Although it was the Scottish Sam Torrance the player who staged with his victory over Andy North on the last hole of The Belfry the historic triumph of Europe over the United States, the truth is that it was the Spaniards who changed the course of a Ryder Cup that until then had only one color: the United States. It took 28 years for the Europeans to snatch the famous cup from their American rivals. It happened in 1985.
The Spanish contribution was decisive in the victory of the European team over the United States in the Ryder Cup played that year at The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England. In this biennial competition, inaugurated in 1927 and which began by pitting the teams of the United States and Great Britain (later also Ireland) against each other, the American dominance had been overwhelming throughout its 58-year history. Until 1979, when the European team included players from all over Europe, there were only three British victories, the last in 1957, to 18 American victories. Three more American victories followed, but in 1985 the European team, which included four Spaniards (Ballesteros, Piñero, Cañizares and Rivero), this time imposed its great game.
The 1985 edition marked a turning point in the history of the Ryder Cup. It put an end to almost three decades of American dominance and inaugurated European hegemony, which since then won 11 of the next 16 matches. Sam Torrance’s eight-meter putt on the 18th, which signified his victory over Andy North and put Europe six points ahead with only five matches to play, will go down in the books. But according to Torrance himself, the turning point of that Ryder, and perhaps of the history of the competition, had occurred a few hours earlier. And the protagonist was the Spaniard Manuel Piñero.
Torrance told CNN what happened in the European team’s players’ room on Saturday night: “Practically none of us wanted to play against Lanny Wadkins, who was the best in singles. Piñero got up from his seat and shouted, ‘I want to play him.’ Wadkins was the megastar of the moment and Piñero beat him. Imagine what it meant for the 11 of us who had to play after that. It was magnificent.
What was to come at The Belfry was already foreshadowed in the previous edition of the tournament, the 1983 edition held at the PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, when Europe came very close to ending the unbeaten streak of the United States in the Ryder Cup. The team captained by Jack Nicklaus finally won by a single point (14.5 to 13.5) against the team led by Tony Jacklin. It was the thirteenth consecutive victory for the Americans.
But let’s go to the 1985 tournament. The visiting team was captained by Lee Trevino and consisted of Andy North, Hubert Green, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Raymond Floyd, Calvin Peete, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler, Hal Sutton, Peter Jacobsen, Tom Kite and Fuzzy Zoeller.
On the European side and under the captaincy of Tony Jacklin, played Seve Ballesteros, Manuel Piñero, José María Cañizares, José Rivero, Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance, Ken Brown, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Paul Way, Bernahrd Langer and Howard Clark, that is, four Spaniards, three Scots, three English, one Welsh and one German. Faldo, Rivero and Brown were the players chosen by the captain to be part of the team as they did not qualify directly for the tournament.
The foursomes and four-ball on the first day, Friday, ended with an American advantage of 4.5 to 3.5 after splendid performances by the Spaniards, with victories in the morning and afternoon by the Seve/Piñero tandem and a tie in the afternoon by Cañizares/Langer.
Saturday’s matches, morning four-ball and afternoon foursomes, were both won by the Europeans, with an overall cumulative score of 9 to 7 in favor of the locals.
With those two points of advantage, the decisive head-to-head singles matches on Sunday were reached, the twelve points that would tip the balance of victory to one side or the other of the Atlantic.
Piñero opened the dance against the dreaded Watkins, whom he defeated by 3&1. This was followed by the Woosnam/Stadler duel, which the latter won by 2&1. Way then beat Floyd by 2 up, and then Seve tied with Kite. The scoreboard then read 11.5-8.5. Europe was 3 points short of ending the American hegemony in the Ryder Cup. Lyle defeated Jacobsen by 3&2 and Langer beat Sutton by 5&4. Six matches remained and one point was enough for Europe to claim victory.
It was Torrance’s turn and the Scotsman had the honor of scoring the point with a 1-up win over North. The feat was accomplished. Clark and Cañizares scored another two points for their team (Rivero and Faldo lost to Peete and Green respectively) and the final score was 16.5 to 11.5. Europe, at last, took command of the Ryder Cup.
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