IMPACTS … Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing.”

It isn’t all that great for major championship golf tournaments either. The 105th PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club outside of Rochester was supposed to have the first golf balls in the air at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, but unfortunately the NWS forecast got it right, and the temperatures at dawns early light were around the predicted 37 degrees. Brrrrr.

With the thermometer even lower before the first tee times, the PGA of America issued a notice at 6am it seems highly likely that there will be frost on the ground and that the start of the tournament will be delayed. Ice-covered grass does not take well to foot traffic, and superintendents will tell you there’s really no way to hasten the process. Thankfully, there is expected to be plenty of sunshine to help.

At this time all facilities are closed at Oak Hill Country Club due to a frost delay. Additional information will be provided by 7am EDT.

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2023

Indeed, ice-covered grass does not take well to foot traffic, and superintendents will tell you there’s really no way to hasten the process. Thankfully, there is expected to be plenty of sunshine to help. But when 7am rolled around, the news wasn’t a lot better.

UPDATE: All facilities remain closed at Oak Hill Country Club due to a frost delay. Additional information will be provided approximately at 7:30 am EDT. https://t.co/qPdZDLx8K1

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2023

How long the potential delay lasts will determine what the domino effect is like for the rest of the week, though it would seem an hour or two could be made up without big distress. But in what appears to be weather roulette this week in Rochester, there is also a high chance of rain in the forecast for Saturday’s third round. And the high temperatures predicted for each day. Mother Nature can’t make up her mind.

UPDATE: Looks like we will lose almost two hours

Practice facilities open at 7:35am EDT; Practice putting green opens at 7:45am EDT; 1st tee time (#1 tee) will be at 8:50am EDT; 1st tee time (10th tee) will be at 8:55am EDT. Round 1 Starting Times are delayed by 1hr 50min total.

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 18, 2023

Beanies and insulated vests have been in vogue this week during practice rounds, and Golf Digest social media maven Jamie Kennedy put together this clever gathering of the “Beanie Bunch”:

Of course, this is exactly what we could expect (and fear) for a PGA Championship being played in the Northeast in May. “May is a transitional month, between late spring and early summer,” meteorologist Dan Kelly of the National Weather Service in Buffalo told the Democrat & Chronicle of Rochester.

It could be worse. The newspaper noted that Rochester got 10 inches of snow around Mother’s Day in 1989.

Frigid temps were never an issue, of course, when the PGA was contested in August, where it instead faced sweltering conditions at venues in Kentucky, New Jersey and Missouri. But that changed beginning in 2019, when the PGA of America moved the event to May to better balance the schedule.

That’s gone fairly well so far. Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island hosted in 2019, had cold temperatures early on in the week, but then warmed up. San Francisco’s Harding Park, which was moved back to August due to the pandemic, was typically cool and damp in 2020, and Kiawah Island was windy in 2021. Last year, May was a welcome date for Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., which has hosted summer majors that were among the sweatiest anywhere.

The issue of potential cold-weather problems did come up during the PGA leadership’s press conference on Tuesday.

PGA CEO Seth Waugh nodded toward a sunny day during the practice round and said, “The course is perfect. As Kerry [Haigh] said, it’s an outdoor sport, and we’re obviously going to go back after this championship — we haven’t hit a ball yet — see how it all plays out and then come back and think about it for ourselves and see what the club wants to do and other clubs.

“We think,” added Waugh, “we’ve added more courses than we’ve taken away by moving to May.”

Haigh, who is in charge of how the golf courses are set up, said the PGA has been “delighted” by the calendar change. “The golf course conditioning has been probably better in May than August, dealing with the stress, the heat, and although it becomes sort of a tight window right before the third week in May, we are delighted with what we’ve seen at all of those venues,” he said.

As for the future scheduled PGA sites, there are six on the books and two are in the Northeast: Aronomink in Pennsylvania in 2026 and Baltusrol in New Jersey in ’29. Next year’s PGA is at Valhalla in Louisville.

