Ireland’s Ryder Cup HEROES
Meet the Irishmen who stood tall and held their nerve for Europe when the pressure was at its greatest
AT five Ryder Cup cliffhangers, five Irish golfers had the choice to fight or flee. They fought. Each one, Eamonn Darcy, the late Christy O’Connor Junior, Philip Walton, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell, delivered a decisive moment in the singles which paved the way for a nail-biting European success.
Four of the five gladiators never won a major. Three of them, O’Connor, Darcy and Walton, hadn’t even won a Ryder Cup point before standing tall in the line of fire on Sunday.
Against the odds, they silenced any doubters to vindicate their place on the European team and membership of the Ryder Cup’s Hall of Fame and that Irish legacy could perhaps be something to inspire McIlroy and Lowry down the stretch in Rome.
1 EAMONN DARCY Muirfield Village, Ohio, 1987
As Eamonn Darcy walked to the second tee at Muirfield Village, having just seen Ben Crenshaw hole a 25-footer for birdie, he entered a Ryder Cup combat zone.
‘There was a little passageway and there was a guy there, who had to be 25 stone, and he was screaming and frothing from the mouth,’ he recalled.
‘“Kill them Ben, kill them, no prisoners today!”. I thought, “This should be good”.’
Crenshaw, who had four top tens in the majors that year, broke his putter in anger on the sixth, not that Darcy knew. ‘I thought he had the putter in his bag. He used his one-iron better than he did his putter.’
As for Darcy, he sank a slippery downhill six-footer on the 18th to win his match and repel a stirring US comeback, which earned congratulations from captain Jack Nicklaus.
‘I have the putter at home. It’s a Scotty Cameron. I take it out every now and then, look at the tiny head on it and think “I’m glad I don’t have to use you now”. That day in Muirfield was like putting on marble. I bowed out on a high. Nicklaus was very gracious afterwards but then he had my scalp a couple of times in previous Ryder Cups.’
2 CHRISTY O’CONNOR JNR The Belfry, 1989
At the pre-match gala ball, US captain Ray Floyd introduced his team as ‘the 12 greatest players in the world’, which went down like a lead balloon.
O’Connor, a controversial pick by Tony Jacklin after Sandy Lyle asked not to be considered, was revved up to play but was held back until the Saturday morning.
‘In the practice, myself and Jose Maria Canizares destroyed Seve (Ballesteros) and Ollie (Olazabal) but we were split up, which
I didn’t get. I partnered Ronan Rafferty, and we lost a game (foursomes) we could have won.’
In the singles, O’Connor faced rookie Fred Couples, and his vast experience told in the tightest of duels.
All square on the 18th fairway, Jacklin approached O’Connor and told him, ‘One more good swing for Ireland. You get anywhere on the green and you’re going to put huge pressure on him.’
O’Connor’s two-iron from 225 yards was as pure as silk and after his ball came to rest four feet from the cup, Couples capsized under pressure. O’Connor took off his trademark white flat cap, looked to the skies and blessed himself, before breaking down in tears.
‘Nothing I have ever achieved or experienced in golf can compare with that moment,’ he recalled. O’Connor’s win secured a 14-14 draw and the Ryder Cup stayed in European hands.
3 PHILIP WALTON Oak Hill, New York, 1995
With the United States leading 9-7, the mood was edgy in the European team room after the draw for the Sunday singles. It was then Philip Walton had his say. ‘I approached the board in the team room, where all the pairings for the singles were written down. ‘Everyone was looking at me, and I wrote down three words, “We will win”. That was my piece,’ he recalled.
Walton was put out at No 11 as Bernard Gallacher placed his big hitters at the top of the order. No one felt the Malahide native would assume a critical role. ‘I didn’t play until the second morning. It was foursomes and I was with Woosie (Woosnam), who played poorly. We lost on the 18th and I remember Gallacher coming up to him and saying, “you’re off again at 2.30 with (Costantino) Rocca”. I couldn’t believe it.’
In the singles, Walton established control against Jay Haas and was three up with four to play before the American clawed his way back. Both were in trouble off the tee on the 18th and eventually Walton had two putts from 10 feet to close out the match and clinch a famous European fightback.
Few in America had heard of Walton, something he touched on when the Irish flag was put on his shoulders. ‘Tell them I’m related to all those Waltons on TV,’ he joked.
4 PAUL McGINLEY The Belfry, 2002
Before he became a central figure in Europe’s emphatic wins of 2004 and 2006, and a successful captain at Gleneagles in 2014, Paul McGinley earned his stripes as a rookie.
Watching McGinley and Jim Furyk go toe to toe, it was clear the doughty Dubliner was enjoying the cut and thrust of match-play, and the occasion.
Level playing the last after a gritty 15-footer for birdie on the 17th, McGinley missed the green left before pitching up to 10 feet. Europe had their noses in front but nothing was certain.
‘I saw Furyk’s ball in the bunker. He’d a good lie and it nearly went in. His ball finished about 15 inches away. I thought to myself “He could miss it”.
‘I went back to my amateur days, cleared the decks, and gave him the putt. He looked at me twice as he was picking the ball up.
‘I walked around my putt. I saw the line, the speed, felt it. I said to JP (Fitzgerald) “I have it”. It was left to right, about a cup and a half outside the left. I drew it into the slope.
‘Did I know I was going to hole it? No. But I knew I’d hit a good putt. As I looked up, it was tracking.
‘When it went in I’d a thought: “Why is no one jumping on top of me? I’m an idiot.Maybe it’s lipped out”. Time stood still. Then I saw Sergio (Garcia) and he started me off on that stupid jump I was doing.’
McGinley had just won the Ryder Cup.
5 GRAEME McDOWELL Celtic Manor, 2010
Less than four months before his Ryder Cup high, Graeme McDowell won the US Open at Pebble Beach. He didn’t hesitate when reflecting on which of the two was more draining.
‘The US Open felt like a back nine with my dad back at Portrush compared to that. I can’t compare this to Pebble Beach, this is another stratosphere,’ he said in South Wales.
With the US defending, Europe needed to win. The match score was tied as McDowell and Hunter Mahan headed down the 16th, with McDowell one up.
On the 16th, he holed from 15 feet to go one up. Mahan was broken and when he duffed a chip at the 17th, it was all over and there was bedlam on the green.
‘If you can’t handle celebrations, don’t score the goal,’ quipped McDowell after a rollercoaster round. ‘I was imagining losing, I was imagining winning. Eighteen holes – it’s like you experience all the emotions of everyday life – ups and downs, good times, bad times. That’s what makes this game so great,’ he said.
Of the putt that turned the tide blue, he said, ‘Sixteen was massive, wow. It was the best putt I’ve hit in my life.’