The Belfry, 1985: there he stands forever frozen in time, arms raised in ecstatic triumph, a pencil in one ear, a foul-smelling, half-smoked, roll-up fag jammed behind the other, the famous Groucho Marx moustache a quagmire of tears. Sam Torrance, The Man Who Holed The Putt That Won The Ryder Cup. The Belfry 2002: another image to treasure; as Paul McGinley, to whom the honour of sinking the wining putt had been bestowed on this occasion, jumped fully clothed into the lake by the 18th green and the victorious Europeans embarked on the mother of all celebrations, so Captain Sam and his wife, Suzanne, stood alone amid the mayhem, locked in a tearful embrace.
To enjoy one such moment in a sporting career is the stuff of boyhood dreams, to savour two accords you entry into the hall of legends. So, although he may be in St Andrews to compete in the Dunhill Links (the Pro-Am section of which he won in tandem with his then 15-year-old son, Daniel, in 2005) it is impossible to engage Slammin' Sam in conversation without the Ryder Cup coming into play. Looking back, therefore, which is his most precious memory? "I have been blessed, truly blessed. I thought holing that putt in '85 was as special as it gets, then we won on American soil for the first time two years later at Muirfield Village, then we won perhaps the most exciting Ryder Cup contest of the all at Oak Hill in '95, when I played the best golf of my life. But the highlight of them all was the captaincy by a mile . . . by a mile . . . by a mile . . . by 100 miles."
From his childhood on the fairways of Routenburn Golf Club above Largs on the Firth of Clyde, where he honed his skills under the watchful gaze of his dad, Bob, Torrance had harboured two burning ambitions: to beat Jack Nicklaus by one shot to win the Open at Muirfield and to be The Man Who Holed The Putt That Won The Ryder Cup. So when Sam nominates his 2002 captaincy as the highlight of a career that brought him 30 titles worldwide and three victorious Ryder Cup campaigns as a player, you know he is speaking from the heart. "I never, ever dreamt I'd be awarded the captaincy," he said. "It wasn't my vocation so I went through hell for those three years fretting about the speeches. Night and day I was petrified because I knew I had to get each and every one just right. Thanks to the advice of my old pal David Feherty, who's now a successful commentator in the States, I like to think I didn't screw up once ."
Indeed, he did not; following on from the infamous Battle of Brookline in 1999, the Torrance speeches even had the Americans dabbing their eyes. Play it again, Sam. "Curtis [Strange], old friend, I bid you welcome to Europe, to England and to the Belfry. You are our invited guests and our worthy opponents and, as the old Scottish saying goes: 'oor hoose is your hoose and you're mair than welcome here ."
Or, this, at the moment of triumph: "Curtis, I accept the Ryder Cup into our safe keeping, and I accept it from an outstanding captain of a fine US team. We will cherish it for two years until we meet again. My last thank you is very special and it is to the winning team. I have got to say that only the birth of my children and my marriage to my wife have been more special. I will remember this forever. Thank you very much."
When you consider all the great names to have been associated with the Ryder Cup - Nicklaus, Palmer and Trevino, Faldo, Ballesteros and Jacklin - none has been more beloved by the public than the ever popular Scot. To remind him of that is to risk opening the tear ducts yet again. "The Ryder Cup has been a part of my life since the age of nine. It's been a fairy tale and, yes, I suppose I am a legend of sorts, which is great, it's awesome. I'll be there forever now and that's a wonderful thing to think about. As I said at the time, I'd love to have bottled it and taken a wee sip every day."
Torrance's relationship with the fans - founded at the Belfry in '85 - is joyous to behold. On the Sunday night at Muirfield Village, it was Torrance who led a posse of players into the beer tent where the European spectators were celebrating. "Jesse [Mark James], Woosie and me thought it would be nice to go along to register our thanks. The atmosphere was incredible, they greeted our arrival like the second coming. I gave away my shoes, my sweater, I'd have stripped naked for them if I thought I'd looked good. The players-fans get-together has now become a Ryder Cup tradition."
There was a more recent but no less exuberant party in the bar of the Old Course Hotel, St Andrews three autumns ago when he and Daniel emerged triumphant in the Dunhill Links. "When we went on to the practice ground before the final round, Samuel L Jackson, the actor, looked up and called over to Daniel: 'Hey, great play.' Daniel was mightily chuffed the coolest of Mr Cools should recognise him. Without wishing to tempt fate, I honestly believe he could win the major that always eluded his old man ."
Not that Torrance Snr has ruled out the possibility of winning a seniors' "major". "It would have been lovely to win a real major, which is a regret rather than a disappointment because I gave it my best shot every time; sadly, I just wasn't good enough in the weeks it counted, so it would be nice to put that right among the golden oldies. I was incredibly lucky to start out on a new career when I turned 50 in 2003 - an opportunity unique to golfers - and sit around a table in the clubhouse listening to the likes of the 'Golden Bear' spinning his yarns. Jack Nicklaus was, and remains my ultimate golfing hero, apart from my dad. Only recently I told him: 'Jack, the greatest compliment I can pay you, is that in the 400 majors I won in my imagination, you were runner-up every time. He absolutely loved that."
The greatest compliment I can pay Sam Torrance is that from Routenburn to Ryder Cup glory, the man has never changed. rphilip@thenational.ae