The post PGA Championship 2023: Thursday’s first round at Oak Hill delayed by frost appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A 2019 remodel by architect Andrew Green changed the complexion of the course through significant tree thinning and the radical reshaping of greens and bunkers. Carving drives through avenues of branches is no longer part of the equation. Though there may be more airspace above, Jeff Sluman, the 1988 PGA Champion and Rochester native who consulted with Green on the renovation, believes that Oak Hill remains one of the most demanding driving courses in major championship golf. The narrow fairways, deep rough and steep-faced bunkers that will often have players pitching out sideways continue to place an extreme premium on hitting fairways.

Green expansions also give PGA of America chief championship officer Kerry Haigh the option to tuck pins during the 2023 PGA Championship in places that weren’t available in the past. Those tight corners won’t be accessible to players hitting out of the rough. The course may look different this time around, but the design has found new ways to test the game’s best, and there are plenty of places to throw away strokes.

Here are eight of the most difficult shots at Oak Hill’s East Course.

The tee shot on the par-3 third

via GIPHY

The par-3 third is similar to the fourth at Augusta National: Both are long par 3s modelled after the Eden hole at St Andrews with bunkers short and a green tilted back to front. It plays from high point to high point and demands an all-carry mid- or long-iron to the putting surface since a cavernous bunker covers the right-third of the green, with another stepped in on the left. Hole locations in a newly expanded back left corner are particularly hard to get to, and a false front will send any ball that doesn’t carry far enough careening back down the fairway.

The drive on the par-4 sixth

via GIPHY

Placing the drive in the fairway at the long sixth is essential if players want any chance of reaching the green in regulation, which is propped up over the bank of Allen Creek. The landing area is tight, bracketed by two deep bunkers on the left and the same creek that bows into the fairway on the right. Even good drives notched between the hazards face a second shot of up to 200 yards, but those who miss will be scrambling to get back into position.

The drive on the par-4 seventh

via GIPHY

The tee shot at the seventh, the second of four stout par 4s closing out the first nine, presents a puzzle. Trees crowding the fairway on the left can catch drives to that side, forcing players to aim the right. That’s where Allen Creek enters the fairway 270 yards from the tee, cutting diagonally right-to-left. The choice is to play short of the water leaving a 190-yard shot into the green, or force a drive between the trees and the creek for a shorter, clear approach. Surgical precision is required either way.

The approach at the par-4 9th

via GIPHY

Only the front of the green and flagstick are visible from the fairway at the long, dogleg right ninth. The putting surface, set atop the clubhouse ridge, is shaped like a tricorn hat and tilted back to front, and going for pins in the narrow corners where the targets taper is a sucker play, especially considering the bouncy, canted fairway rarely offers a level lie. The professionals will gladly take 4 here and move on.

The approach at the par-4 12th

via GIPHY

Many of the greens at Oak Hill have a bail-out either short or to chipping areas off to one side, but the 12th is pure target golf. Drives that hit the speed slot on the left side of the fairway will roll down to a flat spot with an ideal angle for the approach, but it must be unerring. Severe bunkers are cut into the base of the green, and shots that carry too far will get tangled in the rough above the hole leaving chips to a rippling putting surface that runs away. There’s simply no good place to miss this deep narrow green.

The second shot at the par-5 13th

via GIPHY

Modern equipment and carry distances make the second shot at this long par 5 more interesting. Historically a lay-up for position, players who drive it in the fairway will now attempt to go for the green from 285 to 300 yards out. The bunkers 85 yards short of the green won’t come into play but the two fronting the green should get plenty of action. Considering where to miss the newly expanded putting surface set in an amphitheatre will be important because the swales, slopes and ridges that run through it bring misery to short-sided recoveries.

The drive on the par-4 17th

via GIPHY

There’s no faking your way through the drive at this daunting par 4 that members play as a par 5. It requires nothing less than an uphill drive of at least 300 yards to make it to the crest of the hill before the fairway turns right toward the green. Oaks at the inside corner block out shots hit short or to the right, and long rough and a series of mounds await drives to the left, turning the 17th back into a three-shot hole. Long hitters like Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler who fade the ball have a distinct advantage here.

The approach at the par-4 18th

via GIPHY

Encircled in rough, flanked by bunkers (three on the right and one on the left) and set 12 feet above a depression, the 18th is another don’t-miss green. Shaun Micheel made the approach look easy when he almost stuffed a 7-iron from 175 yards on the 72nd hole to clinch the 2003 PGA, but everyone else will be staring down a shot where nothing less than perfection will suffice. Bunkers on the inside corner lengthen the shot by forcing drives out to the left, and it’s the finest of lines between carrying the ball onto the putting surface and remaining below the hole, or hitting past it and facing unstoppable downhill putts.

