The whisky room on this given Tuesday at The Belfry might be uncharacteristically sober, but it does not take long for the raucous memories of the 1985 Ryder Cup to come flooding back. As Sir Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle opt for tea, coffee, and sparkling water, Sam Torrance reliably takes the floor.
“There used to be this tiny bar just around the corner here where the drinks were on the Tuesday night. I was in there first for a change,” he says, much to the amusement of the others. “One of the American players came in and had a black tie on. I looked at him and said, ‘What have you got that on for? Do you know that’s for funerals here?’ He ran out of the room like a bloody shot. They all took their ties off, but, as it turned out, it was their funeral.”
Four icons of that fabled European team who finally defeated the United States were reunited this week to mark the 40th anniversary of that seminal match. They are all deep into their sixties now — with the exception of Torrance, who turns 72 on Sunday — and have the grey hairs and wrinkles to show for it, but the force of their distinct personalities remains undiminished.
Together they account for 32 playing appearances, not to mention nine major championships, but it was 1985 that changed everything. The US had not lost in 28 years and almost regarded the Ryder Cup as a quaint exhibition. Jack Nicklaus implored Great Britain & Ireland to become Europe in 1979 before the competition faded into irrelevance, but the impact was hardly immediate. Cue another of Torrance’s great tales.
“The ’81 Ryder Cup [at Walton Heath] was just a massacre. I was very fortunate in my career to get to know Lee Trevino pretty well. Saturday night, I saw him — I’ve got him first out in the singles — and he said, ‘Sammy, I’m going to beat the moustache off of you’. The next morning, Lee was standing there waiting for his courtesy car and I said, ‘Do you want a lift?’ Lee knows you come out and turn right to get to the golf club. I’ve gone out and turned left and he looks at me right away and says, ‘Sammy, where are you going?’ I said, ‘F*** you, we’re going to London, half a point each’.
“He beat me 5&3. I did shave off the moustache. I regretted it, but I did it.”
The US assumed their dominance, but Tony Jacklin galvanised Europe as captain in 1983, as, of course, did the presence of Seve Ballesteros. But it was the partnership between Faldo and Bernhard Langer that spearheaded the team, each taking four points from a possible five. Their approach, both on and off the course, was markedly different to Woosnam and Torrance’s.
Teams for 1985 Ryder CupTeam Europe: Tony Jacklin (non-playing captain), Sandy Lyle, Sam Torrance, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer, Paul Way, Howard Clark, Seve Ballesteros, Manuel Piñero, José María Cañizares, José Rivero, Ken Brown, Nick FaldoTeam USA: Lee Trevino (non-playing captain), Andy North, Hubert Green, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Raymond Floyd, Calvin Peete, Mark O’Meara, Craig Stadler, Hal Sutton, Peter Jacobsen, Tom Kite, Fuzzy Zoeller.
“We had to get [Woosnam’s] mix right,” Faldo, 68, says. “He used to come in, have a couple of beers, three glasses of red, then we’d say, ‘Right, that’s it, you’ve had your mix, stop.’ ”
“Whatever you do, you’ve got to do everything exactly the same every week. Same with the Ryder Cup. That’s the way I relaxed. That’s what’s important,” Woosnam, 67, the 1991 Masters champion, says.
“I’d have one beer or glass of wine or one whisky, but I was always good at stopping at one,” Faldo says.
“Langer’s was a shandy!” Lyle, 67, who won the Open in 1985 and the Masters in 1988, says with an enduring tinge of disbelief.
From left: Faldo, Woosnam, Lyle and Torrance with the Ryder Cup after taking part in a special 40th anniversary match at The Belfry this week
ROSS KINNAIRD/GETTY IMAGES
“We admired each other’s games, but we all played differently,” Woosnam says. “I’m an instant whack. Nick is more methodical: ‘Is it 150 yards from the back of the sprinkler or 149 yards and six inches from the front?’ ”
Europe came agonisingly close to pulling off an upset in Florida in 1983 but Lanny Wadkins produced a brilliant wedge in the tenth singles match to snatch a half-point against José María Cañizares and turn the momentum. They ultimately lost 14½-13½, but the Europeans left adamant it was their time.
