‘Jack’ Horner & his 2009 North team
The northerners carried a 6-2 lead into today’s singles contests but had plenty of reasons to be wary of a rearguard action from the South. In 2007 the then-hosts came from a long way back to have the Cup within their grasp, before a Moyle abberration in the last group on the 18th fairway dashed their chances and North retained in an 8-8 tie. Could the visitors perform miracles again? Well, they certainly liked the look of the draw which seemed to give all their players (perhaps barring Bell who faced the in-form Mark Wallis) a real chance of success.
Northern nerves were jangling even more after the first two pairings out, Forster v Avis and Hooley v. Wallis, quickly tipped in South’s favour. Both matches in fact ended 6&5 to South, a worst-ever Ryder Cup return for “Foz” in singles or combined play, and South had those all-important first points on the board. Conditions today were much improved from the monsoons of Friday – generally bright and breezy with occasional gusty showers blowing through the open part of the course furthest from the clubhouse, and of course receptive greens still bearing witness to yesterday’s downpours.
Within another half-hour, 3 more matches were decided. On the 15th, Ben Moyle performed well to beat North captain “Jack” Horner 4&3 but in the same group Simon Hordern lost by the same score to Sam Wilkinson giving North 1 of the 2½ points required to secure victory in the match. Simultaneously back on the 12th in the last match out, Mark Wallis was completing an excellent weekend’s work with his third victory, a 7&6 trouncing of a hapless David Bell.
The score then stood at 8-5 but with South leading in all three matches still in play, the outright victory coveted by the hosts was still genuinely in doubt. To be sure, the retention of the Cup was already safe, but a second consecutive 8-8 result would leave the northerners wide open to further tittle-tattle and jeering as South would doubtless again seek to portray themselves as moral victors. At this point there is no question the home side were looking for the win.
Of the three remaining contests the first to be resolved was that between Steve Hardwick and Gavin Whitworth. Firm friends though these two are off the course, there were some tetchy moments between them in a close match where South’s representative had gained the upper hand early on and then fought hard to retain that advantage. A famously slow starter, especially on Saturdays, Hardwick’s valiant effort was too little, too late and his chances expired on the 15th, one-time pupil becoming master as Whitworth took the match 4&3.
Just the one group left out now then: playing together were the match-ups of Darren Mountain and Simon Cole and that between Steve Callaghan and South newcomer Kevin Fernandez. Coming off the 16th green, most of their team-mates now in attendance, the picture looked rosy for the South. Cole led, albeit narrowly, but solid player that he is was well fancied to see that out, as indeed he ultimately did, winning 2 up. Attention was more focussed on Callaghan v Fernandez, where the latter had done brilliantly to carry a 2 hole lead to this point against the erratic, occasionly brilliant “Calla”. With two holes to play, Calla needed to win both to half his match and give North the match victory they sought.
The first part of that job was as good as done when Callaghan’s shot into the par 3 17th, flirting outrageously with a bunker, came to rest on the fringe within 10 feet of the flag whilst Fernandez lost it badly right and was left with an impossible downwind chip which would have needed to hit the flag to have any chance of holding the green. It didn’t.
For a second successive year then the match had come down to the last, Fernandez just needing to half the hole. Of course tension was high on both sides and it’s only fair to bear that in mind as we describe how both players in fact went on make a real hash of their grandstand 18th. Fernandez had to take 3 off the tee after a lost ball first time but was still not out of it when Calla got involved deep in the bushes lining the right of the fairway. The North player recovered his ball however and just about did enough to seal the hole and with it halve his contest and deliver an 8½-7½ Ryder Cup victory for the hosts. We are not likely to hear the end of it any time soon.