Here’s our full drone tour with expert commentary on the changes at Oak Hill’s East Course:

The post PGA Championship 2023: The 8 toughest shots pros will face at Oak Hill appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Let’s start here: The word “oak” is in the name of the club, and the great reasonable fear is that when you remove trees, you remove some of the spirit of a place like Oak Hill. When you consider the fact that the oak trees in particular occupy such a romantic place in the club’s history that a few on the “Hill of Fame” by the 13th hole of the East Course, site of this week’s PGA Championship, bear plaques commemorating everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Nancy Lopez to Dwight Eisenhower to the European Ryder Cup team that won here in 1995, you simply can’t wield the proverbial axe without a little controversy.

Just ask another course with “oak” in its name, Oakmont Country Club. As Peter McCleery wrote for Golf Digest in 2002, the famed Pennsylvania course led the increasing national trend of serious tree removal, cutting down an incredible 3,500 trees in a restoration product, and 15,000 over 25 years. “There were factions, a threatened petition, prayers for the trees’ survival from a neighbouring church, even a whiff of a lawsuit,” McCleery wrote. In the end, though, the restoration went through and the reception was overwhelmingly positive.

That’s a common theme at places like Merion, Winged Foot, and many other mostly eastern courses where tree growth has a way of sneaking up on superintendents. There are some classic problems with too much tree coverage, including the way it can change strategy and course management for players over time, often in ways that conflict with the intent of the original design. The most pressing issue, though, is far simpler: Trees fight grass. They inhibit air circulation, and they block sunlight. This is most acutely felt on greens and tees, where, as McCleery put it, “under too much shade will be subject to a general thinning of the turf, or in extreme cases, no turf at all”. That paves the way for wear and tear from golfers, and for weed invasion.

Oak Hill of the past is a classic example of how things can go wrong. When the club tried to convert the greens on the East Course, hosting its seventh men’s major this week, to bentgrass, the prevalence of large, mature trees made the conversion incredibly difficult, and they ended up being described in an article for Golf Course Industry as a “mix stand of annual biotype Poa annua and bentgrass” that hurt the greens. A former superintendent named Kevin Green showed how “calculated tree removal” could help the bentgrass thrive on the rebuilt greens on 13 and 15, and serious clearing of trees actually started after the 2013 PGA Championship.

Oak Hill plaque

In 2016, Andrew Green, at that time a little-known architect specialising in restoring old courses, came on board to oversee the new changes, and the official restoration — based in some cases on original drawings by Donald Ross — began in 2019. By that point, the tree removal was well under way. That was far from the only change Green oversaw (he rebuilt bunkers, removed a pond on the 15th hole, built the new fifth and sixth holes from scratch, and more), but the trees were always going to be the biggest sticking point with members. They are a form of life, after all, and people develop attachments to trees that are emotional in nature. And yet, they managed to earn the approval of more than two-thirds of club members.

How did they pull it off? As Green explained on the Golf Channel this week, they held a town hall attended by more than 100 members and made the point that this wasn’t going to be like Oakmont — there would be a balance, and Oak Hill would always have its oak trees. They also explained how it would help the grass, and the playability of the course, and how it would respect and highlight the course’s history, all the way back to its Donald Ross origins. That didn’t mean the members were completely convinced, or that he avoided “tough conversations”. But nobody could accuse the Oak Hill team of not giving a thorough explanation of what they were doing and why they were doing it.

That convinced enough members for the project to go through, and it’s important to note that they had already made compromises in this direction. Even some trees with plaques on the Hill of Fame had been removed long before Green arrived, and the plaques transferred to nearby trees. When Green explained that they would protect trees that held strategic and aesthetic value, but that the turf — the grass you actually play on — had to be the priority. (When asked by The Fried Egg how many trees were removed, Green responded that it was the “right number.”)

