Welcome to Ryder Cup week, golf’s most exciting tournament.
Why is it the most exciting? The Ryder Cup is the only tournament fueled by national fervor and, therefore, the only event where every stroke matters to everyone.
For example, if Collin Morikawa hits a skanky wedge shot over a green during the Masters, well, that’s his problem and no sweat off my brow. But if he does it in a Ryder Cup? Uh-oh. America gasps in horror and fires up social media to second-guess his selection to the U.S. team. Elsewhere, the population of a certain other continent howls in delight. Every shot in the Ryder Cup makes somebody happy.
The atmosphere feels like an Ohio State-Michigan or Alabama-Auburn football game where a golf match broke out. Don’t let them kid you that the Ryder Cup is a friendly rivalry. It’s friendly on the surface, yes, but its long history of controversy reveals it to be about as friendly as a U-boat approaching a munitions convoy.
All hell is about to break loose at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course — and by all hell, I mean the vocal and unforgiving Noo Yawwwk fans. Herewith (hey, there’s a word you haven’t seen in print since high school English and the hated Shakespeare segment) are the Most Influential Ryder Cup figures of all time.
I’m not including Samuel Ryder, the seed merchant and event founder, or Abe Mitchell, a venerable Englishman who missed the inaugural in 1927 due to appendicitis but played in the next three. Mitchell’s likeness stands atop the coveted Ryder Cup trophy, which is all of 17 inches tall.
This list suffers from recency bias because until it stopped being an American blowout in the early 1980s, the Ryder Cup wasn’t a big deal. Not even a medium deal. ABC couldn’t be bothered to keep it.
So with apologies to the likes of Aubrey Boomer, Denny Shute, Percy and Peter Allis, Leo Diegel, Charles and Ernest Whitcombe, Al Watrous and the rest who built this event, here we go …
12. Jose Maria Olazabal
Seve Ballesteros and Ollie made the greatest duo in Ryder Cup history, winning 11 of 15 matches and halving two. Olazabal won 18 matches overall and showed off a short game that was every bit as good as Seve’s. When Olazabal played in his first Ryder Cup in 1987 and was paired with Seve, he said Seve told him to just play your game, “I will take care of the rest.” They were later dubbed (somewhat lamely as nicknames go) as The Spanish Armada.
11. Sam Torrance
American fans don’t realize what a solid player Torrance was because he rarely played in the U.S. He won 21 times in Europe, which ties him at 10th for the most victories on the European Tour. And he was consistent, making the Ryder Cup team eight straight times from 1981 to 1997. Torrance made his career by sinking the winning putt on the 18th green at The Belfry in 1985 and he played on the 1987 team that was the first to win a Ryder Cup on U.S. soil.
Later, he captained the 2002 squad to victory, joining Ballesteros as the only players to hole a Cup-winning putt and captain a winning side. “It was great to get the winning point but that was irrelevant, basically,” Torrance said of the 1985 Cup. “It was huge to win the Ryder Cup, to beat them, finally, after 27 years. The fact was, we were a great team.”
10. Paul Azinger
It was 2008 and the Americans had an odd team that featured Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes, Kenny Perry and no Tiger Woods, who was out with an injury. Azinger met with a psychologist friend, they created the pod concept in which players of like personalities, not similar golf games, were arranged in fours. The pods played and practiced with each other and by week’s end were virtually joined at the hip. They promptly went out and stung the European team, ending Europe’s three-event winning streak. The pod concept was so simple and so effective … Azinger was never invited back to captain and the PGA of America never tried the pod system again.
9. Larry Nelson
All this three-time major champion and Hall of Famer did in his Ryder Cup debut in 1979 was go 5-0 and beat Ballesteros four times — three with partner Lanny Wadkin’s help and again in singles. Nelson made the team again in 1981 and built his record to 9-0. He played a third time in ’87 and finished with a 9-3-1 mark. “Larry was a great Ryder Cup player at a time when the event wasn’t as highly contested or watched,” said veteran tour player Mark McCumber. “If he’d done what he did in the 1990s, he would’ve been known as TheRyder Cup killer.”
8. Ian Poulter
The cocky Englishman was Europe’s Mr. Clutch — although his actual nickname was The Postman because he always delivered. He played on seven Ryder Cups, his teams won five of them, and he never lost a singles match, compiling a 6-0-1 mark. Poulter sparked his side’s revival in 2012 by making five straight birdie putts in Saturday’s four-ball match to cut the American lead to 10-6. Sunday, the Miracle at Medinah ensued and Europe won, as Poulter naturally won his singles match.
