Jose Maria Olazabal’s Europe completed a Miracle at Medinah with an amazing singles comeback on one of the greatest days in the Ryder Cups’ already astonishing history.
Needing to emulate the famous US comeback to win from four points down at Brookline in 1999, Olazabal’s team shrugged off a hostile home crowd and needing a police escort to get Rory McIlroy to the first tee to do just that.
Martin Kaymer, faced with a putt the same distance as his countryman Bernhard Langer missed in 1991 to lose the little gold trophy, rammed it home to beat Steve Stricker and, in turn, get the 14th point which Europe needed to win.
Francesco Molinari got the half – the only halved match of the entire weekend – to secure the outright 14 -13 win when Tiger Woods three-putted the last just a few minutes later.
For Olazabal, it was sweet vindication, given he was at the centre of the last big comeback in 1999 at Brookline, when the Americans won the cup having trailed 10-6.
His match with Justin Leonard was the controversial pivotal point of that contest.
This time, evoking the memory of his lost friend Seve Ballesteros all week and on the uniforms of the team on the final day, the match was turned around against all the odds.
”This win is for all of Europe, the 12 wonderful players on the team, the caddies, for the Tour and for all the fans who followed us here,” said the captain.
”Seve will always be present with this European team. He was a big factor for this event for the our side and last night when we were having that meeting, I think the boys understood what this meant.
”It’s been a tough week. The first two days nothing went our way.
”However, I felt we started to make a few putts and the Americans started to miss them. I’ve seen many things in my career but today tops everything.”
See today’s edition of The Courier for full details of Europe’s audacious victory.