The other truth Green knew is that “little trees become big trees,” and once the trees and their canopies grow, overcrowding can occur, and situations emerge where certain trees can even grow into each other in ways that impact their health. He was never afraid to make the “critical decision”, even if that meant cutting down more trees with plaques. It was all in the interest of creating balance, which had gone by the wayside through the simple act of growth, along with decades of pursuing major championship golf in ways that pushed the course further and further from its origins.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the restoration has been a massive success, to the point that it’s difficult to find any negative criticism even if you’re looking very hard. (In at least two interviews, the one piece of critique Green is wary of is the players complaining about the difficulty of the restored bunkers.) There will always be objections to tree removal, particularly on the emotional level, but there’s solace in the fact that Green’s vision for Oak Hill had its own spiritual and emotional element: rediscovering the soul at the heart of what had become a lost course.

The post PGA Championship 2023: How Oak Hill averted a potential member revolt over its tree removal appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

One of those new holes is the par-4 sixth, which brings back a Ross hole that had been removed by George and Tom Fazio in the 1970s. The 2023 sixth hole plays a shade longer than 500 yards with a creek running on the right side of the hole, then splitting the fairway 75 yards short of the green and continuing up the left. It’s sure to be one of the trickier holes that the pros will face this week.

But this new edition has a twist in the form of something that makes golf purists shudder: internal out of bounds.

pic.twitter.com/hqlWUjBP9h

— James Ridyard (@JamesRidyard) May 15, 2023

Hit the fairway — albeit not the fairway of the actual hole — and your ball is out of bounds? Seems crazy but, well, there is logic to the rule. Given the shape and location of the new hole, and the lack of trees that separate it from adjacent holes, the parallel seventh fairway provides a shorter route to the green.

would make second shot a lot easier, and takes bunker & water out of play, this is before the tree removal too pic.twitter.com/TG1XhBVh4m

— Finlay (@FinlayPacks) May 15, 2023

Yet the idea of players trying to play down the seventh while playing the sixth while players are playing the seventh to play the seventh is nightmare fuel for the PGA of America. Needless to say, the association decided to nip this in the bud quickly. Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer, said there had been internal talk about this for some time, noting the rule was needed for safety purposes and for pace of play. “With the redesign, the trees that were no longer there, sort of if you go down that way, take the water out of play, which is the architectural design of the sixth hole.”

Here’s a visual to help the players understand the local rule in place:

via GIPHY

Internal out of bounds isn’t anything new. A few courses in the Open Championship rota employee it: the first hole at Royal Portrush, the ninth hole at Royal Birkdale, the third and 18th holes at Royal Liverpool. And the possibility of something like this happen is becoming more prevalent at major championship venues, particularly those that are removing trees that once made such imaginative cross-hole strategy impossible.

At Oakland Hills during the 2016 US Amateur, players trying to play the long par-4 18th hole could look at playing down the 10th fairway. Similarly at Oakmont Country Club during the 2021 US Amateur, players on the ninth hole were hitting into the first fairway, the 10th hole down the ninth fairway, and the 11th hole down the 10th fairway.

At the Players Championship in 2021, Bryson DeChambeau also contemplated hitting his tee shot on the 18th hole over to the ninth and then taking that approach angle into the 18th green with his second shot, only for the PGA Tour to make a ruling like the PGA of America prohibiting that play.

Again … the idea of internal out of bounds is upsetting to some, particularly those who believe the players are within their right to be creative with their approach to course strategy. But with pace of play being the issue that it is at pro golf, it’s hard not to give the PGA of America a pass on creating it here.

The post PGA Championship 2023: How a local rule will keep players from using this Oak Hill shortcut appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The golden age of the Ryder Cup, at least as defined by the closeness of the matches, fell between 1983 and 1999, with classics at Muirfield Village, Kiawah, and Brookline punctuating the drama. Often lost in that mix of tremendous golf is the 1995 match at Oak Hill. For three days in late September, the US team captained by Lanny Wadkins (in Tony Jacklin’s words, “the cockiest [guy]you ever met in 10 lifetimes … but in the nicest way”) took on Bernard Gallacher’s Europeans in an effort to maintain the American mo-jo from their dramatic comeback win in the Belfry in ’93. What transpired was not only another nailbiter, but one that perhaps introduced the possibility of a wild Sunday swing — the kind that would reach its wildest form at Brookline and Medinah.

