"Just sit on them!" - Philip Walton, on stopping the US juggernaut
Philip Walton
Long before we had Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Irish golf had Philip Walton – the Malahide phenomenon who once won the Mullingar Scratch Cup by nine shots and starred for Oklahoma State before becoming a Ryder Cup legend.
Seven matchplay wins in 10 matches, six in the Walker Cup and that one glorious moment in the 1995 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill, prove he knows a thing or two about beating Americans.
It's been 30 years since 'the Waltz' laid his 12-footer stone dead in that decisive penultimate singles to beat Jay Haas and secure what was only Europe's second away win.
Despite the tension and disruptive 3 am "wake-up" calls to their rooms, all 12 Europeans, including a hopelessly out-of-form Seve Ballesteros, put at least one point on the board in a dramatic 14.5-13.5 win.
Walton was in the form of his life, having beaten Colin Montgomerie in a playoff to claim what turned out to be his third and final European Tour win in that year's Murphy's English Open.
He was the first to step off Concorde when it landed at Dublin airport with another nine of his all-conquering Ryder Cup teammates en route to the Smurfit European Open.
"I cannot believe it," he said at the time. "No one will ever understand when I walked down the 18th fairway that I did not believe I had legs. I had to look down to see that they were still there. The pressure was unbelievable."
As time wore on, Walton gave one of the most Dublin-esque comments on the joys of Ryder Cup heroism, so often was he greeted with the phrase, "Philip, you must be delighted!"
"I've a pain in me bollix being happy," is the possibly apocryphal quote that has survived the intervening decades. But sums up the no-nonsense attitude of one of the great ball-strikers.
Like Eamonn Darcy, the great hero alongside Ballesteros of Europe's first away win at Muirfield Village in 1987, he's sent Luke Donald's team a motivational message.
"Just make it your legacy," Walton says. "Short and simple."
Winning at Oak Hill was far from simple. But Walton knew the Americans were vulnerable.
"I used to love playing the Americans," he chuckles. "I remember I played the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst in 1982 — got beaten in the semi-final by Keith Clearwater, great player— but I won four matches 1-up. That's the key. You just have to sit on them. Get one up and sit on them.
"I'm still great friends with Joey Sadowski, and I remember he kicked his bag from the 18th green all the way up to the clubhouse because I beat him 1-up. He said, 'You were playing with me.' And I said, 'I wasn't playing with you, Joey, I was just sitting on you'."
Walton, who won three of his four matches in the 1981 Walker Cup at Cypress Point before doing the same again at Hoylake in 1983, played just once before the singles at Oak Hill, losing 1-up with Ian Woosnam in the Saturday morning foursomes.
He was disappointed he didn't play more, but he fancied Europe in the singles.
"We were two points behind, but I thought the draw would suit us big time," Walton recalls. "When I saw Jay Haas on the first tee, he didn't have the greatest colour, to be honest with you. He was a bit grey-looking, like putty, and I started bogey-par, and I was 2-up. So that'll tell you how he was actually feeling. He was really uptight about it. And then I didn't really let him in after that."
Dormie three up, Walton lost the 16th when Haas holed a bunker shot —"A fluke really"— and while he missed a four-footer on the 17th to win, Haas folded on the last.
"I used to hit a low fade off the tee, and I had to hit over 3,000 people's heads, and I said no way, just in case I hit it out of the neck. I ended up in the right-hand rough, good lie and hit a five wood just left of the green, but he was making the balls of it anyway.
He sky hooked his tee shot down the left, and it took him eight minutes to hit his second shot.
"Bernard Gallacher came over to me to say he's playing games. And said, I know he is. So Bernard said, 'Are you okay?' I said, I'm grand, yeah. But the pressure was unbelievable."
The rest, as they say, is history, and with the Ryder Cup now a global event, Walton fancies Europe to pull off what could go down as one of the most significant wins in the history of the event.
"I think we have a better team," he says. "It will be very close and being away from home is going to be a huge factor. I just hope it's played in a nice spirit, and their captain has a big part to play in that.
"We've got Shane and Rory and they are just deadly. I love watching Shane because he's got a lovely rhythm and timing to his swing. Never changes. That'll stand to him.
"McIlroy, when he's off, his backswing is too quick. But what a putter he is now."
It promises to be memorable but Walton knows what works, even if the US has Scottie Scheffler.
"Ah Jaysus stop, would you. He's unbelievable. But match play is a different game. I spent a few years in America, and I'm telling you, the longer you hold on to them in a match, the more they feel the pressure's on. Just sit on them!"