When critics questioned his selection to the 2021 team as a wild-card pick, Poulter responded curtly, “Have I won enough points?” He lost two team matches paired with Rory McIlroy that week and the U.S. won, but Poulter took down his singles opponent, Tony Finau.
7. Lanny Wadkins
If the U.S. squad had one inspirational Seve-like leader over the years, it was Wadkins. He made the clutch pitch shot on the final hole to preserve the 1983 win at PGA National (and deny Seve). His longevity was impressive, playing in eight Ryder Cups over 16 years from 1977-1993. His match record was 20-11-3 and his 20 wins tie him with Billy Casper for the most in U.S. history behind Palmer’s 22. Wadkins was the ultimate team player in his final appearance in 1993 at The Belfry, insisting captain Tom Watson put his name in the envelope. When Europe’s Torrance was unable to play in singles, Wadkins took one for the team and didn’t compete in singles in his farewell appearance.
6. Sergio Garcia
He was arguably a sore Ryder Cup loser and sometimes a worse winner but he was a memorable thorn in a lot of sides over the years. Like in 2018, when he became the Ryder Cup’s highest point scorer and said, “I have passed some of my heroes today. And Nick Faldo.” For that comment alone, Faldo moves ahead of Sergio on this list.
But the numbers don’t lie. Garcia was a Ryder Cup stud. He played in 10 Ryder Cup Matches and won more points, 28.5, than any player on either side. Garcia was an ace partner with a 21-8-6 mark in foursomes and four-balls. He was only 4-5-1 in singles, although that includes halving a sizzling match with Phil Mickelson when he shot 63 at Hazeltine in 2016. The Ryder Cup at Bethpage won’t be the same without Sergio. Better, maybe, but not the same.
5. Nick Faldo
Nobody has ever done what Faldo did, which was play in 11 consecutive Ryder Cups over two decades. His 25 points (from a 23-19-4 mark) was the European standard until Sergio Garcia later passed it. Faldo was simply the backbone of Europe’s team, and he and Ian Woosnam made a nearly unbeatable duo.
Faldo played on four winning sides and won the pivotal singles match at Oak Hill in 1995 when he drove into the rough on the final hole, pitched out and got up and down for par. He won the match after Curtis Strange made bogey from the fairway. Europe won that Cup by one point. “The hug I got from Seve from behind Oak Hill’s 18th green at the end of that Ryder Cup is still one of the best moments of my career,” Faldo said. “Thinking of it still makes me cry.”
4. Arnold Palmer
What little attention the Ryder Cup received on the national and international scenes in the 1960s and 1970s was largely because of Palmer’s global box-office attraction. Palmer played in six Cups, the U.S. won all six. His match record was 22-8-2 and his winning percentage of .719 is the best all-time for the American side. Palmer was 2-0 as a captain, watching his team win in 1975 at his home course, Latrobe Country Club. He was a playing captain in 1963, still the last American to do that. He went 4-2 that week despite playing with an ailing shoulder. Palmer made a pre-match boast, “This team would beat the rest of the world, combined.” Imagine saying that in the social media world of the 21st century. He and his teammates backed it up with a 23-9 hammering.
3. Tony Jacklin
Jacklin, a fiery Englishman, won the U.S. Open in 1970 and is still the last British player to win that title. He played on seven Ryder Cup teams in the era when his side was up against a slew of future American Hall of Famers. His playing record was 13-14-8, but he spearheaded Europe’s arrival as a force when he became captain in 1983.
The European PGA had been backing the team on the cheap and Jacklin insisted on his squad getting the same nice clothes, equipment and Concorde flights as the Americans. The British team’s only Ryder Cup win since 1933 came in 1957. Jacklin captained the team four times, building a 2-1-1 mark and ushering in the age of European dominance. With Seve’s help, Jacklin created Europe’s foundation.
2. Jack Nicklaus
The second-most important moment in Ryder Cup history was The Concession in 1969. Nicklaus conceded a short-ish putt on the final green to Tony Jacklin that ensured the matches ended in a tie. It was a remarkable gesture of sportsmanship, one forever remembered in this event, and it breathed life into a tired, lopsided history that had the Ryder Cup looking obsolete as a competition. Some of Nicklaus’ teammates weren’t happy about it, notably golf legend Sam Snead. “All the boys thought it was ridiculous to give him that putt,” Snead said. “We went over there to win, not to be good ol’ boys.”
The most important Ryder Cup moment was expanding the Great Britain and Ireland side to include the rest of Europe, which Nicklaus strongly encouraged. Within four years of the move in 1979, the matches became fiercely competitive and surged to prominence, big profitability and global exposure by the early ‘90s. Without Nicklaus, the Ryder Cup might still be a nice little event shown on tape-delay that nobody watched.
