Faldo, Europe, Come Up Big Clutch Shots On Final Hole Secure Ryder Cup For Europe Against U.S.

Nick Faldo stood at the bottom of the hill, 93 yards from the 18th green, feeling the enormous pressure of the Ryder Cup.

His ball was in the rough and he desperately needed to get down in two for his European team to have a chance to defeat the United States.

One bold wedge shot later, one nervy putt later, Faldo had beaten Curtis Strange and the U.S. players were sitting in shocked silence as the Cup they could not lose was all but on the Concorde and headed for Europe.

It was Philip Walton who officially gave Europe a 14-1/2 - 13-1/2 victory when he closed out Jay Haas on the last hole of their match Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club, but it was Faldo who made the outcome a forgone conclusion.

Trailing 1-down with two holes to play, Faldo won them both when Strange made two bogeys and the Englishman made two pressure putts, giving Europe the crucial point, 1-up.

“I was trying not to think whether my match was going to be the turning point, but I could sense it,” Faldo said. “I scrambled for two pars, but to try and play golf while you’re nearly shaking, it’s a different game.

At No. 17, he made an 8-footer for par while Strange, who lost all three of his matches, missed a 12-footer.

Then at No. 18, Faldo drove into the left rough and had no choice but to lay up. With about 93 yards to the green, he knocked a wedge shot to about 4 feet.

Strange also missed the green, chipped to about 8 feet, and when he missed his par putt, Faldo had the chance to win the match. He stalked the putt, stood over it, had his caddie, Fannie Sunesson, crouch behind him to check his alignment, froze over the ball, then rolled it dead in.

“That’s probably the best scrambling par I’ve ever made in my life,” Faldo said.

The point put Europe ahead 13-1/2 - 12-1/2 and meant the U.S. team needed to win the MickelsonJohansson match and halve the Haas-Walton match to keep the Cup with a 14-14 tie. And Haas was 2-down with two to play.

“When Nick put that putt in at 17, then won at the last, I knew then we had won the Ryder Cup,” Woosnam said.

It gave Europe the lead for the first time. It trailed 5-3 after the first day of alternate-shot and better-ball competition and 9-7 after Saturday’s play.

“I just didn’t finish very well,” was all Strange could say.

Coming into Sunday’s singles play the Cup seemed like a lock for the United States. It hadn’t been outscored in singles since 1985 and needed only five single victories to keep the Cup.

But only Phil Mickelson, Tom Lehman, Davis Love and Corey Pavin were able to win. Pavin was the only player on either team to win four points.

“It’s a great sporting accomplishment to come here as major underdogs,” said Walton, the 10th and last man to qualify for the European team. “We won it by a small amount, but we won it.

“My legs were not my own,” he said about his feeling after winning his match.

The victory gave Europe the Cup for the first time since 1989. It won in 1985 by upsetting the Americans in singles play by the same 7-1/2 - 4-1/2 score it did Sunday. Europe won it again in 1987 and kept the Cup with a tie in 1989 before losing the next two.

The United States leads the series 23-6 with two ties. But since the ‘85 victory by Europe, it is 3-2-1 in favor of Europe.

“What a fantastic win,” Woosnam said. “It just shows that the strength of golf in Europe is getting bigger and bigger all the time.”

American captain Lanny Wadkins, who was criticized for making Strange one of his two captain’s choices, obliquely defended the choice.

“You are looking at 13 very disappointed people,” Wadkins said. “I thought we’d retain the Cup. We lost as a team. I can’t think of anything I would have done differently.”

Faldo was just one European who was able to withstand the final-hole pressure of the Ryder Cup better than their American counterparts.

Only five matches went as far as No. 18 on Sunday and Europe came away with four wins and a tie, giving them perhaps the most stunning reversal in Ryder Cup history, being only the fourth team to come from behind to win on the last day, and the first since 1957.

Faldo, Walton, David Gilford and Howard Clark all won matches that went the distance, while Ian Woosnam came away with an 18-hole halve with Fred Couples.

Europe received early victories from Clark and Mark James, then got good work from the middle of its lineup as Gilford, Colin Montgomerie, Faldo and Sam Torrance defeated Brad Faxon, Ben Crenshaw, Strange and Loren Roberts, respectively.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: RYDER CUP GLANCE

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A look at the 31st Ryder Cup at Oak Hill Country Club: Final score: Europe 14-1/2, United States 13-1/2. Sunday’s score: Europe 7-1/2, United States 4-1/2. Singles play: Lehman def. Ballesteros, 4 and 3; James def. Maggert, 4 and 3; Clark def. Jacobsen, 1 up; Woosnam and Couples halved; Love def. Rocca, 3 and 2; Gilford def. Faxon, 1-up; Montgomerie def. Crenshaw, 3 and 1; Faldo def. Strange, 1-up; Torrance def. Roberts, 2 and 1; Pavin def. Langer, 3 and 2; Walton def. Haas, 1-up; Mickelson def. Johansson, 2 and 1. Series: United States leads 23-6-2.