David Gilford on Ryder Cup 1995

FOLLOWING the successes at The Belfry and Muirfield Village the tide had turned back in the Americans' favour at the start of the 1990s. In 1991 it had gone to the final putt after a less-than-glorious few days at Kiawah Island before Tom Watson led a magnificent visiting side to a one-point win in Sutton Coldfield two years later.

David Gilford was one of five debutants in South Carolina and emerged from Kiawah Island with two defeats - one with Colin Montgomerie, the other a much-documented hammering alongside Nick Faldo - and his name in skipper Bernard Gallacher's envelope for the singles.

The home captain, Dave Stockton, mysteriously withdrew Steve Pate, involved in a car accident earlier in the week but able to play in the Saturday fourballs, after he was drawn to face the all-conquering Seve Ballesteros. Gilford should have faced the out-of-form Wayne Levi but spent the Sunday merely supporting from the sidelines.

"Dave Stockton used the accident to his advantage and it was totally out of the spirit of the Ryder Cup and not very nice," said Gilford. "Whoever got Levi would probably have beaten him. Mark Calcavecchia came up to me and said 'we don't like what has happened' which was very nice of him and not something he had to do."

The Englishman's second experience of the competition was, thankfully, an altogether more memorable one. For the last four Ryder Cups Ballesteros had battered the Americans with Jose Maria Olazabal as his partner - now the Spaniard was minus a wingman following his countryman's battles with rheumatoid polyarthritis.

Step forward Gilford for one of the more unlikely alliances in Ryder Cup history. The heart-on-the-sleeve Spaniard would now be partnered by the ultra-reserved Cheshire farmer. Day one would pit them against Brad Faxon and Peter Jacobsen.

"We played against Howard Clark and Mark James in practice and beat them quite easily and I think Mark said to the skipper that we were a good partnership. Seve was very enthusiastic and was a big motivator. Obviously he wasn't playing particularly well at the time but we seemed to gel together. The first day the Americans didn't play too great but we were three or four under on quite a long and difficult course."

The point was Europe's only win of the Friday fourballs, helping them to stay within touch of the hosts, and Gilford's form was so good he was thrown in to play in the following morning foursomes with Bernhard Langer. Another victory quickly followed, this time against the reigning US Open champion Corey Pavin and debutant Tom Lehman and, again, by a margin of 4 and 3.

"Ironically, I was probably playing better in 91 than 95 and the foursomes win was a great one as it was Pavin's only loss of the week. We both played really well and won comfortably in the end."

The victory was one of three for Europe on the Saturday morning but Lanny Wadkins' men did likewise in the fourballs, Gilford and Ballesteros going down to Jay Haas and another debutant Phil Mickelson. Europe went into the singles 9-7 in arrears and in need of something very special.

Gilford was sent out sixth, as Gallacher packed his middle order, and was paired against Faxon once more. There was never more than a single hole in it, and the Englishman came to the last with the slenderest of leads and the American advantage still at two points.

The former English Amateur champion, in between clubs with his approach, elected to hit a five wood to avoid ending up in the bank short of the green. Two hours later Philip Walton would finish in that exact spot. If short was tricky, the small patch of parched ground Gilford found, where the players and officials would exit the 18th green, was brutal.

"A lot was made of that chip saying I should have just flopped it up but it was sitting on some hard pan and the green sloped away violently and it wouldn't have stopped. There was no way I could have got in on the green other than a pure fluke.

"I chose to hit a seven-iron and it came up a foot short of the fringe and three feet short of the green. He was about four feet away in three and I expected him to hole it. He was renowned for holing putts and had done it all day."

With typical modesty Gilford adds: "My six-footer was relatively straightforward, up the hill and from right to left, and I was ready for a half when he missed."

Montgomerie, Faldo and Sam Torrance added further wins and it was left to Walton finally to hand Gallacher, eight times a player and three times a captain, his first taste of success in the competition. For Gilford, also, a deserved happy ending, topping the European scoring charts alongside Torrance. It was quite a contrast from Kiawah.