With the final men’s major of the year now done and dusted, attention has switched towards the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September.
So what better time than now to look back at one of the most fiercely contested Ryder Cup meetings of all time?
The 1999 instalment of the Ryder Cup was held at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, and it was one of the most memorable contests of all-time.
Europe had won the previous two meetings, so the United States were hungry for revenge, and desperate to bring the trophy back to American soil.
However, with emotions running high, tempers spilled over in dramatic fashion during the Sunday singles matches.
Team USA beat Europe under a cloud of controversy at the 1999 Ryder Cup
Team Europe led 6-2 after the first day’s play at The Country Club in Brookline, and it seemed like there would be only one outcome at that point.
The second day was halved, with both teams picking up four points, meaning that the United States had a huge mountain to climb heading into Sunday.
Europe led the Americans comfortably by a score of 10 to 6, with only the 12 singles matches remaining, and many people had already written the hosts off.
However, captain Ben Crenshaw was certainly not one of them. On the eve of the singles matches, he famously said: “I’m a big believer in fate…I have a good feeling about this.“
And he was right, as Team USA quickly turned things around and won the first six singles matches convincingly.
The pressure was then firmly on the European players who were still out on the golf course to produce the goods.
In the end, the 33rd edition of the Ryder Cup came down to one match.
Justin Leonard vs Jose Maria Olazabal decided the outcome of the Ryder Cup
The ninth match out at Brookline in the singles on Sunday saw Justin Leonard of America take on one of Europe’s big guns, Jose Maria Olazabal.
It was a fiercely contested match the whole way round, but emotions got the better of both players on the green on the 17th hole.
With the match tied after 16 holes, Leonard holed a mammoth 45-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole.
That led to premature celebrations from almost the entire American team on the green, while Olazabal still had a 20-foot birdie putt to tie the hole with Leonard.
However, after the raucous celebrations, the Spaniard missed his putt, and the Americans were then guaranteed the half point they needed to win back the Ryder Cup.
The behaviour of the US team on that day drew huge criticism from those on the European side of the divide, after it was suggested that some American players had actually even walked through Olazabal’s line.
Golf is a gentlemen’s sport, and the behaviour displayed by the American team was not becoming of that.
However, it is worth noting that during highly charged atmospheres like the one in 1999 at The Country Club, it is always difficult to control your emotions, especially in elite level sport.
The Ryder Cup is well-known for bringing the best and the worst out of the players, and this year at Bethpage Black will most likely be no different.