Europe win Ryder Cup after Medinah miracle

Team Europe staged arguably the greatest comeback ever seen in the history of the Ryder Cup to overturn a 10-6 deficit, and win the cup back prevailing 14.5-13.5 in Chicago.

Despite being outplayed for most of the first two days European captain, Jose Maria Olazabal, took the decision to stack his best players in the top half of the singles draw in order to get some early points on the board and pressurise the Americans, and it couldn’t have worked better as Europe won the first five matches.

While there was a fight back from the American middle order, Martin Kaymer secured the vital 14^th point Europe needed to keep the cup by holding a crucial six-footer at the last to defeat Steve Stricker and give Europe an eighth win from the 12 singles matches.

Going into the final day many (including me) thought the comeback wasn’t possible, I thought Europe were too far behind and that the Americans were in such good form that they would win at a canter, but driven by the fighting spirit of Ian Poulter and the emotional spirit of Seve Ballesteros Europe got off to the perfect start.

Luke Donald outplayed Bubba Watson, the inspirational Ian Poulter outfought Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy beat the seemingly invincible Keegan Bradley despite forgetting when his match started and the unflappable Paul Lawrie thrashed FedEx champion Brandt Snedeker.

But the key game in influencing the outcome was Justin Rose vs. Phil Mickelson after being one down through 16 Rose held a ridiculous 50 foot downhill putt on the 17^th to level the match and then produced another unlikely birdie at 18 to steal a crucial point, which was the moment when the impossible seemed on.

Another match that followed in this vein was Sergio Garcia vs. Jim Furyk, Furyk missed key putts in the final few holes to allow Garcia to steal another crucial point, and the chances of a European victory were growing by the minute.

In the Ryder Cup if you’re selected to go out 11^th or 12^th then it’s usually an indicator that a player is not in the best of form or that the captain hopes the cup is decided before their matches finish, but with the possibility of the miracle growing it seemed the cup was going to be decided by the players struggling for form.

The last two matches between Stricker and Kaymer and Woods and Molinari were now going to decide the outcome of the match instead of just making up the numbers, and so it proved.

Stricker’s putting is the bedrock around which the rest of his game is built, yet throughout the three days of competition it continually let him down and a missed putt on the 17^th gave Kaymer the opportunity to retain the cup with a half at 18 and despite bravely holing a 10ft par putt it was too little too late as Kaymer made his four and the miracle at Medinah was completed.

Moments later Woods conceded the 18^th to Molinari to ensure Europe won the cup rather than retaining it.

While a comeback of this nature has been achieved before in 1999 at Brookline, this comeback is far more impressive, because in 1999 the Americans overturned a 10-6 deficit on home soil with the support of the crowd, whereas at Medinah Europe had to overturn a 10-6 deficit against an American team in great form on a home course set-up specifically for them and with home support, which has to make it the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history.

Questions have inevitably been asked about American captain Davis Love’s decision making, but for me he did nothing wrong and it seemed his players struggled without a teammate there to support them or bail them out.

Before the event started I thought it would be close but I don’t think anybody could have predicted anything quite like this, and huge credit needs to go to Olazabal for keeping his team believing and to Ian Poulter for, at times, singlehandedly keeping Europe alive going into Sunday.  

This victory will I’m sure in future be held up as an example of one of, if not the, greatest Ryder Cup ever played, and it extends the incredible summer of sport we’ve been treated to in Britain, the only downside is we have to wait a full two years for the next Ryder Cup to start.