Agony and ecstasy the staple diet

If the Americans want a comfort cushion heading into this week's 35th Ryder Cup match at Oakland Hills, then the minefield that are historical statistics should provide not only solace but inspiration. Of the 17 previous matches that have been held in the United States, 15 of them have ended in victory for the home team . . . only in 1987 and 1995 have the Europeans triumphed.

However, a look back at the last three matches held in the United States should provide a cautionary note fo r members of Hal Sutton's team. Each of the last three Ryder Cup matches held in America, after the many shots over the three days of competition, have come down to one decisive putt in the tail-end singles.

The Missed Putt

Kiawah Island, 1991

In the end, it all came down to one putt of six and a half feet; or 78 inches, the same difference. Even now, the memory of the failure to hole that putt haunts Bernhard Langer, the man who missed it. Which was the greater pressure? That putt at Kiawah Island, or one to win an individual major championship?

"It's not an easy one to answer. You reach a point of pressure where, you know, you can't say it's 100 per cent or 110 per cent. What is it? There's just so much pressure where you can't imagine any more of it," said Langer.

"At Kiawah, obviously, there was no money involved. I was playing for the team. I felt bad for the team. I was there to play for Europe and nobody else. When you play majors, it is all for yourself, you're not doing it for your country or your continent. You're not doing it for the tour or anybody else. It's all for you and your caddie, basically. But the pressure is extreme, maybe more in the Ryder Cup than in individual events . . . in a team event, everybody is involved."

If, from that answer, we can assume that Langer - even 13 years on - still believes that to be his most pressurised moment on a course, the impact at the time was immense. In a contest universally described as the "War on the Shore," Langer's failure to hole that putt meant the United States ended their most barren spell in the Ryder Cup, reclaiming the trophy for the first time since 1983.

Throughout the match, a degree of ill will had developed, highlighted in the first day's foursomes match where the US pair Chip Beck and Paul Azinger had alternated using different compression balls, against the rules, in their encounter with Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal. In another match, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam were hardly on speaking terms with their opponents Payne Stewart and Mark Calcavecchia.

So, almost with a touch of fate, the outcome of this nastiest of Ryder Cup matches came down to the Langer and Irwin singles on the final day. On the 15th tee, Irwin was two up and playing well - but he lost the 15th, had to hole a six-footer to halve the 16th (where Langer made a fantastic up and down from a bunker), and then three-putted from 30 feet to find himself all square playing the last. If Langer managed to win the 18th, then the overall match would be halved and Europe would retain the trophy. It was not to be, however; despite Irwin falling over the finishing line, closing out with a bogey five after Langer sportingly conceded a two-and-a-half footer to his opponent.

In fact, destiny was in Langer's hands as he only required a two-putt par from 30 feet to keep the trophy in Europe. But the German raced his first putt six and a half feet by the hole, and then was left with the one back which, unfortunately for him, had a spike mark on the desired line. Langer opted to go inside the spike mark but didn't hit the ball firmly enough and it died away from the hole at the crucial time. He had missed, and the Americans doused themselves in the surf of the Atlantic in celebration.

Final score: USA 14½ Europe 13½

The Lagged Putt

Oak Hill, 1995

Of course, it should never have reached the 18th green in the penultimate match of the singles to decide it all. In truth, it should all have ended earlier, much earlier, out in the country; far away from the massive grandstands and without the golfing world watching the Dubliner go through the agony of trying to close out a match that should have ended almost half an hour earlier.

This is how it was, how Philip Walton - in his Ryder Cup debut, on an unsung and unheralded European team - claimed his place in history. To understand the pressure which Walton felt on the 18th, we have to go back to the 16th green when the Irishman was on the cusp of victory. Two feet from the hole in three, with his opponent Jay Haas in a greenside trap, it had seemed all he had to do was tap in for a 3 and 2 win.

Golf isn't as simple as that, though. From that 16th bunker, Haas's recovery seemed likely to overshoot the green until it struck the flagstick and dropped in for a winning birdie. "Oh God," thought Walton. "This is all I need." And the momentum seemed to have swung his opponent's way when Walton also lost the 17th, missing from four feet and forcing the match to go down the 18th.