1. Seve Ballesteros
Seve, who reached no-last-name-needed status early in his career as he piled up six major championship titles, was more than Europe’s most exciting player ever. He was the King of Gamesmanship and lived to stick it to the Americans every two years in the Ryder Cup. Once Europe was included in the event in 1979, it was a matter of time before Ballesteros led them to a victory. The Euros came close in 1983, where Seve pulled off an impossible 3-wood shot from a fairway bunker on PGA National’s final hole, inarguably the greatest Ryder Cup shot ever.
His passion lifted the European team to a new level. Europe won the cup in 1985 for the first time since 1957, again in 1987 — in an embarrassing loss for Nicklaus, the U.S. captain, on his home course, Muirfield Village Golf Club — and came away with a Cup-retaining tie in 1989 after he played a contentious singles match against Paul Azinger. Seve’s game had eroded by 1995, but his spirit carried Europe to an away win at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, and then he captained his team to victory at Valderrama in Spain in 1997. Nobody ever meant more to the Ryder Cup than Seve. And the Ryder Cup never meant more to anyone than Seve.
Honorable mention (in alphabetical order)
Billy Casper: Meet Exhibit A for the idea that great putters are hard to beat in match play. Casper played in eight Ryder Cups, the U.S. won all eight in its era of dominance and Casper’s 20 match wins included six in singles. He also captained the victorious 1979 team and should not be forgotten.
Hale Irwin: He never gets credit for his quiet assassin role and his 13-5-2 Ryder Cup record. He is remembered for his role in the famous Langer match at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, when captain Dave Stockton sent Irwin out last, knowing that match might prove decisive. Irwin’s half-point versus Langer was the difference for the U.S. in 1991 and Irwin was on the winning team in all five of his Cup appearances.
Bernhard Langer: The former Masters champ was a long-time rock on the European side with a 21-15-6 mark but, of course, he is best remembered for that fateful missed putt in the 1991 “War By The Shore” Ryder Cup that enabled the Americans to hang on for the win.
Justin Leonard: He made the putt that whirled ‘round the herd, as one clever headline-writer said of Leonard’s famous putt (and unfortunate U.S. celebration) that capped the stunning American comeback win in 1999 at The Country Club. Rarely a day goes by even now in which Leonard doesn’t get reminded of that shot by someone.
Paul McGinley: Winning a Ryder Cup is like winning a major for Europeans, so it was a career-maker for McGinley, a popular voice on Golf Channel’s “Live From” shows now, when he sank a 10-footer on the 18th green to beat Jim Furyk and clinch Europe’s 2002 victory at The Belfry.
Phil Mickelson: In 12 Ryder Cup appearances, Mickelson played on three winning teams. His match record was 18-22-7. But if the epic failure of his 2004 pairing with Tiger Woods isn’t his lasting Ryder Cup legacy, then it’ll be throwing captain Tom Watson under the bus in the post-loss press conference at Gleneagles in 2014.
In 2004, he unwisely changed equipment companies two weeks before the Cup and couldn’t get it dialed in. Captain Hal Sutton, who paired the superstars, told Bunkered.co.uk last month, “I honestly don’t think I have the courage to say what I really think (about Phil).” Mickelson’s eruption did lead to changes in how the PGA of America makes up the team, but the results have been mixed since: 2 wins, 2 losses.
Colin Montgomerie: The best player who never won a major — but won eight Order of Merit titles in Europe — saved his best golf for the Ryder Cup. He was 6-0-2 in singles and earned 23.5 points in eight Cups, playing on five winning sides.
Patrick Reed: It was outstanding theater when Reed went after Rory McIlroy in a swashbuckling match at Hazeltine in 2016. Reed won with impressive play. He was 7-3-2, became the self-styled “Captain America,” and then broke up with partner Jordan Spieth and, eventually, the PGA Tour.
Sam Snead: The Slammer was 10-2-1 and a winning player-captain twice. A different era.
Lee Westwood: He played 11 Cups over 24 years and a record 47 matches. While his record was barely over .500, he had some big moments, including holing the clinching putt in 2004; partnering Darren Clarke to an emotional win at the K Club just months after Clarke’s wife passed away; and teaming with Luke Donald to knock off star U.S. pairing Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in 2010.
Tiger Woods: For whatever reason, Woods rarely brought his “A” game to the Ryder Cup. Could he not find a suitable partner, one who wasn’t intimidated by playing with him? (Maybe.) Did he not prepare for the Ryder Cup as if it was a major? (Not even close.) Whatever. His 13-21-3 record was unimpressive, but not as bad as his team record. Woods’ Ryder Cup teams went 1-7 with the world’s best player in the lineup.
