Thirty years on and the mystery not only endures but intensifies. How did Hale Irwin’s hook on the 18th in that final singles match find the fairway?
It is a question that still vexes the Europe captain that week, Bernard Gallacher, as well as Bernhard Langer and other members of the team.
“It’s interesting because all the memories of 1991 are of the army camo hats, the ‘War on the Shore’, some of the US players acting as if they were in combat in the wake of the Iraq war, of the row between [Seve] Ballesteros and [Paul] Azinger, of the behaviour of the fans and finally, of course, of Bernhard’s putt on that last green,” Gallacher said. “Yet what has been overlooked but seems to be gaining more traction now is Irwin’s drive on that last.
“I was behind the tee, it was 40 yards wide of the target, heading towards the dunes and it looked like it would be dead. From there he would have struggled to make even a double bogey and a bogey would have done for Bernard, it would have been a 14-14 draw and we would have retained the Ryder Cup. History would have been very different.”
Langer concurs. “I’ve never had a proper explanation of what happened on the drive,” the German said. “It ended with me missing that six-footer and the US winning the Ryder Cup. Fair enough. But I would like to know what happened.”
The scene was Kiawah Island – coincidentally another Pete Dye links-like creation very similar to this week’s test – and on the tee-box of that concluding par four, it could not have been closer. Europe were looking to win the Cup, or at least retain it, for the fourth time in succession. The crowd were desperate. In so many senses.
It was 13½-13½. Irwin was one up. A halve at the 18th would make America great again. And then came the wild pull. “Oh, this ball’s way left,” Charlie Jones declared on the NBC broadcast. “This ball is headed into the crowd to the left, it’ll need to spit out.”
On the BBC, Peter Alliss said: “I fancy a four could win this… oh, not now, not if that’s gone where I think it’s gone.”
On the tee, Irwin waited to see if he was required to take a provisional before the signal came that the ball was safe. Actually, it was more than safe. Johnny Miller, the former Open champion then regarded as the greatest golf analyst in existence, could not believe where it had come to rest.
“That’s Hale’s ball?” he asked incredulously. “If it wasn’t for the gallery, it would have probably rolled into the dunes. Isn’t that correct?”
“I think so, Johnny,” replied on-course commentator Mark Rolfing. “I never saw it come out. And then all of a sudden we get out here and it’s in pretty good shape. It’s just on the edge of the fairway.”
From there, Irwin missed the green. He chipped up, rather poorly, to 30 feet for a two-putt bogey. Langer missed the green with his approach, but only just. He played up to six feet. He missed. The US won. The rest is hysteria.
Except, how, why, who? There is an eye-witness. Kathy Jorden was working for the PGA of America, the Ryder Cup organisers, and was with Dick Smith, the association’s president. They had the Ryder Cup trophy and had been following the deciding game from the 16th, just in case the game finished before the 18th. They wanted the US captain, Dave Stockton, to be given the Cup immediately.
Jorden, who was pregnant at the time, was on that last hole. When contacted, she said: “There have been a lot of articles written about what happened on the 18th hole. A lot of people don’t know the story. That’s probably best.
“When Hale hit his drive, it was headed our way. A lot of people yelled ‘fore!’ I turned and squatted down. I thought the ball was going to go over my head and into the crowd or into dunes on the fly. It hit my back. It was like a hard sting. I had a welt for a while.”
Jorden says she sensed this was a huge, if unwitting, intervention on her behalf and in her position she panicked. That, she says, is why she kept quiet for so long. “I had all kinds of thoughts racing through my head. I didn’t want anyone to see me. I was scared. I was nervous. I was in shock. I needed to get to the 18th green as quickly as possible.”
Her mission was to get the trophy to the green in time. “I had to brush myself off very quickly and do my job,” she said. “I rallied to play a very tiny role not by choice. It’s crazy that ball hit me. Crazy.”
So, by a huge twist of fate, the “deflectee” essentially worked for the US team. No blame. No dramas.
Except was it that simple? Rolfing wrote a piece on golf.com last week. “What she [Jorden] can’t confirm is what happened next. She never saw the ball bounce in the fairway. But watching the footage today, there is no definitive rope line holding back the crowd. It’s likely Jorden was surrounded by a mass of people. I say this not to impugn anyone. I just believe it speaks to the chaos of the moment and the way memory can blur over time.”
Certainly, Gallacher has heard otherwise. “I was told a few days later that someone saw a fan throwing the ball back into the fairway,” he said. “But what was I going to do? It was gone, the game was over, I didn’t want to come across as a sore loser.
“More and more people have come up to me and said ‘that ball was thrown back’ and ‘you were robbed’. Maybe. We will never know for sure, although I know members of that team remain convinced.”