Trevor Hooley & team gather on first tee

With a solid 5-3 lead from Day One it was a confident team of Northerners who stepped up to the tee for the Saturday’s singles. The oddsmakers (that is, Mark Wallis) were offering at least 16-1 about the South gaining the 5½ points required to wrest the cup from the sweaty northern grip. However southern skipper David “No Sleep Required” Bell had done a sterling job in keeping as many of the opposition as possible up for as long as possible the night before.

By the half way point, on an overcast day with sporadic rain showers, rumours spreading round the course suggested the South were up in at least 5 matches and it became ever more evident, amid growing excitement, that the Oulton Hall annihilation was not going to be repeated. The overall score was brought level when the opening two matches ended in southern victories: Simon “Jaccuzi Boy” Harris defeating “Foz” 3&2 and in the battle of the captains Bell overcoming Hooley 2&1.

Jack Horner, north captain-elect, relaxes on practice green

The North edged back ahead when Hardwick, despite playing quite poorly and apparently psychologically hampered by a large wager he’d made about himself the night before, completed a 3&2 victory to leave Hordern pointless for a second Ryder Cup running. But further down the field Wallis was breezing to a 6&5 win over a terribly out of sorts Phil Lister “Batley” to make it all square at 6-6. Cole became the first person to find a chink in “Jack” Horner’s armour, with a 4&2 success to put the South noses back in front, leaving three matches live and all to play for.

Bob Batch, reportedly still abed 10 minutes prior to his tee time, fought off a comeback from impressive rookie Jimmy Curley, sinking to his knees in relief and kissing the turf on 17 as he secured a 2&1 win leaving the South 8-6 up and requiring just a half from the remaining two matches to confound the pundits and take back the Cup. Up ahead on 18 Dave Hubbard could secure that half point by winning the hole and halving his ‘contest’ with Paul Marcus but it wasn’t to be as Marcus took the hole and the match, 8&7.

And so it came down to the titanic battle between Mountain and Moyle in the final group, which had see-sawed all afternoon. Mountain had been superb over the first 10, opening up a 3 hole lead with brilliant approach play and flawless putting but the match turned on the 11th green when he missed a putt for a 4 hole lead: Moyle halved, and then went on to win four of the next five holes, halving the other, to stand on the 17th 1 hole up and requiring just a half from the remaining two to bring the Cup back south of the Watford Gap.

Moyle’s tee shot was cautious and short of the long par 3 green whilst Mountain missed to the right; the Ryder Cup founder then left his chip short and watched as Mountain’s approach, which looked to be heading through the green, hit the flag and stopped dead. All square. The players shook hands on the 18th tee, now well aware that the whole match came down to this hole.

Mountain, who played beautifully all weekend

Mountain drove off but hooked wildly left, clearing the River Lark and coming to rest on the far side of the 16th fairway – in response Moyle hit a straight but short 5 iron down the middle and then topped a 7 iron leaving him 200 yards to the green. What followed from Mountain will go down as arguably the greatest shot in Ryder Cup history, a huge iron which cleared the river and landed invitingly in front of the pond guarding the green, crucially about 50 yards ahead of his opponent’s ball.

Back on the 15th Moyle had hit a massive 5 wood over water to go all square and now he turned to the trusty club again as captain Bell made his way down from the clubhouse, pint in hand, to offer support. With Southern hearts in mouths, and after what seemed an eternity to all looking on, Moyle swang, got underneath it and … dumped it in the pond. Mountain, later to be named player of the weekend, was not about to look this gift horse in the mouth and hit the dancefloor to massive cheers from the Northern contingent thronging the green.

Moyle was left needing to get up and down in two and with his adversary having four putts for it, one sufficed before he picked up Mountain’s ball. The 2007 Ryder Cup had ended in an 8-8 tie, sufficient for the northern raiders to retain the cup in the most thrilling of circumstances.