As a captain, Wadkins was a harbinger of the future — incredibly organised, efficient and seeing out every aspect of his job to the last detail, including, as Peter Jacobsen later noted, clothing and shoes and dinners and accommodations and scheduling. But there was a bit of the maverick in Wadkins as well, and he came under scrutiny when he selected Curtis Strange, then 40, and Fred Couples, 35, with his two captain’s picks. They were 23rd and 34th in the points standings, respectively, but Strange was the more controversial pick since he hadn’t won a PGA Tour event in six years. What he had won was the ’89 US Open at Oak Hill, and that horses-for-courses philosophy, plus the fact that Strange shared Wadkins’ combative energy, seemed to drive the decision to leave out a red-hot Lee Janzen and that year’s Open winner, John Daly. This choice played a massive role in what was about to unfold in Rochester.

The opening ceremony for the 1995 was held under sunny skies on the practice area at Oak Hill. Simon Bruty

Both sides brought experienced rosters to the event. Europe boasted veterans such as Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and Sam Torrance, while the US countered with the likes of Corey Pavin, Ben Crenshaw, Jacobsen and Jay Haas. The average age of both teams was 36, and though the US had some older “rookies” in Loren Roberts, Brad Faxon (who put together a spectacular final-round 63 weeks earlier at the PGA Championship to qualify) and Tom Lehman, there was only one player on each team younger than 30. For Europe that was Per-Ulrik Johansson, and for the US it was a 25-year-old who would go on to play in the most matches in Ryder Cup history: Phil Mickelson.

Over three days of competition, nerves ran rampant as they only can when a close match is almost a given. The end result would come down to a drama-packed final afternoon that should be remembered not just for its tension and excitement, but for how it solidified a new Ryder Cup truth — Europe’s momentum was real, and it was permanent.

The Pairs Sessions

An overcast sky greeted Colin Montgomerie on the first tee at the start of Friday morning foursomes as he contemplated his club selection. “I want to hit the driver because it’s the biggest club in the bag and I’ve got less chance of missing the ball altogether,” the nervous Scot told his caddie. Those ominous clouds would soon give way to a driving rain that would swamp the course to such a degree that certain greens would have to be squeegeed during play. Montgomerie chose the 3-wood and hit it straight, but Tom Lehman, juiced up on adrenalin, sent a 3-wood soaring 320 yards, Pavin hit the approach to 10 feet, and Lehman made the birdie putt to win the hole. That set the tone against Montgomerie and Faldo, and on the 18th hole, a frustrated Faldo missed his drive and then played a poor chip that handed the Americans the first point.

In the anchor match, Bernhard Langer hit a massive match-winner on 18, but the effort by his opponents, Ben Crenshaw and Curtis Strange, to extend the match proved important. Why? Because when Gallacher had to make afternoon line-ups, he thought Langer and Johansson’s big early lead meant they’d be done early. Instead, they came off the course drenched and tired on the 18th hole, had just a half-hour break and, exhausted, trudged back out to face the team of Pavin and Mickleson (in Mickelson’s first Ryder Cup match). The Americans trounced them, 6&4, Couples and Love dealt Faldo and Montgomerie their second loss of the day, and Maggert and Loren Roberts struck a 6&5 blow against Torrance and Rocca.

Phil Mickelson was making his Ryder Cup debut at Oak Hill with a firey captain in Lanny Wadkins handling all the off-course matters to allow players to focus solely on their games. PGA of America

The only match the Europeans won on Friday afternoon came from the team of Seve Ballesteros — a legend playing in his last Ryder Cup, and far past his prime — and the part-time cattle breeder David Gilford. Gilford had been the unfortunate player who had to sit out Sunday singles for Europe in 1991 when American Steve Pate got in a car crash, and he had been devastated to learn that it was his name in Gallacher’s envelope. Now he was back, and with Ballesteros effectively taking on the role of caddie — “He never let Gilford out of his sight,” Faxon later remembered of Seve — he had to carry the team in the midst of a US onslaught.

“I only played in three matches in 1995, and I hit three fairways the whole week,” Seve said later, “but I cleared out a lot of rough and all the branches on the golf course. I’m sure the members of Oak Hill weren’t going to lose balls any more after I’d been there.”

