The Ryder Cup experience is one
SAM TORRANCE has been wrong at least twice before when he thought he might be experiencing his final Ryder Cup.
Involved for a 12th time as a player, winning captain in 2002 and now vice-captain again at Hazeltine this weekend, he has no doubts about why he keeps coming back.
“Is it addictive? Totally! Absolutely!” he enthuses.
“This is my 12th, and it’s in my blood. It’s the best, no question. I never won a Major, never had that privilege. But I don’t think that compares, anyway.
“You ask any player who has won Majors and played in this and they say: ‘No, this is the business’.”
Sam still recalls his first experience as a player, and the crippling nerves.
“It’s obviously physically bigger, look at all this now,” he said, gesturing to the mass of stands and tents at Hazeltine.
“But the matches are pretty much the same, and the pressure is the same. I was shaking on the first tee but I remember most of the shots, if not all of them.”
After being a fixture over two decades and holing THAT putt on the 18th at The Belfry to secure Europe’s first win in 1985, Sam wasn’t involved for the first time in 20 years at Valderrama in 1997 – although it’s actually one of his favourites.
“It was just the best. I sat on the couch for three days, except for having a couple of showers and spending a penny a couple of times and never moved,” he recalled.
“I’d never watched a Ryder Cup since I was a kid. Sixteen years without seeing a single shot, and all of a sudden I was