My Five: Best Ryder Cups

Golf Digest Senior Writer Jaime Diaz's personal ranking of the five best Ryder Cups

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1. 1991

The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, S.C. Score: USA 14 �, Europe 13 �

Three days of the most sustained pressure ever felt in golf. Led by feisty captain Dave Stockton, the Americans came in desperate, facing a fourth straight failure to win the cup and a definitive loss of world dominance. With both teams taut and testy, the competition turned into pitched battle along the sands of Kiawah Island, complete with some U.S. players wearing camo caps to reference Operation Desert Storm. There were plenty of heroics, but it's the meltdowns that continue to haunt, particularly Mark Calcavecchia's. Four up with four to go, Calcavecchia lost all feel, finishing triple bogey, bogey, triple bogey, bogey to give Montgomerie a half. With newly turned analyst Johnny Miller getting a perfect opportunity to make his point about the power of pressure in professional golf, even tough guy Hale Irwin confessed it all became too much in the final singles, which fittingly would determine who won the cup. After Irwin scuffed a chip and wished his approach putt to just within gimme distance, stalwart Bernhard Langer missed the mother of all six footers, and it was finally over. The aftershock is still felt, and remains the strongest foundation for the Ryder Cup's claim as the most dramatic spectacle in golf.

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