The Americans made an enormous mistake on seven when Jacobson failed to realise that Faxon had taken a penalty drop after his tee shot and, assuming his partner was in for a par, picked up his own par putt. That meant a lost hole, and on 13, Gilford drained a winding 18-footer from off the green for birdie, which led to an embrace of such strength from Seve that Gilford’s hat flew off. In the end, they won 4&3, and the Europeans staved off total disaster. By day’s end, the Americans led 5-3, and Faxon left Jacobson alone to be hounded by the press for his mistake on seven.

Saturday was a classic tale of two sessions, with the Europeans roaring out to a 3-1 lead in foursomes, tying the Cup at 6-6. The highlight of that session came when Rocca, paired with Sam Torrance, found himself matched against Davis Love III in a repeat of the disastrous singles match he had lost at the Belfry in ’93, leading to headlines like “Rocca the Choka” in the UK press. Strangely, Rocca wasn’t nervous, and on the sixth hole, he hit a beautiful 6-iron that went in the hole for the third ace in Ryder Cup history. He and Torrance won, 6&5, Gilford got his second win, this time with Langer, and Faldo and Montgomerie got their act together to win the first match, 4&2, which incidentally made captain’s pick Curtis Strange 0-2 for the event. He wouldn’t play in the afternoon.

Those who did play rescued the day for the Americans, reversing the 3-1 morning debacle. The Scots — Gallacher, Torrance and Montgomerie — conspired to pair up the latter two for the fourball session, but Faxon and Couples were red-hot and dealt them a 4&2 loss. When Couples chipped in on the 14th, Faxon described it as the loudest roar he had ever heard from the gallery. Torrance concurred, and even Couples, normally in control of his emotions, “went nuts”, according to Faxon. “And the crowd were like animals.”

Before the players reached the 15th tee, Torrance sidled up to Couples for a private word.

“I whispered in his ear: ‘[expletive] you,’” Torrance said later. “And he laughed, he really laughed. But he told me a little while later that he told the rest of the American team and some of the young guys couldn’t believe that I’d said that to him, thinking I was serious.”

In the last match, Corey Pavin was carrying Loren Roberts against Faldo and Langer. On 18, all square, Faldo gave himself an 18-foot look at birdie, and the Americans were in trouble — Roberts was 40-feet away, and Pavin was in the long rough. Roberts went first, and got close enough to have the par conceded, and the Europeans started thinking about winning the match outright with Faldo’s birdie try. Instead, Pavin chipped in, triggering another deafening roar from the gallery. Faldo missed, and as the sun fell on Saturday, the Americans led 9-7 — their first lead heading into Sunday since 1981. If they had gone on to win, it’s likely Pavin’s shot would still be considered one of the most legendary in Ryder Cup history.

Corey Pavin’s chip in allows the U.S. to take a 9-7 into Sunday singles, the first lead the Americans had entering the final session since 1981. Getty Images

Sunday Singles

The singles session started off with a European twist — while Wadkins led off with Tom Lehman, one of his strongest players, Gallacher threw a curveball by posting Seve in the No. 1 spot. He left his two rookies at the end, a massive risk, and threw his strength into the middle. The Spaniard used every bit of his short-game magic to keep things close, and the Europeans behind him on the course, knowing full well how poor his play had been that week, were astounded to see him all square at the turn.

“I said to one of the marshals: ‘How is Seve doing?’” Howard Clark recalled. “And he said: ‘He’s all square.’ I said: ‘You are kidding me, that’s amazing.’ … I kind of thought: ‘I have got to try and back him up, because if he is going to win, I have got to win, too.”

Montgomerie maintains to this day that if Seve’s opponent had been anyone but Lehman, they would have folded. But Lehman’s form was strong (he would win the Open Championship the next year), and in the end he prevailed, 4&3.

That’s when things started going south for the Americans. In the second slot, Clark showcased a phenomenal short game in an otherwise ugly match, struck an ace on the par-3 11th with Jacobson just 20 feet away, and won, 1 up. Mark James ran over Jeff Maggert, Couples could only manage a half point against Ian Woosnam when he holed his six-foot part at the last, and although Love beat Rocca in singles again — of course fate matched them up — Gilford scrambled like a madman for his last four holes, and made a 15-foot bogey putt on 18 to hold off Faxon for a 1-up win and total redemption for 1991. (Afterwards, NBC’s Jimmy Roberts spotted Faxon in the parking lot sobbing — he knew how big his loss had been.)

