Ryder Cup 2016: Greatest win is for an event that has restored its value

Roarsome: Patrick Reed showed a love for battle in his showdown with Rory McIlroy
Andrew Redington/Getty Images
James Lawton3 October 2016

It was never likely the Miracle of Medinah would be surpassed. That, after all, had the ultimately inspiring name of Seve Ballesteros literally trailed through a vast and cloudless sky. But then if some European wounds will take longer to heal than others after the spectacular American revenge at Hazeltine, there is one huge and redeeming certainty.

Four years on, the Ryder Cup has not only re-announced its genius for producing heart-stopping brilliance on the course but also, and just as importantly as the focus switches to Paris in 2018, a superbly restored level of competitive edge and intrigue.

The Americans won 17-11 but the greatest victory was the one for old Sam Ryder’s legacy of a golf tournament that carried his beloved game into another dimension.

When it returned to the mid-west these last few days there had to be a nagging fear. It was that another processional splurge of European blue across the scoreboard would compound the damage created by the confusions and bitterness of the American misadventure at Gleneagles two years ago.

Now, inevitably, the European inquest will probe most insistently the decisions of Darren Clarke but when the angst is spent there must surely be another kind of reflection. It is that which attaches itself to the belief that sometimes in defeat it is not so hard to see seeds of excitement and renewal.

For Europe there is the clearest evidence of the highest potential in the near nerveless authority of rookies Thomas Pieters and Rafa Carbrera-Bello. For the Americans there is the thrill, no doubt dubiously expressed in those sections of the American gallery which remain unrepentantly emotionally scabrous, of the natural-born leadership and love of battle displayed by Patrick Reed.

And for anyone who cares for golf there is, more than anything, the superb resonance of two singles matches that will live always in the memories of those who saw them.

Reed’s one-up triumph over the extraordinarily committed Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia’s implacable resistance to the extravagantly regained touch of Phil Mickelson will be among the enduring glories of an American fall.

One hole separated four golfers exploring the limits of their powers. It was as if each one of them was making an imperishable statement about the value they placed on a competition endangered by Europe’s growing mastery of results and that endemic shortfall of sporting instinct in the galleries.

Each of them said with every nuance of their game and reaction to the twists of fortune that what they were doing was an announcement of who they were and how best they wanted to see themselves.

Despite his defeat, perhaps most arresting was the demeanour of McIlroy. Four years ago, he required the assistance of the Highway Patrol to make his tee-time at Medinah. In Hazeltine it seemed he could not have been more involved had he been fighting for his life in some tumultuous back-alley.

Some time ago he said the Ryder Cup was nothing so much as an exhibition. He was similarly blase about the lure of the Olympics in Brazil, citing the threat of virus-bearing mosquitos.

So what did we really have in McIlroy? A sumptuously gifted but somewhat detached millionaire golf star shedding the eagerness of youth? It was not a recognisable McIlroy these last few days and least of all when he sank a huge putt and cupped his ears to the gallery.

They were a sensational quartet, Reed the strutting provocateur, Mickelson firing birdies like an ageless gunfighter, Garcia proclaiming a great talent which may never be marked by a major, and McIlory, going to the limits of a commitment that had been doubted. In their different ways, like Seve, they deserved to have their names emblazoned across the big blue sky.

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