There, Haas pulled his drive behind a tree; while Walton's tee shot finished in light rough on the right.

So, this was it; down to two men (in the match behind, Phil Mickelson was in the process of closing out Per Ulrik Johansson), one - Walton - needing to win to secure overall victory for his team; the other - Haas - simply requiring a halved match to keep the trophy in American hands.

Haas played a decent layup shot from behind the tree, but Walton's five-wood approach from 195 yards finished in the thick rough that guarded the elevated 18th green. Haas's third shot spun back to the front fringe, and the tension was unbearable as Walton prepared to play his shot, eventually hitting a sand wedge to 12 feet, using a tip from Ian Woosnam on how to extricate himself from the thick rough that was supposedly meant to favour the home side. Now, it was up to Haas. If he holed his pitch, Walton would need to hole his par putt. But the American raced his chip some eight feet by.

Now, destiny was in Walton's hands. As he and his caddie Bryan McLauclan eyed the line, the caddie whispered to him that the putt was going to come off the left. "Bryan, I've got two putts for it. I think I'll take them." Walton lagged his first putt to 12 inches and, with the automatic concession from his opponent, went the honour of performing the final act which brought the Ryder Cup back to Europe, only the second time that the Americans had lost on home soil and the quiet man from Malahide had become a permanent part of the most famous golfing silverware in history.

Final score: USA 13½ Europe 14½

The Raker

Brookline, 1999

Had the Ryder Cup really come to this? On a madcap final day of singles, crazy things happened; the kind of antics that didn't belong in golf, never mind in the most famed team event of them all . . . like marshals telling Andrew Coltart his ball was in one portion of rough, only for him to discover it yards away when the five-minute search time had elapsed, and like football terrace obscenities being hurled at Colin Montgomerie to such an extent that his opponent Payne Stewart insisted the marshals find the culprit and throw him off the course.

And, yet, the most infamous act of all was performed by the American team themselves in the decisive match between Justin Leonard and Jose Maria Olazabal. On the night before the singles, with the US trailing 6-10, American captain Ben Crenshaw had enlisted the aid of the then governor of Texas and now US president George Bush to give his men an inspirational speech, quoting from the "Address at the Alamo" and prompting Hal Sutton to jump up and give his own battle cry.

Whatever about the speech igniting a fire in the bellies of the US players, the crowd on that Sunday were undoubtedly fired up for the final day fightback and chants of "USA, USA" reverberated around the course. In recalling what it was like that day, Dave McNeilly - who was caddying for Padraig Harrington, who eventually beat Mark O'Meara - remarked: "The crowd were unbelievable. Every single time we finished a hole and walked to the next tee, it was like going back into the ring in a boxing match with the crowd screaming and shouting at us. It was nerve-tingling stuff."

From the start of the singles, the home side gathered a momentum that seemed impossible to stop and, yet, there remained hope for the Europeans as Leonard and Olazabal approached the 17th green. The Spaniard had been four up with seven to play but it was now all square playing the penultimate hole. Then, it happened.

Leonard's 50-footer would have been lucky to stay on the green except it hit the cup and fell in, thus putting the Americans on the brink of the half they needed in order to retain the Ryder Cup.

Leonard's raker was followed by many American players, wives and caddies and hangers-on running onto the 17th green, diabolical etiquette in that Olazabal still had a putt to halve the hole.

Olazabal waited, calmly, knowing he still had a 20-footer that could rescue Europe. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally got to take his putt; and missed. It was only with that missed putt that the Americans had reached their objective, although it was to Olazabal's credit that he won the 18th to halve his match. "It was very sad, an ugly picture," said the Spaniard of the notorious incident. "The emotion I can understand, but I still had a putt to try and make and that display should not have happened. No matter how much emotion is going on you have to keep your feet on the ground . . . you should show respect to your opponents."

Final score: USA 14½ Europe 13½