1983 Ryder Cup: Seve's miracle shot

It had all been going so well for Seve Ballesteros and Europe. Going into the final day of the 1983 Ryder Cup at Palm Beach Gardens in an alien position of parity, two hours into the singles Europe were ahead in six matches and level in four, with Ballesteros three up after 11 holes in the opening contest against Fuzzy Zoeller. The unthinkable was becoming a real possibility.

But some Ryder Cup Sundays are never that easy. The quest for those magical 14½ points becomes a real test of nerve, stamina, and mental toughness, both for players and spectators. The ebb and flow between red and blue, the cheers ringing around the course, and the magnitude of every single shot becomes suffocating.

Ryder Cup 1983

Anyone out there remember the Wightman Cup? OK pipe down Barker and Wade. Anyone else? I thought not. For those of you still confused, the Wightman Cup was a tennis competition in the distant past contested annually between the top women from America and the UK. Set up by Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman in 1923, the tournament ran until 1989 with one small problem: America just kept on winning. Overall the Americans led the series 51-10, had won every event from 1979-1989, and had only lost six tournaments post-war. In a nutshell the tournament was a dodo, "the victim of a decade of United States dominance" as the New York Times aptly summed up.