From the highest highs to the lowest lows: An A-Z of the Ryder Cup

K is for K Club

A first Ryder Cup in Ireland, where Darren Clarke set the tone on the Friday morning and everyone else followed.

Europe won every session here, ran out winners by nine points and half our team finished the week without a loss next to their names.

It was also a third straight European victory so, all in all, a good week…

L is for Leonard

If only Justin Leonard hadn’t holed that 45-foot putt at Brookline then we wouldn’t have had such a big fall-out in 1999.

One interesting addition to the story is that a man wearing a red shirt runs on to congratulate Leonard after the putt drops. The man had a badge with ‘clergy’ on it, but he wasn’t a man of the cloth – he was well known for gate-crashing major sporting events.

He even took off with Leonard’s cap.

M is for Medinah

What hasn’t already been said about Europe’s greatest ever comeback?

One thing you might not know is that Keegan Bradley, Rory McIlroy’s singles opponent, had no interest in taking a point if the boy wonder hadn’t have made it to the 1st tee on time.

He told ESPN: “I had already told [Ryder Cup officials], ‘I don’t care what your rules are, I’m not taking a forfeit. Whether it’s now, an hour from now, two hours.’

“I don’t care what they would have said, we still would have played our match. I wouldn’t have wanted to finish [with a forfeit].”

Fair play to him.

N is for North

Andy North’s contribution to the Ryder Cup wasn’t a great one. His first US Open victory came in a non-Ryder Cup year in 1978 before he added another one seven years later.

So he arrived at The Belfry as a 35-year-old rookie.

He lost his first two fourballs before taking on Sam Torrance in the singles. We’ve all seen the clips of Torrance, with his arms outstretched on the final green, but moments before North had skied his tee shot into the water to make a horrible double-bogey.

O is for O’Connor Jr

Christy O’Connor Jr made his debut in 1975, where he lost both his matches and didn’t even feature in either round of singles. Fourteen years later he got to play again.

After another defeat he found himself up against Fred Couples, all square playing the 18th and 231 yards from the pin.

“I had just hit a fantastic 2-iron through the back of the 17th from 266 yards. At the last I wanted to hit the 5-wood, which was great to get it in the air but harder to hit straight.

“My caddie, Matthew Byrne, was great. He said, ’No way, you have just hit the best 2-iron of your life.’ But all I could see was the pond and all these ducks. He said to make sure I made a full turn, the same advice my uncle had given me earlier in the day. The trajectory was quite low but I caught it full on. It was a three-tiered green and it went to three-and-a-half feet.”

Ryder Cup A-Z continues on the next page…

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5