Once every two years this individual sport becomes a team game and there is nothing quite like it, for players or spectators
The German commentary of Martin Kaymer’s birdie putt on the 18th at Medinah – the one that goes six feet past – is wonderfully understated. “Ayeee.” Not whispered. Not yelled. Just spoken, encapsulating how so many of us felt as that ball kept on rolling. And then silence. And then the agonising wait for Steve Stricker to line up his par putt, line it up again and knock it in the hole.
Had this entire comeback been for nothing? And why do I still get butterflies as Kaymer then stands over the ball for a par putt to retain the Ryder Cup? The camera cuts to Sergio García and Graeme McDowell trying to not let the panic show. The captain, José María Olazábal, is halfway down the fairway on the verge of tears.