The Ryder Cup’s hard road

Europe's Baker recalls the highs and big low of his only Ryder Cup start

Tony Jacklin’s Europe team beat Jack Nicklaus’ U.S. team at Muirfield Village (David Cannon/Allsport)

The PGA Tour is in Muirfield Village this week, Jack Nicklaus’ “home” course that has played host to the Memorial Tournament for 50 years. It’s a place of immense pride for Nicklaus, where on Wednesday the Memorial bestowed its Honoree recognition to his wife of soon-to-be 65 years, Barbara.

It’s also the place of arguably his most shocking defeat, when the American Ryder Cup team he captained in 1987 lost to the Europeans for the first time.

“We lost the 18th hole of every match that mattered, and eventually lost to Europe. In the United States. On a course I designed. In my hometown. Not the result I was prepared for,” Nicklaus wrote in a Golf magazine story in 2021.

Despite his disappointment, Nicklaus called that result “probably the best thing that could have happened to the Ryder Cup.”

“My shoulders were broad enough to handle the defeat, because in the end, the game of golf was the big winner.”

Luke Donald will captain a European Ryder Cup team in September at Bethpage Black trying to win a road match for the fifth time — but the first since the “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012. It’s a daunting challenge even though Team Europe has pulled off the feat in four of 10 attempts since first breaking through at Muirfield Village in 1987.

The 30th Ryder Cup in 1993 at The Belfry in England was the last time the Americans won on foreign soil. In the 32 years since, it has been a burden on the shoulders of U.S. captains who come to Europe with hopes of breaking the rut. The Americans will carry the weight of nearly three-and-a-half decades of frustration to Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027.