“It was like David and the Goliath, but we got stronger and stronger,” Woosnam says. “1983 instilled a lot of faith. When we came together, we all had something in common: we wanted to beat the Yanks and prove that our [European] Tour is as good as their [PGA] Tour.”
Torrance, who first adds that some of his best friends were on American teams, likens the intensity of the rivalry to two boxers who “kick the shit out of each other” in the ring and then shake hands afterwards. “It does get real,” Faldo says. “Something happened with [Manuel] Piñero and Wadkins [in 1985]. He was sitting there on Saturday going, ‘I want Wadkins, I want Wadkins’.
Torrance holed the winning putt for Europe in their 1985 triumph
DAVID CANNON /ALLSPORT/GETTY
“That was my favourite moment,” Torrance says. “He was 5ft 6in. He had to run around the shower to get wet. He played the toughest person you could come up against and beat him 3&1.”
The winning putt on Sunday fell to a tearful Torrance after Andy North’s drive found the water at the 18th. “I knew I was going to beat him then. He was three up beside my drive and I had a nine-iron into the green. Woosie put his arm around me and I hit him [accidentally] with my club. The emotion, the noise, it was just incredible.”
“I’m still recovering [from the blow],” Woosnam says.
How it unfoldedFriday
Morning foursomes Europe 1 US 3
Afternoon fourball Europe 2½ US 1½ (Overall 3½-4½)Saturday
Morning foursomes Europe 2½ US 1½ (Overall 6-6)
Afternoon fourballs Europe 3 US 1 (Overall 9-7)Sunday
Singles Europe 7½ US 4½Final overall score
Europe 16½ US 11½
The celebrations were no less zealous as the players climbed on to the roof of The Belfry, pouring champagne into the mouths of the crowd below, but Faldo was a glaring omission from that scene. After embarking on his radical swing change that summer, he lost his first match on the Friday and then asked Jacklin to sit him out because he doubted whether he could deliver a point.
“I had a rotten week. I didn’t play again until the singles, and lost my singles. I couldn’t go out on to the roof to celebrate because I didn’t feel like I’d done my bit for the team,” Faldo, who won all six of his major titles after that rebuild, says.
“I never won a singles [in eight appearances],” Woosnam says. “You’ve still won the match but you’re devastated. I lost in ’87 to Andy Bean. I came in and I was so angry.”
Torrance, who finished with two points from four matches, was undeterred. “[The celebrations] lasted four days. I got to Madrid, played in the pro-am, I was up until 2am on the Wednesday night and then I thought, ‘That’s it, I can’t get any more in’. I made the cut. That was probably the finest performance of my life. It was just such a relief after having not won it for so long.”
The paradigm shift was undeniable. Europe lead 11-6-1 in the matches since 1985, starting with their first win on away soil at Muirfield Village two years later. Talk of that famous double turns to New York in September in front of what is sure to be a hostile crowd after the furore in Rome two years ago sparked by Patrick Cantlay’s apparent refusal to wear a hat in protest at not being paid to participate.
Europe’s team celebrate with the Ryder Cup after their victory at The Belfry
SPORTSPHOTO/ALLSTAR VIA GETTY IMAGES
“[The crowds] seem to be getting worse and worse all the time. Brookline [in 1999], I watched it and thought it was horrendous. Good job I wasn’t there. I’d have been straight into the crowd. [The problem] is someone shouts and you don’t know who it is,” Woosnam says.
“You’d have been like Eric Cantona [kung-fu kicking a fan],” Torrance says.
“Do the Happy Gilmore and pull his shirt up over him and then . . .” Lyle adds, miming punches.
Torrance still describes the Americans’ premature celebrations on the 17th green at Brookline as “probably the most disgusting” display of bad etiquette he ever witnessed. With their match all square, Justin Leonard’s 45ft birdie putt had put the US on the brink of the half-point required for victory, and the US team and their families stormed the green in celebration despite José María Olazábal still having a putt to halve the hole.
