1987 Ryder Cup: We came, we saw, we conquered

The 1987 side is regarded as Europe’s best ever. Key men from that historic first win on American soil relive the matches…

When the European team boarded Concorde to fly to Muirfield Village, Ohio, for the 1987 Ryder Cup, there was a quiet confidence in the camp. Europe had never won on foreign soil and America certainly weren’t entertaining the prospect of captain Jack Nicklaus losing in his own backyard. But our team boasted six players who were, or would become, Major champions and we were defending the trophy won for the first time in 28 years at The Belfry two years earlier. What unfolded that late September weekend 25 years ago has gone down in European folklore. The feats of the 12 men considered by many to be Europe’s greatest ever team were the catalyst for the decades of growth in the continent. Here, captain Tony Jacklin, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle’s caddie Dave Musgrove, PGA chief executive Sandy Jones and fan and journalist Dougie Donnelly relive the most momentous week in European golf history.

THE BUILD UP

Jones: I didn’t become chief executive until 1991 so was assigned to work with Tony and the team and I had to ensure all the kit and so on were in place at Muirfield Village. I met the team at the airport when they came in on Concorde. A local paper put the crowds at 10,000 people to greet them. The team were in great spirits and ready to go.Tony was very meticulous. He wanted everything ready for the guys and he didn’t want anything to upset anyone. The only snag we had was when the wrong golf bags turned up. Titleist were doing them that year and they didn’t send the tournament bags, they sent small carry bags. I remember opening the boxes and saying, ‘bloody hell, what’s this?’ They arrived on the Thursday or Friday the previous week and of course we needed to get tournament bags sorted out within two or three days. Jack’s logistics guy at Muirfield Village chased up Titleist and the bags were sent. I think the names were put on in Cincinnati and we got them on the Monday. We didn’t quite make it for the start of the first practice round but changed them over on the 9th.

Jacklin: We all went to America quietly confident. A reporter put a microphone under my face as we stepped off the plane and asked, ‘who do you think is going to win?’ ‘Oh, we will win,’ I replied. He said: ‘How can you say a thing like that?’ I said: ‘You asked me a question and I answered it.’ We had a great team, great unity and we were solid as rocks. The different feeling from previous matches was that we had the Ryder Cup and wanted to put the icing on the cake by winning for the first time in America.

The mission was to win the Ryder Cup; that was our brief. There was no room for somebody thinking they were better than anyone else. I tried to keep a one-on-one relationship with all the guys. I believe passionately that certain people produce more when they are with a party they are comfortable with. They are more productive, whoever they are and certainly on the course. I wanted to make sure all the partnerships were solid and that nobody was playing with someone they weren’t 100 per cent happy with. It was all very worthwhile at the end of the day.

The way we were treated was second to none. All we had to do was play golf. Being at Muirfield Village helped us; Jack had held 11 Memorial Tournaments there already and the vast majority of the crowd were those galleries, so our players got just as much applause when they made putts. They were very polite and I think that prompted Jack and the American PGA to dish out stars and stripes flags.

Donnelly: I was there as a fan and in a lot of ways it had a big influence on my career because I’d already been presenting football and rugby for BBC Scotland for about 10 years and I’d done my first real golf coverage at the Scottish Open that year. After going to the Ryder Cup I just thought it was fantastic and I had to be involved in it. The atmosphere was unbelievable and it was very much Jack’s course; everywhere you go in the clubhouse there’s Jack Nicklaus memorabilia.

FRIDAY

Jacklin: I tried to keep the Spanish duo of Seve and Ollie together because of their personal and national pride. That worked very well. I was going to play (Jose) Rivero in 1985 with Seve but he was intimidated by him. If I left somebody out, it was just the way it worked. I didn’t want them to feel sleighted by it. The whole point was to put points on the board and whatever we had to do to put points on the board, we did it.

Woosnam: Nick (Faldo) and I were told we were playing together on the Thursday, but I can’t remember any practice rounds together. We tended to practice with different players. It was a great move by Tony because I had someone who was going to be really steady and churn out the pars. That allowed me just to go out and play very aggressively. As it turned out, it was fantastic. I was happy to play with whoever, but Tony came up with these brilliant pairings. I think only one pairing could have competed with us and that was Olazábal and Seve. Nick had just remodelled his swing and won a Major tournament and I was having the best year of my life.

