Europe's first away win: Sam Torrance reflects on 1987 Ryder Cup

That was our best win. At the time it was our best win and I think it’s up there with Medinah.

At the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage, Luke Donald will aim to oversee just the fifth victory by a European team on U.S. soil. No team has won an away Ryder Cup since the “Miracle at Medinah” in 2012, which followed on from prior success for Team Europe on the road in 1987, 1995 and 2004.

Here, as part of a series focusing on European successes in the U.S., Same Torrance recalls his memories of playing on the winning side in 1987 and gives his thoughts on being part of the first European team in history to taste victory on U.S. soil.

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Sam Torrance has one of the greatest Ryder Cup legacies of any player in its history: eight consecutive appearances, three wins, a retention, a winning point and a winning captaincy.

But for him, the first away win at Muirfield Village in 1987 ranks up there with all of his and Europe’s greatest achievements.

“Medinah was the greatest comeback we’ve ever had but to play Jack Nicklaus’ course, captained by Jack Nicklaus and designed by Jack Nicklaus who everybody loves and was probably the greatest golfer that ever lived until Tiger came along, it was fabulous,” he said.

Torrance had made his debut six years earlier in one of the thumping defeats that had been commonplace across the first 54 years of Ryder Cup play but the winds of change were already blowing through the contest.

In 1979 continental Europeans had entered the fray and in 1983 Tony Jacklin served as captain for the first of four consecutive matches, a move which Torrance believes was crucial.

“Tony started the change, he changed it for all for us,” he said. “He made us feel so special which is something that I took to my captaincy, to make the players feel as comfortable and as special as possible.”

1983 was another loss but it was a loss by a single point, the first genuinely competitive Ryder Cup since 1969.

Europe’s team was young and hungry, led by a superstar in Seve Ballesteros and containing superstars in waiting Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.

“1983 was huge,” said Torrance. “We lost by a point, it was down to the very last match: Lanny Wadkins’ chip and Jack Nicklaus kissing the divot.

“It broke our hearts but we all realised, we swore to a man that night that we would be back and we would beat them and in 85 we did.

“I think there was nine out of the 12 in West Palm Beach that made it to The Belfry.”

The loss in 1983 would be the only time that Jacklin tasted defeat as captain, with Torrance sealing victory in 1985 for the first time in the Europe era.

“It was nice that I got the winning point but that’s irrelevant, basically,” he said. “The fact was we were a great team and we’ve built on that since then to now.

“It was huge to win the Ryder Cup, to beat them, finally after 27 years to have that cup here.

“Even in the old days it was one of the most watched tournaments. It was a great chance to watch the Americans kick our backsides but when it turned, it turned in our way.”

The Ryder Cup balance of power may have been changing but for Europe there was a continuity in 1987, with Torrance, Ballesteros, Faldo, Lyle, Langer, Woosnam and Ken Brown all remaining from the team which tasted narrow defeat in 1983.

The winning Great Britain and Europe team in no order of Howard Clark, Sam Torrance, Ken Brown, Bernhard Langer, Severiano Ballesteros, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Jose Rivero, Gordon Brand Jnr, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Eamonn Darcy during the 27th Ryder Cup Matches on 27 September 1987at the Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, USA. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

They were joined by 1985 winners Howard Clark and José Rivero, Ryder Cup veteran Eamonn Darcy and rookies Gordon Brand Jnr and José María Olazábal but despite being defending champions, the odds were against them.

They were taking on Jack’s team at Jack’s place but Torrance was ready for the challenge.

“It’s 100 per cent different,” he said. “One event you have the crowds with you and the second event you don’t, or not a lot of them.

“It’s quite intimidating but there’s so much expectation in a home match, whereas it’s a little bit more lenient when you’re in an away match but you can get fired up so beautifully in an away watch.

“If you can get into it and just concentrate and not really get involved with the crowd, just let them anger you and it really fires you up.

“An away match for me was never a problem, I enjoyed away matches.”

The week got off to a good start for Torrance as he got engaged to then girlfriend Suzanne on Concord on the way over and when the team landed, love continued to be in the air.

One of the key advantages of a home Ryder Cup is a home crowd, with them seemingly becoming more raucous and febrile with each passing edition.

The atmospheres that so characterised the contests in 1991, 1999 and 2023 were yet to truly emerge but Jacklin and his troops were still keen to get the locals on side.

“Confidence was high but we were never favourites, we’ve probably never been favourites in any Ryder Cup match just because of the World Rankings or whatever it is but that never changed our determination or how we felt and to be honest it was magical,” said Torrance.