Tom Lehman, who had already won his singles match, charged down the fairway and incited the crowd, prompting Torrance’s great line: “And Tom Lehman calls himself a man of God.” Torrance is reluctant to rake over those coals, but just as he begins to recall the frank phone call when Lehman apologised to him, his mobile rings.
Woosnam celebrates during his singles match against Craig Stadler — he took two points from four matches
BOB MARTIN /ALLSPORT/GETTY
“Hi Tom,” he says, causing the other three to burst into laughter.
“I heard you were talking about me,” Lyle says, imitating the voice at the end of the line.
“[The crowd might not be as bad] at $750 a ticket,” says Faldo, referring to the record admission prices for this year’s edition at Bethpage Black.
“The Americans are getting $500,000 each now and the Europeans said they would play for free,” Torrance says. “The crowd could turn on them just as easily as they could turn on us.”
It was a difficult Ryder Cup for Faldo, who admits he had a “rotten week” as he failed to pick up any points
PHIL SHELDON/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
“You get someone like [Cantlay] who wears a hat all the time, all of a sudden he’s moaning and groaning, he hasn’t got a hat. Here, I’ll make you a bloody hat,” Woosnam says, punchily. “It should be for charity. It keeps [the DP World Tour] going, it gives people a chance to go into the professionals, and it helps the club professionals all for the better.”
As for the dilemma facing Keegan Bradley, who will announce his six picks on Wednesday, the four are unanimous that he cannot effectively serve as a playing-captain. Torrance led Europe to victory at The Belfry in 2002 when the memory of Brookline was still raw and Woosnam captained the crushing win over Lehman’s US team in 2006. Faldo’s disastrous captaincy two years later, however, is best left in the past, while Lyle must still count himself extremely unfortunate to have been repeatedly overlooked for the honour.
“[Bradley] should be playing, but he can’t be captain. It’s just not possible,” Torrance says.
Torrance still describes the US team’s celebrations on the 17th green in 1999 as “probably the most disgusting” display of bad etiquette he ever witnessed
ANDREW REDINGTON /ALLSPORT/GETTY
“We highly recommend that he does both,” Faldo says, laughing.
An entertaining joke about Miguel Ángel Jiménez serving as a vice-captain for Europe and exclusively following Bradley is regrettably halted before the punchline for the sake of transatlantic diplomacy — the pair had a heated on-course argument in 2015 over a drop that resulted in Bradley squaring up to Jiménez and shouting: “Don’t tell [my caddie] to shut up.”
The divided state of modern golf gets shorter shrift. “The game’s been f***ed up,” Torrance says, while making clear he has little desire to elaborate on the subject.
“What really gets me is how bloody slow it is,” Woosnam says. “To tell you the truth, I don’t even want to watch it anymore. You’ve got a caddie telling you, ‘Do this, hit it there, do that’. He’s a 12 handicapper. What does he know? It’s a pro. He knows how to hit the bloody ball. It’s all for show. ‘Look at me, I’m a caddie’. It’s a load of crap. It’s a load of shit. I hate watching it.”
The quartet have had their own quarrels over the years. Faldo and Lyle in particular held a grudge after the former once reported the latter for a rules infringement that led to the Scot being disqualified. But after all the years and triumphs that bind them, they seem like a warm, if occasionally grumbling, family.
Woosnam still enters the odd seniors event, while Torrance can be spotted in a buggy playing off the yellow tees and a handicap of six at Sunningdale Golf Club at least three times a week. Lyle made his final Masters appearance in 2023 and rarely picks up a club nowadays, instead preferring to practise his farming skills on his estate in rural Perthshire, not unlike Faldo, who retreats to an animal-filled ranch in Montana outside of his media work.
Lyle, left, and Faldo, right, savour the victory with non-playing captain Jacklin
PHIL SHELDON/POPPERFOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
“We’ve had our ups and downs but it all comes together,” Woosnam says.
“He was a right little f***er,” Torrance says of Woosnam, causing them all to cackle.
“I admired how a little person can…” Lyle says of the diminutive Woosman before he is cut off.
“Ha!” Faldo exclaims. “That’s not very PC.”
“A giant,” Woosnam says, grinning.
In European golf and Ryder Cup history, they certainly are.