Tom Lehman Relives Ryder Cup Glory, Pressure & Patriotism

In this candid and captivating reflection, three-time U.S. Ryder Cup Team member and 2006 U.S. Captain Tom Lehman opens up about what it truly means to wear the Red, White, and Blue on golf’s biggest team stage. From the nerves of stepping onto the first tee at Oak Hill during his 1995 debut to the thrill of sinking clutch putts and hearing chants from a roaring U.S. crowd, Lehman offers a firsthand account of pressure-packed moments that helped define his career.

With stories that span leadership, legacy, and legendary comebacks, Lehman also sheds light on the emotional depth of team golf, the impact of Captain Ben Crenshaw’s leadership during the historic 1999 comeback, and the lessons he shared with greats like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. This is more than a highlight reel — it’s a masterclass in what makes the Ryder Cup unlike anything else in the sport.

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The Prestige of Making a Ryder Cup Team
"Making a Ryder Cup team is one of those things that really separates you from a lot of other players. I played three singles matches and never made a bogey, and I felt an amazing amount of pride being able to wear the uniform."

Earning His Spot in 1995
"You know, my first Ryder Cup is '95, and I played really well to earn a spot on the team. I finished very high in the point list, so I felt like I very much had earned my way and deserved to be there. And you get there and you look around—you know, my first Ryder Cup—you know, you look over there and there's Faldo and you know, boy, you know, do I really belong here? And my coach was like, 'Oh yeah you do. You finished second in the points. You definitely belong here. You belong here just as much as anybody else—if not more.'"

Pre-Round Nerves & Locker Room Moments
"Being in the locker room, putting my shoes on and looking outside and seeing all the people—and, you know, they're already chanting and singing and doing whatever—and being nervous just to go play a practice round. Like, I'd never been nervous for a practice round in my life. The significance of the event—it was pretty overwhelming. Took a little bit of self-talk to kind of get myself calmed down and put together and ready to play that week. I played with Corey Pavin my very first match. We were the first match off and we were playing Montgomerie and Faldo."

22 SEP 1995: NICK FALDO AND COLIN MONTGOMERIE IN THOUGHTFUL MOOD DURING THEIR FOURSOMES MATCH AGAINST COREY PAVIN AND TOM LEHMAN AT THE 1995 RYDER CUP AT OAK HILL COUNTRY CLUB IN ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. Mandatory Credit: Steve Munday/ALLSPORT

First Tee at the Ryder Cup
"We were playing alternate shot and I was teeing off on odd holes, so I was the first person to tee off in that Ryder Cup. And I'll never forget walking off the tee. Byron Nelson was on the team. He was kind of greeting guys on the tee and—you know—so not only we're in the Ryder Cup now, we've got Mr. Nelson, you know, right here on the tee. Sometimes when you have the adrenaline going and you're all nervous and you're pumped up, you can hit the ball pretty far. And that first hole, which is like a 450 par four—I hit a three wood off the tee just to make sure I could draw it. So I hit that three wood about 320."

Lifelong Goal Realized
"You know, I was just starting on the tour. I set five goals out for myself that I wanted to achieve, and one of them was to make a Ryder Cup team. I always felt like to be a part of a Ryder Cup team would be like being on the Olympic team. You know, you're the elite of the elite. You've earned your way onto that team. You're playing in a historic event with tons of tradition—such a meaningful event—and to be a part of that group of people who's earned this spot, it's a real feather in anybody's cap."

First Green Fist Pump
"I must have teed off and he must have missed the green and I chipped it in. I pulled a Tiger on the first green. And I always remember Fred Couples telling me, it's just that extra little fist pumping—you really get the crowd wound up. It definitely gets reactions. And so that's when—you know—I was a big ol’ Tiger, U.S.-tight, fist-pumping away."

The Putt on 13 vs. Westwood
"I think that was the 13th hole against Lee Westwood, and I made that putt to go 4-up on him. It was just from the front of the green—about 30 feet—and just had this beautiful read on it. I saw the line the whole way. It looked great the whole way. It tracked and went right in the center of the cup. And I actually went running across the green and I didn’t stop running until I got to the next tee—high-fiving everybody in the crowd along the way."

