Heroics by Faldo leaves stage clear for Walton

FROM THE ARCHIVES: 1995 RYDER CUP – EUROPE 14½ USA 13½: SUPREME competitive skills over the final holes of a brutally difficult…

FROM THE ARCHIVES: 1995 RYDER CUP – EUROPE 14½ USA 13½:SUPREME competitive skills over the final holes of a brutally difficult golf course, delivered a marvellous victory to Europe in the 31st Ryder Cup here at Oak Hill yesterday.

And a memorable sporting occasion brought particular honour to Ireland’s Philip Walton, who maintained a fine tradition by securing the winning point in an unbelievably tense triumph, by 14½ to 13½.

Here was an occasion to be savoured, a day which, ironically, was meant to be a fairly predictable celebration of Old Glory, apple pie and mum – all the cherished American values.

And from a European standpoint there was good reason for despondency after a crucial, chip-in by the irrepressible Corey Pavin in the final fourball match on Saturday afternoon, had given the home side an overnight lead of 9-7.

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So, the US needed only five points from the closing 12 singles to be sure of retaining a trophy they had held since Kiawah Island in 1991; and for Europe, there was the forbidding target of needing seven and a half points, which they had not achieved since that glorious breakthrough at The Belfry in 1985.

But they did it.

How marvellously they did it!

Particularly important were the 18th hole wins by Howard Clark, David Gilford, Nick Faldo and, of course, by Walton.

And, equally important in the context of the winning target, was a courageous half by Ian Woosnam, who was desperately unlucky to see a 20-foot downhill putt slip past the right side of the 18th hole. It had come down to a matter of fractions of inches.

Walton clearly filled an heroic role, but he would not have had the chance without the superb finish of Faldo, whose winning point against Curtis Strange effectively turned the battle in Europe’s favour.

One down with two to play against the man who beat him in a play-off for the US Open in 1988, he simply had to win to give any meaning to the matches coming behind. This became especially true when Phil Mickelson recovered from a two-hole deficit against Per Ulrik Johansson in the anchor position with successive birdies at the 10th, 11th and 12th.

Faldo was in the eighth match and surprisingly in trouble against an opponent who was a controversial wild-card choice by skipper Lanny Wadkins, given that he has not won a US tournament since his US Open victory here at Oak Hill in 1989.

Both are Virginians and products of Wake Forest University. Suspicions of old school chums sticking together was to be expected, but dismissed promptly, of course, if Strange happened to win.

In the event, he had a four iron of 200 yards to the 17th green and blocked it onto an up slope beyond the greenside trap on the right.

Faldo, meanwhile, pulled his approach into a left-hand greenside trap. From there, they recovered to 12 feet and six feet respectively. Strange missed and the Englishman holed.

As commentator Johnny Miller remarked: “This is like watching two glaciers at work.”

But Strange was rapidly reaching his melting point. And it came on the 18th when, from the fairway, he again failed to make the green, this time landing on the treacherous up slope.

Faldo, meanwhile, was forced to lay up after being in rough off the tee and a beautifully judged wedge of 105 yards came to rest four feet from the pin. Again the American was further away.

Strange pushed his eight-foot effort right of the hole. Faldo’s never looked like going anywhere than in the centre of the hole

“Everything was shaking bar the putter,” admitted the Englishman afterwards. “I suspected the putt was important, but I deliberately didn’t ask anybody. I didn’t want to know.”

For a player of Faldo’s competitive steel to feel that way is indicative of the intense pressure of the situation. The pressure that brought wins from Clark, who had a hole in one at the 11th, and from his fellow Yorkshireman, Mark James, at number three. And it was a pressure that Walton had to endure to make sense out of the wonderful efforts of his colleagues.

He had got off to a wonderful start in his match with Haas, winning the opening two holes.

Perhaps it was due to the glow he received on the tee from being introduced to the great Byron Nelson – “I’ve read all about you, sir.”

Either way, he pressurised the American all the way, even if the quality of the golf was not particularly pretty.

The fact is that Oak Hill presented an unremitting challenge, from tee to green. Bogeys were inevitable; birdies were certain to be scarce, as evidenced by the fact that it took Faldo 27 holes of fourball play to eventually card his first birdie on Saturday afternoon.

Either way, Walton, who lost the third to a par and the fifth to a birdie to go all square, broke clear again at the eighth, where he sank a beautifully judged 15-foot putt.

Then came another win at the ninth, this time in par after they had both missed the green. Haas could get no nearer than eight feet whereas Walton chipped to within four feet of the target.

The next crucial hole was the short 15th. At this treacherous par three of 184 yards, guarded by water on the right and a bunker left, he had the courage to attack the flag with a six-iron which came to rest four feet away.

The putt went down for a winning birdie and he had established an unbeatable lead of three up with three to play.

But there was still work to be done and the 40-year-old American refused to lie down without a fight. A holed, 12-yard bunker shot for a birdie at the 16th prolonged the agony.

And there was self-inflicted pain for Walton at the 17th where his four-foot par putt was not hit with sufficient authority to find the cup.

By this stage, things had become so hectic over the closing two holes that it was extremely difficult to see anything. So it was that with my view of the 17th green partially obscured, I felt obliged to ask an observer the length of the putt that Walton had missed

“About four or five feet,” replied Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

So, the match was destined to go all the way. Up the 18th, Haas pulled his drive behind a tree on the left from where he did well to hit a recovery up the right half of the fairway.

Walton, meanwhile, had found what Ian Woosnam described as a “perfect five-wood lie”, in the right rough, 195 yards from the green.

With the “perfect” club in his bag, he made good contact but it wasn’t quite enough. The ball came to rest on the treacherous up slope, buried in heavy rough.

But the advantage lay very definitely with the Irishman when the American’s pitch hit the putting surface, but spun back to the front fringe from where he chipped eight feet past the hole.

When Walton dug the ball out of the rough with a sand-wedge, sending it to within 10 feet of the hole, he raised his arm in relief.

Though every strand of his nervous system was screaming with the intensity of the occasion, he knew he could finish the work from there.

And so he did.

Easing the ball towards the target, it came to rest a few inches away for an automatic concession.

At first his colleagues looked on silently, as the scale of their combined achievement began to sink in. Then, it was as if the entire 18th green had become an open-air party as players’ wives and officials hugged each other. The day had started with Seve Ballesteros, desperately off his game, fighting a losing battle against Tom Lehman in the top match.

And it was ending with the same player, right there in the heart of things, revelling in the emotion of a marvellous triumph.

To see his commitment – what it meant to him as a Spaniard, a European, a loyal colleague and a prospective skipper, was a very special moment.

And from an American standpoint, the entire exercise reflected enormous credit on their skipper, Wadkins, whose sporting behaviour over the three days was exemplary.

And his counterpart, Bernard Gallacher, confounded us all in selecting what appeared to be a decidedly odd singles line-up, but which worked wonderfully.