“What was really important - it may have started in 83, but it definitely was going in 87 – was working with the crowd. In the practice rounds we’d go over the ropes, we’d sign, we’d get pictures, we’d do just about anything for them.

“On the Saturday morning, Nicklaus himself had said in the press ‘where is our support? Most of them are supporting the Europeans’.

“Because that’s what we were doing, we were getting the crowd on our side and kept them there.”

When play got under way in the Friday foursomes Torrance and Clark would taste defeat, as would Brown and Langer, but momentum was to swing in huge fashion in the bottom two matches.

Faldo and Woosnam were four down to Lanny Wadkins and Larry Mize only to pull out a 2 Up win, while in the bottom match we got our first sighting of the greatest Ryder Cup pairing of all-time.

Ballesteros and Olazábal defeated Larry Nelson and Payne Stewart – ending Nelson’s perfect Ryder Cup record in his tenth match – to win the first of 12 points in 15 matches as a pair.

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That momentum was taken into the afternoon fourballs where Europe completed their first clean sweep of a session to lead 6-2 after day one, with the winning pairs from the morning completing victories along with Brand and Rivero, and Lyle and Langer.

“It was the first pairing of Seve and Ollie, Langer and Lyle were just unbeatable and Woosie and Faldo – you just couldn’t beat them,” said Torrance.

“These guys won the Ryder Cup for us, those six people, it was just extraordinary what they did.

“Any time you come back from two down, especially two matches down not just two holes down, is humongously important and it’s taken then into the next day.”

Day two also went Europe’s way and they headed into Sunday in uncharted territory - with a 10½-5½ lead - but there was no complacency or jubilation in the camp.

“You very much focus on your own match, that’s all you can do, you can’t do anything else in the Ryder Cup apart from win your match, there���s nothing else you can do,” Torrance added.

“You can give inspiration to the team, even somebody that is four or five down, they start winning a hole and when you see it on the board it just lifts you a little bit. It inspires you.

“You never get ahead of yourself, what’s done is done.

“We’re eating our dinner and we’re very happy with ourselves and we’ve had a great day but it’s so far from over that you’re not focusing on that.

“You’ve got your draw for tomorrow, you know who you’re playing and that’s what you’re thinking about. It’s nothing to do with what you’ve achieved so far because it can change.”

The five point-lead was maintained in the three top matches in the singles, with Torrance sealing a half against Masters champion Mize, but then Faldo, Olazábal, Rivero and Lyle all succumbed to a sea of red as the lead was cut to one – but the Europeans were not panicking.

“We might not even have noticed the lead getting reduced on Sunday,” said Torrance.

“You’re very much focused on your match, sometimes you’ll see a leaderboard but it’s probably the only event in the world where you don’t want to see a leaderboard unless you’re one up with one to play and you just need to hold on.

“It didn’t influence us, it’s just focus. Seve’s favourite word – focus. You just focus on what you’ve got to do and go and do it and the rest will take care of itself.”

The player to stop the rot was Darcy, a man playing in his fourth Ryder Cup but who was yet to win a full point in ten matches.

Opponent Ben Crenshaw had snapped his putter and spent the majority of the match playing with a one iron on the greens but he was still one up with two to play.

Darcy hit a stunner into the 17th to level things up and when he holed a slippery six-footer on the last, it was 13-11 and Jacklin rushed to embrace the Irishman.

“I’ll never forget Eamonn Darcy on the last green,” said Torrance. “He had a six-footer down the hill when he had been four or five up on Crenshaw who broke his putter and came back putting with a one iron and holed from outside Eamonn on the last green to force Eamonn to hole it to win the match.

“He’s got two putts to tie the match but the putt he had, if it doesn’t go in it’s going 12 feet past no matter how slowly he hit it. It’s one of the best putts ever hit.”

Langer and Nelson then shared a point to put Europe on the brink and it was the late, great Ballesteros, a talisman and revolutionary in European golf who was left to seal victory.

“Anything that fell to Seve was fitting,” Torrance said of the man who is often credited as having the biggest effect on the Ryder Cup east of the Atlantic. “He was an absolute genius, legend, friend and the best team man we’ve ever had by far.”

History had been made and amid the celebrations, Ballesteros’ friend and partner Olazábal produced the joyful jig that has become one of the defining images of the Ryder Cup.

Six members of that team would win again on American soil in 1995 but for Torrance and his 11 team-mates, 1987 would be the year they ended 60 years of hurt and wrote themselves into the history books.