25 Sep 1999: Tom Lehman of the USA celebrates during the 33rd Ryder Cup at Brookline Country Club, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. \ Mandatory Credit: Andrew Redington /Allsport

Bogey-Free Brilliance
"I played three singles matches and I've never made a bogey. I played three in a row, won three matches, never made a bogey. I don't know how many greens I missed, but it wasn’t very many. So in every singles match that I played, it was kind of that way. I hit nearly every fairway, hit nearly every green, made a few more putts at Brookline. But it just—it was vintage match play. The essence of match play is not that the other guy doesn’t do a good thing now and then—it’s that you never give him anything."

Channeling Nerves into Focus
"Nerves probably just turn into intense focus. I was so focused—I’d say to myself, why can't I play like this every week? But I think the nerves of the Ryder Cup just led to this intense amount of focus. You see it all the time in sports—when guys get in that zone, they do heroic things under intense pressure."

The Burden of Letting Teammates Down
"Whenever I hit a shot playing for myself, I never feel like I'm letting anybody down but myself. When I hit a bad one in a team thing, when other people are suffering the consequences of either bad shots or they're able to enjoy the consequences of a great shot—you know—those are more difficult. Knowing that you have other people depending upon you and that you don't want to let them down—those are the added elements of the Ryder Cup that are so difficult to overcome. Once you get beyond that, you're good. But if you let that get to you, it's really, really difficult."

US Ryder Cup team members (L to R) Justin Leonard, (kneeling), Steve Pate, Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Maggert, Captain Ben Crenshaw, David Duval, Tiger Woods, (back row) Tom Lehman, Jim Furyk, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton and Mark O'Meara touch the Ryder Cup during team pictures 26 September,1999 after winning at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The US defeated the Europea team 14 1/2 to 13 1/2. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/Timothy A. CLARY (Photo by Timothy A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Sunday Comeback at Brookline & Team Momentum
"I remember one was just floored and shocked that we are so far behind. I thought we had such a great team and so much better than the European team—I didn't think it was even close that year. I thought our team was significantly better than they were. So to be behind was mind-blowing to me. Now Ben is one of those kind of mystical guys—so when he says things, you kind of pay attention. And then when he said, you know, that he has a good feeling about this—he said, 'Look at the 17th hole. It’s always been very good to Americans.' I didn't doubt him one bit. Whether we could come all the way back or not, I didn't know—but I had no doubt in my mind that we were gonna have a great Sunday and we were going to make a game of it."

Crenshaw's Hand on His Heart
"So when he put me out first, obviously I felt some pressure. You know, I know that if the first guy out loses, that makes the day a lot tougher. So I was definitely nervous. But Ben had a way about saying things and doing things, and I’ll never forget as long as I live—I was in the locker room stretching, and he walked up and he put his hand on my heart. Just put it right there and he said, ‘You know, I put you out first today... I put you out first because you’re the toughest guy I know.’ Whether he meant it or not, it didn’t matter. I mean, there’s a lot of tough guys on that team. Pretty hard to say Hal Sutton wasn’t a tough guy and that Tiger’s not a tough guy. But for him to say that—I mean, he just, he knew exactly, I think, what I needed to hear that morning. What he told me was, ‘Hey, you’re tough enough to do this.’ That made a big impact on me. It was a huge encouragement—something I’ll never forget and something that I really appreciated."

Justin Leonard's Putt & the 17th Hole Eruption
"For me I like—I like there's a lot of great things that have happened. But when that putt went in on 17, I would dare anybody to not react in some way. You know, after everything we've been through all week long and have been such a great team and being so far behind and then making this huge comeback and the emotion of the crowd and the emotion of the team, it was just impossible to not react to that."

26 Sep 1999: Tom Lehman of the USA celebrates as team mate David Duval wins his match during the 33rd Ryder Cup at Brookline Country Club, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. \ Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport

The Iconic Shirt
"I thought it was a really cool idea. You know, like, all the winning teams are on this shirt. This is—this is a neat shirt. Never once thought for a second that, hey, maybe, just maybe, it's really ugly, you know? But as it turns out, it might have been—you know, it might have been a fairly ugly shirt, but it was an iconic shirt. You know, it was our shirt. But I think the shirt accomplished its purpose. Every time Ben did something, there was a reason for it. There was a story behind it. This is every winning team is on this shirt. We're going to go put on it tomorrow. You know, I thought it was a really cool idea."