- By Iain Carter
- BBC golf correspondent
Image source, Getty Images
Ian Woosnam sat down his Ryder Cup team and told them they were all superstars. No one player was any greater than another, they were all the same.
At the time they had only one major winner – Jose Maria Olazabal – among their number, but they were superstars none the less.
They thrashed their American opponents – Tiger Woods included – by 18½ points to 9½ at the K Club. That was in 2006 and it remains the most emphatic triumph in a run of European home success that now stretches to 30 years.
There has been the Severiano Ballesteros inspired triumph of 1997 in his Spanish homeland, Sam Torrance’s tactical masterclass in 2002 and Woosnam’s wonders four years later.
Colin Montgomerie piloted the narrow Celtic Manor victory of 2010 before Paul McGinley’s stirring leadership at Gleneagles four years later. Thomas Bjorn created the ‘Moliwood’ storyline to yield Europe’s most recent home success in 2018.
“When you think about it, that’s one of the most incredible records in all of sport,” Montgomerie, who also played in three of those home wins, told BBC Sport.
The last time Europe lost on home soil was in 1993 at the Belfry. “I read the other day that Ray Floyd played for the Americans in that match. He’s now 81 years old. Think about it in those terms,” Montgomerie added.
Woosnam insists he was following a blueprint laid down by Tony Jacklin when the Englishman took over captaincy of the continent in 1983, Europe narrowly losing at PGA National in Florida.
“He made everybody comfortable,” Woosnam told me. “You wanted to be in that team room for the rest of your golfing career.”
The Welshman pointed out there has been a significant expectation shift over the past three decades from initially limited ambitions. “You were thinking if you could win one every now and again,” Woosnam said.
“But we had the self belief in our team. You’re always the underdogs and you want to prove people wrong.
“That was the beauty about it. We wanted to prove that European golf is really strong and as good as everybody else’s.
“The PGA Tour is the biggest tour in the world but it’s not all about them. We are Europe as well – and stuff you!”
Woosnam, 65, is delighted the team seems to be adopting a similar philosophy to his and Jacklin’s as they prepare to defend their extraordinary home record at Marco Simone this week.
On their recent Roman recce Rory McIlroy, Europe’s most decorated player, stated that all 12 of them are equal team-mates.
“I can remember the first line I said in front of the players in 2006, with all the vice-captains there, was ‘you’re all superstars to me, there’s no individual in this team’,” Woosnam recalled.
“That’s what Rory’s trying to say and that has come from Tony Jacklin.”
Europe destroyed Tom Lehman’s US side that week, roared on by passionate Irish fans at the K Club. “The Americans, I felt, got stage struck,” three-time captain Bernard Gallacher told BBC Sport.
“It even affected Tiger Woods at the K Club. The pressure and the excitement was palpable around him, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
“Jim Furyk stood up with that complicated swing of his and hit a drive down the middle. Now Tiger goes, he’s got his partner in the fairway, and he whipped it straight into the lake, he was so nervous,” Gallacher added.
“I’m not blaming Tiger, but it just seemed to go through the whole American team, that nervousness.”
Amid such raucous scenes, Woosnam knew he had his opposite number rattled as he waited for him to submit his afternoon pairings at the K Club.
“You’ve got an hour to do it, and Tom Lehman was asking for extra time,” said the Welshman.
“That means there are a lot of captains in the room.”
Torrance agreed that the galleries make a huge difference. “The crowd has always been our 13th man,” the Scot told me.
“You hole a 20 footer for birdie and the roar that goes up is quite extraordinary and it reverberates around the course. Every European player knows that was one for us. When you are in Europe it is a wonderful lift.”
Torrance added: “We started winning when we got a little bit more strength in depth but we still had two or three players who were maybe going to have to play five times.
“I don’t think that’s necessarily the case at all now. So your players are a lot fresher.”
In Italy, Europe will be looking to generate an atmosphere as intimidating as it was in Paris in 2018. “The crowd are worth at least a point or a point and a half,” Montgomerie insisted.
The 2010 skipper believes that could provide a vital edge as Europe seek to bounce back from their record 19-9 hammering at Whistling Straits two years ago.
“That’s the problem, we need 14½ points to get it back, they only need 14 to keep it. That extra half point makes it a much more difficult task.”
But the 60-year-old, who was never beaten in singles in eight appearances, believes that unique European spirit still burns bright. “We just wanted to beat America,” he said.
“The mighty Americans coming over to us and we just wanted to beat them. We were united in that effort, we all felt the same and were playing for each other.”
Like at Le Golf National in 2018, the Americans are likely to face slow greens, narrowed fairways and thick penal rough. Course set-up has become an increasingly prominent factor in providing home advantage.
“It’s interesting that its been 30 years,” Woosnam observed. “Why? Is it because we’ve set up the courses a certain way, I’m not sure. I mean the middle of the fairway is the middle of the fairway, isn’t it? The green is the green.”
This Ryder Cup will be the first played in the era of the LIV breakaway tour which prompted the resignations from the European Tour of stalwarts such as Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.
Westwood has been involved in every one of Europe’s home wins over the past 30 years, starting with his debut at Valderrama in 1997. He was one of Bjorn’s vice-captains in Paris.
“LIV Golf has been a huge influence on the Ryder Cup,” Torrance stated. “We’ve lost three amazing future captains in Westwood, Garcia and Poulter.”
Torrance did question though whether any of those three would have played this time, had they been eligible. And he claimed the current American team have been more adversely affected.
“There’s no Dustin Johnson, no (Bryson) Dechambeau, no (Patrick) Reed, no (Phil) Mickelson, no Talor Gooch. Out of those I’d guarantee you three would have made the team comfortably. Their team has been weakened by LIV golf.”
US skipper Zach Johnson picked LIV’s US PGA champion Brooks Koepka because of his performances in the majors this year, but paid no heed to results on the rival Saudi Arabia funded 54-hole shotgun start circuit.
“Leaving Dustin Johnson out and DeChambeau, they could be a lot stronger, no doubt about it,” Woosnam said.
Gallacher agreed. “If I was Luke Donald I’d be quite pleased,” he said.
“Donald is made to be a captain. He’ll make all the right calls. We’re talking about someone very substantial here.”
Gallacher was the last European captain to taste defeat on home soil. “I hear about it all the time when we have a home match,” he chuckled. “It’s one of those things, it was a close match.”
And he believes that Europe this week are facing their sternest home test of these triumphant three decades.
“This is the toughest one through this period because the last match we lost by 10 points,” he said.
“I hope they’re going to win. It’s going to be close, I think, and I’m hoping home advantage, because it is on a course we know, together with strong support, hopefully, that will get us over the line.”
Woosnam also believes there is a good chance that America’s 30 years of hurt can be further extended. “I feel like it is going to be really close,” he said.
“At the beginning of the year you might have thought that we’re not going to be so close, but now I think we’ve got a really good chance.”