The Ryder Cup: Golf's Greatest Event

Grown men wept. The jubilant crowd overflowed onto the green. Fans waved huge American flags and sang The Star-Spangled Banner. What played out that Sunday afternoon on the venerable fairways of The Country Club may go down in history as the greatest victory the golf world has ever seen. In an almost unimaginable come-from-behind win, the American Ryder Cup team, whom most watchers had given up for dead, blitzed their European counterparts in a fast and furious 8 1/2 to 3 1/2 run in the singles, to clinch the Cup after two devastating consecutive losses.

This is a history of the Ryder Cup, the definitive biography of golf's most glorious--and gentlemanly--grudge match, from its humble 1926 origin as a casual exhibition game to its preeminent status as a multimillion-dollar global sports event. Bob Bubka and Tom Clavin take you inside the ropes for an up-close and personal look at the action and the players behind seventy-three years of the world's best golf, including all the details of the U.S. team's stunning win at Brookline. In dozens of interviews, Ryder Cup veterans--such as Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Tony Jacklin, Raymond Floyd, Lee Janzen, Nick Faldo, Byron Nelson, Tom Watson, Curtis Strange, Gene Sarazen, and Ben Crenshaw--speak to the thrill, the triumph, and the heartbreak of each competition.