There was no stronger pairing than us on paper. When we played in the foursomes, I just had to keep it in play more and to play a bit more of a steadier game. I was fortunate that I could hit my long iron long enough to keep it in play. We were two down after nine in our first foursomes against Lanny Wadkins and Larry Mize and Nick said something like, ‘don’t panic, we’ll get them’. Being in the bunker on 18 sticks in my mind. I was short right but knocked it out stiff. That was probably the best moment for me. We needed to get it up-and-down to seal the match and that was one of the best bunker shots I’d played at that time, and the most important. That set the tone for me and Nick because that was the first time we’d played together.

Musgrove: People knew Sandy and Langer were a good partnership because they played together at The Belfry in 1985, but I think Tony thought he would be better in a fourball than the foursomes so Sandy was surprisingly left out of the first set of matches.

Donnelly: I was there as a guest of Glenmuir and they kitted us out in the team colours – they supplied all the kit. There were eight of us all wearing exactly the same colours as the team, which caused a bit of a stir. We followed Sam Torrance particularly because he was sponsored by Glenmuir and I knew him a bit then. I still do quite a few company days with Sam and he still tells this gag. He got engaged to Suzanne on the Concorde on the way over and when he was announcing the pairings for the first matches Jacklin said, ‘Sam, I’m going to give you a rest’. Sam was really disappointed because he thought he was going to play. Then Jacklin said, ‘I’m giving you a real rest, you’re playing’ because he’d been inseparable from Suzanne for the past few days!

We got off to a terrible start on Friday and were down in all four foursomes before coming back to draw 2-2 in the first session. Sam and Howard Clark lost and didn’t play again until the Sunday. Then we won all four fourballs in the afternoon which was just phenomenal.

RESULTS (Foursomes first):

Torrance/Clark lose to Strange/Kite 4&2
Brown/Langer lose to Sutton/Pohl 2&1
Faldo/Woosnam beat Wadkins/Mize 2 holes
Ballesteros/Olazábal beat Nelson/Stewart 1 hole
Brand/Rivero beat Crenshaw/Simpson 3&2
Lyle/Langer beat Bean/Calcavecchia 1 hole
Faldo/Woosnam beat Sutton/Pohl 2&1
Ballesteros/Olazábal beat Strange/Kite 2&1
Europe lead 6-2

SATURDAY

Musgrove: Lyle and Langer were a brilliant pairing. The best bit was on the par-5 11th in the foursomes. Langer drove off and put Lyle in the position to go for the green. I got up there before Lyle to get the yardage. Langer asked, ‘how far is it?’ and I replied ‘228 so we’ll just call it 230.’ Langer then went and measured it himself and said ‘it’s 227’. So Lyle came up and said, ‘how far is it?’ and I told him ‘228.’ Lyle just went ‘we’ll call it 230 then.’ He hit a 2-iron pretty close.

Jacklin: Langer came up to me and he said, “I’m tired this afternoon.” But I just said to him: “Hey, you are a champion. You are better for me a little bit tired than my alternatives.” I watched his chest puff out and all of a sudden he realised his importance. It’s a two-sided thing. A few times I had to remind them how good they were.

Jones: The first few days are a blur to me really but I remember Langer and Lyle in the fourballs on Saturday. We went one-up as I recall and Langer hit a shot a foot from the hole. Later, I was picking the guys up to take them to the press centre on a buggy. I said to Sandy, ‘that was a bit tight’ and he replied, ‘it wasn’t tight, I knew Fritz had it in him.’ The result gave us a five-point lead.

Woosnam: I think we were 10-under through 15 against (Tom) Kite and (Hal) Sutton in the fourballs. Birdies galore. We were both on-form and if I wasn’t doing it, Nick was. It was fun. Jack set the course as difficult as he could and said he couldn’t believe the standard of golf that was coming from the European team.

