It was only the second time the entire continent had participated in the matches. All prior incarnations had been the U.S. versus Great Britain and then for four events from 1971 through 1977, Great Britain and Ireland. But with players like Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros on the horizon, the PGAs on both sides decided that a combined European team made the event a lot more competitive.
It didn’t matter in 1981. The American lineup included veterans Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, Tom Kite, Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus and Larry Nelson plus four Ryder Cup rookies named Ben Crenshaw, Jerry Pate, Bruce Lietzke and Bill Rogers.
An all-star team from the rest of the world couldn’t have beaten that squad.
Nicklaus would later say of the club, “Of all the courses surrounding London, there are few with as much history and honor as the wonderfully pure…