Who won when Grant Horvat played Tommy Fleetwood at Bethpage starting with a three up lead with five holes to play

Add as preferred source on Google

Grant Horvat and Tommy Fleetwood have taken part in a five-hole challenge at Bethpage Black ahead of the upcoming Ryder Cup.

Bethpage Black will play host to the Ryder Cup in three weeks’ time, as excitement continues to ramp up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

However, before that, we got to see a United States vs Europe clash, of sorts, at Bethpage.

Grant Horvat took on Tommy Fleetwood at Bethpage, and whilst the match obviously didn’t have the intensity of a Ryder Cup face-off, both players desperately wanted to win.

Fleetwood’s popularity increased even further after his Tour Championship win, and he’s a rare example of a European player who the American fans have really warmed to.

Horvat is a top-class amateur golfer but Fleetwood is one of the very best players in the world.

So overturning a three-hole deficit with just five holes to play was certainly not an impossible task for the Englishman.

Who won when Grant Horvat played Tommy Fleetwood at Bethpage Black

So YouTube content creating phenomenon Horvat – a plus three handicap golfer – began the five-hole challenge with Fleetwood on the 14th tee with a three-up head-start.

In the history of the Ryder Cup, only one player has ever come back to win from three down with five holes to play.

So the task was obviously a tricky one to begin with for Fleetwood.

However, it quickly became an impossible one as Horvat made a par on the 14th hole to go four up with four holes to play.

However, the Tour Championship winner did win the 15th and the 16th holes, before finally succumbing to Horvat on the 17th.

The American YouTube sensation ran out as a 2&1 winner in the end.

Three biggest comebacks in Ryder Cup history

If the home side is leading by any margin heading into the final day’s play, that’s usually enough to get the job done.

However, there have been some thrilling comebacks in the past during the Sunday singles.

Here are the three biggest and best turnarounds since the competition’s inception in 1927…

2012 – The ‘Miracle of Medinah’

The final day of the 2012 Ryder Cup was arguably the most exciting of all time.

• Score on Saturday night: Europe 6-10 USA
• Score after the completion of all 12 singles matches: Europe 14.5-13.5 USA
• Points margin overturned: 4 points

1999 – Battle of Brookline

Back in 1999 at Brookline, the American team overturned the same deficit as the Europeans did in 2012.

• Score on Saturday night: Europe 10-6 USA
• Score after the completion of all 12 singles matches: Europe 13.5-14.5 USA
• Points margin overturned: 4 points

1995 – Oak Hill

Europe have Nick Faldo to thank for the turnaround at Oak Hill 30 years ago, when he won his final two holes against Curtis Strange to take the match on the final green by a score of 1 up.

• Score on Saturday night: Europe 7-9 USA
• Score after the completion of all 12 singles matches: Europe 14.5-13.5 USA
• Points margin overturned: 2 points

It will be fascinating to see whether a big comeback is possible at the Ryder Cup this year with the New York crowd at Bethpage Black set to be rowdier than anything we’ve ever witnessed in golf before.