My new series where I take a look back at a time sport left me broken.
There is nothing quite like the final day of a Ryder Cup in terms of gut-wrenching tension. For hours on end you study the scoreboard meticulously, allowing yourself brief moments of hope when a blob of blue is added, and descending into despondency when red starts to dominate. As the 12 singles matches develop you board a rollercoaster of emotions, thrown up and down as hole by hole the picture changes. By the end of the day you feel like you've been to hell and back.
Sometimes I think this is just me being far too invested in sport. But it is reassuring to discover that you are not alone. And when you find out that the players involved are also suffering then it helps to know that maybe all of this does matter after all. To hear Sir Nick Faldo comment that every part of his body was shaking during his pivotal singles match against Curtis Strange in 1995 is confirmation that the Sunday of the Ryder Cup is unique.
But then everything began to unravel, and it was not pretty viewing. Finishing triple bogey, bogey, triple bogey, bogey, Calcavecchia halved his match, needed treatment after hyperventilating, and walked to the beach in tears, fearing that his collapse had cost his team dear.
In truth, the 1991 Ryder Cup was never destined to end well for Europeans. A 15-minute video showing the history of the competition at the Gala Dinner largely erased the recent European highlights, and when a local radio station DJ announced hotel room numbers for the European side in a 'Wake Up the Enemy' campaign, the mood had been set.
The 'War on the Shore' would see tensions growing between Seve Ballesteros and Paul Azinger, Americans wearing camouflaged caps (in a tribute to the Gulf War), and European suspicions grow over the exclusion of Steve Pate from the singles due to injury. It wasn't really what the Ryder Cup was supposed to be about.
And then to the crushing denouement. With Europe trailing 14-13 and Bernhard Langer 2-down against Hale Irwin with just four holes to play, seemingly the Americans had one hand on the trophy. Needing to win his match to keep the cup in Europe, Langer was definitely someone you would have picked to play in this scenario. A man tough enough to overcome the putting yips in the past, the German would demonstrate his mental solidity in the excruciating climax at Kiawah Island.
It possibly went on for 45 minutes; yet it seemed like a lifetime. How the two players must have felt is beyond comprehension. Everyone on the course and the millions of people watching at home were now fully focussed on two men as they carried the hopes of a continent and country on their shoulders. Surrounded by spectators the two men could have been forgiven for choking due to the suffocating atmosphere.
Langer won the 15th, halved the 16th, and levelled the match at the 17th, sinking putts that would have tested anyone under that pressure, let alone a man using a strange grip to solve his latest putting crisis. Wrapping his right hand around a left arm and putter shaft that were linked together, Langer had managed to prolong the agony for everyone involved. The 1991 Ryder Cup would be decided on the par-four 18th hole in the final match of the weekend.
Just in case there had not been enough to talk about, another portion of controversy followed. Needing to win the last hole to retain the cup, Langer split the fairway, but Irwin was not so fortunate. Pulling his tee shot towards the dunes, some reports reckon that Irwin was 40-50 yards left of the fairway. But somehow his ball ended up on the fringe of the rough, sitting up nicely. European doubts remain to this day. Whether Irwin received a helping hand or not, the job was far from done, however.
Irwin pushed his second shot and was unable to get up and down. Langer, who had just run through the green with his approach, knew a par would secure the Ryder Cup. Langer's first putt looked good but trickled on, leaving him a six-foot putt for his par. Hard enough under normal circumstances, a significant spike mark on the line of Langer's putt left the German with a dilemma.
Ian Woosnam explains the situation in Woosie: My Autobiography. "Now, he faced a decision: did he putt over it, or did he putt softly round the mark and allow the ball to take the break? We sensed the problem from the edge of the green, and we all agreed he was right to try and putt around the mark." Standing over his ball, Langer took the putter back as the whole golfing world looked on.
Accept not everyone was watching. Unable to take the tension any longer, I looked away from my television, hoping with every fibre in my body that Langer could make one final putt. It was the first time I'd ever done this whilst watching sport. As soon as Langer's putt slid past and I heard the groan of my dad and the cheers of the Americans, I vowed never to make the same mistake again.
Langer bent his knees and opened his mouth in anguish as the putt brushed right lip of the hole. Not that I saw this as it happened of course. Cruelly he would be remembered as the man who missed a putt that lost the Ryder Cup. Technically that is true; but how many players would have even fought their way to get into that position? Very few. Many will only recall the final putt, but those who know, know.
There were tears in the team room afterwards. There were almost some in my house too, but the drama had left me feeling deflated, empty and gutted. Perhaps crying would have helped me, providing a release from all that I had gone through on that sad Sunday. But bottling it up seemed the best approach.
For years I would struggle to watch that Langer putt, simply refusing to confirm that it had happened by again turning away from the screen if it appeared. Watching the YouTube clips for research has been far from therapeutic.
I possibly need to get over it. But sport gets to you like that. There are simply moments that hurt, so much so that writing about them 30 years later highlights the fact that the pain still exists. Silly, I know. No one died. Yet if something matters to you that much then should you feel the need to justify your emotions?
Just a week later, Langer revealed the size of his cojones when he won the German Masters, defeating Rodger Davis in a playoff. He could have been forgiven for hiding away, wallowing in pity, and using that Ryder Cup moment as an excuse to dissolve. But the very thing that got Langer into that position on the 18th was the reason he rebounded so quickly.
It's little wonder that he made such a good captain in 2004, and although nothing will ever make up for Kiawah Island in 1991, the record victory at Oakland Hills was a fine way for the German to exit the Ryder Cup stage. I think I may go and watch the highlights of that particular weekend again; after writing this, I need a bit of cheering up.
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