The 2010 Ryder Cup proved to be a great example of sportsmanship, of golf played at the highest level in difficult conditions, of enormous and passionate galleries and of sportsmen showing a determined zeal to win. Individual golfers, normally used to playing for themselves, came together seamlessly to play, without prize money, for the cause of the team.
A rain-affected match that needed to go into an extra day only served to highten the excitement, the tension and the quality of the golf in this unique fixture. The advantage flowed one way, then flowed back between two fine sides, with the Europeans, captained by Colin Montgomerie, eventually securing a historic victory over a very good United States team by the narrowest margin, 14½-13½ points.
It all went down to the final match between Graeme McDowell and Hunter Mahan. Eventually McDowell defeated Mahan 3 & 1 to regain the Cup for Europe.
Double Olympic champion Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, said: “The Ryder Cup contest between Europe and the United States is always a passionate and partisan sporting event. And there was also the inspirational power of Severiano Ballesteros, one of my fellow members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, recovering from cancer at his home in Spain, who virtually became the European Ryder Cup Team’s 13th man.
“Seve is regarded as the most passionate, most committed player and captain in the history of the Ryder Cup. He was instrumental in creating the format of a European team, which turned the contest into a global sporting event and of course he made that emotional telephone call to the team before the match to wish them luck and which inspired them to go out and win.”