rochester, upstate New York, had made him a hero.
He had stepped out of the shadows, just like many an Irish player before, and since. That Ryder Cup was Walton’s finest hour; the welcome he received on touching down – on his home turf in north county Dublin – and bringing the famed trophy into the North Terminal, reserved those days primarily for flights to Lourdes – was memorable.
Seve Ballesteros, the most iconic player of any European generation of golfer, and Costantino Rocca hoisted Walton onto their shoulders – and, little did we know it, but that was a precursor to how we would remember the Ryder Cup at The K Club in 2006, where players were body-surfed on supporters’ upraised arms to the closing ceremony.
To be sure, Irish golfers have played a long – and illustrious – role in the winning of the Ryder Cup.
Unfortunately, Christy O’Connor Senior, who played in 10 successive matches from 1955 to 1973, only got to savour victory on one occasion – in 1975 – but his nephew, Christy Junior, acquired hero status of his own for his contribution to the 1989 match at The Belfry.
In truth, when you recall the different winning roles played by Irishmen, it is difficult to choose one above the other. All have woven their way into the very fabric of the Ryder Cup, and the fact that Irish players have frequently found themselves in match-winning positions and managed to close the deal explains why the competition itself has found a place in our hearts.
Time and time again, Irish players have delivered the goods: Eamonn Darcy out-duelling Ben Crenshaw at Muirfield Village in 1987; Christy O’Connor Junior’s famed two-iron to the 18th to defeat Fred Couples at The Belfry in 1989; Philip Walton closing the deal over Jay Haas at Oak Hill in 1995; Paul McGinley boldly sinking the winning putt at The Belfry in 2002; and, lest we forget, Pádraig Harrington taking four points from a possible five at Oakland Hills in 2004.
And, if sentimentality ever managed to find a way into the game, it was delivered at The K Club in 2006, when Darren Clarke, barely six weeks after the death of his wife Heather, contributed three out of three to Europe’s cause in the record-equalling 18½ to 9½ triumph by Ian Woosnam’s men.
Darcy’s singles win over Crenshaw in 1987 was significant for the fact that it ensured Europe couldn’t lose – that a draw was the worst return possible.
Europe won for the first time on American soil. Two years later, O’Connor Junior – even if José Maria Cañizares’ win over Ken Green in the next match actually secured the retention of the famed trophy – was the hero.
Selected as a wild-card pick by captain Tony Jacklin, O’Connor was pitched against Fred Couples, the poster boy of the US team, and given little chance. He was to prove his doubters wrong, and sensationally so, as he hit a fairway two-iron from 240 yards over the lake to the 18th green to win the hole and claim a valued win over Couples.
It left O’Connor in tears as he saluted the ecstatic crowds around the final green. That same green was to provide a winning moment for another Irishman some 13 years later. In the 2002 match, McGinley – who’d played some of the best golf of his career in 2001 to make the team for a match which was put back a year due to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US – showed his terrier-like instincts and love of team competition to defeat Jim Furyk, holing a tricky 10-footer on the 18th to seal the win for Europe.
In some contrast, Walton’s deed at Oak Hill in 1995 was achieved in the knowledge that there was no fallback. After the heroics up ahead of Nick Faldo, who had turned his match with Curtis Strange around to win on the 18th, and then Sam Torrance’s 2 and 1 win over Loren Roberts, the arrival of players from both teams to watch the conclusion of Walton’s match with Haas left him in no doubt as to its importance.
“Oh Jaysus,” he thought at the time, “everything is down to me.” But Walton was to prove up to the task, hitting a five-wood approach from rough on the 18th to greenside rough and then getting up and down for a par which ensured that Europe defeated the US by the narrowest of margins, 14½ points to 13½. With that, Walton had joined a list of Irish players who had formed a vital part of Ryder Cup history.
