Captain Sam Torrance’s “master plan” of putting his strong men out first paid off handsomely with wins for Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer – both unbeaten all week – Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn.

Darren Clarke halved with last year’s Open champion David Duval and then came perhaps the biggest hero of all.

World number 119 Phillip Price was up against world number two Phil Mickelson and in a display he will never forget for the rest of his life the Pontypridd golfer – winner of only two Portuguese Opens in his career – beat him with the most dramatic of 30-foot birdie putts on the 16th.

That took Europe a point from victory and it looked as though Swede Niclas Fasth, a cup rookie like Price and McGinley, would be the one to be engulfed by his team-mates when he found the green at the last and Paul Azinger was bunkered.

But, incredibly, the American’s recovery dived into the hole for a birdie that Fasth, from 30 feet, could not match.

Fasth’s half meant the United States had to win the last three games. But after Jim Furyk had come agonisingly close to doing what Azinger did, McGinley’s putt spared Pierre Fulke and Jesper Parnevik the agony.

Fulke instantly agreed a half with Davis Love, while Tiger Woods - controversially sent out last by American captain Curtis Strange – continued, but conceded Parnevik a putt on the 18th to make the final score 15 1/2-12 1/2.

The fact that Woods’ match was irrelevant to the final outcome said it all. Strange had got his strategy horribly wrong and Torrance, not surprisingly tearful now on the course where he cried his eyes out as the 1985 match-winner, got his wonderfully, spectacularly right.