RESULTS (Foursomes first):

Brand/Rivero lost to Strange/Kite 3&1
Faldo/Woosnam halved Sutton/Mize
Lyle/Langer beat Wadkins/Nelson 2&1
Ba’steros/Olazábal bt Crenshaw/Stewart 1 hole
Faldo/Woosnam beat Strange/Kite 5&4
Darcy/Brand lost to Bean/Stewart 3&2
Ballesteros/Olazábal lost to Sutton/Mize 2&1
Lyle/Langer beat Wadkins/Nelson 1 up
Europe lead 10 ½ -5 ½

SUNDAY

Jacklin: I messed around with singles tactics every year. I had fun trying to outsmart the opposing captain. As play unfolded I tended to move to the matches which were on the cusp. There was so much going on, but it was so important to try and maintain our momentum.

Woosnam: Tony didn’t ask me about it, but I wanted to go out first. I always want to go out first. I was the fastest player on the team. But I think I ran out of gas in losing to Andy Bean. I should have won really; I just made a few too many mistakes. After I finished my match I watched some of the guys coming through and was just trying to get involved. There were so many matches coming up the last. (Eamonn) Darcy rolling that putt in was pretty exciting and then I went to watch Seve finish off his match.

Musgrove: I just remember saying to Lyle that ‘the longer you keep going, the better the others will feel’. If the match keeps going, even if they are over, you never know which way they have gone. After nine holes, they were both six under. Kite won 3&2 and he was 10-under after 16 holes. Lyle never forgot it.

Jones: I watched Darcy for the main part of the back nine. He had been two-up after six and Crenshaw broke his putter. Someone said he was unlucky and that he just threw it to the bag and the way the putter landed, it just broke. Other people say he threw it in anger. I’ve never been brave enough to know which it was! After that strong start, the match started to turn against Darcy. When it got to the par-3 16th Crenshaw hit this great tee shot whereas Darcy missed the green – but he came through in the last two. I can also remember running back down to Seve and watching him hole the winning putt; everybody was jumping around and hugging.

Donnelly: There weren’t that many of us European fans but we out-sang, out-shouted and out-cheered the Americans, which you can’t imagine happening now over there. Jack had got boxes and boxes of American flags to hand out to fans to try to counter us. Sam was out early and didn’t play particularly well against Larry Mize. He was a bit out of touch because he hadn’t played since the first morning and Mize was one-up playing the last but he got into trouble and had to take a penalty drop so Sam had two putts to halve the match, which was quite important at the time because we only got one-and-a-half points from the first seven matches. Then we were with Darcy and he holed the putt that basically won the Ryder Cup, although it was Seve’s win that made it official. It was Darcy’s fourth Ryder Cup and his eleventh match – he’d never won before.

Musgrove: Nick Faldo’s caddie Andy Prodger never got on the plane back. He had a bottle of champagne in his bag and when they put it on the x-ray machine he joked, ‘you ought to be careful with that, it might have a bomb in it.’ The next thing, a man comes over to him and Andy’s in handcuffs as the plane takes off. He was released a day later – but the champagne had been drunk.

Woosnam: That Ryder Cup was even more special. A lot of people travelled to Ohio and it was fantastic. I remember going into the tented village afterwards and they had shirts with our names on. It was very special. There’s no doubt it was our strongest-ever team at that time. We have had some strong teams lately which would take some beating but at that time, it was probably the strongest team we had had.

Jacklin: Winning in America was the cherry on top of the icing. After winning in ’85, the only mountain left to climb was winning in America. And we went there and conquered. Was it better? I don’t know. It was as good as it could ever get. I don’t want to diminish the ‘85 effort but to be part of that ‘87 team was something else. It was just a privilege to be part of them.

Donnelly: When the team walked into the official dinner the place went potty. I’m tempted to say it was the best Ryder Cup of all. I’ve been lucky to cover seven Olympics and three football World Cups and ’87 is up there with the best sports event I’ve been to. I’ve still got all the photos.

RESULTS SINGLES

Woosnam lost to Bean 1 hole
Clark beat Pohl 1 hole
Torrance halved Mize
Faldo lost to Calcavecchia 1 hole
Olazábal lost to Stewart 2 holes
Rivero lost to Simpson 2&1
Lyle lost to Kite 3&2
Darcy beat Crenshaw 1 hole
Langer halved Nelson
Ballesteros beat Strange 2&1
Brown lost to Wadkins 3&2
Brand Jnr halved Hal Sutton
Europe win 15-13