The 1987 Ryder Cup may be the most significant staging of the event in its history, with Europe winning on American soil for the very first time.
Team USA had won the previous 13 Ryder Cups at home before hosting Tony Jacklin’s men at Muirfield Village. However, the change almost a decade earlier to allow players from continental Europe to participate certainly brought the two sides closer together.
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Europe had won for the first time at The Belfry in 1985.
But two years later, they were facing Jack Nicklaus‘ side on a golf course that the Golden Bear had designed himself.
Jack Nicklaus’ criticism of his Team USA side after their defeat at the 1987 Ryder Cup
The visitors did not lose a single session over the first two days in Ohio. The high point came as they thrashed Team USA 4-0 in the second session to take a 6-2 lead overall.
Nicklaus’ men won six and only lost three of the 12 singles matches on Sunday. However, that was not good enough to prevent Europe from taking the trophy back across the Atlantic with them as they won 15-13.
Payne Stewart won two of his four matches that week. Nevertheless, as he told Golf Digest in 1999, that did not prevent Nicklaus from making some brutal comments in the hours after Team USA had been beaten.
“No. I’ve been on two winning teams, one team that lost and one team that tied. We didn’t lose. That’s the point that I tried to get across to the players who were on that team. I said, ‘Guys, we didn’t lose. They didn’t beat us’,” he said.
“I can’t tell you my individual record. It’s a team event. Which was more difficult to take, the loss at Muirfield Village in ’87 or the tie at the Belfry in ’89? Muirfield was not nice. And Jack Nicklaus let us know about it when we finished. We had a little meeting before the dinner we had to go to that night and Jack just wore us out. He told us, ‘You guys just don’t know how to win. How many matches were we leading going into 18 and didn’t win them? Look at you, Payne Stewart. You make all this money on tour, but how many tournaments have you won? Why don’t you win more?’ He said, ‘You guys need to learn how to win or you’re going to continue getting beaten in this thing’.
“There wasn’t any sugarcoating on it. I’ll tell you, that speech was good for me.”
Payne Stewart’s Ryder Cup record
Stewart was making his Ryder Cup bow that week. However, it is little surprise that Nicklaus looked to him for more. He had finished first in the qualification standings, while he was fifth in the world rankings.
Curtis Strange was the only American ranked higher than him at the time.
Stewart would go on to play in another four Ryder Cups, with his final appearance coming the month before his death in a plane crash in 1999.
Overall, the three-time major champion won nine points from 19 matches.
And it seems that Nicklaus’ words stuck with the team. Stewart was never on the losing side again – though Europe did retain the trophy two years later with a tie. The US won in 1991, 1993, and 1999.
The latter event at Brookline saw Stewart prove that winning is not everything, however. After watching Colin Montgomerie receive relentless heckling throughout their singles match – and across the week – Stewart conceded his putt on the final hole to ensure that the Scot won 1 up.
Obviously, no one knew it at the time, but that gesture of great sportsmanship proved to be a fitting final act in Stewart’s Ryder Cup career.
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