The Ryder Cup hasn’t always had the high stature that it does today, sitting alongside the major championships among golf’s biggest events. Indeed, the biennial match has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1927 at Worcester Country Club, when the Americans, led by captain Walter Hagen handily defeated Ted Ray’s Great Britain team.
The Ryder Cup’s ascendency is thanks, in part, to numerous iconic moments over the years that together tell a complicated history of animosity, clutch performance and national pride. These seven iconic Ryder Cup moments, in particular, have been the most impactful in creating the event we know today.
7. Bernhard Langer’s short miss at Kiawah Island
The animosity between the teams in the modern Ryder Cup can be traced to the late 1980s and spiked in 1991 with “The War by the Shore.” The feud between Ballesteros and the U.S. team, notably Paul Azinger, intensified. The fans acted as if they were enlisted in the battle. Hale Irwin, playing in the deciding match against Langer, pulled his drive 40 yards left at the last, only to miraculously (and suspiciously) find his ball next to the fairway. But it was Langer’s six-foot putt to win the singles match and retain the cup for Europe that is most remembered. It missed, and the Americans won the war.
6. Patrick Reed’s finger wag at Hazeltine
The tension between Rory McIlroy and the American crowd at Hazeltine National in 2016 was brewing all week, setting the stage for a Sunday duel with the gregarious Reed. The two traded birdies with the back-and-forth peaking on the eighth, where McIlroy holed a 40-footer for birdie and screamed “I can’t hear you” to the silent crowd. Reed matched with a 20-footer to tie the hole, wagged his finger at McIlroy and eventually closed out the match to cement his title as “Captain America.”
5. Seve Ballesteros’ greatest shot you’ve never seen at PGA National
The pivotal first match on Sunday in 1983 at PGA National between Ballesteros and Fuzzy Zoeller came to the 18th hole tied. Ballesteros snap-hooked his drive and hacked his second into a fairway bunker 245 yards from the hole. With the ball tucked under the lip, playing to a narrow green guarded by water, Ballesteros took 3-wood and miraculously curved it onto the fringe, salvaging a tie in the match. Jack Nicklaus, captain of the U.S. team, called it “the greatest shot I ever saw.” Unfortunately for the rest of us, it happened before the broadcast went on air.
4. The U.S. press conference callout at Gleneagles
The most drama during Europe’s rout of the Americans in 2014 came not on the course but in the post-match press conference, when Phil Mickelson openly rebuked captain Tom Watson’s leadership and called for a return to 2008 captain Paul Azinger’s style.
3. The Concession at Royal Birkdale
Tensions between the teams were high all week in the 1969 Ryder Cup until Jack Nicklaus conceded Tony Jacklin’s two-foot par putt on the final hole to end the Ryder Cup in a tie. Nicklaus told Jacklin, “I don’t think you would have missed it, but I wasn’t going to give you the chance, either.”
2. Ian Poulter’s heroics at Medinah
There is likely no “Miracle at Medinah,” when Europe overcame a 10-6 deficit on Sunday to win the 2012 Ryder Cup, without Poulter’s five consecutive birdies to close Saturday’s four-ball session. Poulter’s double fist pumps and visceral stares signaled this U.S. blowout-to-be was destined for another outcome.
1. Justin Leonard’s “clinching” putt at The Country Club
Leonard’s 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole in 1999 (above) to all but clinch the cup for the U.S. team could very well be on the podium of the greatest putts in history. After the chaos and celebration, Jose Maria Olazabal still had a birdie putt to keep Europe’s hopes alive. It missed, securing Leonard and the U.S. the half point needed to complete the historic comeback.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