Montgomerie beat Crenshaw, and in the eighth match came the most pivotal battle of all: Faldo v Strange, both captain’s picks. Strange was 1 up on 16, but Faldo, knowing Europe had a legitimate chance to win, squared it up heading into 18. He pulled his drive, Strange hit down the middle, and the situation looked desperate. Faldo pitched out to 90 yards, but Strange came up well short of the green, and with the tension mounting, Faldo stepped up for his third.

“We had 93 yards to go,” his caddie Fanny Sunesson said, “it was the middle-wedge, and he just got the most perfect stroke on it, pitched nicely and ran to about four feet just left of the hole with an uphill putt.”

Strange’s chip settled about five feet away from the hole, and to the astonishment of the crowd, he missed. Faldo lined up. “The pressure was immense,” he said, “everything was shaking … everything except my putter.” He sent it home, and Europe had another point. As he walked off the green, Ballesteros was waiting for him, tears in his eyes. He hugged Faldo and said: “You are a great champion.”

“That was the greatest moment of my career,” Faldo remembered.

For his opponent Strange, the scene at the last hole was a living nightmare. “When I was standing on the 18th green, I knew what was going to happen to me,” Strange said. “They were going to hang me out to dry. … It hurt for a long time because it was such a big deal.”

Curtis Strange’s disappointment couldn’t be hidden at the closing ceremony, having gone 0-3 including a Sunday singles loss as captain’s pick for Team USA. John Ruthroff

At the closing ceremony, after bravely facing the press, photographers caught Strange burying his face in his hands — the moment he cracked. And his prophecy was right, because of all the coverage that stung him, the Sports Illustrated headline hurt the most: “WRONG MAN, WRONG TIME.”

When Torrance won, Pavin beat Langer, and Mickelson closed out a perfect 3-0 Ryder Cup with a 2&1 win over Johansson, there was just one match left on the course: Philip Walton against Jay Haas. If Walton could win, Europe would have pulled off the shocking 14.5-13.5 triumph. A loss or a tie, and the Americans would hold on to the Cup.

“A few glances up at the scoreboard set the nerves jangling, knowing just how crucial our match had become,” said Walton’s caddie, Bryan McLauchlan. “It was nerve-wracking then, dry-mouthed, hands shaking, head spinning — and that was just me. Philip seemed as cool as a cucumber. I was through cigarette after cigarette.”

On the par-3 15th, with 186 yards to the pin, Walton hit a 6-iron to six feet, made the downhill birdie putt, and took a 3-up lead with three to play. It was nearly in the bag for Europe, but Haas had some fight left in him. He holed a miracle shot from the bunker on 16, scrambled for par on 17, and took the match to the last hole. Neither player hit the fairway on 18, but while Haas punched out, Walton advanced the ball to the front bank of the green. Using a tip from Woosnam, he pitched to 12 feet, and when Haas couldn’t hole out from behind the green, Walton had two putts for the win. His caddie McLauchlan tried to give him a read, but Walton replied: “Brian, I’ve got two putts for it. I think I’ll take them.”

“Afterwards he told me his legs were shaking so much he didn’t know whether they were his or John Travolta’s,” McLauchlan said. “But he rolled up to about five inches. Jay came over and shook his hand.”

Philip Walton gets a hug from captain Bernard Gallacher after sinking his putt on the 18th hole to win the Ryder Cup for Europe. Timothy A Clary

The champagne was popped, celebrations ensued amid a silent crowd, and the Americans had to watch as Europe won for the second time in the US.

“When Lanny had to go up there and make his concession speech during the closing ceremonies, he started to try and praise his own team and commend his opponents,” Jimmy Roberts remembered. “And it was obviously very difficult for him. His voice started to break and crack, and just when it looked as if he was going to be in some impossible spot, Bernard Gallacher got up.”

The Scottish captain, who knew his counterpart was struggling, put an arm around his shoulder.

“Let me help you, Lanny,” said the captain who was on the losing side of the two previous Ryder Cups. “I’ve been there before.”

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