Severiano Ballesteros and Jose-Maria Olazabal are the greatest pair in Ryder Cup history. The match play record of the two Spaniards stands at 12 points from 15 matches over four Ryder Cups from 1987 to 1993.

After winning 3 from 4 in their first match at Muirfield village in 1987, they were undefeated for the next 6 years. By the time the renowned golf matches came to Kiawah Island in 1991, Ballesteros and Olazabal were the talismanic pairing the USA wanted to beat. The USA put their best pairs out against them resulting in some of the greatest Ryder Cup battles in the match’s history.

Halfway through their first game against Paul Azinger and Chip Beck, the Spaniards noticed that the Americans were changing between two balls of different compression when playing into and downwind. Cue some harsh words at the 10th tee before Seve and Jose-Maria won 2&1 for Europe’s only point of the first session in this golf match play format. 

By a welcome coincidence from a European standpoint, the same two pairings met again in the afternoon four-balls, with the same result, although Captain Bernard Gallacher’s team won this session to reduce the deficit to a point after day one.

The next day they defeated the gritty pair of Fred Couples and veteran Raymond Floyd in the morning foursomes before taking on Couples again with the reigning US Open champion Payne Stewart in the four-balls.

With the team scores level, this match went right to the wire and is remembered for the 5 foot putt Olazabal holed on the final green in the twilight to secure a half point for Europe.

Seve rushed over to shake the hand of his compatriot and playing partner, which was immortalised in the classic photograph by Mark Newcombe at Visions In Golf at the top of this page.

Watch the video below and see if you can spot this match play moment from the other angle.

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